Police 4 - Goulston Street Graffitto - Video
Hello, I’m Richard Walker. Here is the fourth of my posts looking at the history, background, and role of the police in investigating the Jack the Ripper murders of 1888.
The Daily Telegraph on the 12th of October - 12 days after the murder - reported that City of London Police Detective Daniel Halse reported the message as: ‘The Juwes are not the men who will be blamed for nothing.’ The ‘not’ was in a different place.
In fact, there were three different versions:
‘The Juews are the men that will not be blamed for nothing’ - PC Long.
‘The Juwes are the men that will not be blamed for nothing’ - Chief Inspector Swanson
‘The Juwes are not the men that will be blamed for nothing’ - DC Halse.
City of London Police detectives heard about the find, and because the piece of cloth appeared to be cut from the apron of the victim who had just been murdered in the City of London Police district, some of their detectives went to check out the message.
Daniel Halse decided the message was important enough to alert his boss. It was decided that a photographer should be found so a permanent record could be made of the message. Daniel Halse then remained next to the message to ensure that nobody could remove it.
Sir Charles Warren and the chalk message.
However, before the message could be photographed, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Charles Warren, arrived, and under his orders (and some say by his own hand), the message was removed. Sir Charles Warren claimed that the message had to be removed because it could set off an antisemitic riot.
Was Jack the Ripper a Freemason?
Now, it was pointed out that this chalk message could have been an important clue in a murder case. The message could have been hidden and placed under police guard until the photographer arrived. The fact that Sir Charles Warren ignored this and had it removed so quickly has led to a theory that involves the Freemasons.
Sir Charles Warren was a high-ranking Freemason, and some believed that he had it removed because he saw that a fellow Freemason had written the message.
The clue, it is claimed, is in that odd spelling of the word Jews - Juews. It is said that that is the way the word Jews is spelt in Masonic history.
Hiram Abiff - First Grand Master
Masonic history is very old. It goes back 3,000 years to the first Grand Master, Hiram Abiff.
Hiram Abiff, it is claimed, designed and oversaw the building of King Solomon’s great temple in Jerusalem. Three men murdered him. They were captured, and the story goes that their chests were ripped open and their insides pulled out and placed over their shoulders.
A disembowelling which is similar to that performed on Jack the Ripper’s victims. Especially in the case of the second victim, Annie Chapman, and the fourth victim, Kate Eddowes.
And, of course, Kate Eddowes was murdered in Mitre Square. ‘Mitre’ and ‘Square’ are two important shapes in the Masonic ritual. And she had two upside-down ‘V’ shapes cut beneath each of her eyes. That shape is the shape of an important instrument in Masonic lore: the compass.
They All Love Jack by Bruce Robinson
For those who want to learn more about this theory of conspiracy in high places and the Freemason connection to the murders, then the book to read is They All Love Jack by Bruce Robinson.
Bruce Robinson, the director of the film Withnail and I, spent 15 years in dedicated research to produce the book described by The Guardian as ‘a bloody good read’. It is fascinating. It is also long, over 800 pages!