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thomas schachner
Sergeant
Username: Thomas
Post Number: 11
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, October 26, 2003 - 11:46 am: |       |
hi there,
i found this in a german newspaper (allgemeine zeitung münchen, october 25th 1888). can anybody come up with more information?
it reads:
"london, 22nd oct (crime.) Close to swansea a 4 year old girl was allured into the woods by a 16 year old boy. There the blackguard cut her throat and cut open her abdomen. the adolescent killer is arrested."
thx-
thomas. |
Christopher T George
Inspector
Username: Chrisg
Post Number: 384
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Monday, October 27, 2003 - 8:34 am: | |
Hi, Thomas:
Very good find. Thanks for sharing this. Who knows. It might have been JtR taking a sabbatical from his usual killing ground in London and also varying the age of his victim. I wonder if we can find a follow-up article to prove the 16-year-old adolescent was the girl's killer?
All the best
Chris |
Alexander Chisholm
Sergeant
Username: Alex
Post Number: 38
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 28, 2003 - 12:22 pm: | |
Hi Thomas
Thanks for posting the extract.
I think such a report may have resulted from an apparent confusion in early London newspaper reports of a Swansea murder. The Star, 22 October 1888 reported:
A GIRL MURDERED AND MUTILATED.
A Boy of 16 Commits a Whitechapel Murder in a Wood at Swansea.
A murder resembling those of Whitechapel was committed near Swansea yesterday. The victim, a girl four years of age, was decoyed into a lonely wood by a youth of 16, who then cut her throat and ripped her bowels open. The murderer is in custody.
The Pall Mall Gazette, 22 October 1888 reported:
A SOUTH WALES TRAGEDY.
A terrible murder is reported from South Wales. John Harper, aged twenty-fixe, son of a tin-plate worker, having on Saturday been missed from home, search was made, and at midnight his body was discovered in a wood disembowelled, and with his throat cut from ear to ear. He had previously complained that a butcher’s assistant named Thomas Lott, aged eighteen, had wished to undress him in a wood, and on the latter being arrested he confessed to the murder.
The Pall Mall Gazette, 23 October 1888 continued:
THE MURDER OF A BOY IN WALES.
Some of the particulars of the tragedy at Pontardawe, Swansea, which were published yesterday, were not quite correct. It seems that the victim was a child named John Harper, aged five years, the son of James Harper, an annealer at the Pontardawe Tinplate Works. The child was missed by his parents on the afternoon of Saturday, and as night drew on a search was instituted, the neighbours joining in; but as their endeavours proved futile information was given to Inspector Giddings at the police-station. Inquiries were at once made by them as to where and when the child had last been seen, and it proved that with another younger child he had been during the afternoon on a bridge crossing the river which at that spot divides Pontardawe from the wood in question, in company with a lad named Thomas Lott, who is about eighteen years of age, and is frequently employed by a butcher in the town. The search was continued, and about twelve o’clock Police-constable Hopkins came upon the body of the lad. It presented a terrible spectacle, the throat being cut from ear to ear. The police ascertained that the little fellow, who had been on the bridge with Lott and the deceased had arrived home in a great state of fright, saying that Lott had wished to undress him in the wood. The cottage where Lott lived with his mother was next visited, and he was taken into custody on suspicion, and has since admitted that he did the deed with a butcher’s knife taken from the slaughter-house. No motive can be assigned for the crime.
On 24 October 1888 the Star reported:
A Murderer Disturbed by a Passing Coffin.
The inquest on the body of the boy murdered in a wood at Pontadawe was opened yesterday. It is stated that the murdered was interrupted in his supposed design to disembowel his victim by a party carrying a coffin passing at the time the murder was committed. Across the child’s body is a scratch, evidently done with a knife. Another boy had been lured into the wood by the prisoner, but, on being ordered to take off his clothes, ran away in fright.
On the 26 October 1888 the Daily Telegraph added:
THE SWANSEA TRAGEDY. - Mr. Coroner Strick resumed the inquest, at Pontardawe, yesterday, on the body of John Harper, aged five years. Thomas Lott, a youth, was in custody charged with the murder. Evidence was given of the finding of the little fellow’s body in a wood by Constable Hopkins. Dr. Price Jones said he saw the body lying, face downwards, in the grass. It had evidently been dragged eight yards from a spot where there were bloodstains. There was a large wound in the throat and a small stab on the upper part of the abdomen. Lott, who was last seen with deceased, told the police that the knife would be found on a windowsill in the slaughterhouse where he was occasionally employed. He was committed for trial on the charge of murder.
Perhaps someone with access to the local Welsh newspapers can offer more details, but I think it’s pretty safe to say that the murdered and mutilated girl referred to in the German extract you post above was in fact young John Harper.
Best Wishes
alex
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thomas schachner
Sergeant
Username: Thomas
Post Number: 12
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 28, 2003 - 12:54 pm: | |
hi alex,
thank you very much indeed - i think i need to follow up further reports in the german newspapers. maybe they also realized the mistake and wrote something about it.
greetings from germany
thomas. |
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