John Pizer
Undated self protrait of Pizer
Born	John Pizer c. 1850 Poland
Died	1897(1897-00-00) (aged 46–47) Whitechapel, London, England
Other names	John Piser
Occupation	Bootmaker
Known for	Suspect of Jack the Ripper

John Pizer or Piser (c.1850–7 July 1897) was a Polish Jew who worked as a bootmaker in Whitechapel.

Jack the Ripper and Whitechapel Murders

In the early days of the Whitechapel murders, many locals suspected that "Leather Apron" was the killer, which was picked up by the press, and Pizer was known as "Leather Apron". He had a prior conviction for a stabbing offence, and Police Sergeant William Thicke apparently believed that he had committed a string of minor assaults on prostitutes.^[1] After the murders of Mary Ann Nichols and Annie Chapman in late August and early September 1888 respectively, Thicke arrested Pizer on 10 September, even though the investigating inspector reported that "there is no evidence whatsoever against him".^[2] He was cleared of suspicion when it turned out that he had alibis for two of the murders. He was staying with relatives at the time of one of the murders, and he was talking with a police officer while watching a spectacular fire on the London Docks at the time of another.^[3] Pizer and Thicke had known each other for years,^[4] and Pizer implied that his arrest was based on animosity rather than evidence.^[1] Pizer successfully obtained monetary compensation from at least one newspaper that had named him as the murderer.^[5] Thicke himself was accused of being the Ripper by H. T. Haslewood of Tottenham in a letter to the Home Office dated 10 September 1889; the presumably malicious accusation was dismissed as without foundation.^[6]

References