Joseph Gleydson Lawende (9 February 1847 – 9 January 1925) was a Polish-born British cigarette salesman who is believed to have witnessed serial killer Jack the Ripper in the company of his fourth victim, Catherine Eddowes, approximately nine minutes before the discovery of her body on 30 September 1888.

[1] Lawende provided a detailed description of the Ripper to investigators; he was later described by the Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Robert Anderson, as "the only person who ever had a good view of the murderer.

That night, Lawende and two Jewish companions, Joseph Hyam Levy, a butcher, and Henry Harris, a furniture dealer, attended the Imperial Club in Duke's Place.

Approximately fifteen yards from the club, at the narrow entrance to Church Passage, which led to Mitre Square, they saw a man and a woman talking in hushed tones.

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 from a distance of approximately nine feet (2.7 m).

[6] 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.

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 Homewood 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).

Major Henry Smith of the City of London Police, in whose area Eddowes had been killed, was impressed by the fact that Lawende was uninterested in the previous 'Ripper' murders, and would not be drawn with leading questions.

Lawende has been identified by some Ripperologists as the witness described by Robert Anderson of Scotland Yard as "the only person who ever had a good view of the murderer."