Jack the Ripper

Jack the Ripper is the pseudonym given to an unidentified serial killer (or killers) active in the largely impoverished Whitechapel area of London in the second half of 1888. The name is taken from a letter to the Central News Agency by someone claiming to be the murderer, published at the time of the killings. Although many theories have been advanced, Jack the Ripper's identity may never be determined.

Goulston Street graffiti

After the "double event" of the early morning of September 30, police searched the area near the crime scenes in an effort to locate a suspect, witnesses or evidence. At about 3:00 a.m., Constable Alfred Long discovered a bloodstained scrap of cloth near a tenement on Goulston Street. The cloth was later confirmed as part of Eddowes' apron.

Related Topics:
September 30 - Tenement

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There was graffiti in white chalk on the wall above where the apron was found. Long reported the message as "The Juwes are the men That Will not be Blamed for nothing." Other police officers recalled a slightly different message: "The Juwes are not The men That Will be Blamed for nothing."

Related Topics:
Graffiti - Chalk

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Police Superintendent Thomas Arnold visited the scene and saw the graffiti. He feared that with daybreak and the beginning of the day's business, the message would be widely seen and might worsen the general Anti-Semitic sentiments of the populace. Since the Nichols murder, rumors had been circulating in the East End that the killings were the work of a Jew dubbed "Leather Apron". Religious tensions were already high, and there had already been many near-riots. Arnold ordered the graffiti erased from the wall.

Related Topics:
Anti-Semitic - Jew

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While the graffiti was found in Metropolitan Police territory, the apron was from a victim killed in the City of London, which had a separate police force.

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Some officers disagreed with Arnold's order, especially those representing the City of London Police, who thought the graffiti was part of a crime scene and should at least be photographed before being erased, but Arnold's order was upheld by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Charles Warren. The graffiti was wiped from the wall at about 5:30 a.m.

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Most contemporary police concluded that the graffiti was a semi-literate attack on the area's Jewish population. Author Stephen Knight suggested that Juwes referred not to "Jews," but to Jubelo, Jebula and Jebulum, the three killers of Hiram Abiff, a semi-legendary figure in Freemasonry, and furthermore, that the message was written by the killer (or killers) as part of a Freemasonic plot. This idea has been rejected by most experts, and there is no evidence that anyone prior to Knight had ever referred to those three figures by the term "Juwes".

Related Topics:
Stephen Knight - Juwes - Hiram Abiff - Freemasonry

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Author Martin Fido notes that graffiti makes use of double negatives, a common feature of Cockney speech. He suggests that the graffiti might be translated into standard English as "The Jews are men who will not take responsibility for anything" and that the message was written by someone who believed he or she had been wronged by one of the many Jewish merchants or tradesmen in the area.

Related Topics:
Martin Fido - Double negative - Cockney - Translated - English

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