Donald Swanson
Encyclopedia
Chief Inspector Donald Sutherland Swanson (1848 - 1924) was born in Thurso
in Scotland
, and was a senior police officer in the Metropolitan Police
in London
during the notorious Jack the Ripper
murders of 1888.
, Swanson was a good scholar and on leaving school he worked for a period as a teacher
, but realising that that career offered him few prospects, he decided instead to join the Police.
of the CID
in the Commissioner's Office
at Scotland Yard
. He was promoted to Superintendent
in 1896. Swanson was involved in preventing Fenian
terrorist attacks in London during the 1870s and 1880s. Other cases he was involved in include recovering the stolen jewels of Lady Dysart and a stolen Gainsborough
painting, as well as acting against 'rent boys', blackmail
ing homosexual prostitutes in 1897, and in preventing the Jameson Raid
from starting a war in South Africa
. He arrested Percy Lefroy Mapleton
, the railway murderer, in 1881. He retired in 1903.
Swanson died on 24 November 1924 at 3 Presburg Road, New Malden
, Surrey
. He was buried at Kingston Cemetery.
of the Metropolitan Police
and Chief of the Criminal Investigation Department
(CID), placed Swanson in overall charge of the investigation into the Whitechapel Murders
from 1 September to 6 October 1888. Swanson was freed from all other duties and given his own office at Scotland Yard from which to co-ordinate inquiries. He was given permission to see "every paper, every document, every report [and] every telegram" concerning the investigation. In this way Swanson gained a mass of knowledge and information about the killings.
) as the Polish
Jew that Anderson had hinted at in his book as being a suspect. Anderson wrote that the only person to get a close look at Jack the Ripper identified him "the moment he was confronted with him" but refused to testify. Swanson clarified this by writing -
While it is true that Kosminski lived with his brother in Whitechapel, and that he was an inmate at Colney Hatch
, he in fact did not die shortly after being transferred there, as Swanson states; in fact, Kosminski died in 1919, and therefore was still alive when Swanson wrote his annotations. Nor is it likely that an identified and homicidal criminal would have been simply and quietly released into his brother's care. Also, by stating that after Kosminski's identification as the Whitechapel Murderer "no other murder of this kind took place in London" Swanson overlooks the series of Ripper-like killings that took place after Kosminski's incarceration, including that of Frances Coles in February 1891, only six days after Kosminski had been admitted to Colney Hatch.
The identity of the Jewish witness is considerably doubtful. As far as is known, there were only two, Joseph Lawende
and Israel Schwartz
. Joseph Lawende saw a man and a woman together near Mitre Square, Aldgate, a few minutes before the fourth victim Catharine Eddowes was found there but told Swanson that he was doubtful if he would recognise the man if he saw him again. Israel Schwartz saw the third victim Elizabeth Stride
attacked at the place where fifteen minutes later her body was found. Stride's assailant - when he saw Schwartz approaching him and recognised him as a Jew - sent him on his way with the popular anti-Semitic taunt of those times "Lipski". Israel Lipski
was a Jewish murderer who had been hanged in 1887 and hostile Gentile
s had taken to insulting Jews by shouting his name at them. Stride's attacker was obviously an anti-Semitic Gentile and therefore not Kosminski.
"Kosminski" is also mentioned in Sir Melville Macnaghten's
Memoranda in a list of three individuals who were suspected of being the Ripper. Macnaghten, however, thought that Montague Druitt
was more likely to be the killer, and he did not mention anything about any alleged identification of Kosminski that was withdrawn by a witness. That was strange because Macnaghten was an Assistant Chief Constable in the Criminal Investigation Department
and Anderson was in charge of that department. Kosminski was sent to Colney Hatch Asylum, via the Mile End Old Town asylum, in February 1891, and we may suppose that the identification at the "seaside home" took place a little earlier, perhaps in January of that year. Macnaghten went to Scotland Yard
in 1889 and so would have been there when the identification took place. Quite obviously he was not told about it and, if Anderson was confident that Kosminski had been the Ripper, he would have thought that there was no reason for Macnaghten to compile his memoranda, speculating about the Ripper's identity. Of the three men suspected at the time of the murders, Magnaghten thought Druitt was the most likely but in 1972, two years before she died, she told her friend Michael Thornton that in nominating Druitt her father was "only following the official line. The truth could make the throne totter." Thornton reported this in the Sunday Express in 1992.
