Aaron Kosminski Reconsidered
“This is
an obscure and fantastic case, a contemporary case, something that could only
happen in our day, when the heart of man has grown troubled, when people quote
sayings about blood “refreshing”, when the whole of life is dedicated to
comfort… there is resolution evident here, like that of a man falling from a
precipice or flinging himself off a tower; this is the work of a man carried
along into crime, as it were, by some outside force.”
Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 1866
Introduction
In the summer and fall of 1888, an elusive and mysterious killer
terrorized the city of London, killing prostitutes in the streets of
Whitechapel, before finally disappearing into the shadowy fog of history. Since
that time, the identity of 'Jack the Ripper' has remained a mystery and a
subject of heated debate amongst students of the case. Evidence that may have
once existed has disappeared over time, as memories became confused and files
were 'misplaced'. Thus, researchers inherited a complex jigsaw puzzle of
fragments, random facts, quotes, and documents, often contradictory and
difficult to interpret. The full "truth" of the case is probably lost
for all time, but perhaps enough fragmentary pieces remain for us to formulate
a picture of the events as they occurred.
One of the most intriguing of these fragments is the assertion by Sir
Robert Anderson, head of the Criminal Investigation Division of the London
Metropolitan Police in 1888, that he knew the identity of Jack the Ripper. In
an article published in Blackwood's Magazine in 1910, Anderson claimed that the
Police had in fact solved the case, but had declined to publicize the fact
because, as he says, "no public benefit would result from such a course,
and the traditions of my old department would suffer". Anderson made
similar assertions in other published sources, most notably in his book
"The Lighter Side of My Official Life", also published in 1910. While
Anderson never named the suspect in question, he did give a general description
of him: the perpetrator was, according to Anderson, a low-class Polish Jew who
was "caged in an asylum", and who was "at once identified"
by "the only person who had ever had a good view of the murderer."
Anderson also tells us that the killer was "a sexual maniac of a virulent
type" who lived "in the immediate vicinity of the scenes of the
murders," and "whose utterly unmentionable vices reduced him to a
lower level than that of the brute".
In 1959, the name of Anderson's Polish Jew suspect was finally revealed
to be 'Kosminski', after the discovery of a copy of an internal police memo
written in 1894 by Anderson's second in command, Melville Macnaghten. The memo
lists as a suspect: "Kosminski, a Polish Jew, who lived in the very heart
of the district where the murders were committed. He had become insane owing to
many years indulgence in solitary vices. He had a great hatred of women, with
strong homicidal tendencies."
Further indication that Anderson's suspect's name was Kosminski was
established with the discovery of handwritten notes written by
ex-superintendent Donald Sutherland Swanson in the margin and end-paper of his
personal copy of Anderson's memoirs. Fleshing out the details of the witness
identification referred to by Anderson, Swanson writes: "the suspect had
been identified at the Seaside Home where he had been sent by us with
difficulty in order to subject him to identification, and he knew he was
identified. On suspect's return to his brother's house in Whitechapel he was watched
by police (City CID) by day and night. In a very short time the suspect with
his hands tied behind his back, he was sent to Stepney Workhouse and then to
Colney Hatch and died shortly afterwards - Kosminski was the suspect".
The full name of the suspect remained a mystery however until quite
recently, when Martin Fido's exploration of asylum records led to the discovery
of one Aaron Kosminski, a Jewish hairdresser who had been certified as a
lunatic and admitted to Colney Hatch Asylum in 1891. The cause of his insanity
is indicated as being a result of "self-abuse", generally believed to
be a colloquial way of saying masturbation. The asylum record's reference to
"self-abuse" corresponds to Anderson's reference to "utterly
unmentionable vices" and Macnaghten's reference to the suspect's
"many years indulgence in solitary vices".
There can be little doubt that Aaron Kosminski is the Polish Jew
suspect referred to by Anderson, Macnaghten, and Swanson. However, some of the
details in their statements by are demonstrably incorrect. Perhaps the most
noted error is Swanson's assertion that the suspect died shortly after being
committed to Colney Hatch - in fact Aaron Kosminski lived for another 28 years.
But in general, their statements fit well with the known facts about Aaron's
life. As Stewart Evans writes, "These are confined to demonstrable errors,
not assumptions, and are few. Indeed if they can be explained the recollections
of Anderson, Macnaghten and Swanson are remarkably accurate in relation to (Aaron)
Kosminski, allowing for the effects of the passage of time on memory."1
And as Paul Begg has said: "We're also told, crucially in my opinion, that
the Polish Jew indulged in utterly unmentionable vices, which corresponds with
"self abuse" mentioned by Macnaghten in relation to
"Kosminski" and masturbation attributed to Aaron Kosminski. In my
opinion the identification is and always has been fairly solid because of this
and that any idea that Anderson's suspect was someone else has to first and foremost
address this point."2
Despite this, and Anderson's "moral certainty"
notwithstanding, many students of the case have been dissatisfied with the
notion that Aaron Kosminski could have been Jack the Ripper. Aaron Kosminski
has been dismissed by many Ripperologists as being an unwashed, drooling
imbecile, who roamed the streets eating out of the gutter. Consequently,
researchers have explored all sorts of "alternative" Kosminski
theories, involving, for example, "other" Kosminskis, alternative
spellings such as Kaminsky, and the theory that the suspect was entered into a
workhouse under a false name. The most common theory however, is simply that
Anderson had become boastful in his old age, and that his "definitely
ascertained fact" was just plain wrong.
But what if Anderson was right? What if the most famous murder case in
British history had indeed been "solved" by the police at the time?
What if Jack the Ripper has been right under our nose, virtually ignored for
years, because so many people were inclined to dismiss him?
This article proposes a re-examination of the suspect Aaron Kosminski.
We will take a closer look at what is known about the Polish Jew hairdresser:
his background of growing up in an environment characterized by poverty,
oppression, and exposure to violence; his public display of masturbation; his
diagnosis suggesting schizophrenia - that he hears voices which guide his every
movement. We know, for example, that he threatened his sister with a knife.
Melville Macnaghten claimed to have evidence that Kosminski hated women, and
that he had homicidal tendencies. And there were other "circs",
according to Macnaghten, that made him a strong suspect - evidence that has
apparently been lost. Aaron was the right age basically, and he was said to
have "strongly resembled the individual seen by the City PC near Mitre
Square". He was identified by a witness. His presumed residence in 1888
was in the geographic center of the murders.
In the end, while we may never prove that Aaron Kosminski was Jack the
Ripper, perhaps a more thorough examination of the fragmentary evidence will
lead us, as it did Anderson, to a moral certainty of his guilt.
Aaron Kosminski - basic chronology
The following basic chronology has been established from the admissions
registers and files of Mile End Old Town Workhouse and Colney Hatch Asylum:
July 12, 1890 - Aaron Kosminski is admitted to the Mile
End Old Town Workhouse Infirmary from no. 3 Sion Square. His brother (sic?)
Woolf is recorded as certifying the entry. (That Aaron was an "able bodied
male" is indicated by his diet code. )
July 15, 1890, - Aaron is discharged into the care of an
unnamed "brother" whose address is recorded as no. 16 Greenfield
Street.
February 4, 1891 - Aaron is returned to the
Mile End Old Town Workhouse from no. 16 Greenfield Street. Who brought him in
is not recorded (it may have been the police).
February 7, 1891 - Aaron is admitted to
Colney Hatch Asylum. The Register states that Aaron's nearest known relative is
"Woolf Kosminski" of no. 3 Sion Square. A Jacob Cohen gives some
background information on Aaron: "he took up a knife and threatened the
life of his sister". (This incident may have been the "final
straw" which led to Aaron's re-admission to the workhouse for a psychological
assessment. In any case, we are left to ponder the motivation of this attack,
although clearly Aaron felt some aggression or anger towards one or both of his
sisters. )
February 7, 1891 - Finally, Aaron is
transferred to Leavesden Asylum for Imbeciles, where he stayed until his death
in 1919.
