The Murder of Miriam Angel and the Trial of Israel Lipski (1887)

Background

The summer of 1887 was hot and dry, and it wouldn’t take much to spark the tinderbox of anger that simmered beneath the surface in London’s East End. The following year would bring the series of vicious murders and mutilations committed by the terrifying, faceless serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, but for now, the more common kinds of violence and everyday poverty were uppermost in the minds of East Enders. It was soon to be the 50^th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s ascension to the throne, and while wealthier Londoners looked forward to the jubilee celebrations, it was of much less interest to those living in Whitechapel and Spitalfields, for whom jobs were more important than pageantry. Later that year, there would be riots in Trafalgar Square prompted by unemployment and other political tensions, on a day which became known as Bloody Sunday. London, even then, was a melting pot of ethnicities and cultures, and tens of thousands of Jews had come to London to escape persecution in Eastern Europe. Although many set up successful businesses, working as butchers, boot finishers, tailors, cigar makers and myriad other trades, the influx led to overcrowding and a worsening of the already unsanitary conditions. They often found themselves victims of anti-Jewish sentiment, and there was a sense of restlessness, with the constant bubbling threat of clashes between rich and poor, employed and unemployed, and different ethnic groups. It was against this backdrop that the senseless murder of Miriam Angel took place; a pregnant woman living in poverty who was described as always having a smile on her face, with a clean and tidy appearance despite her penurious state.

Israel Lobulsk’s Early Life

Israel Lobulsk was born in Warsaw in 1865 in the Russian controlled Kingdom of Poland. He had two brothers and three sisters and was an excellent swimmer, on two occasions saving a child from drowning when they got into trouble in the water. His father managed a distillery, but by the time Israel was 15, the business had failed, and the family was struggling financially. Israel was apprenticed to a walking stick maker, but when Tsar Alexander II was assassinated in 1881, anti-Jewish violence spread across the Russian Empire. The assassin was not Jewish, but Jews were often blamed for revolutions nonetheless, and thousands fled to London due to the hostility. Israel was among them.

Arrival in London

The tall, slightly built young man left home aged 18 or 19, while his parents remained in their native Warsaw. It may not only have been antisemitism from which the young walking stick maker was escaping, but the threat of military service, which was mandatory for all males living under Russian rule. Israel didn’t have a passport, and if he had requested one from the authorities, they would have detained him on suspicion of trying to avoid military service, so instead, he hid among some sacks of flour in a miller’s horse and cart, made his way to Hamburg and found work on a cattle ship bound for England.

One author describes Israel Lobulsk as dark, reserved, melancholic, and lacking self-assurance, while his solicitor said he was hard-working, quiet, and honest. He didn’t speak English but picked up a few words once he arrived in London in 1884 and secured a job with an umbrella maker in Commercial Street named Mark Katz. The Old Bailey court record named the man as Mr Macartz, but other sources confirm this was likely a mistake, so I’ll refer to him as Mark Katz. The wages were low, and Israel worked hard making sticks for the umbrellas and cutting cloth, while female workers sewed the fabric. At this time, Israel lodged with two Polish immigrants named Philip and Leah Lipski in their lodging house at Batty Gardens. It may have been his friendship with them that inspired him to adopt the surname Lipski himself, perhaps abandoning the name Lobulsk because the British found it difficult to pronounce.

Batty Street Lodgings

In May 1887, Philip and Leah Lipski moved to another lodging house at nearby 16 Batty Street in what was then known as the Parish of St George in the East but is today the London borough of Tower Hamlets. Batty Street was, and still is, a small side street just off the Commercial Street thoroughfare. Israel was a good lodger, and his landlord described him as ‘well behaved, steady, and honest’, so they were happy for him to move along with them.

Landlord Philip Lipski, who worked as a tailor, lived with his wife Leah and their children on the ground floor of 16 Batty Street. On the floor above, the back room was shared by Leah’s mother, Rachel Rubenstein, and a woman named Mrs Levy, while the front room was rented by Polish immigrant Isaac Angel and his wife Miriam, who was six months pregnant. The Angels had been in England for 10 months, and Isaac worked in George Street, Spitalfields, as a boot riveter. Israel Lipski lodged in a furnished attic room at the top of the house and paid 2s a week rent.