Thurso
-Facilities:Offices of the Highland Council are located in the town, as is the main campus of North Highland College, formerly Thurso College. This is one of several partner colleges which constitute the UHI Millennium Institute, and offers several certificate, diploma and degree courses from...
in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, and was a senior police officer in the Metropolitan Police
Metropolitan police
Metropolitan Police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
during the notorious Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper
"Jack the Ripper" is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer, that was disseminated in the...
murders of 1888.
Early life
The son of John Swanson, a brewerBrewing
Brewing is the production of beer through steeping a starch source in water and then fermenting with yeast. Brewing has taken place since around the 6th millennium BCE, and archeological evidence suggests that this technique was used in ancient Egypt...
, Swanson was a good scholar and on leaving school he worked for a period as a teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
, but realising that that career offered him few prospects, he decided instead to join the Police.
Police career
Swanson joined the Metropolitan Police on 27 April 1868, and was given the warrant number 50282. By November 1887 Swanson was Chief InspectorChief inspector
Chief inspector is a rank used in police forces which follow the British model. In countries outside Britain, it is sometimes referred to as chief inspector of police .-Australia:...
of the CID
Criminal Investigation Department
The Crime Investigation Department is the branch of all Territorial police forces within the British Police and many other Commonwealth police forces, to which plain clothes detectives belong. It is thus distinct from the Uniformed Branch and the Special Branch.The Metropolitan Police Service CID,...
in the Commissioner's Office
Police commissioner
Commissioner is a senior rank used in many police forces and may be rendered Police Commissioner or Commissioner of Police. In some organizations, the commissioner is a political appointee, and may or may not actually be a professional police officer. In these circumstances, there is often a...
at Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
. He was promoted to Superintendent
Superintendent (police)
Superintendent , often shortened to "super", is a rank in British police services and in most English-speaking Commonwealth nations. In many Commonwealth countries the full version is superintendent of police...
in 1896. Swanson was involved in preventing Fenian
Fenian
The Fenians , both the Fenian Brotherhood and Irish Republican Brotherhood , were fraternal organisations dedicated to the establishment of an independent Irish Republic in the 19th and early 20th century. The name "Fenians" was first applied by John O'Mahony to the members of the Irish republican...
terrorist attacks in London during the 1870s and 1880s. Other cases he was involved in include recovering the stolen jewels of Lady Dysart and a stolen Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough was an English portrait and landscape painter.-Suffolk:Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk. He was the youngest son of John Gainsborough, a weaver and maker of woolen goods. At the age of thirteen he impressed his father with his penciling skills so that he let...
painting, as well as acting against 'rent boys', blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
ing homosexual prostitutes in 1897, and in preventing the Jameson Raid
Jameson Raid
The Jameson Raid was a botched raid on Paul Kruger's Transvaal Republic carried out by a British colonial statesman Leander Starr Jameson and his Rhodesian and Bechuanaland policemen over the New Year weekend of 1895–96...
from starting a war in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. He arrested Percy Lefroy Mapleton
Percy Lefroy Mapleton
Percy Lefroy Mapleton , a journalist, was the British "railway murderer" of 1881...
, the railway murderer, in 1881. He retired in 1903.
Swanson died on 24 November 1924 at 3 Presburg Road, New Malden
New Malden
New Malden is a town and shopping centre in the south-western London suburbs, mostly within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and partly in the London Borough of Merton, and is situated from Charing Cross...
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
. He was buried at Kingston Cemetery.