Kosminski Family - Emigration from Russia
Aaron Kosminski was born in Russia in 1864 or 1865. Records show that
Aaron's two sisters, Matilda and Betsy, and their families left Russia circa
1881, and then stayed briefly in Germany, before finally settling in London
either later in 1881 or in 1882. This is established by the birth records of
the children of Morris Lubnowski and his wife Matilda (Aaron's sister): Joseph,
the oldest child, was born in Poland in 1880; Bertha was born in Germany in
1881; Annie (b. 1884) and Jane (b. 1888) were both born in London. The children
of Woolf Abrahams and Betsy (nee Kosminski, Aaron's other sister) Abrahams were
both born in London: Rebecca in 1882, and Matilda in 1890.
It is generally assumed that Aaron emigrated
to London in the company of his sisters' families, although there is no direct
proof that this is the case. Scott Nelson notes: "Aaron's
1882 entry into London is based on his burial record (and I believe it was also
on his headstone.) This is likely in error because if he came to London with
his sisters and their families, which is far from certain, it had to have been
in 1881, like the Naturalization Record says (also we know the Morris Lubnowski
was living at no. 10 Plummers Row in 1881). It seems to me more likely
that Aaron entered London with the Lubnowski and the Abrahams families in late
1881”.3 Recent research by Chris Phillips
has narrowed down the date of Aaron’s likely arrival to June 1881. This is
based on the Naturalization records for Morris Lubnowski (1888) and Woolf
Abrahams (1886), which both list them residing at addresses in London from June
1881 onwards.
Aaron's mother was most likely the Golda Abrahams listed in the 1901
census living at 64 Wellesley Street with Morris and Matilda Lubnowski and
their 7 children. She is listed as Golda Abrahams, a widow, "wife's
mother" (i.e. Matilda's mother). It seems likely that Golda did not
emigrate with the family in 1881/2, and we may assume that she stayed behind in
Russia for some reason. By 1894 it appears she was in London, as there is a
"Mrs. Kosminski" referred to on Aaron's committal papers to Leavesden
Asylum. Recent research by Chris Phillips has revealed that Golda was at some
point re-married to a man named Abraham Joseph Abrahams who died prior to 1901.
Of course in saying "re-married" I am assuming that Golda was at one
point married to a man named Kosminski, i.e. the father of Aaron, Betsy and
Matilda. In fact, nothing is currently known about Aaron's father, except that
he did not apparently emigrate to London at the same time as Aaron and his
sisters' families. There is in fact no evidence that he ever came to London at
all, and it is possible that Golda stayed behind in Russia or Germany to care
for him if he was sick or injured. We must assume that Aaron's father either
died or left the family at some point. It is also important to note that there
was an extremely high divorce rate among Jews in Poland/Russia in the 19th
century, and he may have left the family much earlier than 1881.
To put the emigration of the Kosminski family in context, we must
examine the history of Poland and the political and social situation of Jews in
Russia at the end of the 19th century.
Poland and The Pale of Settlement
By the late 18th century, Poland had been in a state of economic and
social decline for nearly a hundred years. In 1732 Russia, Prussia, and Austria
entered into a secret pact known as "The Alliance of the Three Black
Eagles", the goal of which was to maintain the instability of an already
weakened Poland. In 1772 the "Black Eagles" began to annex parts of
the country, until finally, in 1795, a third partition and final partition
wiped Poland off the map. Russia took the largest geographic area, but also the
least important economically.
In Russia, there had been a distrust and lack of tolerance for the Jews
since the Middle Ages. The Russian peasants viewed the Jews as aliens, with a
strange and mysterious culture. Thus, when several hundred thousand Polish Jews
became absorbed into the Russian Empire, the government immediately recognized
what it termed "the Jewish Problem." This problem, largely
anti-Semitic in nature, remained unaddressed until 1835, when Tsar Nicholas I
created the Pale of Settlement, a strictly defined geographic area in which the
Jews were forced to live. The government then imposed severe legal restrictions
on the Jews in this area.
The Pale of Settlement was a region of poverty and hopelessness.
"Within the Pale, Jews were banned from most rural areas and some cities 4;
they were prohibited from building synagogues near churches and using Hebrew in
official documents; barred from agriculture, they earned a living as petty
traders, middlemen, shopkeepers, peddlers, and artisans, often working with
women and children" 5. Although the Jews formed only one ninth
of the total population in the provinces of the Pale of Settlement, their
numbers steadily increased due to a high birth rate, until "the Pale
became choked by a huge, pauperized mass of unskilled or semiskilled Jewish
laborers, whose economic condition steadily worsened" 6.
"Often repeated," said historian Shlomo Lambroza, "the official
view was that Jews were a parasitic element in the Russian Empire who lived off
the hard earned wages of the narod [people]."7
In the 1860s, there was a brief period of improvement in conditions for
the Jews in Russia. Some of the oppressive restrictions were relaxed, and a
small number of Jews considered "useful" were allowed to settle
outside the Pale. The Jewish communities of St. Petersburg, Moscow and Odessa
grew rapidly, and Jews started to participate in intellectual and cultural
life. But even during this period, less than 5% of Russia's Jewish population
lived outside the Pale.
This brief period of improvement did not last long however, and by the
1870s anti-Semitism was again on the rise in Russia. The Polish Revolution of
1863 had intensified Russian anti-Semitism and Slavophile nationalism. In
addition, the sudden appearance of Jewish merchants, doctors, and lawyers
outside the Pale caused a sharp backlash. Jewish financiers and intellectuals
became the symbols of agents of all that challenged traditional authority and
values.
The Russian government at this time was becoming increasingly worried
about the rising unrest amongst the peasantry, which was seen as a consequence
of the Great Reforms - the coming of industry, capitalism, and the dissolution
of old loyalties and controls. In large part, the government scapegoated and
blamed the Jews for the unrest in the land. In a memorandum to the Tsar,
General Ignatiev, later Minister of the Interior and a member of the
anti-Semitic Holy League, wrote: "Every honest voice is silenced by the
shouts of Jews and Poles who insist that one must listen only to the
'intelligent' class, and that Russian demands must be rejected as backward and
unenlightened." Konstantin Pobedonistev, the Tsar's chief advisor on
Jewish affairs, proposed the following solution to the "Jewish
Problem": "One third must emigrate, one third convert, and one third
must die".
The Pogroms of 1881
The assassination of Tsar Alexander II by a group of revolutionaries in
March 1881 threw the government into chaos and directly preceded the first
major outbreak of pogroms - violent attacks by the Russian peasantry on the
Jewish population. Although the assassination had nothing to do with the Jews,
Ignatiev believed a vast "Polish-Yiddish" international conspiracy
had been responsible for the murder of Alexander II, and there were rumors that
Tsar Alexander III had issued a decree instructing the people to beat and
plunder the Jews for having killed his father.
Beginning in Elizabetgrad in April 1881, a wave of 'pogromy' (the
Russian word for "devastation") was unleashed on the Russian Jews. In
1881 alone there were more than 200 attacks on Jewish communities in the
southwestern regions of the Pale. These were well organized attacks in which
bands of hooligans were brought in by train, well primed with alcohol and
anti-Semitic indoctrination. The mob would then throng into the Jewish parts of
a town, break into houses and shops, loot and burn property, and beat, rape,
and frequently kill the inhabitants. Approximately 40 Jews were killed, many
times that number were wounded, and hundreds of women were raped.
An account of the Russian pogroms of 1902 is probably accurate in
giving a sense of the violence that characterized the attacks of 1881:
"Under every kind of outrage they died, mostly at the door of
their homes. They were babes, butchered at the breasts of their mothers. They
were old men beaten down in the presence of their sons. They were delicate
women violated and murdered in the sight of their own children." 8
Although local authorities knew of planned pogroms in advance, they
seemed reluctant to intervene. The authorities condoned these attacks through
their inaction and indifference, sometimes even showing sympathy for the
pogromists.
