Was this person Jack The Ripper? (not Kosminski)
There has been a lot of talk recently about how Jack The Ripper has finally been identified, after more than 130 years. A lot of people who are familiar with the Jack The Ripper subject have already debunked this claim as nothing more than a media show. I shall also do the same but will also provide my humble opinion to who Jack The Ripper rally was. Do you think I'm right, wrong? Or perhaps you have your own theory, I will be more than happy to hear out.
There were several high ranking officers who worked on the Jack The Ripper case while he was active. Among them were:
- Assistant Commissioner Sir Robert Anderson
- Chief Inspector Donald Swanson
- Chief Constable Sir Melville Macnaghten
In 1910, some 20 years after the Whitechapel (Jack the Ripper murders), Robert Anderson would write something interesting. In his book "The Lighter Side of My Official Life". Anderson would state that Jack The Ripper had been identified. Saying that, there can be no doubt as to his identity.
He would add that all evidence pointed to a "Polish Jew", who was a poor resident of Whitechapel (where the murders took place). One big piece of evidence was that an unnamed witness saw the "Polish Jew" in the act of killing. This witness was, according to Anderson, the only man to ever have had a clear view of the murders, and could positively identify Jack The Ripper. However, this witness didn't want to testify against the man in question due to also being a fellow Jew. Police followed the suspect, day & night, preventing him from committing any further murders. According to Anderson, he knew he was identified. Since police couldn't convict the suspect in question, nor reveal his identity, they put him in an insane asylum instead, on the pretext of his violet tendencies, to protect the public.
While Anderson did not reveal what the suspect's name is, believing it not to be in the "public interest", Donald Swanson did. In his own copy of Anderson's book, Swanson wrote that he knew who Anderson was referring to, and that his name was Kosminski. Although he did admit to writing his from memory (the case was decades old by that point).
Melville Macnaghten would also share some information on this suspect. He described him as a man with a great hatred of women, and that he also had homicidal tendencies. He also claimed that the suspect was removed to an insane asylum sometime in May 1889 (just after Jack The Ripper stopped killing). Macnaghten specified that the suspect was sent to Stephney Workhouse (insane asylum) and then to Colney Hatch (insane asylum) and died shortly afterward.
If we trust what these detectives tell us, Jack The Ripper was caught, but his name not reveled to the public. And then he died shortly afterward. So this means, if we want to know his real name, we just need to identify him in the public records.
This is the timeline & details of this suspect:
- From August 1888, there were five very violent murders of sex workers in the Whitechapel area of London. Due to the brutality of the murders, they were all certainly done by the same man.
- The suspect is definitely someone who lives, and is familiar with the Whitechapel area. Some bodies were found mere minutes after being killed. Suggesting that the suspect had intimate knowledge of the streets & alleys that made up the labyrinth that was Whitechapel. Helping him escape capture numerous times.
- A lot of sex workers in the area knew of a possibly Jewish man known as "Leather Apron" (there were a lot of poor Jewish immigrants in London at the time, most of them fled Eastern Europe due to anti-Semitic riots). Leather Apron was known to abuse sex workers, and a lot of sex workers were sure that he was Jack The Ripper. A sex worker would later incorrectly claim that a man by the name of John Pizer was the infamous Leather Apron/Jack The Ripper. Pizer would later be proven 100% innocent of any murder, and would even successfully sue a newspaper who falsely claimed that he was Jack The Ripper. This whole ordeal nearly caused an anti-Semitic riot.
- A Jewish man told police that he could confidently identify Jack The Ripper, as he witnessed him do a murder. But didn't want to testify against the suspect, as he was also Jewish. Most likely he was worried that, if the public found out that Jack The Ripper was a Jew, there would be an anti-Semitic riot. The witness identity is not known, but its most likely Joseph Lawende, one of the last people who saw Catherine Eddowes (Jack The Ripper Victim) alive. He saw her talking to a man who looked like a sailor and had a reddish handkerchief.
- The suspect that the witness accused of being Jack The Ripper was a low class Polish Jew, who lived in Whitechapel. His name was possibly Kosminski. He was identified by police at his home. After this, police followed him to his brother's home, and started a 24h surveillance of him. Thus, he wasn't able to commit any crimes.
- Jack The Ripper mysteriously stops killing in November 1888, after killing Mary Jane Kelly (his last victim). In each murder he had become more & more brutal. With his last murder being akin to a butchering of an animal. With such an extreme MO, we know that this was his last victim, as nothing like it ever happened in London again. Most serial killer can't stop killing, so Jack The Ripper either died, was imprisoned or maybe was just followed by police. Or maybe all three?