Engagement and Financial Difficulties

By now, Israel was engaged to Kate Lyons, the sister-in-law of his employer Mark Katz, and he had learnt a little more English. Kate’s mother encouraged him to go into business himself, as the umbrella trade had dropped off recently due to the dry weather. In late June 1887, Israel struck out on his own as a walking stick maker and installed workbenches and a vice in his rented room, transforming it into a makeshift workshop. As he was now using the premises for business, his rent increased from 2s to 5s a week. He hired two of his co-workers from Katz’s factory, Jewish man Simon Rosenbloom, and a 14-year-old English boy named Richard Pitman, and promised them a good wage, but the business was not successful. Despite his financial challenges, there’s no evidence that Israel Lipski resorted to theft, and he was considered to be quiet, well conducted, and respectable. 1920s crime writer Guy Logan said, ‘At times he was unhappy. He had no one he cared to talk to or confide in, and the rather questionable amusements in which other young men of his age indulged were not for him.’

On Monday 27 June 1887, Israel Lipski visited his fiancée Kate and asked to borrow some money. She pawned a hairbrush and ring to raise 25s and Israel promised he would pay her back by the weekend.

The Morning of the Murder

The following day, Tuesday 28 June, began as usual in the Batty Street household. Lodger Isaac Angel left for work at 6:15 a.m. and shut the door behind him, leaving his wife Miriam asleep in bed. Around this time, Israel Lipski was out in the backyard, looking for a piece of gas pipe to use in his manufacturing process. Landlord Philip Lipski greeted him, then used the lavatory in the yard before going to work himself. Israel went back upstairs to his room-cum-workshop, and shortly afterwards, his new employees, Simon Rosenbloom and Richard Pitman arrived. As they would all be working together, they needed an extra vice and a varnishing sponge, so Israel went out to a local shop in Back Church Lane. Just as he was leaving, a Russian Jew named Isaac Schmuss knocked on the door to ask if Israel had any work for him. Israel told him to go upstairs to his room and wait, and Schmuss did so. But when Israel failed to return after 15 minutes, Schmuss left, assuming the walking stick maker had no work for him after all.

While Israel was out buying tools, he stopped at an oil shop 200 yards from Batty Street, and bought a pennyworth of nitric acid, then known as aqua fortis. Israel explained it was for staining walking sticks, and the shopkeeper warned him the substance was poisonous.

When Israel returned to his lodgings, he asked the landlady Leah for some coffee and the loan of 5s to pay for some items for his workshop. She refused to lend him any money, suggesting that he ask his girlfriend or her mother instead.

‘I am ashamed to go to her,’ he replied. ‘She gave me 25s only yesterday.’ It’s possible, but has never been proven, that Leah mentioned to Israel at this point that the Angels had been struggling lately too, and Mrs Levy had lent Miriam Angel 5s that week for the rent money.

Israel went upstairs, and Leah went out to fetch hot water for the coffee from Back Church Lane. Many houses in the East End had no kitchen or heating facilities, so local business owners invested in vats of hot water which people living in shared lodgings or slum tenements could visit and pay a small fee to fill a cup or two. This was more economical for many than sourcing and storing coal or wood to heat water themselves at home, and reduced fire hazards in densely populated, poorly ventilated lodgings.

Leah returned with the hot water and prepared the drink, then called up the stairs, ‘Come down and have your coffee.’ There was no answer, but the boy Richard Pitman answered, ‘He ain’t here.’ Leah left the coffee downstairs and went on with her day. She asked her elderly mother, Mrs Rubenstein, to look after the house while she got the children ready for school, telling her that she was going shopping in Petticoat Lane with lodger Mrs Levy.

Discovery of Miriam Angel’s Body

Everyone assumed that by now, Miriam Angel would have left the house, as she usually met her mother-in-law Dinah for breakfast at 9 a.m. But at 11 o’clock, Dinah arrived at 16 Batty Street in search of Miriam, as she hadn’t seen her that morning. There was no answer when she knocked at Miriam’s door, and when she tried opening it, she found it was locked. Mrs Rubenstein, who had been left in charge of the house, heard the noise and came to see what was going on. She, too, tried unsuccessfully to open the door, and joined Dinah in calling out to Miriam. No response came.

