New Jersey, USA
18 July 1889
Jack the Ripper's Latest Murder Accepted as a Matter of Course
London, July 18.
The latest murder in Whitechapel is far from reviving the excitement occasioned by Jack the Ripper's work last September. The fact is, people have all along settled down to the conviction that the murderer was only taking a holiday and no one is surprised at the discovery that he has again appeared to indulge in his pastime of murder.
Then, too, the understanding that the police are impotent to solve the dread mystery serves to render the people callous, as the excitement of the chase after the perpetrator of the crime is entirely missing.
The women of Whitechapel, of the class to which all of the murderer's victims belonged, are of course in a perfect frenzy of fear, but otherwise London accepts its last horror as quite a matter of course. Unless the cunning fiend perseveres in his bloody work, and fresh victims fall beneath his cruel knife, Englishmen will soon forget the wretch lying mangled in Old Castle street.
It is stated that Jack the Ripper wrote a letter to the police officials before the murder, stating that he was about to "resume his work."
All the persons arrested on suspicion immediately after the discovery of the murder have been released, and the police evidently despair of finding a slew to the perpetrator of the murder. The woman's name was Alice McKenzie.