Anaconda Standard
Montana, U.S.A.
5 May 1901

While he may be "something just as bad," the Jack the Ripper arrested by the Bavarian police the other day, as told in last week's dispatches, cannot possibly be the original Jack the Ripper, the terror of London's Whitechapel district ten or a dozen years ago. The original and Simon pure Jack was safely locked up in an English insane asylum some time ago, and, if he is not dead, he is undoubtedly there yet, for even if he showed signs of returning sanity, the managers of the asylum would not be so insane themselves as to turn him loose again. The celebrated alienist, Dr. Edward C. Spitzka, tells how a lunatic called upon him while the Whitechapel excitement was on, and asked for treatment for his malady. Dr. Spitzka listened to the man's story, questioned him closely, investigated all the facts bearing upon the case, and became convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that his patient was an insane physician and none other than the famous criminal for whom all the English detectives were scouring the country. Other alienists, as well as the police authorities, gave the matter minute examination and agreed with Dr. Spitzka. The Bavarian police have caught only a gross impostor or a rank imitator.