When Leah Lipski and Mrs Levy returned home, they found Mrs Rubenstein and Dinah Angel standing outside Miriam’s door in distress. Leah knew there was a small side window on the stairway leading to the attic, through which you could peep into the Angels’ room, so she went to have a look. A muslin curtain partly covered the window, but she just caught a glimpse of Miriam laying on her bed, her head to one side. Realising the urgency, all three women heaved against the door as hard as they could and managed to burst it open. They tried shaking Miriam awake but she was completely lifeless. Leah ran from the house and called for Dr Kaye at his surgery on the corner of Batty Street, and a general dealer named Harris Dyween heard the commotion and came along too. Dyween observed that Miriam Angel was on her back with her face towards the wall, one hand on her chest and the other behind her back. Her black hair was in disarray, and her chemise was pulled up, exposing her breast. Strange yellow stains were visible on her nightdress and around her mouth. It was obvious that she was dead. Dyween covered her up, and Dr Kaye and his assistant arrived shortly afterwards, followed by Simon Rosenbloom, who came down from the attic room when he heard the chaos.

Someone ran to Isaac Angel’s workplace and conveyed the terrible news, and Isaac ran home to Batty Street as fast as he could. When he arrived, the police forbade him to enter until Dr Kaye finished examining his wife’s body. The doctor concluded that nitric acid had been forced down Miriam’s throat and it was evidently a case of murder. She had been dead for no more than three hours, as rigor mortis had not yet set in. She also had a black eye and blood on her temple, indicating a struggle. The doctor suggested searching the room to see if the nitric acid bottle could be found, and Harris Dyween reached under the bed, where he made a startling discovery – there was a man hiding there. It was Israel Lipski. He too had yellow marks on his hands and around his mouth, suggesting that he had also ingested some of the nitric acid. He appeared unconscious but was partially roused when the doctor slapped him in the face. Dr Kaye spoke to him in both English and German, but he did not respond.

Israel Lipski Found Under the Bed

The police arrived, and two constables lifted Israel Lipski from under the bed. The empty nitric acid bottle was found among the bedclothes, and Dr Kaye inspected it, noting that the cork was missing, and the bottle empty. Lipski was taken to the London Hospital where he was interviewed with the help of an interpreter. He pretended not to understand the police, but he seemed to understand perfectly when a doctor spoke to him in English about his health.

He remained in hospital for three days, guarded by a plainclothes officer, and once he was well enough, he was charged on suspicion of murder and held at Newgate Prison.

Israel Lipski’s Defence

Lipski’s defence was a colourful one. He claimed that on the day of Miriam’s death, he had asked his employee Rosenbloom to fetch him some brandy. Rosenbloom, along with Schmuss, the man who had enquired about a job, attacked him on the landing of the first floor, threw him to the ground, forced his mouth open, and poured a caustic liquid down his throat, saying, ‘That is the brandy.’ They then demanded to know if he had any money.

Israel claimed to have gasped in response, ‘I have got no more than a sovereign that I gave you to get brandy with.’ Rosenbloom had allegedly said, ‘If you don’t give us your money, you will be as dead as the woman’. Then, the two men put a piece of wood in his mouth and knelt on his throat. One allegedly said to the other, ‘Do you think he’s dead yet?’ to which the reply was, ‘He’s not moving any more’. At this point, they threw Lipski under the bed whereupon he lost consciousness. He insisted to the police, ‘I have not murdered her. I have not done it.’

Why Lipski’s Story Did Not Stand Up

His story made little sense. There was no evidence he had asked anyone to buy brandy, and he had no money for it anyway – he had tried to borrow 5s from his landlady, and certainly didn’t have as much as a sovereign to his name.

Dr Kaye conducted the postmortem the day after the murder and confirmed that Miriam Angel had died from suffocation caused by nitric acid burning her throat. It was inconclusive whether she had been sexually assaulted. Police were perplexed by the motive. One theory is that Lipski entered the Angel’s room to steal money, possibly having heard from the landlady that they had recently borrowed 5s to pay the rent and hoped it would still be in their room. When he found Miriam inside, Lipski battered her with his fists and then poured acid down her throat to silence her. Realising she was dead, he drank the last remnants of the acid himself, which was not enough to kill him, and then hid under the bed while concocting his extraordinary tale. Crime author Guy Logan put forward an alternative theory, arguing that any money Miriam had was unlikely to be worth stealing, and the crime must have been one of passion, with Lipski killing her when she repelled his advances – but there’s no evidence that Lipski had even spoken to the Angels, let alone had a romantic interest in Miriam.