The main explanation Ignatiev gave for the "uncharacteristic
violence" of the poorer classes in the Pogroms was exploitation by the
Jews, who had taken over trade and manufacturing and also large amounts of land
through rent or purchase. The Russian peasants who plundered and destroyed the
Jews possessions "may have felt justified that... they were merely appropriating
property which did not rightly belong to the Jews". 9 A
commission established in 1882 to review the infamous restrictive May Laws
concluded that the Jews had "innate views that nourished the hostility of
their neighbors, especially among the lower classes".
The official sentiment of this period is perhaps best expressed by Tsar
Alexander III himself, who was moved by the age old Christian revulsion of the
Jews as the murderers of Christ: "In my heart I am very glad when they
beat the Jews, even though this practice cannot be permitted".
The pogroms in Russia generated a wave of Jewish migration that
continued for decades. A veritable flood of penniless frightened Jewish
refugees streamed across the German border in search of safety. An estimated
120,000 Ashkenazi Jews arrived in England between 1880 and 1914, and a total of
almost 2 million Jews fled Russia between 1880 and 1910. During this time, many
Jews emigrated via Hamburg and Brody, which served as safe temporary havens for
refugees on their way to England and America and other western nations.
It is likely that the pogroms in 1881 directly preceded the Kosminskis'
decision to emigrate west.
Aaron Kosminski
This gives a picture of the environment in which Aaron Kosminski lived
until he was about 17 or 18 years of age. Poland's annexation by Russia
explains the apparently contradictory records which state that Aaron's sister
Betsy was born in Russia, and that Matilda's son Joseph was born in Poland. As
the Pale was contained in Russia, and the Kingdom of Poland technically did not
exist, both statements would have been correct. Thus it is almost certain that
the Kosminski families lived in the Pale of Settlement.
As a boy, Aaron would have lived in a crowded and chaotic environment
characterized by extreme poverty - most likely an urban ghetto. As living
conditions in the Pale were extremely crowded, many families lived in one room,
and we may assume that Aaron shared a bed with either his parents or his
sisters when he was young. "Incest was common" in environments like
this, D. Kim Rossmo writes, "even amongst children as young as ten" 10.
As both women and children were expected to work, it is likely that Aaron would
have had some sort of menial employment. Perhaps, as Macnaghten later told the
journalist G. Sims, "Kosminski" had been at one time employed in a
hospital, as a hairdresser or an orderly.
Blood Libel
By the time Aaron was an
adolescent, there was widespread anti-Semitism in Russia. Influential
newspapers forgot their Jewish sympathies, and anti-Semitic literature
appeared, containing both intellectual and obscene content. Anti-Semitism also
began to gain a semblance of intellectual respectability as a result of the new
'scientific' anti-Semitism of western, mostly German, origin.
In 1878, when Aaron was 13 or 14 years old, the myth of the "Blood
Libel," outlawed by Alexander I, was revived in Kutais in anti-Semitic
newspapers like Novoye Vremya. Based in part on the ritual murder of the child
Simon of Trent and others, this myth held that the Jews participated in the
ritual murder of Christian children, using their blood to appease the wrath of
God. Specifically, the blood libel myth held that that "Jews had kidnapped a Christian child, tied him to a cross,
stabbed his head to simulate Jesus' crown of thorns, killed him, drained his
body of blood and mixed the blood into Passover matzohs." 11 If a Christian
child was found murdered near Easter or Passover, there was a good chance that
local Jews would be blamed. Into the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries, at least two dozen ritual murder trials took place in Central and
Eastern Europe.
The image shown at right shows the murder of Anderl von Rinn, a three
year old boy who became the focus of a blood libel cult in the 17th century.
The "martyr" Anderl is being murdered by two Jews, who are holding
him down as they slit his throat. The text reads: "Sie schneiden dem
Marterer, die Gurgl ab und nemen alles Blut von Ihm" ("they cut
throat of the martyr and take all blood from him").
The murder of Simon of Trent is said to have occurred during Passover
week in 1475, in Trent Italy. The child, who was not yet 3 years of age, was
abducted from his home and taken to a house where he was brutally slaughtered
by the twin brothers Saligman and Samuel, assisted by others named Tobias,
Vitalis, Moses, Israel and Mayr. While Moses strangled the child with a
handkerchief, flesh was cut from his neck and the blood collected in a bowl.
Pieces of flesh were also cut from his arms and legs, and his body was
punctured with needles. Later his body was thrown into the river. Variations on
this story were used to spread anti-Semitic propaganda during the Middle Ages.
The above image depicting the murder of Simon of Trent is especially
interesting in that it shows a long gash being cut in the boy's lower abdominal
area. In an interesting parallel to the mature modus operandi of Jack the
Ripper, the murder of Simon of Trent and blood libel mythology in general was
said to include strangulation, throat slitting, and as shown, a knife attack to
the abdomen. Is it possible that Aaron later re-enacted his memories of the
blood libel by killing Spitalfields prostitutes in a similar fashion?
The Psychological Profile of a Sexual Killer
In the United States, John Douglas and Robert Ressler were two of the
leading developers of criminal profiling, especially as it relates to sexual
homicide. Between 1979 and 1983, the FBI's Behavioral Sciences Unit (BSU)
undertook a study in which they interviewed 36 convicted sexual killers about
their backgrounds, crimes, crime scenes, and victims. The data they collected
laid the foundation for developing the theory and the methodology of criminal
profiling.
In England, a leading expert on criminal profiling is David Canter, and
his approach is different from the American model, relying primarily on an ever
growing database for statistical analysis. Canter's methodology also uses to
the concept of geographic offender profiling, a technique which was developed in
the late 80s and early 90s by D. Kim Rossmo and which is now used in police
jurisdictions in both the U.S. and Britain.
Many have argued that profiling is not an effective tool for
apprehending criminals, and indeed this is often true: profiling has been shown
in many cases to be inaccurate and fallible, especially as it relates to the
apprehension of criminal offenders. That being said however, it is generally
acknowledged that sexually motivated killers share many common characteristics,
and often share similar backgrounds. Thus we can examine Aaron Kosminski's
background and characteristics to see if he fits the general profile of a
sexually motivated killer.
Instability of Residence
Data shows that the majority of interviewed
sexual killers grew up without a stable residence. Half reported
"occasional instability", while another 17% reported "chronic
instability or frequent moving". Only 1/3 reported growing up in one
location. "The histories of frequent moving... reduced the child's
opportunities to develop positive, stable relationships outside the family”. 12
In the impoverished, crowded and competitive atmosphere of the Pale, it
is not likely that the Kosminskis would have had a stable and consistent
residence. Later, the family emigrated west and may have resided for a brief
time in Germany, before finally settling in London around 1881 or soon after.
Once in London, the family may have lived temporarily at the residence of some
relative or acquaintance in Whitechapel, before finally settling at Sion Square
and Greenfield Street.
Furthermore, it is likely that Aaron lived at both of these addresses
at different times. In July 1890 Aaron was admitted to Mile End Old Town
Workhouse from 3 Sion Square, which was presumably his residence at the time.
Less than a year later, in February 1891, he was admitted to the same workhouse
from 16 Greenfield Street. This seems to suggest that Aaron either changed
addresses, or that his sisters shared the responsibility of taking care of him.
After Aaron's attacks of insanity began around 1885, he was probably difficult
to live with, and he may have been shuffled back and forth between the two
addresses. On the other hand, it is fair to guess that Aaron lived at the 3
Sion Square address in autumn of 1888, as this was his residence when he was
admitted to Mile End Old Town Workhouse less than a year after the series of
murders ended.
In summary, it is clear that Aaron's adolescence and young adult life
was characterized by instability of residence.
Absence of a Biological Father
In 17 of 34 cases in the FBI study, the offenders interviewed reported
that the biological father left home before they reached the age of 12.
"The absence was due to a variety of reasons, such as death or
incarceration, but most often the reason given was separation or divorce".
Given the departure of the father, it is not surprising that the
dominant parent during childhood and adolescence is the mother (this is 21 out
of 34 cases). "The psychological and emotional disengagement"
resulting from an absent father figure perhaps enhanced a sense of
"negative human attachment or the disregarding of potentially positive
ones that might have been expected". (RESSLER)
Almost nothing is known about Aaron Kosminski's father. It is known
that Aaron's mother Golda had at some point re-married a man who died prior to
1901. Also, it is almost certain that Aaron's parents did not emigrate to
London with the extended family unit circa 1881. Although we may only
speculate, it is probable that Aaron's father was absent from the family unit
prior to 1881, either due to divorce, death, or abandonment.
