Daily News
United Kingdom
3 October 1888
A builder named William Seaman was at the Thames Police-court yesterday committed for trial charged with attempting to murder Jim Simkin, a chemist, carrying on business in Berner-street, Whitechapel. It was alleged that Seaman went into the prosecutor's shop, and, while being served some alum, struck him several times on the head with a hammer.
Mr. Baxter yesterday resumed the inquest touching the death of the woman whose body was found early on Sunday morning in a yard adjoining Berner-street, Whitechapel. Additional evidence as to the manner of the discovery having been taken, Mrs. Mary Malcolm, wife of a tailor in Eagle-street, Holborn, identified the body as that of her sister, Elizabeth Watts, wife of the son of a wine merchant at Bath. The deceased had been separated from her husband, and had been living near the Commercial-road, the witness assisting her from week to week. The witness stated that on Sunday morning she had a remarkable presentiment which led her to go to the mortuary. The inquiry was again adjourned.
Beyond the evidence given at the inquest, nothing transpired yesterday to throw additional light upon the circumstances attending the murders in Berner-street and Mitre-square. The police made more arrests, but importance is not attached to any of them. As will be seen from the reports we publish elsewhere, public interest in the murders does not diminish.
Yesterday afternoon the body of a woman, much decomposed and minus the head, arms, and legs, was found by a carpenter secreted in a cellar adjoining the foundations of the new Metropolitan Police headquarters, on the Thames Embankment. It is supposed that the arms recently found in the Thames and near the Lambeth-road respectively were severed from the trunk now discovered.
The New Horror
THE discovery of human remains on the Thames Embankment,
though shocking enough in itself, is evidently not to be confounded
with the crimes at the East-end. The trunk of a woman, in a very
advanced stage of decomposition, has been found in a cellar of the buildings, in course of erection for the new Central Police Station near Westminster Bridge. The woman must have been dead for some time, but the neat parcel containing these remains could have been hidden in the cellar only within the last two or three days. There seems good ground for the belief that this discovery is connected with those of human limbs at Pimlico and Newington to which we recently referred. The police were naturally disposed to attach very little importance to the finding of the arms, but the discovery of the body may perhaps give them a passing emotion of curiosity. It is quite possible that it may have no more serious effect on the public. We live in a moment, if not in an age, of horrors, and our first impulse is to regard any crime that does not belong to the East-end series as of the minor kind. A few months ago this discovery on the Embankment would have startled all London; at present, in all probability, it will hardly interrupt for a single day public speculation as to the mystery at the other end of town. No more is known of the murderer to-day than was known yesterday, but the adjourned inquest on his victim of Berner-street has brought out some extraordinary evidence. A respectable woman who came forward yesterday is certain that the body supposed to be that of ELIZABETH STRIDE is that of her sister, ELIZABETH WATTS. Her touching account of the presentiment by which she was led to inspect the remains at the mortuary borders on the marvelous. As she lay in bed on Sunday morning, at about the time when the victim must have been under the assassin's knife, she felt the pressure of three kisses on her cheek, and heard them; and by that ghostly warning she knew that something was wrong with her sister. She hurried to the mortuary, and, as she firmly believes, she identified her missing sister, though she candidly admits the absence of one mark essential to perfect identification. Every circumstance of these crimes tends to leave them without a parallel in the experience of this generation.
THE ATROCITIES AT
THE EAST END.
SOME EFFECTS OF THE
TERROR.
THE VICTIMS AND THEIR
CLASS.
There is still only one topic of conversation all over London-all over East London at any rate. The only places in which there seems nothing to be said about the event of last Sunday morning are the headquarters of the City Police and the Central Station of the H Division of the Metropolitan force. Nothing in the way of excitement or of agitated interest is to be expected here, but even here it is evident that anxiety is intense, and beneath the unruffled placidity of official decorum it is easy to see that the police of London are intensely perturbed by the blank futility of all their best efforts to throw light on the hideous tragedies that have come upon them one after the other. Every arrest that is made, every stir of a mob outside the police-station, every little event of the passing hour, is quite manifestly the occasion of altogether exceptional interest to the police. But upon the subject that is engrossing all thoughts, the responsible members of the force have nothing to say. Detective-sergeants refer all inquiries to their inspectors; inspectors pass on the applicant for information to the superintendent, and all that the superintendent has to say upon the matter is that nothing further has transpired. Arrests have from time to time been made; but they have been merely cases that seemed to call for some inquiry, and have led to nothing. The affair is precisely where it was four-and-twenty hours ago. They are leaving no stone unturned, they are taking every measure that can be thought of, and the detectives, officers and men, are working night and day, but alas! nothing comes of it. The criminal, who it is quite conceivable, and indeed extremely probable, is abroad in the streets, is no doubt watching the seething agitation, listening to the speculations and discussions of the awe-stricken people, gloating over the horrible details of his work, and chuckling at the discomfiture of a whole army of police, the clues they are supposed to be following up, the suggestions made to them, and the arrests from time to time reported.
While the visible excitement over the murders actually perpetrated is of course dying down somewhat, the awe-stricken dread of this mysterious being who thus strikes and vanishes is deepening as the hours run on and reveal the absolute helplessness of the police and the impotency of heavy rewards. Upon the unhappy class of women from whom the victims have thus far been taken the effect is reported to have been profound, as was to have been expected. Pathetic in the extreme are some of the stories that one hears from those whose benevolent efforts are directed to the reclamation of these unhappy women, especially of those who try to reform when they have got on a little beyond their young womanhood. Said a young missionary woman last evening, "The terrible difficulty we have to encounter is that of trying to find them work. We had last year a very touching case of a woman who seemed sincerely desirous of amending, but who was over the age at which they are usually admitted to homes. However, after a great deal of difficulty, we found an opening for her, and she went to the home; but some of these places, I am afraid, are managed too rigorously, and the matrons of them are sometimes wanting in sympathy with their inmates, who find it extremely difficult to submit to the discipline. It was the case with this woman. Accustomed to live entirely without control, she found the discipline of this place more than she could endure, and she left. We saw nothing of her for a time, but she came to us again, and still seemed sick and weary of the wretched life she led. If she could only find something to do she really would try, but of the 'Home' she seemed to have a positive horror. We could find her no work, and she tried charing and washing, and I believe did her earnest best to maintain herself that way. But it was gradual starvation; often we found she was whole days without a bit of food; and those she lived with say that only at the last extremity did she allow herself to be driven again to her old courses. I am afraid, however, she drifted back, but still she would come to our meetings and listen very earnestly to all that went on, and would borrow from our library books that you would never imagine she would care to read. Often we found that nothing had passed her lips the whole day but a cup of weak tea. She came to a meeting one Tuesday night ill, and scarcely able to stand, and on Thursday she died. The woman who looks after these mission rooms," continued the speaker, "was another of the same class, and who used to be an associate of the poor creature murdered in Berner-street. She saw her only last Thursday, and she-that is, the murdered woman-said then that she felt all was coming to some bad end."
