Israel Lipski (born Israel Lobulsk; 1865 – 22 August 1887) was a convicted murderer of

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

descent living in the East End of

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Lipski worked as an umbrella stick salesman, employing Harry Schmuss and Henry Rosenbloom. The series of events leading up to his execution began on 28 June 1887 when police were summoned to 16 Batty Street; a young woman, Miriam Angel, had been murdered after being forced to consume

nitric acid Nitric acid is an inorganic compound with the formula . It is a highly corrosive mineral acid. The compound is colorless, but samples tend to acquire a yellow cast over time due to decomposition into nitrogen oxide, oxides of nitrogen. Most com ...

. She was 6 months pregnant at the time. The

coroner A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into the manner or cause of death. The official may also investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within th ...

at her inquest was

Wynne Edwin Baxter Wynne Edwin Baxter FRMS FGS (1 May 1844 – 1 October 1920) was an English lawyer, translator, antiquarian and botanist, but is best known as the coroner who conducted the inquests on most of the victims of the Whitechapel Murders of 1888 to ...

. Lipski was found underneath her bed, with acid burns inside his own mouth, and was subsequently arrested. Lipski protested his innocence, claiming that Schmuss and Rosenbloom were responsible, but he was charged with murder. The ensuing trial created a storm of controversy, with suggestions that the trial was tarnished by institutional

anti-Semitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, more commonly known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom and the head of the Home Office. The position is a Great Office of State, maki ...

Henry Matthews was personally opposed to

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...

, but remained impartial in Lipski's case. In the event, the jury took only eight minutes to find Lipski guilty and he was sentenced to hang. The verdict, however, aroused immediate controversy and a press campaign to reprieve Lipski was orchestrated by

William Thomas Stead William Thomas Stead (5 July 184915 April 1912) was an English newspaper editor who, as a pioneer of investigative journalism, became a controversial figure of the Victorian era. Stead published a series of hugely influential campaigns whilst e ...

, editor of the ''

Pall Mall Gazette ''The Pall Mall Gazette'' was an evening newspaper founded in London on 7 February 1865 by George Murray Smith; its first editor was Frederick Greenwood. In 1921, '' The Globe'' merged into ''The Pall Mall Gazette'', which itself was absorbed i ...

''. Even

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

was said to be troubled by the prospect of Lipski being executed solely on the evidence that had been presented to the court. As a result of this mounting public disquiet, the execution was postponed for one week while Matthews and the trial judge,

James Fitzjames Stephen Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, 1st Baronet, Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India, KCSI (3 March 1829 – 11 March 1894) was an English lawyer, judge, writer, and philosopher. One of the most famous critics of John Stuart Mill, S ...

, met to consider a reprieve. While they were meeting, however, Lipski allegedly broke down and made a full confession to the East End rabbi and community spokesman Simeon Singer, claiming that his motive had been robbery and not, as had been claimed by the prosecution, rape. He was hanged the following day, 22 August 1887, in the yard of

Newgate Prison Newgate Prison was a prison at the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey, just inside the City of London, England, originally at the site of Newgate, a gate in the Roman London Wall. Built in the 12th century and demolished in 1904, the pr ...

Connection to the Jack the Ripper case

Israel Schwartz Israel Schwartz was a man who claimed to have witnessed an assault on a London woman on 30 September 1888. Schwartz identified the victim as Elizabeth Stride, the assumed third victim tied to the Whitechapel murders who was found dead in the same ...

, a man of "Jewish appearance", reported witnessing a woman being assaulted on Berner Street in the early morning of 30 September 1888. When the unknown man shouted out "Lipski!" to either Schwartz or another man, Schwartz fled. He later identified the woman as

Elizabeth Stride Elizabeth "Long Liz" Stride ( Gustafsdotter; 27 November 1843 – 30 September 1888) is believed to have been the third victim of the unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, who killed and mutilated at least five women in the Whit ...

, who is thought to have been murdered by

Jack the Ripper Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer who was active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer was also ...

around that time or shortly after. Police originally investigated whether there was someone in the neighbourhood by the name of Lipski. The murder of Miriam Angel had happened the year before only one street away on the same block. Police eventually decided that the term was being used as an ethnic slur against Jews, although several individuals with the surname Lipski resided in this area.''The Jewish East End 1840-1939'' p. 113

References

External links

Lipski trial testimony
– witness testimony from the Old Bailey trial {{DEFAULTSORT:Lipski, Israel 1865 births 1887 deaths 19th-century executions by England and Wales British people executed for murder English people convicted of murder People convicted of murder by England and Wales English people of Polish-Jewish descent English Jews Executed English people

Connection to the Jack the Ripper case

Further reading

References

External links