Divorce rates in 19th Century Russia were extraordinarily high,
especially prior to 1850. The average age at which women first married was
around 20; in divorce records, the majority of women were less than 30 years
old. The high divorce rate combined with low life expectancy led to frequent
re-marrying. In Golda's case it is clear she re-married at least once, but she
may have re-married multiple times. By the time she gave birth to Matilda, her
first known child, Golda would have been about 37 years old. When she gave
birth to Aaron, she was around 46. In light of this, and the possibility that
Golda may have been married and divorced prior to giving birth to Matilda,
Betsy, and Aaron, it is perhaps relevant to consider the reference to Aaron's
so-called "brother" Woolf in the Mile End workhouse records.
Aaron is not known to have had a brother named Woolf, and it has
generally been assumed that this is actually a reference to Aaron's
brother-in-law Woolf Abrahams, who lived at 3 Sion Square. However, there was
in fact a Woolf Kosminski listed in the 1901 Census living at 24 Batty Gardens.
He is listed a tailor born in Russia, and evidence has suggested that he arrived
in London some time between 1890 and 1894. However, there is no known link
between Aaron Kosminski and Woolf Kosminski, and as Woolf was born in 1844, he
would have been 21 years older than Aaron. This means that he was born when
Golda would have been 25 years old. It is possible that Woolf was a much older
brother or half brother of Aaron's. It is interesting to note that both Woolf
Kosminski and Golda Abrahams first appear in London in the 1901 census. It is
also interesting to note that Matilda and Morris Lubnowski had a child who they
named Wolf in 1891, and that this may have coincided with Woolf Kosminski's
arrival in London.
Siblings
20 out of 34 interviewed offenders in the FBI study had no older
brothers, and 17 had no older sisters. One offender reported feeling jealous of
his sister as a kid. Others reported a change in "sibling order" as a
result of reconstituted families, with new stepbrothers and sisters.
After emigrating to London, it is possible that Aaron regarded his
older sisters as sort of substitute mother figures, i.e. people who would take
care of him. As Jacob Cohen reported in 1891, Aaron had not worked for years,
so we must assume that the sisters' families supported Aaron financially. We
may also guess that Aaron may have resented his brothers-in-law assuming father
figure roles in the reconstituted family structure. Thus, it seems likely that
Aaron may have perceived a family situation dominated by females.
Perceived Unfair Treatment By Adults in
Formative Years
It has been noted by Ressler et. al. that an ineffective and hateful
social environment leads to developing cognitive distortions, and negative
attitudes that later become the justification for violent acts towards others.
"Many of the murderers felt they were not dealt with fairly by adults
throughout their formative years" (RESSLER).
One killer said, "I wanted the whole world to kick off when I was
9 or 10." This same killer said, "I've got an older sister that beat
up on me a lot.... I had the instinct to feel like I'm getting a rotten
deal." (RESSLER, p.
23)
Aaron Kosminski was raised in a crowded ghetto environment
characterized by harsh and officially endorsed anti-Semitism, where Jews were
generally despised and mistrusted, and regarded as "a parasitic
element". The government tended to blame the Jews for the problems in
Russia, including the pogroms themselves. In addition, the authorities were, in
general, disinterested in protecting the Jews from these attacks. Thus, it is
not a stretch to imagine that Aaron may have begun to develop a general
resentment of society and especially authority figures as a result of this,
making him think that the social system was generally weak and ineffectual in
stopping crime and violence. Thus his perception of unfair treatment by adults
may have been the justification for his later acts of violence.
Witnessing Sexual Activity/ Violence
Ressler et al. notes: "The individual development characteristics
of the thirty-six murderers showed the presence of sexual problems and violent
experiences in childhood, and a dominant sexual fantasy life." Many of the
murderers interviewed had witnessed sexual violence or "disturbing"
sex as a child or adolescent. (RESSLER)
In his final interview, Ted Bundy spoke of the effect of pornography in
creating a fantasy realm which led to his becoming a serial killer: "The
most damaging kind of pornography - and I'm talking from hard, real, personal
experience - is that that involves violence and sexual violence. The wedding of
those two forces - as I know only too well - brings about behavior that is too
terrible to describe." In another interview, Bundy said: "this
interest, for some unknown reason, becomes geared toward matters of a sexual
nature that involves violence. I cannot emphasize enough the gradual
development of this. It is not short term..." 13
In the pogroms of 1881 hundreds of women were raped and assaulted. It
is difficult to imagine the social climate that must have existed that would
lead to this sort of mass, sexual debasement and aggression towards one ethnic
group. Indeed, the pogroms seem to have been characterized by a toxic mixture
of many different types of aggressive and assaultive behavior, including
violent attacks, arson, looting, rape, murder, and destruction of property.
It is not overstating the case to imagine that witnessing acts such as
these would have had a potentially devastating effect on Aaron, who was then
only 16 years old, especially combined as this was with the onset of puberty,
and an overall environment of harsh anti-Semitism and poverty. We must also
consider the possibility that Aaron's sisters or mother may have been raped, or
other family members beaten up. His sisters Betsy and Matilda would have been
young women in their 20's at this time. It is also possible that Aaron himself
was assaulted during this time. Often in the case of sexual murderers, there is
an identification with the aggressor, and these memories later fuel the
development of an isolated fantasy realm. Thus we can speculate that Aaron may
have begun to develop a subconscious identification with the aggressors in the
pogroms, in a fantasy life that was fueled by the sexual violence he witnessed
at that time.
Compulsive Masturbation
Over 80% of sexual killers interviewed in the FBI study reported
"compulsive masturbation" in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.
Of these, 19 offenders also reported "sexually stressful situations"
including "negative parental reaction to masturbation". It is
generally inferred from Aaron's hospital file that the supposed cause of his
attack of insanity was an uncontrollable public display of masturbation.
In speaking of the role of aggression in the development of sexual
fantasies, Ressler et.al. notes the following example:
"One offender as an adolescent openly masturbated in his home,
especially in front of his sisters, using their underwear in his masturbation
rituals. This behavior represented the hyper arousal state derived from his
memory of his childhood victimization by an adult. He describes the punitive
response from his mother to masturbatory behavior, and his rejection by family
members. Even upon recall, his pain and hurt at their ridicule was clear."
It is also noted that the subject was apparently "oblivious to the
inappropriate nature of his acts". (RESSLER)
This particular case may be especially relevant in formulating an
understanding of Aaron Kosminski. Especially important to note is that these
acts were perceived to be derived from a memory of victimization by an adult.
Also important is that he was rejected and ridiculed by family members.
Another case from the FBI study notes:
"One offender's early childhood fantasies indicated a fixation on
his internal organs. At age 5 (a critical age for gender identification), he
described the following event. He was sleeping between his mother and his aunt,
when the aunt had a severe hemorrhage, losing blood in the bed... where she
miscarried. We can speculate on how the experience of sleeping with two adult
females could stimulate feelings of intimacy and closeness, which were then
disrupted by a puzzling and violent scene. The visualization of the blood and
the miscarriage seems to have triggered a morbid curiosity about female sexual
organs...
"When he reaches adulthood, rage and aggression is noted where
there is a link to sexual frustration. He describes impulsively picking up a
large kitchen knife in his girlfriend's apartment just after she had been
"sexually teasing", thinking of stabbing her... This type of
penetration fantasy is noted in his offences, in which he mutilates his victims
by disembowelment". (RESSLER)
This extraordinary case suggests remarkable parallels both with Jack
the Ripper and possibly also with Aaron Kosminski. It is reminiscent of Aaron's
threatening to attack his sister with a knife.