This missionary made mention of another associate of the Berner-street victim. She also was believed to be trying to regain respectability, and it seemed worth while to go down into the depths of the neighbourhood that was formerly known as Tiger Bay to hear what this woman had to say about her former companion. She was found in a small back room at the inner end of a dark court not far from the scene of the murder, and proved to be a vivacious widow with three children, and one eye to look after them with. She first knew the dead woman three years ago, she said, and she was then certainly very pretty, always had a nice clean apron, and was always smart and tidy. She took up with a labourer, said the woman, and "lived indoors with him," but he beat her and so ill-used her that she was forced to turn out in the streets. She took to drink, and seemed to grow reckless and desperate. For two years she never saw anything of her, but recently the deceased called on her old acquaintance, who had got her own room and a few scraps of furniture about her. The desolate woman congratulated her old acquaintance on having a comfortable home (!) invited her to come and drink with her, and, this being refused, she took out twopence-all she had in the world-and insisted on sharing it for old acquaintance sake. "Oh dear, oh dear!" ejaculated the woman, "ain't it awful though!" "No doubt all these poor creatures are dreading to go into the streets," it was observed. "I should just think they was," was the reply. "Why, they're a'most afraid to sit indoors. I gets my living among 'em," continued the woman with frank communicativeness-["]not them as lives at the lodging-houses like her," she explained; "there ain't much to be got out o' them, but the regular respectable ones. I does charing for 'em, and lor' bless you they just are scared. 'I shall turn it up,' they says. But then, as I says, what have they got to turn to?" It would of course be folly to assume that all the discredit of our gas-lit streets is due to industrial difficulties, but it is urged by all who are grappling with these evils that the lack of employment is a fearful difficulty in the way of reformation of life among these pariahs, and the distress that must be prevailing among them now that mortal terror forbids their appearing in their usual haunts in the streets cannot but be very great.
That the streets are cleared of all classes to a wonderful extent after dark is quite evident to all who will venture a little way off the main highways. But last evening all down the chief thoroughfares the pavement seemed busier than ever. There was drizzling rain and fog in the air, and slush and mud underfoot, and the East-end of London has rarely looked more wretched. But high over all the din and hubbub of the traffic the newsvendors were shrieking out news of another "Horrible murder" reported to have been discovered on the Embankment, and all through the dark streets for a long distance round the scenes of the two murders, the mirky [sic] night was being made hideous by the same dismal banshee wail of further murder and mutilation. Everywhere where gas lights were most powerful papers were unfolded in the drizzle and fog, and little groups of eager listeners gathered round to learn what new horror had come so close upon the heels of the old. Never perhaps in the history of London has public feeling been as deeply stirred by stories of murder and maiming as during the past few days, and the universal fear is that the fiendish work is not yet done. There will in fact be no settling down to a sense of re-established security until the police are able to announce that they have reasonable grounds for believing that they have taken their man. At present, however, they are unable, as we have said, to afford the slightest gleam of comfort. All that either the City or the Metropolitan Police are able to do is to assure the public they are doing all in their power, and that they hope shortly to get a satisfactory clue.
Little or nothing transpired yesterday to throw additional light on the circumstances surrounding either the murder in Berner-street or Mitre-square-beyond the evidence adduced at the resumed inquest before Mr. Baxter. Here the identity of the unfortunate woman hitherto known as Stride, seemed to be clearly established. The police have up to the present failed to trace her movements between seven o'clock in the evening, when she last left her lodgings in Flower and Dean-street, and the hour at which her lifeless body was discovered. Information, however, has, it is true, been received that the deceased was seen with a man that evening, and a description of the person in question has been circulated by the police. He is said to be 28 years of age, about 5ft. 7in. in height and of dark complexion. He had no whiskers and wore dark clothes, having on a black felt hat, which was stained. Last night two men were still detained at the Leman-street Police-station "on suspicion," but so weak was the evidence against them that there could be little doubt that they will be almost immediately discharged, if indeed they have not already been liberated. From an early hour in the morning a large crowd collected in front of the yard in Berner-street, but the drenching showers which fell in the course of the afternoon soon dispersed the people. Rumours of a sensational character were prevalent during the day. One was to the effect that during the previous night shouts of "Murder" and "Police" had been heard in the immediate vicinity of the International Club. The accuracy of this statement was at once denied by the police, and their refutation has since been supported by the members of the club and the inmates of the clubhouse. Another allegation was that the murderer, having committed the dastardly deeds, inscribed in chalk on the brick wall words calculated to provoke local antagonisms. It was added in this connection that Sir Charles Warren when he saw the writing on the wall early on the Sunday morning, ordered it to be washed out, and that the direction was followed out by the police. A careful examination of the wall, however, clearly establishes the fact that the whole story is a fabrication. The police have arrived at the conclusion that on the Sunday morning when the murder was committed the perpetrator must have had a very narrow escape from capture. It is their belief, and also that of many members of the International Club, that when the steward of the club-Deimschitz-entered the yard in his trap at one o'clock in the morning he prevented the completion of a deed as horrible as that perpetrated at Mitre-square. The explanation offered as to his escape is that when the alarm was raised, and the members of the club rushed downstairs into the yard, he mingled amongst them and succeeded unobserved in effecting his escape before the police appeared upon the scene. The reinforcements of police that have since Sunday been drafted into Whitechapel still remain at the posts allotted them. The impression is rapidly gaining ground, not only amongst the population of the East-end, but also the police themselves, that the six undetected murders will be followed by others equally brutal in their details, and that the murderer, if caught at all, will be caught red-handed.