The coroner’s inquest was held on the evening of Wednesday 29 June at St George’s Vestry Hall in Cable Street, presided over by thorough and incisive coroner Wynne Baxter, who would become well known the following year for conducting inquests into three murders attributed to Jack The Ripper.

Trial and Conviction

22-year-old Israel Lipski appeared at the Old Bailey on Monday 25 July 1887, in a trial lasting for five days. His face was noticeably pale as he stood in the dock accompanied by two warders and pleaded Not Guilty. Harry Poland and Charles Matthews appeared for the prosecution, while Gerald Geoghegan and John McIntyre formed the defence. The public gallery above the dock was unusually subdued throughout the proceedings.

Simon Rosenbloom denied being anywhere near the Angels’ room and attacking Israel Lipski, but his honesty was questioned when he pretended to be unable to speak English in the courtroom, but co-worker Richard Pitman testified that he could. A locksmith gave evidence that the lock on the Angels’ room was in good condition, as it had been installed just two or three weeks earlier. The defence focused on Lipski’s good character and lack of obvious motive for the crime, but the evidence that he had bought the nitric acid, and the fact that the Angels’ door had been locked from the inside, did not stand in his favour. In his summing up, the judge made it clear that the act was one of wilful murder and proposed two possible motives: lustful passion, or avarice.

The jury took just eight minutes to find Lipski guilty and he was sentenced to death. He listened to the verdict with calm composure, declaring quietly, ‘I am innocent. I did not do this.’ While in the condemned cell awaiting his fate, he was visited by fiancée Katie Lyons, and Philip and Leah Lipski. A rumour soon spread that someone else had purchased the nitric acid; a man known to the Angels who had previously threatened Miriam, but nothing came of it. A Jewish Rabbi named Gordon was convinced that Lipski was innocent, and conducted his own investigation, speaking to Harris Dyween, who had been present at the crime scene. Harris confessed that when he had entered the room, he had seen the empty acid bottle on the table and, being afraid that her husband might be blamed, hid the bottle in his pocket. When Lipski was discovered under the bed, Harris had placed the bottle underneath alongside him – but this contradicted the original statement about the bottle being found in the folds of the bedclothes. The crime scene had been a chaotic one, with as many as eight people crowding into the room before the police had a chance to secure it, so could key evidence have been lost or misinterpreted?

Isaac Angel’s Attack on Mrs Lipski

On the afternoon of 20 August, Isaac Angel, who had moved out of his old lodgings, returned to 16 Batty Street flanked by his two brothers and caused a disturbance, pulling the knocker off the front door and smashing the windows. When they gained entrance, Angel punched Mrs Lipski and kicked her in the stomach, before his brother pulled him off. Several witnesses heard him shout, ‘I must kill you. I won’t rest until I have killed you. I will do for you, the same as you have done for my wife.’ Why did Isaac Angel seem to blame landlady Mrs Lipski for his wife’s death and was there more to the story? It’s possible that he felt she was too sympathetic to Israel and that she had spoken highly of his character on the stand, and Angel may have wrongly believed they were related, since Israel had adopted the same surname.

The Confession

500 people signed a petition for the Home Office to grant Israel Lipski a reprieve, and campaigners from all echelons of society raised an outcry over the conviction, but the day before his execution, he made a full written confession and begged Rosenbloom and Schmuss to forgive him for trying to pin the blame on them. He explained that his motive was robbery and claimed he had no intention of sexually assaulting Miriam. He admitted it had been a fair trial. Lipski then penned a final letter to Katie Lyons and her mother, apologising for the wrong he had done, and thanking them for their kindness, urging them to sell his possessions and keep the proceeds after paying off any debts he owed. In his final hours, he took comfort from a letter from his mother wishing him safe deliverance and that his father and brothers were thinking of him. Lipski’s solicitor maintained his client’s innocence and refused to believe the written confession.