Consider the following conjectural scenario: Aaron shares a bed with
one or both of his sisters when he is living in the Pale, and begins to develop
sexual fantasies involving his sisters. He witnesses his sisters' menstrual
bleeding - for example when Betsy would have been 12 years old in 1869, and
Aaron was only 4 or 5 - and as a result of this becomes obsessed with the
female sexual organs, imagining blood or violence to be associated with
sexuality. When he is about 16 he witnesses violence, murders, and rape during
the pogroms in 1881, possibly including the rape of members of his family. From
then on, he begins to develop angry thoughts and confused sexually violent
fantasies involving his older sisters, imagining himself in the role of
agressor. The root motivation for such anger and aggression may have also
involved the sisters' ridicule of his compulsive masturbation, which in his
mind signified their rejection of his sexual fantasies. Out of this confused
miasma of sexual frustration and rejection, Aaron enacts his violent fantasies
involving his sisters towards women in general.
Unsteady Employment
Data from the Ressler's BSU interviews indicates that only 20% of
offenders reported "steady employment"; the vast majority (69%) reported
"unsteady employment", and the remainder (11%) reported
"unemployment".
In his statement to Dr. Houchin, Jacob Cohen noted that Aaron had
"not attempted any kind of work for years". It is not clear how many
years Cohen meant: this could be interpreted as meaning 2 or 3 years, or more.
However, the implication of the statement is that Aaron had worked at some
time. He is listed in the asylum record as a hairdresser, so we are led to
believe that Aaron worked sporadically at least, but that he had not attempted
any work for some time.
Schizophrenia
It is probable that Aaron suffered from schizophrenia. His medical
certificate declares that "he is guided and his movements altogether
controlled by an instinct that informs his mind". In other words he experienced
aural hallucinations. An entry in Aaron's later case file at Leavesden Asylum
(2 Feb, 1916) recorded that "He has hallucinations of sight and hearing
and is at times very obstinate."
Notably, Aaron also believed that he was "ill, and his cure consists
in refusing food". "He refuses food because he is told to do so, and
eats out of the gutter for the same reason." This fragment of evidence has
been taken out of context and used by Ripperologists to characterize Aaron
Kosminski as an imbecile, and as a pathetic and harmless creature.
Interestingly however, this behavior is in some ways reminiscent of the bizarre
case of Richard Chase, the famous American serial killer, who believed in 1976
that he had soap-dish poisoning, the result of which was that "his blood
was turning to powder and that he thus needed blood from other creatures to
replenish it." He believed that if your soap was "gooey, you have the
poisoning, which turns your blood to powder." This became, in Chase's
mind, a justification or rationale for his killings. He also seemed to believe
that people were poisoning his food.
Both of these symptoms, aural hallucinations and distorted perceptions
are symptoms of schizophrenia. Numerous serial killers have been diagnosed as
paranoid schizophrenics, for example David Berkowitz, who claimed to be
receiving instructions from a neighbor's dog. Likewise, Ted Bundy spoke of a
"presence", a voice that told him to attack certain people. In
Bundy's case the voice seems to have been a sort of "inner dialogue",
and he is generally not believed to have been schizophrenic; but in any case,
Bundy's inner voices would be described as auditory hallucinations, much like
Aaron had.
Another interesting parallel can be found in the case study of a man
referred to, in Ressler, et al., as "Warren". After his incarceration
for "assault with intent to commit murder", Warren underwent a series
of psychological evaluations. He was found to be "uncooperative,
withdrawn, irritable, resentful and hostile," and although he had a tested
IQ of 115, he was described as "withdrawn, and pre-occupied, and at times
he seemed to be listening to some inner voice (as though he were experiencing
auditory hallucinations, which he denied". Compare this with Aaron's later
psychiatric evaluation: "Incoherent, at times excited and violent,"
... "apathetic as a rule". Aaron was not considered to be violent or
suicidal while at Colney Hatch asylum, but as far as I know, there has been no
study as to how killers will behave after being "caged".
According to its definition, "Schizophrenic disorders generally
begin in the late teenage years or early adulthood and tend to occur in
withdrawn, reclusive individuals. Symptoms include disturbances of thought,
both in form and content (see delusion), and disturbances of perception, most
commonly appearing as visual or aural hallucinations.” 14 According
to the medical documentation, Aaron's schizophrenia apparently began in his
early twenties.
As Erin Seigler has pointed out on the Casebook.org message boards:
"Not every schizophrenic talks to
himself and foams at the mouth. Some appear quite normal and manage to function
well in society. The thing to remember about paranoid schizophrenics ... is
that their IQs are typically above average and they become quite adept over the
years at hiding their delusional system from others." The words of Ted
Bundy, a schizophrenic, bear this out: "I wasn't a pervert in the sense
that people look at somebody and say, 'I know there's something wrong with him.'
I was a normal person. I had good friends. I led a normal life, except for this
one, small but very potent and destructive segment that I kept very secret and
close to myself." 15
Also, as Natalie Severn points on the same message boards:
"If Aaron Kosminski was (Jack the
Ripper), the first murders would have been committed most probably during some
psychotic reaction"... and the murder of Mary Kelly would have
precipitated [a complete mental] breakdown"; in such cases, schizophrenics
would be reduced to "mere shadows of their former selves, shuffling about,
pale and thin, eyes sunken and haunted looking. Above all there was no return
to their former selves apparently possible because the onslaught of the
psychosis had devastated them so completely. When they describe poor Aaron like
this-eating out of gutters and having outside powers (...) running his life for
him, it suggests to me that his illness had reached that point of no
return." 16
Paul Begg notes that the concept "that Aaron Kosminski was an
unwashed, drooling imbecile in 1888 is a very common misconception. This
description of Aaron Kosminski comes from 1892 and later and it need not
describe him in 1888. Psychiatrists have said that "sanity" is
maintained by killing and the killing is sometimes motivated by external
influences (hence the sometimes long gaps between murders). If the murderer is
prevented from killing for some reason, or if the motivation to do so is
removed, then they can mentally and physically degenerate at a dramatic speed.
Aaron Kosminski in 1888 needn't have been anything like he was in 1892 or
after." 17
Thus it should be remembered that Aaron's later mental and physical condition as noted in the medical record, is not necessarily indicative of what he was like in 1888.
An Alternate Interpretation of the Goulston
Street Graffito
After the Catherine Eddowes murder, the following graffito was found
written in chalk in a doorway on Goulston Street, just above a bloodied piece
of Eddowes apron:
The Juwes are
The men That
Will
not
be Blamed
for nothing.
The intended meaning of this sentence was the subject of much debate at
the time of the murders. Sir Charles Warren admitted that the message was
difficult to interpret, and speculated that its author was a foreigner.
"The idiom does not appear to be English, French, or German," he
wrote, "but it might possibly be that of an Irishman speaking a foreign
language. It seems to be the idiom of Spain or Italy." In other words,
Warren believed that the phrasing indicated the graffito was not written by a
native English speaker. The favored interpretation at Scotland Yard, by
Abberline and others, was that the graffito was a deliberate attempt by a
non-Jew to cast blame on the Jews for the murder: in other words to say, "The
Jews never accept blame for anything".
My initial instinct, however, is to interpret the graffito in quite the
opposite fashion: e.g. "(You) will not blame the Jews for anything".
This interpretation is perhaps typical of the way a serial killer's mind works
- both issuing an order, and at the same time asserting an almost God-like
sense of control over one's surroundings. It is, in a sense, reminiscent of the
notation on Aaron's medical certificate at Colney Hatch, stating that he claims
that "he knows the movements of all mankind".
But let us try to decipher the sentence itself.
The double negative form was in common slang usage during this period,
and thus the phrase should probably be interpreted as a single negative. For
example: "The Juwes are The men
That Will not be Blamed for anything."
The real confusion in the sentence however, is the use of the word
"will", which has a variety of meanings in the English language. For
example, "will" may be used to describe a characteristic of
something, as in "this car will do 100MPH". Read as such, the
graffito would mean something like "The Jews are never blamed for
anything". On the other hand, "will" may also be used in command
form, as in "you will speak to no one about this!" Read as such, the
graffito is an imperative command: "You had better not blame the Jews for
anything!"