Some information furnished by two City police constables to their superior officers yesterday morning supplied what is at present the only clue to the identity of the woman murdered in Mitre-square. The policemen, having seen the mutilated body at the mortuary in Golden-lane, expressed the opinion that it was that of a woman who had been taken to the station by them a short time ago when under the influence of drink. Owing to the disfigurement of the face they could not, however, speak with absolute certainty. The woman to whom the constables refer was not charged with any offence, but when detained at the station she gave the name of Kelly, and said she was living at 6, Fashion-street. One of the two pawn tickets picked up near the scene of the murder on Sunday was to the effect that Jane Kelly, of 6, Dorset-street, had pawned a pair of boots on the 28th ult. with a shopkeeper in Church-street, Spitalfields, for 2s., 6d. The other pawn ticket was dated 31st August last, and showed that with the same pawnbroker a flannel shirt had been pawned in the name of Emily Burrell, 32, White's-row. The coincidence that the name of Kelly should become associated with the murdered woman through such different channels was remarked, and the detectives continued their inquiries with the object of trying to ascertain if anything was known of a woman named Kelly at any of the addresses given, though hitherto without success. It may be added that steps have been taken to form a vigilance committee in the City. The authorities at the chief office of the City Police, Old Jewry, yesterday detained a man for some time on suspicion of being connected with the murders, but his explanation proving satisfactory he was released.
Professor J. Wortley Axe, Principal of the Royal Veterinary College, London, has expressed his views upon the employment of bloodhounds in the detection of the murderer. No doubt a "leash" of bloodhounds might, he holds, be a useful police auxiliary, but the successful employment would depend upon the efficient training of the dogs, and the promptitude with which they were put upon the track. All dogs have a natural instinct for blood odours, but this instinct requires development by training, and in the case of the bloodhound it is necessary to make it an expert at the business. The dog must in the first place be familiarised with the odour of blood. The incriminating element of the murder so far as the dog is concerned would of course be the blood carried in the clothes or upon the boots of the murderer. It is, in fact, a condition precedent of the hunt that some of the blood of the victim should be upon the person of the fugitive. In the country, where the ground and atmosphere may remain comparatively undisturbed for a period, this system of pursuit would work fairly well. But, said Professor Axe, when you come to deal with the streets of large towns, the ground surface of which must necessarily be impregnated with all numbers of odours, I apprehend that this fact would materially operate against your success in tracking the murder with bloodhounds. The pavements of our own city, for instance, may possibly be stained with the blood of carcases [sic], such as sheep in transit, as well indeed as with human blood, the result of natural deposit. This would tend to confuse the scent which you desired to follow up, unless it were very fresh and strong. Again, the air in large towns is always shifting, or may have been shifted, by the ordinary traffic of the street, so that the odour left by the fugitive would not be suffered to abide long without obliteration. Hence, it comes to this, that if you resort to bloodhounds for the tracking of bloodstained fugitives, your dogs must be perfectly trained, must be experts of the business, and next the condition of the ground must be favourable to the retention of the odour forming the clue. In large towns the latter presents a serious difficulty.
THE BERNER-STREET MURDER.
THE INQUEST.
IDENTIFICATION AND HISTORY OF
THE DECEASED.
EXTRAORDINARY CAREER.
Mr. Wynne E. Baxter resumed his inquiry yesterday into the circumstances attending the death of the woman whose body was found in the yard in Berner-street on Sunday morning last.
The first witness called was [:]
Police-constable Henry Lamb, 252 H, who said: At about one o'clock on Sunday morning last I was in Commercial-road between Christian-street and Batty-street, when two men came running to me, shouting. I went towards them, and one said to me, "Come on, there's been another murder." I asked "Where?" and they pointed to the corner of Berner-street. I saw people moving about some distance down, so I ran down Berner-street followed by another constable, 436 H. I went in the gateway of No. 40, where I saw something dark lying close to the gate. I turned my light on, and found it was a woman with her throat cut, and apparently dead. I at once sent the other constable for the nearest doctor. I also sent a young man who was standing by to the police-station to inform the inspector of the circumstance. There were about 30 people in the yard, some of whom had followed me in. The people were standing about a yard from the body. When I turned my light on the body some of the people pressed round, but I begged them to stand back as they might get the blood on themselves and perhaps get into trouble in consequence. When I put my hand on the face it was slightly warm. The pulse was not beating. Deceased was lying on her left side. The left arm was under her. The right arm was across the breast. The body was only five or six inches from the wall. The clothing was not disturbed. I scarcely think the boots could be seen except perhaps the sole. She looked as if she had been laid quietly down, and there was no sign of a struggle. The blood was running some distance and was close to the door of the club. The blood nearer to her was partly congealed. Dr. Blackwell was the first to come. I should think ten or twelve minutes after my arrival. I did not hear from those by whether anybody had touched the body before my arrival. Dr. Blackwell examined the body and the surrounding ground. Inspector Pinhorn came just after the doctor. Directly the doctor came I blew my whistle for another constable, and on one arriving I had the gates shut. I then went into the club, and turned my light on the different parties, and examined as well as I could their hands and clothes. I should think there were 15 to 20 persons present. I went into every room, but saw no traces of blood anywhere. I also went over the cottages in the yard, but all the inhabitants were in bed. I was let in by a man who was half dressed. The people in the cottages were not many minutes in answering the door. They seemed frightened, but I told them there was "nothing much the matter," as I did not wish to scare them more. When I went back into the yard Dr. Phillips and Chief Inspector West had arrived. It was quite possible for a person to have escaped while I was examining the body. There was much confusion going on at the time. I should think it more likely that the culprit escaped before I arrived. I was not on the Berner-street beat, but parsed the end of it as I walked along the Commercial-road. I saw nothing suspicious while I was out except the usual Saturday night squabbles and rows. I think I could have seen anybody running from the gateway in Berner-street as I was in Commercial-road.
