PC Smith's Man and the Parcel.....

[Fleetwood Mac]

Lynn Cates offered the socialist newspaper......

What about fish?.....18 by 6/8 inches? with a couple of inches space being taken up by the paper? Fried fish was staple diet in Victorian London.

Also.....I'm guessing that the idea Kelly's fire was lit and used to cook the fish and potatoes in Kelly's stomach has been suggested......what if the fish/free feed above and beyond paying for Kelly's room for the night was part of the inducement to get into Kelly's room.....Blotchy cooks the food while Kelly is singing?

A long shot....and certainly no theory to come out of this....but nevertheless......a couple of ideas....

Any creative ideas around what could have been in the parcel?

[lynn cates]

pride of place

Hello Mac. Just in order for me to be fair, it was Tom Wescott who, if I recall, first measured the Arbeter Fraint and suggested that the young man seen by PC Smith was merely a club gent. I concur in that judgment.

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

porn

Hello Mac. Actually, I once read an essay (don't ask where) that suggested the parcel contained pornography. Then the author suggested that the chap was Monty Druitt and it was the pornography that incited his murdering the C5 AND getting Valentine to sack him.

Victorian pornography? Hmmm, skirts worn up to mid calf. Very erotic. What a scandal!

Cheers.
LC

[Adam Went]

I'd also suggest that it could well have just been something like a rolled up newspaper? If it was JTR, maybe he was reading up about himself!

Cheers,
Adam.

[Fisherman]

From the Daily Telegraphs report from the inquest:

"He had a parcel wrapped in a newspaper in his hand."

The Times´ take on the same thing:

"I noticed that he had a newspaper parcel in his hand."

Now, if somebody is carrying an object in his hand, white and with printed letters on it, then what would our first guess be? My suggestion is that we would think of a newspaper, folded or rolled up. It is not until the shape of the newspaper swears very obviously against it being one of these two variants that we take it one step further and accept that it is a parcel, WRAPPED in a newspaper.
If it had been the other way around, and P C Smith had said that his man carried a newspaper in his hand, then I would have been a lot more interested in discussing a misinterpretation of what may have been some sort of parcel wrapped in a paper. But as it stands, I do not concur with the suggestion that Smith´s man would have simply carried a rolled up newspaper.
As for Tom Wescotts suggestion, I believe he spoke of a bundle of "Arbeiter Fraint" copies. Such a thing makes a good deal more sense, but my own guess is that the good PC would be able to recognize such a thing too, and they would not have given the impression of having been wrapped up; a newspaper wrapping would display a wrinkled surface on the paper used, whereas a fresh bundle of newspapers would not. I believe that the best bet is exactly what Smith suggested - his man carried something wrapped up in paper.

The best,
Fisherman

[Rubyretro]

I also think that it was a parcel and not a rolled up newspaper -but given that there were no plastic shopping bags, nor posh 'kraft' bags from ordinary
everyday shops -surely anything you bought would be wrapped in newspaper ?

Especially food -but anything in a bundle ?

I would expect newspaper wrapped parcels to a common occurrence -albeit worth mentioning in a witness statement (like he was carrying a plastic shopping bag, in today's money).

So a parcel isn't particularly suspicious, and could contain any number of things.

I can't see JtR fiddling about to get a knife out of a paper parcel and string though..

[Fisherman]

I´m with you there, Ruby - whatever it was in that parcel, I feel pretty certain that it was not a set of knives. And just like you say, it could have been just about anything in that parcel. Fish and chips has been suggested, and that or some other food may well have been what was inside, I should think. Normally, you do not carry precious gifts wrapped in a newspaper, just like you normally do not set out for a birthday party at midnight or later. Therefore, food or something that would get your hands dirty on contact would be my guess.

The best,
Fisherman

[The Good Michael]

Had he read the headlines, Smith wouldn't have been concerned. It read: Just in: Man with Parcel not East End Murderer.

Mike

[Fisherman]

Sure, Mike - but in Yiddish. That´s why he did not make it out.

The best,
Fisherman

[Garza]

Could the parcel be a stack of socialist newsletters wrapped up in newspaper and tied with string to protect it from the rain...it was raining heavily that night on and off.

[mariab]

Garza wrote:
Could the parcel be a stack of socialist newsletters wrapped up in newspaper and tied with string to protect it from the rain...it was raining heavily that night on and off.
That and specifically a stack of Der Arbeter Fraint would be my first guess. Might I call your attention to the fact that fish wrapped around in newspaper invariably features a distinctive, conical shape and a very distinctive smell? I believe that Victorian East Enders would have been able to identify fish as the content of the parcel and would have mention it – unless they spotted the person carrying it from a significant distance.
Rubyretro wrote:
I would expect newspaper wrapped parcels to a common occurrence -albeit worth mentioning in a witness statement (like he was carrying a plastic shopping bag today.
Absolutely. Plus, might I add that 19th century newspapers were printed in significantly thicker and much harder paper than today? Their length (at least for French newspapers) often reached 50cm! No idea how big Der Arbeter Fraint is, but I guess that Lynn Cates and Tom Wescott might be able to provide information on this, since they both own original issues of Der Arbeter Fraint (if I'm not mistaken).
By the way, Lynn, any news from the translation front?

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Maria,

I've published on this before. I believe Smith's man was a club man carrying a stack of Der Arbeter Fraint. He was a well-dressed young man, as we'd expect a clubman to be. They did indeed stand out handing out free copies of the paper for recruitment purposes. These papers were printed in the backyard of the house and would not be folded as one might expect a larger paper to be. Their dimensions were the same as that described by Smith. If my idea is correct, then little importance could be attached to what Smith saw. Unfortunately, it's hypothesis and nothing more.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[mariab]

Hi Tom.
Yes, very frustratingly almost everything about this case is conjecture, I'm afraid, and for the most part there's not much we can do to get the evidence back.
Pertaining to the package, I came to the same conclusion as you. Where have you published on this, Ripper Notes? And is it true that you own an original issue of Der Arbeter Fraint? Is the paper as thick and heavy as I imagine?
By the way, according to Lynn Cates the Arbeter Fraint translation's getting done (if I got it correctly, by the elderly Jewish aunt of one of my friends in Chicago!), and pages 1-2 are almost done. Another thing I'd be interested in doing is to look up at lists of workers/sweaters (for Schwartz). Any idea where one could look for such? Did Der Arbeter Fraint contain ads for work? I'll ask Debra as well.

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Maria. I'm assuming I published on it. I've certainly posted it enough during the years. If I did it would be in one of my essays for Ripper Notes.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[mariab]

Tom,
it's not in Ripper Notes 25-27, which are the only issues I have. But later on (at some point in the not too far future) I'll catch up on my Ripper Notes by reading them online at Google Books, where, surprisingly, one can read (and maybe even print) the entire issue. (If you won't get too upset about copyright issues now that I told you!)
You didn't confirm if you indeed own an original issue of Der Arbeter Fraint. No worries, it's not that I'm planning to break in and steal it from you or anything, I was just wondering how it looks (and feels) in reality. Never seen any Jewish newspapers in my life... (Although I've seen Arabic girly magazines, yeah there are such, and they start "the wrong way around", from the back cover, like Japanese mags. No idea if Hebrew scripts read “backwards“ too.)