Execution at Newgate

On Monday 22 August 1887, an enormous crowd gathered outside Newgate Prison, although public hangings had been abolished almost 20 years ago and the only visible sign that the penalty had been carried out was the black flag, hoisted shortly after 8 a.m. accompanied by cheers from the crowd. They may not have cheered so loudly if they had known the hanging had not gone smoothly, and Lipski had been agonisingly strangled to death for 10 long minutes before he finally expired. Intriguingly, hangman James Berry, who had botched the rope length calculations and been responsible for Lipski’s drawn-out end, was also responsible for the farcical attempted execution of John Lee two years earlier, who became known as The Man They Couldn’t Hang. Later, Berry became an advocate for abolishing the death penalty.

Controversies and Unanswered Questions

Some controversy over the murder of Miriam Angel remains. Isaac Schmuss was a locksmith by trade, and it has been suggested that someone other than Lipski might have committed the murder and then locked the room, leaving the key on the inside – something a locksmith would have been capable of. Others insisted that Lipski didn’t get a fair trial because he was Jewish, but had he been found innocent, the other key suspects; Isaac Angel, Isaac Schmuss, and Simon Rosenbloom, were Jewish too. It also seemed odd that Lipski stated robbery was the motive, when the Angels were similarly impoverished, and would have had barely any money worth stealing. Sexual assault might have held more credence as a motive, but Dr Kaye found no conclusive evidence that Miriam had been raped, and there was no suggestion Lipski had ever tried to pursue a romantic interest in her. It’s also possible that Lipski’s defence team was lacking, as barrister Gerald Geoghegan [gaygan]was an alcoholic at the time of the trial and committed suicide in his chambers in 1902 by taking an overdose of an opioid sedative. Would the outcome have been different if Lipski had a defence counsel who was in a better frame of mind? The facts remain that it was Israel Lipski who purchased the acid, was found underneath Miriam’s bed, needed money, and gave a full confession, making it likely that he really was guilty.

Connections to the Jack the Ripper Case

This case bears some intriguing links to the Whitechapel murders of 1888. Justice Stephen, the judge who tried Lipski, was the father of James Kenneth Stephen, who some researchers have claimed was Jack the Ripper. James Stephen was an associate of Sir William Gull and Prince Albert Victor, who have also been considered as Ripper suspects, and James Stephen suffered a severe head injury in 1886 which caused irrational behaviour and led to his committal to a mental hospital until his death in 1892.

Israel Lipski’s Legacy

After the execution, the name Lipski was used as a derogatory slur against Jewish men. During the murder of Elizabeth Stride, often attributed to Jack the Ripper, witness Israel Schwartz heard someone shout, ‘Lipski!’ which has led to speculation that the Ripper was a Jew, although it wasn’t clear who this was directed at, as there were two other men present at the time. Curiously, Liz Stride was killed in Dutfield’s Yard, just off Berner Street, which is now called Henrique Street. This was, and still is, adjacent to Batty Street, and we know there were at least two other people in the area called Lipski – the landlords of number 16, Philip and Leah Lipski, so perhaps the unknown passerby was calling out to attract the attention of someone named Lipski, rather than using it as a racial slur. Could this mean that Philip Lipski, or someone else with that name, was present at the scene of one of Jack the Ripper’s murders? This is a debate that continues today.

Israel Lipski’s likeness was placed in the Chamber of Horrors at Madam Tussauds in 1888, displayed inside a reconstruction of the Newgate condemned cell. It remained there until 1899, but the echoes of the murder lived on, leaving behind a grieving widower who lost his wife and unborn child, as well as unanswered questions about this unusual case, in which a polite, quiet, law-abiding man suddenly committed a brutal act for nothing more than the faint hope of 5 shillings.

Researched and written by Prash Ganendran (August–September 2025)
© Prash Ganendran. All Rights Reserved.

This article was researched and written during August–September 2025. Although first published on this website on 5 June 2026, the accompanying video documentary was published on YouTube on 24 September 2025.

Video Documentary Version of this Case (Published 24 September 2025)

Watch on my YouTube channel

Related Cases

Jack the Ripper Suspect Jacob Levy

Jack the Ripper suspect Aaron Kosminsky

Sources

The Trials of Israel Lipski by Martin L Friedland
Casenotes by Guy Logan
Rope, Knife and Chair by Guy Logan
The Salisbury Times – Saturday 27 August 1887
South Wales Daily News – Saturday 20 August 1887
The People – Sunday 28 August 1887
Swansea and Glamorgan Herald – Wednesday 14 August 1889