Edward Spooner, 26, Fairclough-street, employed as a horsekeeper by Messrs. Meredith, biscuit makers, deposed-On Sunday morning between 12.30 and 1 o'clock, I was standing outside the Beehive Tavern, at the corner of Christian-street and Fairclough-street along with a young woman. I had been standing there about five-and-twenty minutes when two Jews came running along hallooing out "Murder" and "Police." They ran as far as Grove-street and turned back. I stopped them and asked what was the matter. They said, "There's a woman murdered in Berner-street in the yard by No. 40." I went there and saw the body lying just inside the gate. There were about fifteen people in the yard, and they were standing round. They were mostly Jews. One of them struck a match, but before that I could see that the body was that of a woman and that there was blood about. When the man struck the match I bent down and lifted up the chin of the deceased. The chin was just warm. The blood was still flowing from the throat, which was cut. I noticed a bit of paper doubled up in her right hand, and a flower on her breast. I am sure I did not move the position of her head or body when I touched her. The face was towards the wall. The blood was running down the gutter. I stood by the side of her till a constable came. I do not think anybody left the yard after I arrived; but I am not sure, as there were so many people about. I noticed that the legs of the deceased were drawn up, and that the clothes were not disturbed. As soon as Police-constable Lamb arrived, I went away, after helping him to shut the gates. Before I left I was searched and gave my name and address, and was examined by Dr. Phillips. There was no blood on my hands, as there was none on the chin of the deceased. I did not meet any one as I was hastening to Berner-street except Mr. Harris, who was coming out of his house in Tiger Bay, having heard the police whistle.
Mrs. Mary Malcolm, 50, Eagle-street, Red Lion-square, Holborn, said-I am the wife of Andrew Malcolm, a tailor. I have seen the body in the mortuary. It is that of my sister, Elizabeth Watts. There is not the slightest doubt about that. I last saw her alive on Thursday last at a quarter to seven o'clock in the evening. She came to me at 59, Red Lion-street, where I work as a trousers maker, to ask me for a little assistance, which I have been in the habit of giving her during the last five years. I gave her a shilling and a short jacket-not the one she was wearing when found in Berner-street. She was only with me a few minutes. I do not know where she was living, but I knew it was somewhere in the neighbourhood of the Commercial-road, and amongst the tailoring Jews. I understood that she was living in lodging houses.
Did you know what she was doing for a living?-I had my doubts. She was sober when she came to me, but she was sometimes the worse for drink. Drink was unfortunately a failing with her. (The witness here burst into tears.) She was in her 38th year. She was married. Her husband, who is living, is the son of Mr. Watts, a large wholesale wine and spirit merchant at Walcot-street, Bath. I believe her husband is now in America. My sister left him I believe about eight years ago, having been caught misconducting herself. She has had two children. Her husband sent her home to my mother, who was then alive, with the children. The little girl is dead, I believe, and the boy is at a boarding school with his aunt, Miss Watts. My sister was not subject to epileptic fits, but she was a very excitable woman, especially when she had been drinking. She had been before the Thames Police-court magistrate charged with drunkenness. I believe she has at times gotten off on the ground that she was subjected to epileptic fits, but I do not believe that she was. The deceased lived with a man who kept a coffee stall. His name was not Stride, but Dent, I think. This man went to sea, and was wrecked on the Island of St. Paul. This is about three years and a half ago. She did not to my knowledge live with anyone after that, but there is a man who says he has lived with her. I have never heard of her having any trouble with any man. She always brought her trouble to me. I never heard of any one having threatened her. I never visited her in Flower and Dean-street. I knew that she was nicknamed "Long Liz." Her Christian name was Elizabeth. I never heard the name of Stride till yesterday. I think she would have told me if she was living with any one. She came to see me every Saturday, when I gave her two shillings. She did not come to me on Saturday last, at which I was surprised. The Thursday visit was an unusual one. She had not missed coming on a Saturday for three years. She used to come to me at four o'clock in the afternoon. She used to meet me at the corner of Chancery-lane. I was there last Saturday from 3.30 until 5 p.m., but she did not turn up. On Sunday morning, when I read the paper, I thought that as my sister had not turned up on Saturday it might be she who was murdered. A sort of presentiment came over me and I went to St. George's Mortuary. My sister used to have beautiful black wavy hair. I did not recognise her on Sunday in the mortuary, as it was in the gaslight. As I was in my bed at twenty minutes past one on Sunday, I had a presentiment. I felt the pressure of three kisses on me, and heard them. I did not see a vision of my sister. I am sure the deceased is my sister. She always had a small black mark on her right leg, and I have seen it on the corpse. The mark came from the bite of an adder when she was a child. I have a similar mark on my hand. (Witness showed it.) The adder bit me first and then her, as we were rolling in the grass playing. My husband saw my sister once, about six years ago. I have a brother and a sister, but they have not seen the deceased for years. I always kept her shame from everyone. (Witness here broke into tears, and said the disgrace of the story would kill her other sister.) The deceased had a hollowness in her right foot, caused by its being run over. I do not notice any hollowness in the foot of the body in the mortuary. I cannot recognise the clothing, as I never noticed what she wore. She left one of her own babies naked outside my door.
Was that one of the two children you have mentioned?-Oh, no; it was one she had by a policeman, I believe. I kept it until she came and fetched it away. That child is dead, I believe. She was a girl that anyone could like.
The Coroner, who thought the identification of the body by the witness hardly satisfactory, pressed the witness on the point, but she still insisted that the deceased was her sister. He also thought the witness should go to the usual rendezvous next Saturday to make sure that her sister did not come.
In reply to a juryman, the witness said-When my sister came to me on the Thursday she was in great distress, and said she had no money to pay her lodging, and asked me to assist her. I said, "Oh, Lizzie, my child, you are a curse to me." She was never locked up for anything else but drunkenness.
