The epidemic of murder and mutilation which has spread consternation in the East-end of London has at length broken out in the provinces, and although the crime discovered on Saturday morning at Bradford has, from the methods of the assassin and sex of the victim, apparently no direct connection with the Whitechapel outrages there can be little doubt that the mind of the culprit has been strongly influenced by recent occurrences in the metropolis.
The name of the murdered boy was John Gill. He was eight years of age, smart, bright, and intelligent almost beyond his years, and with his schoolfellows he was extremely popular. On Thursday morning the boy told his mother that he was going for a ride with Barrett, a milkman, who serves families in Bradford. Mrs Gill knew that her son was on friendly terms with Barrett, and was in the habit of going with him to the adjacent railway station to fetch his milk, and she thought nothing of the incident. "Johnny" (as he was familiarly called by his friends and playmates) waited at the door until Barrett passed on his way to the station, when he climbed into the cart and went off.
That was the last time his mother saw him alive. On Saturday morning his mangled body was discovered in an entry leading to a stable not more than fifty yards from his home. Both legs had been severed from the body at the thighs, the operation of dismemberment having evidently been performed by some person having more than an elementary knowledge of anatomy. The throat was not cut, nor was the face disfigured, but both ears were sliced off and a deep vertical cut ran from just below the chin to the lowest extremity of the abdomen. On the left breast were two deep and wide stabs. A portion of the intestines as well as the heart had been plucked out and placed around the neck, and other portions of the body had been cut away and removed. The surgical theory is that death resulted from the stabs in the region of the heart, and that the mutilations were effected after the body had become cold. The boy's trousers and shirt were placed in the bundle with the remains, and the braced were used to hold the parcel together. The affair has created an intense sensation, and the milkman Barrett has been placed under arrest.