Jack the Ripper
Dr. Robert Anderson, Assistant CommissionerAssistant Commissioner
Assistant commissioner is a rank used in many police forces across the globe. It is also a rank used in revenue administrations in many countries.-Australia:...
of the Metropolitan Police
Metropolitan police
Metropolitan Police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...
and Chief of the Criminal Investigation Department
Criminal Investigation Department
The Crime Investigation Department is the branch of all Territorial police forces within the British Police and many other Commonwealth police forces, to which plain clothes detectives belong. It is thus distinct from the Uniformed Branch and the Special Branch.The Metropolitan Police Service CID,...
(CID), placed Swanson in overall charge of the investigation into the Whitechapel Murders
The Whitechapel Murders (1888-91)
The Whitechapel murders were committed in or near the impoverished Whitechapel District in the East End of London between 3 April 1888 and 13 February 1891. Eleven women were killed; the crimes remain unsolved...
from 1 September to 6 October 1888. Swanson was freed from all other duties and given his own office at Scotland Yard from which to co-ordinate inquiries. He was given permission to see "every paper, every document, every report [and] every telegram" concerning the investigation. In this way Swanson gained a mass of knowledge and information about the killings.
The 'Swanson Marginalia'
Swanson was a close friend of Dr. Robert Anderson, the Assistant Commissioner of Police, and in his copy of Anderson's book of reminiscences, The Lighter Side of My Official Life, published in 1910, Swanson wrote pencilled notes, or annotations, which were disclosed by his descendant, James Swanson, in 1987. In these notes Swanson names a "Kosminski" (widely thought to be Aaron KosminskiAaron Kosminski
Aaron Kosminski was an insane Polish Jew who was a suspect in the Jack the Ripper murders. He emigrated to England from Poland in the 1880s and worked as a hairdresser in Whitechapel in the East End of London, where the murders were committed in 1888...
) as the Polish
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
Jew that Anderson had hinted at in his book as being a suspect. Anderson wrote that the only person to get a close look at Jack the Ripper identified him "the moment he was confronted with him" but refused to testify. Swanson clarified this by writing -
"...because the suspect was also a Jew and also because his evidence would convict the suspect, and witness would be the means of murderer being hanged which he did not wish to be left on his mind...And after this identification which suspect knew, no other murder of this kind took place in London...after the suspect had been identified at the Seaside Home where he had been sent by us with great difficulty in order to subject him to identification, and he knew he was identified. On suspect's return to his brother's house in Whitechapel he was watched by police (City CID) by day & night. In a very short time the suspect with his hands tied behind his back, he was sent to StepneyStepneyStepney is a district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in London's East End that grew out of a medieval village around St Dunstan's church and the 15th century ribbon development of Mile End Road...
WorkhouseWorkhouseIn England and Wales a workhouse, colloquially known as a spike, was a place where those unable to support themselves were offered accommodation and employment...
and then to Colney HatchColney Hatch Lunatic AsylumColney Hatch Lunatic Asylum was an early psychiatric hospital located in Colney Hatch in what is now the London Borough of Barnet. The hospital was in operation from 1851 to 1993....
and died shortly afterwards - Kosminski was the suspect - DSS"
While it is true that Kosminski lived with his brother in Whitechapel, and that he was an inmate at Colney Hatch
Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum
Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum was an early psychiatric hospital located in Colney Hatch in what is now the London Borough of Barnet. The hospital was in operation from 1851 to 1993....
, he in fact did not die shortly after being transferred there, as Swanson states; in fact, Kosminski died in 1919, and therefore was still alive when Swanson wrote his annotations. Nor is it likely that an identified and homicidal criminal would have been simply and quietly released into his brother's care. Also, by stating that after Kosminski's identification as the Whitechapel Murderer "no other murder of this kind took place in London" Swanson overlooks the series of Ripper-like killings that took place after Kosminski's incarceration, including that of Frances Coles in February 1891, only six days after Kosminski had been admitted to Colney Hatch.
