Any Connections To Crimes or Mysteries?

[Mayerling]

Over the years I have noticed that occasionally somebody or other will be mentioned on this board or will even write briefly on this board about a family connection to a victim of the Whitechapel Killings, or one of the suspects, or some other crime or mystery that is still discussed. I figure that perhaps a special thread can be created here if anyone does have that kind of family or friend background.

Jeff

[chris14]

Hi Jeff,

Yes, I think it's a good idea. I hope those people who are connected to any of the victims or suspects will reveal themselves and write here. That would be very exciting.

Chris

[Mayerling]

Thanks Chris, but this thread does not seem to be picking up much attention.
I suppose people are more reticent than I thought.

Jeff

[Magpie]

My great-nth- grandfather was a Jewish bootmaker in Whitechapel during the murders and to this day there are relatives in England who believe that if he wasn't Jack, he was at least the "real" Leather Apron.

[Mayerling]

Hi Magpie,

It is interesting when we find a connection to the period of the Whitechapel Murders. Years ago I knew a young woman (we were taking the New York State Bar examination, and we both had to take a course to prepare for it - and met while studying there). She was English, of Polish ancestry, and she claimed her grandmother (as a girl) thought she passed a possible "Jack" shortly after a police whistle announced another murder. The guy the grandmother passed looked odd, and stared at the grandmother for a moment (remember the grandmother was a young woman at the time). I knew the lady from the bar review course in 1979 or 1980. The story fits the time line.

I have a feeling there a many stories regarding such connections. Not that they can tell us too much now - too many years passed, and the actual people who might have talked are gone.

Is there a name to this bootmaker relation, or is his name forgotten now? Did you ever look him up in the census?

Best wishes,

Jeff