September 30,1888- The night of Clues?

[Robert St Devil]

Did the killer have motive against both prostitutes and immigrant jews?

if you could flesh out a motive that links the two, then you’d have the makings of a possibility; however, as it stands, your pondering lean towards the idea of a man who was simply killing 2 birds with 1 stone (npi).

my favored motive under these constraints (prostitute and Jew) was the killer was targeting [English|gentile|non Jew] prostitutes who were servicing Jewish men. Obviously, that rabbit-hole doesn’t resolve the religion of the murderer. For instance, if the murderer was a non Jew who had contracted an STI from frequenting back alleys at midnight, maybe his antisemitism blames English prostitutes for contracting the dirty disease from Jews. Then again, if the murderer is a Jew, maybe he considers English prostitutes as a social bane of the Jewish man & Jewish community (esp. the type who roam-about during social club hours or who stroll along Jewish neighborhoods)

A Ripperologist would be inclined to believe that the same murderous (il)logic present on September 30 would also be evident on the dates of the other murders; but as far as I’m aware, there wasn’t anything pronouncedly Jewish about an apartment in Millers Court, a backyard on Hanbury Street, or in front of some gates along Buck’s Row. However, if the murderer viewed Whitechapel as a den of English prostitutes servicing their vice to Jewish men of the vicinity, maybe these locations would be prime for his lustmord.

[seanr]

The Jewish connections between the sites of the murders goes beyond the use of the term Lipski and the Goulston Street location.

The International Working Mens Club outside which Stride was found was predominantly a Jewish working men's club.

Mitre Square was the site of The Great Synagogue, which was behind the Kearley & Tonge Fancy Goods warehouse. You'd walk past the synagogue going down Church Passage into the Square.

Duke's Place, Duke Street and Mitre Square had a long association with the Jewish immigrant community perhaps because of the Synagogue. The Orange Market which was situated in Duke's Place was a Jewish market. Many of the proprieters of businesses situated in Duke's Place were Jewish. The pubs on the Orange Market were somewhat well known for their jewellery market which ran on Sunday mornings inside the pubs, with long associations with Jewish merchants.

The fall of darkness on Saturday night was the end of the Sabbath, so was the busiest night for Jewish men to go out and enjoy themselves. This is why there was a dance on at the International Working Mens Club and why Joseph Lawende, Joseph Hyam Levy, a butcher, and Henry Harris had spent their evening at the Imperial Club, another Jewish working men's club on Duke Street.

Jewish men's recreation was associated with gambling, which was at the time illegal, but Duke's Place was known for having late night unlawful gambling places where one could have a flutter over a game of cards. One might expect the Place to be busy therefore on a Saturday night, but we are informed by the witnesses that it was quiet.

Wentworth Model Dwellings where the Goulston Street graffito and apron piece was found, was working class housing but they were many Jewish families and men living there. A 1900 estimate of the residents estimated there were around 95% - 100% Jews living there.

Outside of the dwellings was Petticoat Lane Market which was also known to be a Jewish market.

It might mean nothing, but if you wanted to pick locations which seemed to implicate the Jewish community in Whitechapel and Spitalfields, you could hardly have picked better locations than the ones in these events.