Brooklyn Daily Eagle
New York, USA
20 February 1889
A LADY'S FRIGHT
Is There a Jack the Ripper in Town?
Residents of Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth streets,
South Brooklyn, are considerably disturbed over the actions of a
strange man, who, they say, is only awaiting a favorable
opportunity to play the role of Jack the Ripper. One evening about
a week ago a woman rushed into Harry Edwards' house, 113 Fifty-
fifth street, and declared that a man had seized her by the back of
the neck as she came through a dark section of the street, and,
muttering uncanny gibberish in her ear, had made the sign of the
cross with a dagger held in his right hand. She broke away and ran
up the street followed by the stranger, who was tall, clad in a
long coat, and who wore a small cap. The woman fainted as soon as
she reached Mr. Edwards' door and it was several minutes before
they could get any statement from her. She lives on Fifty-fourth
street. between Third and Fourth avenues. Afterward the mysterious
individual was seen by Mrs. Cook, who lives at Mr. Edwards' house,
and Moses Dunn, living in Fifty-fifth street, saw a tall mustached
figure in a woman's dress skulking among the trees on Third avenue.
The more conservative people of the district think that some
drunken or half witted person has been trying to frighten women and
children under the impression that he is having lots of fun. They
say that if they can catch him he will be compelled to change his
ideas of what is amusing and what is not.