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Joseph Lawende (9 February 1847 – 9 January 1925) 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. Lawende lived at 45 Norfolk Road in Dalston and had commercial premises for the manufacture of cigarettes in St Mary Axe.〔'The Jack the Ripper A to Z' by Paul Begg, Martin Fido and Keith Skinner. Pub. by Headline Book Publishing Plc (1996)〕 ==Mitre Square== On the night of the murder of Catherine Eddowes in Mitre Square, Lawende and two companions, Joseph Hyam Levy, a butcher, and Henry Harris, a furniture dealer, left the Imperial Club in Duke's Place just after 1.30 a.m, the time having been checked by the club clock and by Lawende's pocket watch. About fifteen yards from the club, at the entrance to Church Passage, which led to Mitre Square, they saw a man and a woman talking quietly. The woman had her hand on the man's chest. Lawende would later identify the woman as Eddowes by her clothing when he was later shown her body at the mortuary. Lawende walked slightly apart from his two friends, and was the only one to take any notice of the man's appearance, having glanced at him briefly. He described the man as being of average build and looking rather like a sailor, wearing a pepper-and-salt-coloured loose-fitting jacket, a grey cloth cap with a matching peak, and a reddish neckerchief. Lawende said that the man was aged about 30, with a fair complexion and moustache, being about 5 ft 7-8 inches tall. He did not believe he would be able to identify the man again. ''The Times'' newspaper claimed that Lawende had said that the man was about 5 ft 9 inches and was of a shabby appearance. The Metropolitan Police clearly regarded Lawende as an important witness, because they kept him away from the press and, at the inquest into Eddowes' murder, City Solicitor Crawford said, "Unless the jury wish it, I have special reason for not giving details as to the appearance of this man" (i.e. the killer). The Coroner agreed and Lawende merely provided a description of the man's clothes. Major Henry Smith of the City Police, in whose area Eddowes had been killed, was impressed by the fact that Lawende was disinterested in the previous 'Ripper' murders, and would not be drawn with leading questions. Smith believed him to be a credible witness.〔A-Z, (1996) p.239〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Joseph Lawende」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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