The Complete Jack the Ripper A-Z by Paul Begg

Author:Paul Begg [Paul Begg, Martin Fido and Keith Skinner]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781784182793
Publisher: John Blake
Published: 2015-04-08T04:00:00+00:00

‘LEATHER APRON’ (fl. 1888)

Nickname of a man supposed to have been terrorising the local East End prostitutes. From police reports and newspaper accounts it would appear that the name was first mentioned following the murder of Mary Ann Nichols. Sgt. Thick soon associated it with a man named John Pizer who was in due course arrested, but released and exonerated when he was able to provide a cast-iron alibi. The name first appeared in the press in some American newspapers on 4 September 1888, in lurid reports which described him as ‘a character halfway between Dickens’ Quilp and Poe’s baboon. He is short, stunted and thick set. He has small, wicked black eyes and is half crazy’ (New York Times, 4 September 1888). In Britain, he was mentioned only by the Star, which merely reported, ‘With regard to the man who goes by the sobriquet of “Leather Apron”. he has not, it is stated, been seen in the neighbourhood much for the past few nights, but this may mean nothing, as the women street wanderers declare that he is known as well in certain quarters of the West End as he is in Whitechapel.’

The Star, almost alone of English newspapers, began developing the ‘Leather Apron’ story, providing some colourful descriptions of the man: he was short and thickset, aged between 38 and 40; he had black hair, a black moustache and an exceptionally thick neck. His eyes glinted, his smile was repulsive and he wore a close-fitting cap and a leather apron. He walked soundlessly, carried a sharp knife and frequently threatened, ‘I’ll rip you up!’ A Star reporter claimed to have interviewed 50 women in three hours, who all gave almost identical descriptions of him. He was supposed to be a specialist slipper maker, who had done no work for years; to live in common lodging-houses, a particular one being in Brick Lane; to have a pal called ‘Mickeldy Joe’, and to hang around in the shadows opposite the Princess Alice in Commercial Street.

A number of people also claimed to know ‘Leather Apron’, notably Timothy Donovan, who said he had a little while earlier kicked him out of Crossingham’s Lodging House for threatening a woman.

The dominant feature of the story was ‘Leather Apron’s’ Jewish appearance and considerable anti-Jewish feeling developed in the East End, especially after the murder of Annie Chapman and the finding of a leather apron (actually John Richardson’s) in the yard close to the body.

On 7 September, Inspector Helson (J Division) said in a report to Scotland Yard: ‘The inquiry has revealed the fact that a man named Jack Pizer, alias “Leather Apron”, has for some considerable period been in the habit of illusing [sic] prostitutes in this, and other parts of the Metropolis, and careful search has been and is continued to be made to find this man in question that his movements may be accounted for on the night in question, although at present there is no evidence whatever against him’ (MEPO 3/140 ff.235–8).

This was the first suggestion that the police knew ‘Leather Apron’s’ identity.

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