Daily News
United Kingdom
17 September 1888

The detective officers engaged in the case are more hopeful than they have been before. It is stated that they have some fresh information, which encourages them to hope that before the week is over they will be able to solve the mystery.

Considerable excitement existed at Holloway on Saturday in consequence of it being known that the police had obtained some important information in reference to the lunatic arrested there on Thursday. He is said to be a master German pork butcher, and has been in the habit of carrying large, sharp knives. He has been absent from home frequently during the past 10 weeks, and it is therefore believed that he has been missing about the times of the murders. It is ascertained that he entirely changed his clothes after the murder.

Very grave doubt now exists as to the exact time when the woman Chapman was murdered. Mrs. Durrell made a statement on Wednesday to the effect that at about half past five in the morning of the murder of Mrs. Chapman she saw a man and a woman conversing outside 29 Hanbury street, the scene of the murder, and that they disappeared very suddenly. Mrs. Durrell was taken to the mortuary, and identified the body of Chapman as that of the woman whom she saw in Hanbury street. This agrees with the evidence of Richardson and another witness; but the doctor's opinion is that the woman was killed two hours before he saw the body, which would make it about half past four o'clock.

The attention of the police has been directed to a suspicious incident which occurred on Saturday. About ten o'clock in the evening a man passed through the Tower Subway from the Surrey to the Middlesex side, and said to the caretaker, "Have you caught any of the Whitechapel murderers yet?" He then produced a knife, about a foot in length, with a curved blade, and remarked, "This will do for them." He was followed but ran away, and was lost sight of near Tooley street. The following is a description of the man:- Age, about 30; height, 5ft 3in; complexion and hair dark, with moustache and false whiskers, which he pulled off while running away. Dress, new black diagonal suit and light overcoat, and dark cloth double peak hat.

The man arrested in suspicion of being concerned in the Spitalfields murder is still detained pending further inquiries.

Mrs. Lloyd, who is stated to have given a graphic description of the supposed murderer, has been closely questioned by the police, and now denies that she saw a man with a knife running away. These unfounded reports are giving the police much unnecessary trouble.

A man named William Harley, of 75 New street, Stepney, while going home on Friday night, was attacked by four men at the back of the London Hospital. One caught him by the neck, two by the arms and legs, and one put a handkerchief over his mouth. He was thrown to the ground, and his pockets were rifled. A policeman soon afterwards arrested a man who seemed to be running from somebody, but Harley could not identify him as one of his assailants.

A young collier, named Thomas Clewes, 20 years of age, employed at Hanley and Bucknall Colliery, on Saturday entered the house of a young widow, Mrs. Mary Bonell, of 8 Washerwall road, Bucknall, with whom he had been keeping company, and, attacking her with a large axe, inflicted such terrible injuries that it is considered impossible that she can recover. The woman is about eight years older than Clewes, and has been a widow two years, having been left with three children. She is in well to do circumstances, and lives on a small farm presented to her by her father, Clewes having during the past fortnight assisted her in harvesting operations in connection with the same. Although the two have lived for a considerable period on terms of great intimacy, she has latterly preferred the attentions of a brother of her late husband, and this has so aroused the jealousy of Clewes that on the previous Sunday he forcibly entered her house by a small window, and, presenting a loaded pistol at her head, threatened, in the presence of her children, to take her life. A warrant was then issued for his apprehension, but owing to the sympathy of the neighbours it was impossible to put it in execution. He had, however, remained in the locality, and although Mrs. Bonell had been in such fear of him that for the past few nights she had not dared to occupy her own dwelling, Clewes on Saturday morning availed himself of her return home to milk her cattle, and following her into the house dashed the axe into her brains in the presence of one of her young daughters. The wound penetrated over an inch into the skull. He then fled, and although a large force of police assisted by dogs, have scouted the surrounding country, his whereabouts has not yet been ascertained. From the fact that he had said goodbye to his friend, it is conjectured that he has committed suicide.

On Saturday morning the residents of Shepherd's bush and West Kensington Park were alarmed by a statement that a woman of the "unfortunate" class had been found murdered and mutilated. Coming on the top of the East end atrocities, the intense excitement caused by the rumour may be easily realised, and shortly after daylight crowds of persons of all ages and of both sexes crowded round the scene of the supposed crime. At the corner of Shepherd's bush green and Shepherd's bush road are some large houses approached by a drive. It was opposite the first of these from the Shepherd's bush road a woman was discovered early in the morning, and she was removed by the police to the hospital. Close to the spot where the woman was found was some blood, and this circumstance appears to have given rise to the suggestion that a brutal murder had been committed. Inquiries showed the following to be the facts:- Shortly before two o'clock the police found a woman in a garden opposite the green, near the Shepherd's bush road, As she was insensible, and bleeding from a wound on the head, the aid of a neighbouring medical man was sought. He advised the woman's removal to the West London Hospital, where she was taken by Police constables T 359 and T 433, and admitted at 2.10 a.m., but the injury was quite superficial and after it had been attended to, she was locked up by the police on it being certified that she was drunk, and in due course brought before Mr. Paget at the Hammersmith Police court on that charge. The woman, who seemed very ill, was discharged by the magistrate. Her name was Ann Kelly and she resided at 19 St. Mary's place, Notting dale.

Saturday was observed as the Jewish Day of Atonement. Dr. Hermann Adler, Deputy Chief Rabbi, preached at the Bayswater Synagogue, and referred to the Whitechapel murders, expressing the conviction that no Hebrew, native or foreign, could have been guilty of those atrocious crimes.

Saturday was observed in all the synagogues of London as the Day of Atonement, and at the East end places of worship belonging to the Jewish community unusually large congregations were present. The Deputy Chief rabbi, the Very Rev. Dr. Hermann Adler, preaching at the Bayswater Synagogue to a large and representative attendance at the morning service, besought his hearers to labour with unabated zeal and perseverance in the great work of humanising, civilising, and he thought he might add Anglicising , the poor aliens of the Hebrew race in East London, and in training their children to pursue industrial trades and occupations, so that they might never become the victims of that grinding tyranny and physical and social debasement known as the sweating system, the iniquities of which were recently investigated by a Royal Commission. Dr. Adler then referred to the recent outrages in Whitechapel, and emphatically expressed his conviction that no Hebrew, native or alien, could have been guilty of these atrocious and inhuman crimes. He felt sure that he only voiced the sentiments of those present and of the Jewish community generally, and especially of their brethren at the East end of the metropolis, when he expressed the hope that this sad mystery would soon be cleared up, and that the spread of true religious and secular education, the culture of the mind and heart, would stay the commission of such abominable and revolting deeds.