Also, it is unclear what is meant by the word "nothing",
although this likely refers to the crime series itself (assuming the murderer
actually wrote the graffito). On the other hand, it may be interpreted to mean
"anything", as in "The Jews never accept blame for
anything," or, alternatively, "Don't blame the Jews for
anything".
Despite the ambiguity of this sentence, we may nevertheless begin to
formulate an interpretation of the Goulston Street graffito that is based upon
Aaron's earlier experiences in Poland. Anti-Semitism was on the rise in London
at the time of the Whitechapel murders, although it was not nearly as extreme
as the Russian anti-Semitism of Aaron's youth. The rise in anti-Semitism in
London was in large part a result of the murder series itself. It was widely
known that the police were looking for a Jewish suspect, and the
much-publicized apprehension of John Pizer just added more fuel to the fire.
The police were clearly worried about the possibility of riots and violence
against the Jews.
In justifying his decision to erase the graffiti before it could be
photographed, Sir Charles Warren wrote: "taking into consideration the
excited state of the population in London at the time, the strong feeling which
had been excited against the Jews... I considered it desirable to obliterate
the writing at once... If that writing had been left, there would have been an
onslaught upon the Jews, property would have been wrecked, and lives would
probably have been lost." This statement gives an indication that the
police were well aware of the animosity towards the Jewish population, which
was in a large part a direct result of the murders.
If the author of the graffito was a Jew who had recently emigrated from
Russia, he may have been reminded of the period that directly preceded the
outbreak of pogroms in 1881. It is important to consider that the subject of
the graffito is "blaming" the Jews. In Russia, the Jews were routinely
and unjustly blamed for all sorts of problems. They were wrongly scapegoated
for the assassination of the Tsar, and then they were later blamed for
instigating the pogroms themselves by their "innate views that nourished
the hostility of their neighbors". The general sentiment in Russia was
that the Jews deserved whatever happened to them, including violence, rape, and
even murder. The Russian Jews were constantly reminded that the violence of the
pogroms came about as a direct result of their own collective
"guilt".
It is also important to note that Aaron was in fact literate, as it is
noted in his record that he could both read and write. Later, during his
incarceration at Leavesden Asylum, he was said to be reduced to a shell of his
former self, often speaking only in German. It is possible however, that Aaron
in fact was speaking Yiddish, which is closely related to and easily confused
with German.
It is the perception of unjust treatment that may have first given rise
to negative, violent feelings Aaron felt towards society in general. He may
have perceived that the Jews were wrongly persecuted and scapegoated, and in
his mind he associated the violence of the pogroms with this scapegoating and
blaming of his people. Now once again, the Jews were being unjustly
scapegoated, this time for the murders. Understood in this context, the meaning
of the Goulston Street Graffito may be interpreted as: "You will not blame
the Jews for these murders!" It is almost a desperate, defiant plea, borne
out of fear that the pogrom-type attacks would re-occur in London.
In the end, it is impossible to infer the precise, intended
"meaning" of the Goulston Street graffito. But perhaps, the most
important thing to contemplate is that the graffito speaks of the Jews being blamed,
and that Aaron had experienced the widespread "blaming" of the Jews
in anti-Semitic Russian propaganda. Even if the meaning was indeed to cast
blame on the Jews, to say "The Jews never accept blame for their
ways", it may be possible that the Aaron had internalized a feeling of
self-worthlessness as a result of the anti-Semitic propaganda that was rife in
Russia in the 1870s and 1880s. As noted earlier, serial killers often fantasize
about the violent acts that they witnessed as children, later identifying with
the role of aggressor. Thus the murders could be seen as re-enactments of the
attacks witnessed during the pogroms, their motivation as being derived from a
sense of self-worthlessness, and a general hatred for all mankind, including
his own people.
Geographic Profiling
Now we shall look at the suspect Aaron Kosminski from the angle of
geographic profiling, which is one component of the methodology employed by
David Canter. Geographic profiling techniques include: circle theory, distance
to crime research, demographical analysis, environmental psychology, landscape
analysis, point pattern analysis, crime site residual analysis, and
psychological criminal profiling.
Circle Theory
Circle theory, which developed from environmental psychology, holds
that if all the crime scenes of an offender were placed within a circle, the
offender would be found to be living within that circle, possibly close to the
center. This theory was subsequently validated by a study of rapes.
Thus, we might start by drawing the smallest circle which contains the
5 most probable victims in the Whitechapel murders: Nichols, Chapman, Stride,
Eddowes, and Kelly. (See figure 1)
Using this simple method, the center of the circle is only about 1/8 mile from
the Abrahams' residence at Sion Square.
(NOTE: I have also included Martha Tabram in
the diagrams, as she was quite possibly a victim of Jack the Ripper, although
she is not considered to be one of the canonical victims. Also, for the sake of
argument I will assume Aaron's residence during the murders to be 3 Sion
Square, although in all fairness, it could be have been either 3 Sion Square or
16 Greenfield Street. Either way, it does not make much difference as the two
addresses are close to each other anyways.)
Figure 1
As noted by D. Kim Rossmo, a serial offender's residence would simply
lie at the center of a distribution of crime sites, if given ideal conditions.
In reality, geographic profiling is more complex than this, and crime scenes
are often found to be distributed in complex spatial patterns. Contributing to
the difficulties in this method are the psychological and physical boundaries
that, among other impedance factors, conspire to distort an already complex
analytical investigation. It should be noted, for example, that all the
Whitechapel murders, with the exception of the murder of Elizabeth Stride at
Berner Street, occurred north of Whitechapel High Street/ Whitechapel Road/
Aldgate High Street. It is possible that this major thoroughfare was a sort of
psychological boundary in the mind of the Ripper, although the relatively small
number of crime scenes makes this speculation mathematically less significant.
Canter describes two models of offender behavior known as the
"marauder" and "commuter" models, which are variations on
basic circle theory. The marauder model assumes that an offender will
"strike out" from his home base in the commission of his crimes,
whereas the commuter model assumes that an offender will travel some distance
from his home base before engaging in criminal activity. (See figure 2)
Figure 2
As Canter writes, crime occurs at a "spatial and time intersection
between both the offender and the victim". In the case of Jack the Ripper,
a sexual predator who targeted prostitutes, this means he had to go where the
prostitutes were: in other words, he had to go to Spitalfields proper.
By contrast, the Jewish areas south of Whitechapel Road were
comparatively quiet and respectable. In speaking of the largely Jewish
neighborhoods, Phillip Sugden says "the streets they overran became, by
and large, quiet, law-abiding, and clean,” but that "notwithstanding these
changes, crime and prostitution lingered amidst the poverty and squalor,
especially in parts of Spitalfields."
In "Whitechapel",
an article published in "The Palace Journal" in 1889, Arthur G.
Morrison describes walking around in the vicinity of Mansell St, Great Ailie
Street, and Leman Street, that is, the Jewish residential neighborhoods south
of Whitechapel High Street: "the houses are old, large, of the very
shabbiest-genteel aspect, and with a great appearance of being snobbishly
ashamed of the odd trades to which many of their rooms are devoted... Jewish
names - Isaacs, Levy, Israel, Jacobs, Rubinsky, Moses, Aaron - wherever names
appear, and frequent inscriptions in the homologous letters of Hebrew." He
continues, "We are tired, perhaps, of all this respectability. Petticoat
Lane is before us..." 17
In the same article, Morrison later mentions "White's Row, or
Dorset Street, with its hideous associations", and goes on to speak of
"dark, silent, uneasy shadows passing and crossing - human vermin in this
reeking sink", when describing Fashion Street, Flower and Dean Street,
Thrawl Street, and Wentworth Street. Clearly, Spitalfields was the center of
the high crime area, the area with the highest incidence of prostitutes, and we
may assume, as the police did in 1888, that this was the Ripper's primary
hunting ground.
