2
1
4
1
2
3
4
32
PART ONE — EUROPE.
When Miriam Angel (unknown–1887) failed to turn up at her mother-in-law’s on 28 June 1887, Mrs Angel went to fetch her from the crowded lodging house on Batty Street where she lived. Here she found Miriam, six months pregnant, lying dead on her bed with traces of nitric acid on her lips. As the police searched for the poison bottle, they discovered a man under the bed, semi-conscious, and with the same telltale signs of nitric acid – burns and yellow stains – around his lips. A locked room with one dead and one semi-conscious, it was a genuine mystery and only the man, a 21-year-old umbrella maker named Israel Lipski (1865–87), could solve it.
When he recovered, he told the police that his two employees had attacked him during an attempted robbery. They had killed Miriam then tried to take his life, too, to cover their tracks.
The story was sensational and all too fantastical for the police and the Old Bailey jury that Lipski faced on 25 July. They preferred to believe that he had killed Miriam following a frustrated rape attempt.
Lipski, a Jewish immigrant in London seeking a new life away from the horrors of forced service in the Imperial Russian Army, was badly let down by English ‘justice’. A poor defence barrister coupled with what seems like fabricated police evidence resulted in his conviction. Sentenced to death, his young life was about to be brought to an end until William Stead (1849–1912) of The Pall Mall Gazette began a vociferous press campaign to save him.
In the end, to Stead’s annoyance, Lipski confessed. There is still considerable doubt as to whether he simply did so to avoid the life sentence that his rabbi told him was the likely result of a commuted sentence. Having fled forced labour and persecution in Russia, Lipski could not face exchanging that for a loss of freedom in England. He chose to die instead and was hanged at Newgate Prison on 22 August. •
16 batty street, whitechapel.
une .
englandlondon.
ISRAEL LIPSKI.× Miriam Angel.
weapon. nitric acid.
typology. domestic.
policing. toxicology.
Below. israel lipski’s clothes, the bottle that contained the nitric acid used to kill miriam angel
and the lock from her door.
16 BATTY STREET.
the boarding house where miriam angel
was murdered.
96 BACKCHURCH LANE.
the shop where charles moore claimed to have sold israel lipski
nitric acid.
COMMERCIAL STREET.
the street where a doctor’s cab
was hailed.
LEMAN STREET POLICE STATION.
the police station where israel lipski was taken
by the police.
1
45
3
2
1
2
3
4
5
33
ENGLAND — LONDON.
Unfortunately for Joseph Rumbold (1865–88), he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and it cost him his life. He was walking out with his sweetheart Elizabeth ‘Lizzie’ Lee (dates unknown) in Regent’s Park in May 1888. The couple were ‘double dating’ with her sister Emily (dates unknown) and her young man, Alonzo Byrnes (dates unknown). The four were loosely connected to a local youth gang, the ‘Lisson Grove Lads’. Like several other big cities in the 1880s, London had a well-publicized ‘gang’ problem. These gangs (usually termed ‘roughs’ in the media, then later ‘hooligans’) laid claims to territory, dressed in a distinctive group style and sometimes armed themselves with weapons and studded leather belts. Anti-social behaviour, petty crime and violence were commonplace, but deaths were rare.
The previous evening two members of a rival gang (known as the ‘Tottenham Court Road Lads’) were attacked near Madame Tussauds. Beaten and bloodied, but mostly affronted, they demanded immediate revenge. In the late evening of 24 May,
several lads chased Rumbold out of the park to York Gate, where he was stabbed to death.
The Old Bailey dock was packed as ten young men faced trial for the killing. They were a mixture of working-class youths, but none fitted the media depiction of them as unemployed wastrels. In the end, only one was convicted: George ‘Garry’ Galletly (1871–unknown). Galletly had publicly boasted that he would ‘do for them’, borrowing a knife from another boy as they gathered to settle their score with their rivals. As the youngest member of the gang, he may have felt obliged to prove his mettle. His death sentence was eventually commuted to life imprisonment on account of his age. •
Below. the penny illustrated paper, 2 june 1888. george galletly in the dock at the old bailey with
his fellow gang members.
regent’s park, marylebone.
May .
englandlondon.
GEORGE GALLETLY.× Joseph Rumbold.
weapon.knife.
typology.gang.
policing.n/a.
BRIDPORT STREET.
the street where
joseph rumbold lived.
MARYLEBONE LANE.
the lane where joseph rumbold and alonzo
byrnes worked.
BARRETT’S COURT.
the court where lizzie
and emily lee lived.
CORNWALL TERRACE.
the road where the gang attacked
joseph rumbold.
YORK GATE.
the place where joseph rumbold
collapsed.
34
PART ONE — EUROPE.
In 1888, London was shocked by a series of brutal murders that left the police baffled and East Enders terrified. No one was ever successfully caught and convicted of the so-called ‘Whitechapel Murders’, allowing historians and amateur sleuths to speculate on the true identity of the killer known as ‘Jack the Ripper’ ever since.
Most researchers agree that ‘Jack’ killed five women between August and November 1888. Others argue that there could be as many as eight or nine murders committed by the same killer. What is not in dispute is the brutality of these killings, which were out of the ordinary and well beyond the usual domestic homicides that blighted
life in this desperately poor community. All the murders took place in a geographically small area: Whitechapel and