Aaron Kosminski reconsidered

by Robert House

Link to original (by 2008 this link was no longer extant)

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 practice of consenting to Hate]. 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 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.” 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.”

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.

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.

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