Who was the best witness to have seen Jack the Ripper?

[Fisherman]

Hello Christer. Thanks.

We DO know that Jacob had returned home and changed clothes just after the Nichols slaying and just after Chapman. So it is possible that he was not wearing his apron. Perhaps ALL butchers were expected to wear aprons?

Cheers.
LC

My hunch is that this was something that stretched beyond the apron, to be honest. I think Penhalion makes a point that seems useful. And it makes me think that the man described could have had the features that sometimes go with a hollow-eyed appearance: being thin.

Not that there is enough in it to make any call either way, mind you!

The best,
Fisherman

[lynn cates]

powerful

Hello Penhalion. Thanks.

There's a thought. He was likely never thin but he was powerfully built--less so, perhaps, after his months of wandering.

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

apron

Hello Christer. Thanks.

We DO know that Jacob had returned home and changed clothes just after the Nichols slaying and just after Chapman. So it is possible that he was not wearing his apron. Perhaps ALL butchers were expected to wear aprons?

Cheers.
LC

[Fisherman]

I believe the Victorian stereotype of a butcher was well-fed and somewhat rotund. Because of the easy access to meat, it was assumed that all butchers (and their families) would be plump and rosy-cheeked with health. Therefore a man who was thin and had sunken cheeks would look nothing like a butcher.

That makes sense, I guess. You may well be right - thanks for sharing!

The best,
Fisherman

[Penhalion]

I believe the Victorian stereotype of a butcher was well-fed and somewhat rotund. Because of the easy access to meat, it was assumed that all butchers (and their families) would be plump and rosy-cheeked with health. Therefore a man who was thin and had sunken cheeks would look nothing like a butcher.

[Fisherman]

"The man did not look in the least like a butcher", it says. One wonders what that was about?

How does a butcher look...?

Fisherman

[lynn cates]

photograph

Hello Barbara, GUT. Thanks.

And now, I beg you to consider that Mary claimed that Jacob had gotten pinched in the face in his weeks of wandering.

So if you look at a photograph of Isenschmid whilst reading that description, well, it must have some slight effect.

Cheers.
LC

[GUT]

When I read that post I knew that I had read it before, but for the life of me didn't remember the part about the eyes.

[Beowulf]

Worth repeating.

Hello GUT. Thanks.

I paste below the story from "The Star" 10 September.

Cheers.
LC

There are two general clues to the murderer at the present time. The first deals with the famous, or infamous "Leather Apron," whose name is on everybody's lips in the Whitechapel district. The case against "Leather Apron," briefly summed up, is as follows: - That the murders are evidently the work of a maniac, and this man is quite crazy enough to fall within that class. His beastly brutality, manifested in his attacks on Whitechapel street-walkers are quite in keeping with the late fiendish deeds. He disappeared from his accustomed haunts just about the time of the George-yard murder, has not been in any of the lodging-houses in which he has slept for years, and since that murder has been seen only once or twice in a district in which he is known by sight to many. Furthermore a man exactly answering his description was found one night sleeping on the steps in the very house and in the very passage through which the victim of Saturday was led to her death. Jews who are driven to sleep in passage ways are not common even in Whitechapel, and there is little question that the party with the Hebrew face who was found asleep in the passage at 29, Hanbury-street, was the redoubtable "Leather Apron."



THE OTHER CLUE


is that of the man who went into the Prince Albert public-house with bloody hands, a torn shirt, and a bloodstreak on his neck. Mrs. Chappell, who saw the man along with Mrs. Fiddymont, was a customer, not friend of the latter, and the two stories of the man, which were independent of each other, agreed perfectly. Mrs. Fiddymont yesterday added to her previous statement the fact that the back of the man's head was grimy, as if it had been bloody, and had been dampened or spit upon in the endeavor to rub the blood off instead of washing it. The dried blood between the fingers was thus clear, though the back of the hand held only three or four small distinct spots. The man did not look in the least like a butcher, and no theory born of his appearance could account for his bloody hands at seven a.m.

Joseph Taylor also had some facts to add to his account of Saturday. Mr. Taylor is a cautious and entirely reliable man, and freely told all he knew to two detectives on Saturday. He says that as he entered the public-house Mrs. Fiddymont said that a man had just left whom she would like to give in charge on suspicion of the murder. Taylor went out a moment later without any particular intention of



FOLLOWING THE MAN,


whom Mrs. Chappell pointed out to him. The man was going towards Bishopsgate, however, and, as this was Taylor's direction, he increased his pace.

"It was all I could do to overtake him," he said yesterday, "and I am not a bad walker myself. The man walked very rapidly, however, with a peculiar springy walk that I would recognise again. He carried himself very erect, like a horse soldier. He had a ginger-colored moustache, longer than mine and curling a little at the ends. His shoulders were very square and his neck rather long. He was neither stout nor thin, and seemed between 30 and 40 years old. His face was medium in stoutness. There were faint hollows under the cheekbones. One thing that impressed me was that the man



SEEMED BEWILDERED.


He crossed Brushfield-street three times in going from the Prince Albert to the next street, which was Bishopsgate. He clearly did not know where he was going. When he reached Bishopsgate, he stood at the corner and looked up and down the street undecided. Then he made up his mind and started across Brushfield-street rapidly, and kept on down Bishopsgate towards Liverpool-street. I followed as far as Half-Moon street, where my work was, and watched him for some time from the corner, but he kept straight on. I assure you that when I came alongside of him his look was enough to frighten any woman. His eyes were wild-looking and staring. He held his coat together at the chin with both hands, the collar being buttoned up, and everything about his appearance was exceedingly strange.

[lynn cates]

ginger

Hello Barbara. Thanks.

"Interesting to note his 'ginger' mustache."

Yes indeed. Besides the colour of his moustaches, note the description of his eyes.

Cheers.
LC

[Beowulf]

Hello Barbara. Thanks.

If by that you mean Polly and Annie's assailant, yes.

Cheers.
LC

I understand where you are coming from. There is no proof of his being the Ripper, murderer of other murders.

But I certainly have never had the, shall I say 'pleasure' of reading that copy before.

Chilling.

Interesting to note his 'ginger' mustache.

[lynn cates]

yes

Hello Barbara. Thanks.

If by that you mean Polly and Annie's assailant, yes.

Cheers.
LC

[Beowulf]

Incredible accounts, Lynn.

What do you think? Really the Ripper?

[lynn cates]

Hello GUT. Thanks.

The pleasure was all mine.

Cheers.
LC

[GUT]

G'day Lynn

Thanks for that.