Frederick News
Maryland, U.S.A.
28 September 1888
LONDON'S MYSTERIES
John Fitzgerald Says He Committed One of the Whitechapel Murders
POLICE DON'T BELIEVE HIM
London, Sept. 28.
A shabby, unshaved, half drunken man has given himself up to the police
and said he wanted to make a confession of the killing of Annie Chapman,
the last victim in the atrocious series of the Whitechapel murders.
He gave his name as John Fitzgerald, a bricklayer, and made a full
confession. He asserted that he was the murderer of Annie Chapman, and
lived in Handbury (sic) street, Whitechapel. What he said further is
reserved by the police, who refuse positively to divulge other facts.
Fitzgerald was immediately taken into custody and placed in one of the
cells. He was not, however, charged in the usual way, being merely
detained. The Scotland Yard men are pumping him now.
It is said that he cannot even fix the date of the murder, and the
detectives are inclined to doubt his story, although there seems to be no
good reason for his remarkable confession.
