The series of events leading up to his execution began on 28 June 1887 when police were summoned to 16 Batty Street; a young woman, Miriam Angel, had been murdered after being forced to consume nitric acid.

The verdict, however, aroused immediate controversy and a press campaign to reprieve Lipski was orchestrated by William Thomas Stead, editor of the Pall Mall Gazette.

[3] As a result of this mounting public disquiet, the execution was postponed for one week while Matthews and the trial judge, James Fitzjames Stephen, met to consider a reprieve.

[5] Israel Schwartz, a man of "Jewish appearance",[6] reported witnessing a woman being assaulted on Berner Street in the early morning of 30 September 1888.

Police eventually decided that the term was being used as an ethnic slur against Jews, although several individuals with the surname Lipski resided in this area.