The identity of the Jewish witness is considerably doubtful. As far as is known, there were only two, Joseph Lawende
Joseph Lawende
Joseph Lawende born in Warsaw, Poland, a cigarette salesman, is, with Israel Schwartz, among the most discussed of witnesses in the series of murders committed by the notorious Jack the Ripper in Whitechapel in London in 1888....
and Israel Schwartz
Israel Schwartz
Israel Schwartz was a Hungarian, apparently of Jewish descent, who in 1888 claimed to have witnessed an assault on a London woman that is believed to be tied to the Jack the Ripper slayings....
. Joseph Lawende saw a man and a woman together near Mitre Square, Aldgate, a few minutes before the fourth victim Catharine Eddowes was found there but told Swanson that he was doubtful if he would recognise the man if he saw him again. Israel Schwartz saw the third victim Elizabeth Stride
Elizabeth Stride
Elizabeth "Long Liz" Stride is believed to be the third victim of the notorious unidentified serial killer called Jack the Ripper, who killed and mutilated prostitutes in the Whitechapel area of London from late August to early November 1888.She was nicknamed "Long Liz"...
attacked at the place where fifteen minutes later her body was found. Stride's assailant - when he saw Schwartz approaching him and recognised him as a Jew - sent him on his way with the popular anti-Semitic taunt of those times "Lipski". Israel Lipski
Israel Lipski
Israel Lipski born Israel Lobulsk, was a convicted murderer of Polish-Jewish descent living in the East End of London. Lipski worked as an umbrella stick salesman, employing Harry Schmuss and Henry Rosenbloom...
was a Jewish murderer who had been hanged in 1887 and hostile Gentile
Gentile
The term Gentile refers to non-Israelite peoples or nations in English translations of the Bible....
s had taken to insulting Jews by shouting his name at them. Stride's attacker was obviously an anti-Semitic Gentile and therefore not Kosminski.
"Kosminski" is also mentioned in Sir Melville Macnaghten's
Melville MacNaghten
Sir Melville Leslie Macnaghten CB KPM was Assistant Commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police from 1903 to 1913....
Memoranda in a list of three individuals who were suspected of being the Ripper. Macnaghten, however, thought that Montague Druitt
Montague Druitt
Montague John Druitt was one of the suspects in the Jack the Ripper murders that took place in London between August and November 1888....
was more likely to be the killer, and he did not mention anything about any alleged identification of Kosminski that was withdrawn by a witness. That was strange because Macnaghten was an Assistant Chief Constable in the Criminal Investigation Department
Criminal Investigation Department
The Crime Investigation Department is the branch of all Territorial police forces within the British Police and many other Commonwealth police forces, to which plain clothes detectives belong. It is thus distinct from the Uniformed Branch and the Special Branch.The Metropolitan Police Service CID,...
and Anderson was in charge of that department. Kosminski was sent to Colney Hatch Asylum, via the Mile End Old Town asylum, in February 1891, and we may suppose that the identification at the "seaside home" took place a little earlier, perhaps in January of that year. Macnaghten went to Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
in 1889 and so would have been there when the identification took place. Quite obviously he was not told about it and, if Anderson was confident that Kosminski had been the Ripper, he would have thought that there was no reason for Macnaghten to compile his memoranda, speculating about the Ripper's identity. Of the three men suspected at the time of the murders, Magnaghten thought Druitt was the most likely but in 1972, two years before she died, she told her friend Michael Thornton that in nominating Druitt her father was "only following the official line. The truth could make the throne totter." Thornton reported this in the Sunday Express in 1992.
External references
- http://www.casebook.org/police_officials/po-swan.htmlSwanson on the Casebook: Jack the RipperCasebook: Jack the RipperCasebook: Jack the Ripper is a website devoted to the historical mystery of the Jack the Ripper murders of Whitechapel and the surrounding areas of London in 1888 and possibly other years. The site was started in January 1996 and features suspect, victim and witness overviews as well as more than...
website] - Swanson and Kosminski on the Metropolitan Police website
- Swanson in The National Archives
- Handwriting analysis of the Swanson Marginalia
- The Swanson Marginalia in 'The Times'
- The Swanson Marginalia in 'The Independent'