The Goulston Street Apron

[RivkahChaya]

something white would show up in the dark.

You might over-estimate how much. Modern streetlights fluoresce, which is to say, they've been chemical, and not heat lights, for a really long time (because incandescent light break when they get wet) chemical lights make anything white actually glow. I don't know whether Goulston had streetlights, but if it did, in 1888, they were gaslights. Those aren't going to make white objects pop out the way modern lights do.

Aside from the good points already made about the fact that it was bloody, and maybe not all that white to begin with.

FWIW, was it white to begin with? there's not actually a rule that aprons have to be white, and going by the list of things she was wearing, it doesn't actually list an apron, torn or otherwise, and doesn't say she was wearing anything white, other than a man's vest.

I don't know how I never noticed this before, but the graffito has a meter. Not an immediately recognizable one like a limerick or a sonnet, but it has a meter.... Iambic, if you're curious.

English lends itself to iamb. That's why iambic verse plays can be spoken so naturally by good actors, and why something written in trochee sounds so creepy. Shakespeare reverses his usual iamb for trochee in the witches' "Double, double, toil and trouble...." and it's famously used to give people shivers in Poe's "The Raven." It's also what's so unnerving about the really stupid Song of Hiawatha (which is the original fake Native American kitsch made by white people, something I didn't realize until I actually sat down and read it about 10 years ago).

[Simon Wood]

Hi All,

Had Eddowes booked into Mile End Casual Ward, all her clothes would have been "baked for the purpose of disinfecting them and destroying vermin" in the regulation manner.

The Mile End Casual Ward was not a launderer or dry cleaner.

Following a period of "hopping" in Kent, Eddowes' apron would have been anything but pristine white on the morning of her demise.

Regards,

Simon

[lynn cates]

dirty

Hello Colin.

"How white was it though? It was an old apron, probably dirty before the murder, and certainly thereafter spattered with blood and smeared with faecal matter."

It has been described as almost black--I presume from dirt. Jane Coram has elsewhere speculated that hopping could have caused the discolouration.

Cheers.
LC

[Errata]

I don't know how I never noticed this before, but the graffito has a meter. Not an immediately recognizable one like a limerick or a sonnet, but it has a meter. And oddly enough, that might explain the strange double negative. Without the extraneous "not", it loses it's meter. Iambic, if you're curious. I think it's supposed to be read
The Juwes
Are not the men
Who will be blamed
For nothing.

Not that it particularly matters, but not a lot of people think in meter. Except kids. They are drilled in recitation in meter.

[Wickerman]

If the graffito was intended to refer to the murders and the alleged perpetrators, why be so vague? Rather defeats the point if we're still debating it 124 years + after the event!

Exactly, if the killer was pressed for time wouldn't we expect a brief but pointed statement in large hand to be easily read by anyone from a distance?

This has all the hallmarks of schoolboy scribble.

[Bridewell]

Not the kind of verse a dosser would throw together?, you think our man had breeding, education?

If he wanted to make a point, why take the time to be poetic?

.

If the graffito was intended to refer to the murders and the alleged perpetrators, why be so vague? Rather defeats the point if we're still debating it 124 years + after the event!

[Wickerman]

Not the kind of verse a dosser would throw together?, you think our man had breeding, education?

If he wanted to make a point, why take the time to be poetic?

.

[curious4]

Apron piece

Hello Wickerman,

Spur of the moment thing? Qulck taunt on his way? Possibly, only faintly possibly, that he wanted to fool the police about which way he was going. Could have written his message quickly, noticed it didn't show up, thus apron piece. I think emblazoning a message would have taken too much time.

Speculation, pure speculation.

Best wishes,
C4

[curious4]

Apron

Hello Bridewell,

Biggish piece? Not smeared all over? Probably white enough to show up against a dark background. I take your point though.

Best wishes
C4

[Wickerman]

Also that he may have thrown it where he did to draw attention to the writing on the wall - something white would show up in the dark.

If the killer wanted to leave a message, wouldn't he have emblazoned it across the wall where it could be easily seen from a distance?

The writing was not even an inch tall, the capitals were about 3/4 of an inch. The whole graffiti was so small it clearly was not intended to attract attention.

.

[Bridewell]

something white would show up in the dark.

How white was it though? It was an old apron, probably dirty before the murder, and certainly thereafter spattered with blood and smeared with faecal matter.

[curious4]

Really wish I could "like" this, Observer. I do! Like it I mean.

Best wishes,
C4

[curious4]

The apron

Hello all,

If the apron was old and worn thin it would be far less bulky. It was patched and mended, so it was obviously not new. Don't forget that the tear went over and divided the seam joining the patch to the apron. Quite hard to do on a robust piece of material.

I think it feasible that Jack used it to wipe his hands. Also that he may have thrown it where he did to draw attention to the writing on the wall - something white would show up in the dark.

Best wishes,
C4

[Observer]

No problem Wickerman

Yes quite a substantial piece of cloth. I must admit that it was quite a surprise to me when I learned of the amount of apron the killer had taken away.

I wonder if Sinn Fein had hired a killer to knock Kate Eddowes off, and he took away the piece of apron to prove to his paymaster that the job had been carried out?

Of course why did he discard it?

The only thing I can think of is one of the stray dogs hanging around Goulston Street got a whiff of the blood and kidney and decided he wanted the kidney more than the killer. So he stalked the killer ala Jack the Ripper and snatched the apron from his pocket. The kidney jumps loose and the killer picks it up. The dog makes off with the apron and the killer gives chase but it disappeared up the stairs of number 108-119 Goulston Street. The killer is about to follow it when he hears the copper's whistle's and decided it was time to get out of there.

The dog meanwhile realising it is no longer being chased comes back down the stairs, and stands at the entrance sniffing and inspecting the apron piece. He soon realises that the kidney he sniffed out is not in evidence ,so he leaves the apron in disgust, and wonders if h'ell ever get another chance at some human offal, his only success being the womb he nicked out of the pocket of that mad Swiiss butcher he met in Hanbury Street a month earlier.

By the way the dog did not write the graffito, as has been suggested. That was written by a disgruntled cat ,whose owner had been sold some dodgy catsmeat by a Jewish catsmeat vendor. What do you think?

Regards

Observer

[Wickerman]

Thankyou Observer.

Yes RivkahChaya, some estimates were given here..

This type of apron was wrapped around the body, from the waist to the ankles, almost meeting at the back. Taking a measure from the waist down, we have 30-36" and to wrap around at the back at ankle level, would be something like 36" wide. This lower section (from the waist, down) of apron was in the order of 9 square feet of material, not including the bib portion.

http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/dst-graffito.html

When Detective Sergeant Halse stated that "about half" of it was missing, if accurate, we are looking at a piece of about 4.5 sq ft.
This is not a trivial piece, but it is way too large for simply wiping the hands, but not too large to absorb the blood from wet organs.

And yes, we can query all this because we have no precise details, but at the same time there is nothing unreasonable about the figures used.

.