Dr. Frederick William Blackwell, 100, Commercial-road, deposed:-At 10 minutes past one o'clock, I was called by a policeman to go to Berner-street. My assistant, Mr. Johnson, went on with him, and I followed as soon as I was dressed. I consulted my watch on my arrival, and it was just 1.16. The woman was lying on her left side, completely across the yard. Her legs were drawn up and her feet close against the wall on the right side of the yard passage. Her head was resting almost in the carriage wheel rut. Her feet were about three yards from the gateway. The neck and chest were quite warm, and the face and legs slightly so. The hands were cold. Her right arm was lying across the chest and was smeared with blood. The left hand was partially closed, and contained a small packet of cachous wrapped in tissue paper. There were no rings or marks of rings on the hands. The appearance of the face was quite placid. The mouth was slightly open. There was a check silk scarf round the neck, the bow of which was turned to the left side and pulled very tight. There was a long incision in the neck which exactly corresponded with the lower border of the scarf which was above the wound. The lower edge of the scarf was slightly frayed as if by a sharp knife. The incision in the neck commenced on the left side, two inches below the angle of the jaw, and almost in a direct line with it; it nearly severed the vessels on that side, cut the windpipe completely in two, and terminated on the opposite side, once inch and a half below the angle of the right jaw. The details of the post-mortem I will give subsequently. The blood was running down the gutter into the drain. There was about a pound of clotted blood close to her neck. There were no spots of blood-but there was a little trodden about near to where the body was lying. There was no blood about the soles of her boots as far as I could see by that light-which was from a policeman's lantern. There was no blood on any part of her clothing. The bonnet was lying on the ground a few inches from her head. Her dress was undone at the top. I noticed a bunch of flowers on her breast. It is not possible that the injuries could have been self-inflicted. I do not think the deceased could have been dead more than twenty minutes, at the most half an hour. It was a very mild night. She would have bled to death comparatively slowly on account of the vessels on one side only being severed and the artery not cut through, and the body heat would have been retained slightly longer on that account. After the injuries had been inflicted it would be impossible for the deceased to utter a cry. I formed the opinion that the murderer took hold of the scarf which I found tightly pulled round her neck, and pulled the woman backwards and then cut her throat. I could not say that the scarf was sufficiently tense to have prevented her from crying out.
The inquest was then adjourned until to-day.
The Central News states that it obtained information yesterday afternoon respecting the antecedents of the woman murdered in Berner-street, which throws very grave doubt upon the evidence of Mrs. Manson [Malcolm], who at the inquest said that she had seen the body, and identified it as that of her sister. There is, it is urged, every reason to believe that Mrs. Manson, who at first was not at all certain in the identification, is really mistaken, and that her sister will sooner or latter be found alive and well. An old artilleryman, who had lived for the past three years with Eliza Stride-otherwise known as "Long Liz"-averred yesterday afternoon that he has identified Stride's body at the mortuary without any difficulty. She was, according to his statement, last seen alive on Saturday night at 32, Flower and Dean-street, between six and seven o'clock, when she was in good health. She was of cleanly habits, and had apparently been well educated in her own language-Swedish. She could cook and keep house well, and was expert in the use of the sewing machine, knitting, and all kinds of needlework. The man first became acquainted with her about three years ago when he met her in Commercial-street, and he had lived with her ever since, except during occasional intervals, when she went away to work for some Jews. He lived with her at 35 Devonshire-street down to five months ago, when they moved to No. 36 in the same street. She was quiet and industrious, but was sometimes the worse for drink. Her manner was peculiar. At times she would say that she was going out for half an hour, and would absent herself for two or three days. Before her marriage she was a domestic servant near Hyde-park, and afterwards she and her husband kept a coffee-shop and boarding-house in Crisp-street, Poplar. She lost her husband in the Princess Alice disaster, as well as two children, one of whom was drowned in the father's arms. She herself escaped by climbing up a rope as the vessel was sinking. A man who had got upon the rope before her slipped and kicked her accidentally in the mouth, knocking out her front teeth. Her husband, who was a ship's carpenter, did a good deal of work in the building of the Great Eastern steamship, and the woman herself put the cushions and fittings in their proper places after the vessel was launched. When she became a widow she sold the coffee-shop and went to live in Cannon-street-road. She used to say that she was the mother of nine children. She frequently attended the Swedish church in Princes-street. The man with whom she afterwards lived believes that her surviving children are being brought up in the country at a school connected with the Swedish church. The woman had no relatives in England, but she said that she had a brother-in-law practicing as a surgeon in Kent. She had spoken of a sister residing about three miles from Stockholm. It is understood that the police are in communication with the brother-in-law.
Mr. W. Wess, Secretary of the International Working Men's Club, Berner-street, called at our office at midnight and made the following statement:-It having come to my knowledge that the man who was seen by Mrs. Mortimer, of 36, Berner-street, passing her house "carrying a black shiny bag," who walked very fast down the street from the Commercial-road about the time the murder was supposed to have occurred, was a member of the club, I immediately went with him, between 10 and 11 to-night, to the Leman-street Police-station, where he made a statement as to his whereabouts on Saturday evening which was completely satisfactory.
SHOCKING DISCOVERY IN
WESTMINSTER.
SUPPOSED MURDER AND MUTILATION
OF A WOMAN.
About twenty minutes past three o'clock yesterday afternoon a carpenter named Frederick Wildborn, employed by Messrs. J. Grover and Sons, builders, of Pimlico, who are the contractors for the new Metropolitan Police headquarters on the Thames Embankment, was working on the foundation, when he came across a neatly done up parcel, which was secreted in one of the cellars. Wildborn was in search of timber when he found the parcel, which was tied up in paper and measures about two and a half feet long by about two feet in width. It was opened, and the body of a woman, very much decomposed, was found carefully wrapped in a piece of cloth, which is supposed to be a black petticoat. The trunk was minus the head, both arms, and both legs, and present a ghastly spectacle. The officials of the works were immediately apprised of the discovery, and the police were fetched. Dr. Bond, the divisional surgeon to the A division, and several other medical gentlemen were communicated with, and subsequently examined the remains, which were handed over to the care of some police officers, who were told off to see that it was not disturbed. From what can be ascertained the conclusion has been arrived at by the medical men that these remains are those of the woman whose arms have recently been discovered in different parts of the metropolis. Dr. Nevill, who examined the arm of a woman found a few weeks ago in the Thames, off Ebury-bridge, said on that occasion that he did not think that it had been skillfully taken from the body, and this fact would appear to favour the theory that that arm, together with the one found in the grounds of the Blind Asylum in the Lambeth-road last week, belong to the trunk discovered yesterday, for it is stated that the limbs appear to have been taken off in anything but a skilful manner from the body found yesterday afternoon. The building which is in course of erection in [is] the new Police Depot for London; the present scattered headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Force and the Criminal Investigation Department in Great Scotland-yard and Whitehall-place having been found too small for the requirement of our police system, the builders have been working on the site for some considerable time now, but have only just completed the foundation. It was originally the site for the National Opera House, and extends from the Thames Embankment through to Cannon-row, Parliament-street, at the back of St. Stephen's Club and the Westminster-bridge Station on the District Railway. To place the body where it was found, the person conveying it must have scaled the eight-feet hoarding which encloses the works, and in doing so have avoided the watchmen who do duty by night. There appears to be little doubt that the parcel had been in the cellar for some considerable time.
