Book claims to solve mystery of Jack the Ripper

A couple of handwritten sentences in the margins of a book yesterday claimed to have solved Britain's greatest murder mystery: the identity of Jack the Ripper.

The notes, written more than 80 years ago by the detective leading the hunt for the Ripper, name a Polish barber called Aaron Kosminski as the chief suspect for the multiple murders.

The Metropolitan Police officer wrote that Kosminski was identified as the Ripper by a witness, but because the suspect was insane he could not be questioned.

The detective added that the witness refused to testify against Kosminski and speculated that this was because he was a fellow Jew and did not want him to hang.

But despite the strong views held by the officer, Chief Inspector Donald Swanson, who arguably had the best over-view of the murder investigation, Ripper specialists and historians have cast doubt on Kosminiski as a likely suspect.

The details of the Polish immigrant, who came to Britain in about 1882, are part of the vast industry that has built up around identifying the man dubbed "Jack the Ripper".

The multiple killer terrorised residents living in the Whitechapel area of east London during 1888 when at least five women prostitutes were murdered and their bodies mutilated.

Debate over who was responsible for the horrific crimes was reignited yesterday at the re-launch of the Metropolitan Police's crime museum, which is not open to the public.

One of the new exhibits is a book, called The Lighter Side of My Official Life, the memoirs of Dr Robert Anderson, who was Scotland Yard's assistant commissioner at the time of the Ripper investigation, handed down through the family of Mr Swanson.

Mr Swanson names Mr Kosminski in handwritten personal notes in that book, which are in the margins, across the bottom of the page and on blank pages inside the book. Mr Swanson's notes, which have been known about since the 1980s, provide some of best clues to the Ripper's identity.

Kosminski came to the attention of police after threatening his sister with a knife. Although he was soon identified as a possible suspect in the Ripper investigation, he was insane so detectives could not interview him.

Instead he was taken to the Metropolitan Police convalescent home in Brighton where he was put through an unofficial identity parade.

The only alleged witness to any of the Ripper murders picked him out. The witness, who may have been a man named Israel Schwartz, was said to have been Jewish, like Kosminski, and refused to testify against a fellow Jew.

Kosminski ended up in a workhouse in Stepney, east London, and then an asylum in Colney Hatch. He died in 1919.

Mr Swanson's notes read: "After 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 - DSS."

He continued: "Because the suspect was also a Jew, and also because his evidence would convict the suspect, and witness would be the means of murderer being hanged which he did not wish to be left on his mind."

Mr Swanson added: "And after this identification which suspect knew, no other murder of this kind took place in London."

As there is no surviving forensic evidence from the case, it is impossible for detectives to prove the identity of Jack The Ripper.

Asked if his great-grandfather would have been disappointed that the Ripper was never caught, Mr Swanson's great-grandson Nevill Swanson said yesterday: "My great-grandfather did believe he got his man, but he never nailed him.

"I think he would have thought he had done his detecting job very well and reached the proper conclusions."

But some Ripper scholars have downplayed the significance of Kosminski. They argue that his insanity took the form of auditory hallucinations, a paranoid fear of being fed by other people, and a refusal to wash or bathe. He was described as harmless in the asylum.

His inclusion in the list of suspects has been seen by some recent scholars as more the result of Anti-Semitism at the time of the murders than a genuine connection to the case.

Keith Skinner, a historical researcher who has written extensively about the Ripper case, concluded yesterday: "The Swanson marginalia produces as many questions as it does answers."

- INDEPENDENT