By comparison, P.C. Smith noted when speaking of Berner Street:
"very few prostitutes were to be seen there". With the exception of
Stride, all the murder sites are north of the Whitechapel Road. This seems to
suggest that the Ripper's preferred hunting area did not generally include the
more respectable areas in the vicinity south of Whitechapel Road, including
Sion Square and thereabouts. We can guess that the Ripper would not have gone
searching for victims in the "comparatively respectable" Jewish areas
south of Whitechapel Road, especially as this was closer to his residence. He
would most likely have preferred to prowl in Spitalfields.
In certain cases, crimes will be more opportunistic in nature – this
concept is addressed in "Routine Activity Theory", which was
developed by Larry Cohen and Marcus Felson in 1979.
If an opportunity arises when the killer feels comfortable enough to kill with
minimum risk, we may find murder sites outside of a killer's normal activity
space, and evidence which suggests the murder was committed with little or no
planning. Stride's murder may be just such a case, and this fact could explain
the anomalies in that particular murder, such as the comparatively early hour
of the event. If Aaron was indeed the killer, then he was only about one
quarter-mile away from his residence, in a somewhat respectable area, inhabited
mostly by Poles and Germans.
Now let us examine the map again, assuming that Aaron was the killer,
and that his residence was 3 Sion Square. (See figure 3)
Figure 3
It is interesting to note that three of the murder sites are almost
exactly equidistant from Sion Square - Buck's Row (Polly Nichols), Hanbury
Street (Annie Chapman), and Dorset Street (Mary Kelly) - and that Mitre Square
(Kate Eddowes) is only about 1/4 mile further out. Also note that the Berner
Street site (Liz Stride) and the George Yard site (Martha Tabram) are almost
equidistant from the center of the circle.
Early Attacks
It has been suggested that it is likely the
Ripper committed early attacks on women that preceded the canonical murders in
the series. With this in mind, it is interesting to look at the murder of
Martha Tabram. The Tabram murder site at George Yard and the Stride murder site
at Dutfield’s Yard are quite nearly equidistant from Sion Square, and thus
represent the 2 sites closest to Aaron’s presumed address in 1888. (See figure
3 above.) This is significant with respect to Tabram, as the FBI report
postulated that "the first attack in a serial homicide was likely to occur
closest to the offender's home". This theory has never been proved empirically.
However, D. Kim Rossmo has shown that in 50% of serial murder cases, the first
murder occurs within a mile of the offender's home. It should be noted that
this result might more accurately reflect modern criminal profiling, as many
modern serial killers travel by car. In any case we may theorize that Aaron
Kosminski started out with a murder closer to his home, and only later began
traveling farther away from Sion Square.
According to the testimony of Ellen Holland, Polly Nichols was last
seen walking east along Whitechapel High Street at the intersection of Osborn
Street. Given Kosminski's probable residence at that time, this might be
thought of as "walking into the lion's den", so to speak. One might
imagine Kosminski met Nichols near Sion Square on Whitechapel High Street, and
then accompanied her to Buck's Row.
Likely Getaway Routes
Next we shall consider the probable getaway routes from Buck's Row and
from Mitre Square, as indicated on the map. The piece of apron found in
Goulston Street indicates the most likely getaway route from the Eddowes
murder, and has been generally interpreted as an indication of the direction to
the killer's residence. Likewise, it has been suggested that the Buck's Row
getaway route was to the south, and that the Woods Buildings alley is "a
very likely escape route through which Jack the Ripper fled after murdering
Mary Ann Nichols a few yards away in Buck's Row" 18. As shown
on the map, both of these proposed routes lead towards the center of the circle
- Sion Square. The route from Mitre Square avoids the busy intersection of
Aldgate High Street and Houndsditch; the escape from Buck's Row crosses
Whitechapel Road where one can become lost in the dark, maze-like streets
around London Hospital and New Road. (See figure 4 below)
Figure 4
On a final note in this section, I would like to add that although the
maps and techniques I have used above are not scientific, in a general way, by
looking at the maps, many incidental circumstantial bits of evidence "make
sense" using the model of Jack the Ripper residing at 3 Sion Square.
An Informant?
It is perhaps relevant to refer to Stephen Ryder's recent discovery of
a letter to Robert Anderson concerning a woman who said: "she has or
thinks she has a knowledge of the author of the Whitechapel murders. The author
is supposed to be nearly related to her, and she is in great fear lest any
suspicions should attach to her and place her and her family in peril." As
Ryder points out: "As this is the only letter within his entire surviving
correspondence having anything to do whatsoever with the Whitechapel murders,
one might assume that this item held particular significance for Mr.
Anderson". 19 We now know that Anderson claimed to have solved
the Ripper case, and that his suspect was the Polish Jewish hairdresser, later
identified by Swanson as "Kosminski". Is it possible, then, that
Anderson saved this letter because it was the initial tip that led to the
Ripper's capture? The female mentioned could have been one of Aaron's sisters. It
should also be noted that earlier Anderson had stated that "his people
knew of his guilt, and refused to give him up to justice" - this referring
probably to the results of the October 1888 house-to-house search. One can
imagine the sorts of domestic quarrels that might have ensued over this topic
amongst the Lubnowski and the Abrahams families if they did indeed suspect (or
even know) that Aaron was the Ripper. However, it is only fair to point out
that Stephen Ryder presents a rather well supported argument that the woman in
the letter was in fact not a relative of Aaron Kosminski's but instead a
relative of Montague Druitt's. At this time, the woman's identity remains a
mystery.
The Lubnowski Family Moves and Changes Its
Name"
After he was identified by a witness at the Convalescent Police Seaside
Home in Hove, Aaron was released into the care of his "brother", and
afterwards "was watched by police (City CID) by day and night". When
Aaron was re-admitted to the Mile End workhouse on February 4, 1891, his
residence was listed as 16 Greenfield Street, so we can assume the police
surveillance was conducted on Aaron while he was living at this address. By the
time of the April 1891 census, the Lubnowskis had moved from this address to 63
New Street, New Road. Thus, it seems that the Lubnowskis moved from Greenfield
Street soon after Aaron was re-admitted to the Workhouse. This would seem a
natural thing to do, considering that the police were watching their house. In
addition, the public hysteria and anti-Semitism surrounding the Whitechapel
murders would justify the fear that their family might be ostracized or worse.
This idea dovetails well with the female informant's statement that
"suspicions should attach to her, and place her and her family in peril."
On the other hand, what if the Lubnowskis had moved not after, but
shortly before Aaron's re-admission to the workhouse - i.e. while the house was
under surveillance. This may account for Sims statement of "a Polish Jew
of curious habits and strange disposition who was the sole occupant of certain
premises in Whitechapel after night-fall."
It is also interesting and perhaps relevant to note that the Lubnowskis apparently changed their name at this time, as they are listed in the 1891 census as "L. Cohen". By the 1901 census, their name is again listed as Lubnowski. Later, they changed their last name to "Lubnowski-Cohen". Did the Lubnowski family move and change its name because of a desire to become disassociated with Aaron and the public scrutiny attached with such a prominent suspect in the case?
Conclusions
It is difficult for a rational person to comprehend the motivations for
sexually motivated murder. Indeed, if we were to attempt to find a rational
motivation for the Whitechapel murders, we would almost certainly be barking up
the wrong tree. Instead, the underlying motivations for serial murder lie in a
swamp-like maze of desires, fear, confusion, and sometimes insanity. It has
been proposed that a characteristic of serial killers is an underdeveloped
super-ego, which is defined by Freud as "the faculty that seeks to police
what it deems unacceptable desires" - in other words, the part of the
brain which represents the "rules" of the external society, and which
keeps "normal" people from acting out violent and sexual desires
unchecked. In some cases, if a serial killer was raised in environment rife
with violence, he "learns" that violent behavior is acceptable. This
may have been the case for Aaron Kosminski, who witnessed broad societal
acceptance and approval of the violence perpetrated on a vast scale against the
Jews in Russia.
On a conscious level, Aaron may have felt the desire to get back at
society for the injustices that were committed against his community when he
was an adolescent and teenager. On a more subconscious level, he may have
identified with the people who assaulted, raped, and murdered Jews during the
pogroms. Later, he may have played out these attacks over and over in his mind,
in a sort of fantasy, with himself in the role of aggressor. Also, the Goulston
Street graffito can be interpreted as some sort of reference, subconscious or
otherwise, to the scapegoating of the Jews, which directly preceded the
outbreak of anti-Jewish violence in Aaron's early teenage years.