A man employed upon the works who was one of the first to see the remains has made the following statement: "I went down into one of the cellars, which is about 20ft. by 15ft. in size, to look round, when I saw a parcel lying in a corner, as though it had been thrown there carelessly. I might say that the cellar is really a part of the half-finished basement of what are to be the new police offices. The parcel was a paper one, which could be easily carried under the arm. When the parcel was opened I saw that it contained the trunk of a woman wrapped up in a cloth. In cutting off the legs a portion of the abdomen had been cut away. The head and arms were also cut off close to the trunk. The police have been digging up rubbish and any place where it seems likely any more remains could be hidden, but I don't think they have found anything more. The contents of the parcel were very much decomposed, and looked to me as though they had been in the place where they were found for three weeks or a month." Another workman who has a thorough knowledge of the facts connected with the finding of the ghastly remains has made the following statement:-"As one of our carpenters was putting away his tools at about five o'clock last (Monday) night in one of the vaults which are to form the foundation of the main building of the new offices which are to accommodate the police he saw what seemed to be a heap of paper. As it is very dark in this particular spot, even during the day, the matter somehow did not appear to strike him as curious or out-of-the-way, his passing thoughts being that it was merely a bundle of canvas which was used on the works. He consequently mentioned the matter to no one, and having left his tools came away and went home. This (Tuesday) morning, when he went to fetch his tools, he became aware of a very peculiar smell proceeding from the dark corner, but at the time made no attempt to ascertain the cause. The matter however, had taken possession of his mind, and later on in the day he mentioned the circumstance to one or two of his fellow-workmen. They at once decided to tell the foreman. This was done, and the foreman, accompanied by some of the men, proceeded to the spot. One of the labourers was called to shift the parcel. It was then opened, and the onlookers were horrified to find that it contained a human body. The legs, arms, and head were missing, and the body presented a most sickening spectacle. It had evidently been dead for many days, as decomposition was far advanced. I never saw such a dreadful sight in my life. After we had got over the first surprise we sent for the police, and a doctor was also sent for. We could see that the body was that of a full grown woman, and when the doctor came he said the same thing. Almost immediately after that Dr. Bond, of the Middlesex Hospital, came and saw the body. He found that it was very brown, and I believe he said that it was the body from which the arms found in the Thames a few days ago had been cut. The body was wrapped in what looked like part of an old black dress of very common material, and it is a very strange thing that other parts of the same dress have been found in other parts of the yard. The police took possession of the remains, and gave orders that no stranger was to be admitted to the enclosure. The body could not have been where we found it above two or three days, because men are frequently passing the spot. The place is very dark, and it is possible that it might have escaped notice on that account; but now I come to think of it I know for a fact that it was not there last Friday, because we had occasion to do something at that very spot."
The trunk is pronounced by the medical gentlemen to have belonged to a remarkably fine young woman, and this at once gives good grounds to the theory that it belonged to the body of which the arm found on the 11th ultimo in the Thames, near Grosvenor-road, formed a part. It will be remembered that on that date the right arm of a woman was discovered in the river, and upon Dr. Neville having it submitted to him for inspection he pronounced it to have belonged to a woman of apparently from 25 to 30 years of age. This limb had been in the water for about three days, so that if yesterday's discovery is connected with it the date of the murder would be somewhere about the 8th of September. Dr. Neville, the Divisional Police Surgeon for Pimlico, who examined the arms of a woman found in the Thames as above stated on the 11th September, has not yet been called to see the body, neither does he expect to be called. He states that in his opinion the time which Dr. Bond allows for the decease of this mutilated victim would agree with his own conclusion that the woman, whoever she may be, had been dead about the same period. Dr. Neville states that there would be no difficulty in ascertaining whether the arm belonged to the remains found yesterday. He came to the conclusion, when he examined the limb submitted to him, that it was that of a big woman. Dr. Bond also avers that the remains submitted to him are those of a woman of no small stature. Since Dr. Neville examined the arm it has been kept in preservation at the Ebury-street Mortuary, and he suggests that by comparing the arm with the trunk it could be discovered without difficulty whether or not they were portions of the same person's body. The same also applies to the arm discovered in Lambeth. At King-street and Scotland-yard the police maintain their usual reticence. They assert that they know nothing except that a body has been found.
THE MOTIVE OF THE MURDERS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY NEWS.
SIR,-If we hold that the East-end murders are the work of a maniac, or rather of a monomaniac, what profiteth this conclusion, so long as it is a mere abstract one? Of itself it brings us no nearer to the sole desideratum-the detection of the murderer. But if an index-finger be pointed, quite tentatively, toward the elucidation of his particular phase of monomania, may it not be that the utterly barren abstractness of the problem shall be sensibly diminished? May one, at all events make the attempt?
Is the monomania, then, a simple thirst for blood? Clearly not. Else the slayer would kill indiscriminately, and not concentrate his ferocity on women, and on one particular class of women.
Is the monomania of the nature of religious fanaticism; possessing "one who believes that he has a commission from on high to destroy, root out and dishonour the kind of women-sinners whom he so persistently selects?" If so, why should not the slayer content himself with the simple act of life-taking? Why should he proceed to mutilation in which on this hypothesis, there seems no shadow of purpose.