- By May 1889, Jack The Ripper was old news. Police had followed the suspect for a while, preventing him from continuing his work. They couldn't put him on trail, due to the only evidence against him being a witness who refused to testify. So around this time, they sent him into Stephney Workhouse, an insane asylum. He was latter transferred to Colney Hatch, a different insane asylum. The suspect would die in the asylum, not long after.
So who was this suspect?
A person who is constantly mentioned is Aaron Kosminski. On the surface, he looks like a good candidate:
- He was a low class Polish Jew who lived in Whitechapel and worked as a barber there.
- He was old enough to comit the murders.
- He had mental problems.
- He was put into Colney Hatch insane asylum after the murders stopped, where he died.
- A DNA test in 21st century proved that it was him, right?
In reality, a lot of things about him don't add up with what the detectives said...
- He wasn't put into an insane asylum in March 1889, as Macnaghten stated, but years later, in 1891.
- He didn't die shortly after being put into an asylum, In fact he would go on to live nearly two decades in the asylum, dying only in the year 1919.
- Medical records from the asylum stated that he wasn't a violent person.
- The DNA in question was taken from a shawl that was allegedly found on one of the victims. It was allegedly taken by a police officer from the crime scene. It was then passed down from generation to generation until it was DNA tested. We don't know if the shawl really belonged to a Jack The Ripper victim, as there is no evidence supporting that fact. The DNA test used mitochondrial DNA, not Nuclear DNA. Nuclear DNA is specific to one person, it's the DNA most people think of when they think of DNA testing. But mitochondrial DNA is not specific to one person, millions of people can have the same mitochondrial DNA. It can only be used to prove someone is not guilty, and not to prove someone's guilt. It would be like if we knew Jack The Ripper had blue eyes, does that mean every person who has blue eyes is guilty, no. The only thing we know is we can exclude all people with brown eyes.
So if Aaron Kosminski is not the suspect in question, who is? Here is who I think it is.
Out of all the theories out there, the one that makes the most sense is Nathan Kaminsky. It seems when Swanson said he was writing from memory, he meant it. When he wrote the suspect's name years later, he misremembered the name as Kosminski instead of Kaminsky. So who was Nathan Kaminsky?
- Nathan Kaminsky, a polish Jew, is born in 1865, making him 23 years old at the time of the Jack The Ripper murders in 1888. This is consistent with the description of the killer by the witnesses, who describe him as a short male in his 20s.
- He was unmarried and lived in the Whitechapel area of London, where he worked as a tailor.
- Hr lived in Black Lion Yard, a location close to all the murders.
- He was described as a violently antisocial & poor, East End local.
- He was treated one time for syphilis (sexually transmitted disease), suggesting contact with sex workers. It could also be the source of his anger & hatred towards sex workers in Whitechapel, and a motivation for killing them as revenge. A cure for syphilis didn't exist back then, end in its final stages, could travel to the brain, where it could cause symptoms like: paranoia, behavioral changes, hallucinations, mania, and cognitive impairment.
- Sometime in May 1888, Nathan Kaminsky is released from the Whitechapel Workhouse Infirmary, after which, all traces of him disappear. And he does not appear in the Historical record during the Jack The Ripper Murders. Most likely, he despaired into the slums, becoming an untraceable vagrant. By that time, syphilis would have likely entered late stages, and he would have become progressively more insane and violent towards sex workers. Explaining why each murder was more violent than the last, as his condition became worse over time.
- He matches the description of Leather Apron, a Jewish abuser of sex workers in the area.
- On 12th of December 1888, right after the last Jack The Ripper murder on 9th November 1888, a "David Cohen" is admitted to the Colney Hatch insane asylum (same asylum where the suspect was held according to detectives). He was brought in to the asylum after being found stumbling through the streets of the East End of London.
- "David Cohen" was a "John Doe" type of alias that was used in London at the time for Jewish suspects whose names were too hard to spell by English police. This David Cohen was a Jewish tailor, and was admitted to the asylum at the same time as the detectives said that the Jack The Ripper suspect was.
- "David Cohen" was most definitely Nathan Kaminsky under a John Doe (David Cohen) alias.
- "David Cohen" (Nathan Kaminsky) exhibited violent & destructive tendencies while at the asylum, and had to be restrained. At this point, he was in the last stages of Syphilis induced mania. He was deemed a danger to himself and others.
- "David Cohen" (Nathan Kaminsky) dies at Colney Hatch in October 1889 (just, as detectives said, he died shortly after being institutionalized)
All of this leaves me to believe that Nathan Kaminsky, a Jew living in London, committed the murders during his Syphilis induced mania. He was caught, but not tried, due to the witness not wanting to testify against him. He was sent to an insane asylum in December 1888, under the name, "David Cohen". The murders stopped immediately after that, and he died in October 1889.
Years latter, when a Swanson wrote about him, he remembered his name as Kosminski instead of Kaminsky. Causing the confusion we have today.
What do you think?