As there is very likely a sexual nature to the attacks, we can assume
that the killer had a deep hatred for women. We may speculate that the seed for
this hatred was planted when Aaron witnessed rapes or sexual assaults during
the pogroms of 1881. Various other explanations are possible, however,
including the possibility of sexual desire felt toward his older sisters, the
absence of a father figure, or a domineering mother. We do know that Aaron
threatened to attack one of his sisters with a knife. We must also remember
that Macnaghten said there "were many circs (circumstances)
connected" with Kosminski that "made him a strong suspect," and
also that "he had a great hatred of women, with strong homicidal
tendencies." There is no reason to suspect that Macnaghten was lying when
he said this, but as there is no further documentation to support these
statements, we must assume that some of the police files on Kosminski have been
lost. Ultimately, we are left in the dark as to the root cause of Kosminski's
supposed misogyny.
The blood libel myth was revived amidst an environment of increasing
racism, social unrest and chaos, and one may contemplate the effect that it
would have had on Aaron Kosminski, especially as he was just experiencing the
onset of sexual desires associated with puberty. It is possible that the
Aaron's memories of blood libel mythology later become intermingled with
visions of the attacks he witnessed in the pogroms, giving birth to an isolated
fantasy life dominated by an obsession with violence. These subconscious
memories were then realized in the Ripper's mature modus operandi and
signature. It is also possible that Aaron was conscious of repeating the
methods referred to in blood libel mythology - throat slitting, strangulation,
and piercing the torso (evisceration) - and that he was conscious of the ritual
nature of his attacks, a Jew avenging his people by attacking Christian women
of the "unfortunate" class.
In brief, many aspects of Aaron Kosminski's background and psychoses
seem to fit the profile of a sexual murderer, and of Jack the Ripper
specifically. In 1988, the hundredth anniversary of the crimes, John Douglas
and Roy Hazelwood presented the first criminal profile of Jack the Ripper on
the television documentary "The Secret Identity of Jack the Ripper".
They said that the Ripper was probably: a mentally disturbed white male from a
lower social class; in his mid to late 20s; raised by a dominant female figure
who consorted with different men (Golda was married at least twice); employed in
a menial job and had poor personal hygiene and appeared disheveled; had no
surgical expertise; lived in the locale of the murders; and did not commit
suicide after the murders stopped. This all fits Aaron closely. Other aspects
of the FBI profile of Jack the Ripper cannot be confirmed based on the facts
known about Aaron Kosminski - for example that the Ripper was a a quiet loner
who hated and feared women, who was abused as a child, possibly sexually, who
drank in pubs prior to the murders, and who set fires and abused animals as a
child. But there is nothing in the FBI profile of Jack the Ripper that
contradicts Aaron's known profile, or that rules him out as a suspect.
Finally, we must not forget that "Kosminski" was identified
by a witness. According to Sir Robert Anderson, the suspect was
"unhesitantly" identified by "the only person who ever had a
good view of the murderer." Interestingly, he also notes that the suspect
"knew he was identified". The identity of this witness is still a
subject of much heated debate amongst Ripperologists. It is clear that the
witness was a "fellow Jew", as this is the reason, according to both
Anderson and Swanson, that he refused to give evidence in court. In my opinion,
the witness was probably Joseph Lawende, the Jewish commercial traveler who
witnessed a man and a women talking at the entrance to Church Passage in Duke
Street just prior to the murder of Catherine Eddowes. The other most likely
candidate is Israel Schwartz, who witnessed a man attacking Liz Stride in
Berner Street, just before she was murdered some 10 feet away in Dutfield's
Yard. The only other possible Jewish witness is Joseph Levy, who was with
Lawende and also witnessed the same couple standing at Church Passage; but Levy
claimed to have not got a good look at the man, and said "I passed on,
taking no further notice of them". In the final analysis, the identity of
the witness is perhaps not relevant for the purpose of this article. The simple
fact is that the suspect “Kosminski” was identified by someone described as
"the only person who ever had a good view of the murderer."
At this point, it is
impossible to come to conclusions about many of the theories I have put forward
in this article. It is possible that further research will uncover facts about
Aaron Kosminski's past that support his candidacy as a suspect in the case.
Probably the most profitable line of research at this point would be trying to
locate specific documentation related to Aaron's childhood: what happened to
his father, information about his mother and other members of the family, and
where specifically the Kosminskis were living in Russia. For example, if it was
discovered that Aaron's father was killed during the pogroms, or that members
of the Kosminski family were attacked... any concrete information like this
would be a major breakthrough, and would go a long way to supporting the theory
that Aaron Kosminski is indeed the suspect most likely to have been Jack the
Ripper.
References
1. Kosminski and the Seaside Home, By Stewart
P Evans, http://casebook.org/dissertations/dst-koz.html
2. Paul Begg, Private email correspondence.
3. Casebook.org Message Board, Reconsidering Aaron Kosminski:
http://casebook.org/forum/messages/4922/11394.html
"Beyond the Pale: The History of Jews in Russia", http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/beyond-the-pale/index.html
4. Ritter, Leonora. "Nineteenth Century
Russia." Charles Sturt University-Mitchell. (1998)
5. Kniesmeyer J. and D. Brecher. "Beyond the Pale: The
History of Jews in Russia." Exhibit. (1995).
6. Kniesmeyer
7. Klier, John D. and Shlomo Lambroza, eds. Pogroms:
Anti-Jewish Violence in Modern Russian History. Cambridge: Cambridge
University, 1992.
8. Reverend W. C. Stiles, Account of Pogroms of 1902. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSpogroms.htm
9. Aronson, Michael. "The Anti-Jewish Pogroms in
Russia in 1881." Klier and Lambroza 44-61
10. Geographic Profiling by D. Kim Rossmo, CRC Press
(December 28, 1999).
11. The Blood Libel. http://pnews.org/bio/blood.shtml
12. Ressler, Robert, Burgess, Ann w., and Douglas, John E.
Sexual Homicide, Patterns and Motives, The Free Press, 1988.
13. Ted Bundy, interviewed by James C. Dobson, January 24,
1989.
14. Infoplease, encyclopedia entry on Schizophrenia, http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sci/A0843952.html
15. Erin Seigler, Casebook.org message boards.
15. Natalie Severn, Casebook.org message boards, Reconsidering
Aaron Kosminski,
http://casebook.org/forum/messages/4922/11394.html.
16. Paul Begg, Private email correspondence.
17. "Whitechapel", Arthur G. Morrison, From "The Palace
Journal" (April 24, 1889), http://www.casebook.org/victorian_london/whitechapel3.html
18. The Modern East End, by Johnno http://casebook.org/victorian_london/jpphotos.html
19. Emily and the Bibliophile: A Possible Source
for Macnaghten's Private Information
Stephen P Ryder, http://casebook.org/dissertations/dst-emily.html.
Other Sources
"The Pale of Settlement and the Pogroms of 1881 in Russia."
The Zionist Exposition: Homeward Bound. (1997): n. pag. Online. Internet. 29 Jan.
1999. Available http://www.factsofisrael.com/blog/archives/000418-print.html
"Kosminski's Relatives", by Scott Nelson.
http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/dst-kosrelatives.html
"Criminal Profiling", Wayne Petherick.
http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminology/criminalprofiling2/
The Complete History of Jack the Ripper, By Phillip Sugden, Carrol
and Graf, publishers, 2002.
"Using Functional distance Measures When Calibrating
Journey-to-Crime Distance Decay Algorithms", Joshua David Kent, BS.,
Louisiana State University, 2003.
http://etd02.lnx390.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-1103103-095701/unrestricted/THESIS.pdf
"People of the Abyss", Jack London 1903 http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/Writings/PeopleOfTheAbyss/
Special Thanks
Paul Begg and Chris George, D. Kim Rossmo, Stephen P.Ryder, Chris
Phillips, Robert Charles Linford, Chris Scott.