Again, if his monomania urges him simply toward the extermination of loose women, why should he kill only the poor and shabby of the sisterhood? Why should he not occasionally direct his steel against the higher grades of the wretched profession-the "gay women" who flaunt other parts of London? Assuming him to be so mean of attire as to be flouted by these comparative aristocrats of vice, why does he use Whitechapel and its vicinage as his exclusive shambles? If his single aim were prostitute-murder in a seclusion offering an all but certainty of immunity from detection, there are innumerable regions in this metropolis haunted by possible victims offering greater opportunities than does teeming Whitechapel. The parks of nights are fringed by poor creatures plying their sad avocation, whose bosky resorts are out of ken, even of the infrequent policemen. The edges of Hampstead have their sorry night-birds; London Fields are not destitute of nocturnal prowlers; even the lonely lanes about Fulham are not pure from this contamination. But this murderous monomaniac goes afield nowhither; he has restricted himself wholly to the East-end, and to one particular narrow area of that wide-lying region.
We have then a murdering monomaniac who murders only loose women, and these of the poorer grade; who confines his deadly operations to Whitechapel and its environs, and who savagely mutilates as well as slays; who further is not apparently actuated by fanaticism.
Do these limitations and characteristics avail us anything? Suppose his lunacy is the lunacy of revenge, possibly complicated by physical disease. Clearly he is a man familiar with the geography of the Whitechapel purlieus. Clearly he is a man not unaccustomed in the manner of accosting these poor women as they are wont to be accosted. Clearly he is a man to whom the methods of the policeman are not unknown-the measured pace, the regular methodic round, the tendency to woodenness and unalertness of perception which are the characteristics of that well-meaning individual. He knows his crowd, too. How easy-given a certain unostentatious shabbiness of aspect and raiment-to pass and repass among a population strangely self-centered, because of a common and universal poverty. He may have been in every throng that gathered around every victim; he may have been a frequenter of the inquest-rooms; aye, he may have volunteered in identification enterprises.
Probably, a dissolute man, he fell a victim to a specific contagion, and so seriously that in the sequel he lost his career. What shape the deterioration may have taken, yet left him with a strong, steady hand, a brain of devilish coolness, and an active step, is not to be defined. Medical men know how varied, how penetrating, how obstinate are its phases.
It is a curious fact that some men are so constituted as to conceive and foster a bitter hate and furious rancour against the hapless creatures involved. Just as I have heard the British soldier wounded in action rave with oaths for the blood of the individual foe who had unwittingly struck him down from a far-off distance, so I have over and over again heard him denounce the most venomous anathemas on an unfortunate woman. Others I have heard use terms not less strong against the whole class.
The man's physical health ruined and his career broken, he has possibly suffered specific brain damage as well. At this moment-I cannot use exact professional terms-there may be mischief to one of the lobes of the brain. Or he may have become insane simply from anguish of body and distress of mind. Any how he is mad, and his mania, rising from the particular to the general, takes the fell form of revenge against the class, a member of which has wrought him his blighting hurt, against, too, the persons of that class plying in Whitechapel, since it was from a Whitechapel loose woman that he took his scathe. And so he falls a-killing of them, and of none other of the lieges in Whitechapel or elsewhere. And when he kills, he mutilates, always in the same specific and significant manner, his maniacal impulses of revenge inspiring his semi-scientific butcher work. A wounded wild beast crunches the spear that has stricken him.
Let it be noted, finally, that his work with the knife proves him to possess some knowledge of anatomy. The medical schools of the hospitals have a large attendance, and perhaps it would be futile to inquire whether any one connected with these beneficent institutions may have a vague memory of an excitable, impressionable student whose career had been arrested and whose hopes had been blighted by such a misadventure as I have referred to, whose reason had given way, and in whose mania was the crave that he might have revenge for the mischief that had destroyed him. Between that crave and a monomania stimulating to the acts of the Whitechapel murderer there is no great gulf.-Your obedient servant,
Oct. 2.
ARCHD. FORBES.
NO THEORY.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY NEWS.
SIR,-Will you allow me to say that if the detective police wish to come upon the traces of the Whitechapel murderer they should begin by discarding all theories? It is impossible to have followed the particulars which have been published from day to day in the Daily News without remarking that the police have hitherto been haunted with the spectre of a dirty, unshaven man of forbidding aspect, who wears a felt hat overshadowing his brows, and slinks away when footsteps are approaching. One other detail has seemed till yesterday to be settled beyond all doubt. That is that this bloodstained miscreant lives in low lodging-houses and moves in the same class of life as his unhappy victims. When it is observed that people of this class would not be likely to possess the anatomical knowledge which the assassin has exhibited, the ready answer is that he was perhaps a broken down slaughterman, or, as some have suggested, a post-mortem room hospital porter. In support of this it is pointed out that the anatomical dissection is rough and clumsy, as if even a Liston or a Nelaton could perform surgical operations with skill and neatness in a dark corner and in imminent peril of the gallows. Of course it may be that the assassin is a houseless wanderer and a man of very unprepossessing appearance. He may attire himself in a sombrero or even in a leather apron. But what it is desirable that the police should bear in mind is that he may possibly be nothing of the sort. Suppose, for example, he is a medical man whose mania it is to believe himself a chosen instrument for the destruction of a particular class of sinners. Such a maniac might be expected to be dressed like an ordinary citizen; and might be assumed to have a fairly presentable exterior. He could slink out of a night without attracting attention in his own household, and, could certainly get home again and rid himself of traces of his crime with more facility than any chance inmate of a common lodging house. More pertinent still, while a Mr. Hyde slinking about Whitechapel just now in the small hours of the morning would inevitably have the policeman's bullseye turned upon him before he had got far, a gentleman in a black coat and tall hat would pass unchallenged, and hardly noticed. I need hardly say that I am not suggesting that a local surgeon is the criminal. All I wish to point out is that such a notion is at least as sustainable as the wretched outcast, or the prowling black [mauler] theory. The obvious deduction is that the way to find the Whitechapel assassin is to try all clues, exclude no hypothesis, and in brief, have
NO THEORY.
WOMAN-KILLING NO MURDER.
SIR,-With reference to the eloquent and timely letter on above subject from Mrs. Fenwick Miller, I beg to point out that in your issue of to-day there is what seems to be another instance of the infliction of light sentences for inhuman conduct towards women. I refer to the case of James Henderson, tailor, who violently assaulted an unfortunate woman by striking her three times on the head with a buckthorn stick, causing blood to flow freely, and rendering the poor woman partially insensible, at the same time brutally threatening to "rip her up the same as a few more had been done." Surely a fine of 40s., or a month's imprisonment was an inadequate sentence for such cowardly and ruffianly treatment, yet that was the extent of his punishment. Strange to say Mr. Horace Smith considered the previous good conduct of the prisoner a reason for dealing gently with him. One would think that as he ought to have known better the punishment should have been all the heavier.
