Editing Aaron Kosminski (section)

== Life ==
[[File:Housing, Friern Barnet Road, London N11 - geograph.org.uk - 901219.jpg|thumb|left|[[Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum]], North London. Kosminski was an inmate from 1891 to 1894.]]
Aaron Kosminski was born in [[Kłodawa]] in [[Congress Poland]], then part of the [[Russian Empire]]. His parents were Abram Józef Kozmiński, a tailor, and his wife Golda née Lubnowska.<ref name=house1>{{cite magazine|first=Robert|last=House|url=https://www.casebook.org/dissertations/rip-housekoz.html|title=The Kozminski File|magazine=Ripperologist|publisher=Mango Books|location=New York City|date=March 2006|access-date=21 March 2019|via=Casebook.org}}</ref> He may have been employed in a hospital as a hairdresser or orderly for a time.<ref>This is based on a statement by George R. Sims that a police suspect "had at one time been employed in a hospital in Poland" (in ''Lloyd's Weekly News'', 22 September 1907; see [https://www.casebook.org/images/sims922.gif copy at Casebook]).</ref> Kosminski emigrated from Poland to England, arriving in or around 1881.<ref>The record of his burial in March 1919 stated that he had been in England for 37 years (Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Facts'', p. 506, note 52 (2006)).</ref> He probably accompanied his brother Woolf and his sister Matilda and brother-in-law Morris Lubnowski, who arrived in London in June 1881 (Woolf having married at Klodawa in May 1881, and the Lubnowskis having lived in Germany in the late 1870s).<ref>House, p. 33. The arrival of both Woolf and Morris in June is recorded in their later applications for naturalisation. Note that Aaron's brothers adopted the surname Abrahams in England, and because Woolf's wife Betsy was also a Kozminski it was wrongly assumed by earlier researchers that she was Aaron's brother and Woolf was Aaron's brother-in-law.</ref> Woolf and Aaron may have left Poland as a result of the April 1881 pogroms following the assassination of Tsar Alexander II, the impetus for many other Jews to emigrate. His mother, who was listed as a widow, apparently did not emigrate with the family immediately, but had joined them by 1894.<ref>House, p. 195.</ref> His father died in 1874.<ref>House, pp. 32, 33.</ref>

In London, the family settled in [[Whitechapel]], an impoverished slum in London's East End that had become home to many Jewish refugees who were fleeing economic hardship in Eastern Europe and pogroms in Tsarist Russia.<ref name=house1/> English records describe him as a hairdresser, but he may have worked only sporadically: it was reported that he had "not attempted any kind of work for years" by 1891. He presumably relied on his siblings for financial support, and is known to have lived with his brother Woolf at 3 Sion Square in 1890 and his sister Matilda at 16 Greenfield Street in 1891, indicating that his siblings possibly shared responsibility for caring for him and he alternated living between their family homes.<ref name=casebook>{{cite web|first=Robert|last=House|url=http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/robhouse-kosminski.html|title=Casebook: Jack the Ripper – Aaron Kosminski Reconsidered|website=casebook.org|access-date=30 July 2018}}</ref>

On 14 December 1889 Aaron was fined 10 shillings at the City of London Summons Court for having a dog unmuzzled in Cheapside. He was also accused of having given the police a false name and address. Apparently he had given his name as Abrahams rather than Kosminski, and in court he explained that "I goes by the name of Abrahams sometimes, because Kosmunski [sic] is hard to spell", and called his brother as a witness to confirm this. According to one report, he refused to pay the fine on Saturday because it was the Sabbath, and was given until Monday to pay.<ref>''Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper'', 15 December 1889; ''Times'', 16 December 1889; ''City Press'', 18 December 1889.</ref>

On 12 July 1890, Kosminski was placed in [[Mile End]] Old Town [[workhouse]] due to his worsening mental illness, with his brother Woolf certifying the entry, and was released three days later. On 4 February 1891, he was returned to the workhouse, possibly by the police, and on 7 February, he was transferred to [[Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum]]. A witness to the certification of his entry, recorded as Jacob Cohen, gave some basic background information and stated that Kosminski had threatened his sister with a knife. It is unclear whether this meant Kosminski's sister or Cohen's.<ref name="casebook"/> Kosminski remained at the Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum for the next three years until he was admitted on 19 April 1894 to [[Leavesden Hospital|Leavesden Asylum]].<ref>Colney Hatch Register of Admissions, quoted in Begg, pp. 269–270</ref><ref name=lekh/> Case notes indicate that Kosminski had been ill since at least 1885. His insanity took the form of auditory hallucinations, a paranoid fear of being fed by other people that drove him to pick up and eat food dropped as litter, and a refusal to wash or bathe.<ref>Asylum case notes quoted by Begg, p. 270; Fido, p. 216 and Rumbelow, p. 180</ref> The cause of his insanity was recorded as "self-abuse", which is thought to be a euphemism for masturbation.<ref name=lekh>{{cite journal|vauthors=Lekh SK, Langa A, Begg P, Puri BK |title=The case of Aaron Kosminski: was he Jack the Ripper?|journal=Psychiatric Bulletin|volume=16|date=1992|issue=12|pages=786–788 |doi=10.1192/pb.16.12.786|doi-access=free}}</ref> His poor diet seems to have kept him in an emaciated state for years; his low weight was recorded in the asylum case notes.<ref name=lekh/> By February 1919, he weighed just {{convert|96|lb|kg}}. He died the following month, aged 53.<ref name=lekh/>