Oct. 2.
JUSTICE.
THE BERNER-STREET CASE.-William Seaman, a builder, of 11, Princes-street, was charged with attempting to murder John Simkin, a chemist, of 2, Berner-street, Whitechapel. The evidence was to the effect that on Saturday night, the 8th ult., prisoner entered prosecutor's shop and asked for some ointment and alum. While being served the prisoner suddenly struck prosecutor several blows on the head with a hammer injuring him very much. He had never seen the prosecutor before. Prosecutor's daughter raised an alarm, and a passer-by rushed into the shop, and prisoner was apprehended. When asked what answer he had to the charge, he replied, "I will say nothing." He was committed for trial.
THE ALLEGED THREAT TO STAB AT THE EAST END.-Charles Ludwig, who has been twice remanded on the charge of threatening to stab a woman named Burns and a man named Finlay, at a coffee-stall in Leman-street, Whitechapel, was again brought up before the magistrate at this court. The facts of the case have been several times reported. It was alleged that he pursued Finlay with a knife, and had threatened the woman with a razor. It was now stated that the prisoner, who denied the charges, had fully accounted for himself on the nights of the Whitechapel murders, and he was discharged.
HAMMERSMITH.-STRANGE CONDUCT.-Arthur Williams, whose address was given as Beaconsfield-terrace, Leytonstone, was brought before Mr. Curtis Bennett, on a charge of having been found wandering in High-road, Chiswick, apparently insane.-It appeared that the prisoner went to the Chiswick Police-station and referred to the Whitechapel murders, stating that he knew where to find the man. As he appeared strange in his manner the police detained him.-The prisoner said he did not know what he had done. He made no statement but what he could substantiate.-A written statement was handed to the magistrate, who read it. The following are extracts:-"I am Williams. Will you send to Whitehall-place and tell them that I am going on to Feltham. It is of no use to employ men unless they are men of education. You will find the ordinary constable smoking his pipe, not looking after the Whitechapel murderer. Why do they not pay them a they do in France? . . You will make a good pump if you have a good handle. . . Colonel Warren is no use. Munro is the man to look after them. I know the man well, and will find him out. I do not want the reward, but shall go mad soon if he is not found out. I am off to Hounslow and Feltham at once."-Mr. Curtis-Bennett, after reading the whole of the document, said it was an incoherent statement.-The daughter of the prisoner came forward and stated that her father had a sunstroke, and drink always affected his mind.-The prisoner: I was not drunk yesterday.-The daughter said her father left home on Sunday.-Mr. Curtis-Bennett said he appeared to have wandered to Chiswick. He accepted the prisoner's recognisances for his good behaviour for six months, his friends expressing their willingness to take him home.
MR. MONTAGU WILLIAMS ON EAST-
END LODGING-HOUSES.
At the Worship-street police-court, yesterday, Mary M'Carthy, a powerful young woman, well-known at this court, was charged at the close of the day's business with stabbing Ann Neason in the face.-The prosecutrix said she was deputy of a lodging-house in Spitalfields, and the prisoner was a lodger.-The Magistrate (Mr. Montagu Williams, Q.C.): Is it one of the common lodging-houses one hears of?-Witness: Yes, sir.-Mr. Williams: Then tell me this-How many beds do you make up there?-Witness: Twenty-eight singles and twenty-four doubles.-Mr. Williams: By "doubles," you mean for a man and a woman?-Witness: Yes, sir.-Mr. Williams: And the woman can take any man she likes? You don't know if the couples are married or not?-Witness: No, sir. We don't ask them.-Mr. Williams: Precisely what I thought. And the sooner these lodging-houses are put down the better. They are the haunt of the burglar, the home of the pickpocket, and the hotbed of prostitution. I don't think I can put it stronger than that. It is time the owners of these places who reap large profits from them were looked after.-Witness then continued her evidence, and said that because the prisoner had become quarrelsome the "missus" told her (witness) to refuse the prisoner's money for the future, and the prisoner out of spite stabbed witness in the face and neck with a piece of a skewer.-Mr. Williams: Who's the "missus" you mention?-Witness:--Mrs. Wilmot.-Mr. Williams: Oh, a woman.-She is the owner, then. But she doesn't live there? Witness: No, sir, in Brick-lane.-Mr. Williams: What is she?-Witness: A baker.-Mr. Williams: Has she any more of these common lodging-houses?-Witness: Yes, sir, two in Wentworth-street, close by where I am in George-yard.-Mr. Williams: And how many beds does she provide there?-The prisoner: Sixty or seventy, sir.-Mr. Williams: What is the price of a bed?-Witness: Fourpence and eightpence.-Mr. Williams: Eightpence for a double. Was she a double or single?-Witness: Double.-Mr. Williams: Is she married?-Witness: No, I don't think so.-Mr. Williams: Then the place is a brothel?-The inspector on duty in the Court said that the beds were let for the night.-Mr. Williams: That makes no difference. The witness says that any woman can take any man in there and so long as eightpence is paid no question is asked. What is that but a house carried on for immoral accommodation.-Mr. Enoch Walker, vestry clerk of Shoreditch, said that he had had a good deal of experience with such places, but they could only be touched by one section of the Criminal Law Amendment Act.-Mr. Williams: Then I hope they will not be exempt from future legislation. They are places where, according to the witness, the thief or the criminal can hide all day for the payment of 4d. or 8d[.] for a bed each night. As a magistrate I have made it my business to go over some of these places, and I say that the sooner they are put down the better. In my humble judgment they are about as unwholesome and unhealthy, as well as dangerous to the community as can well be. There are places among them where the police dare not enter, and where the criminal hides all day long. I have seen so much that I hope what I have said will do something to call attention to them.-The prisoner, after the evidence of a police constable had corroborated that of the lodging house deputy, was sentenced to a month's hard labour. She left the dock threatening the prosecutrix.
