The Daily Telegraph
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1888
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POLICE INTELLIGENCE
WESTMINSTER - THE PIMLICO OUTRAGE - John Allison, 52, general dealer, of 123, New-road, Battersea, was brought up before Mr. Biron, Q.C., on remand, charged with attempting to murder Miriam, his wife, by cutting her about the head and body with a chopper at Ranelagh-road, Pimlico, on the morning of the 6th inst. - Mr. W. Doveton Smyth defended. - Mrs. Allison was now able to attend the court. Her head was enveloped in surgical bandages. She corroborated the evidence given at previous hearings. It will be remembered that the prisoner attacked her on the morning of the 6th inst. at the Army and Navy Co-operative Stores manufactory in Ranelagh-road, Pimlico, where she was employed as a shirt-maker. She had left her husband a fortnight previously. Prosecutrix, in reply to the magistrate, said she was compelled to leave the prisoner through his brutality, and he had threatened to kill her before she left him. - Cross-examined by Mr. Smyth: She had been married nine years. Her husband had given way to drink lately , but when he attacked her with the chopper he did not appear to her to be the worse for drink. - Mr. Fredk. W. Parker, house surgeon at St. George's Hospital, stated that he saw Mrs. Allison on her admission to the institution, on the morning of the 6th inst. She was suffering from a scalp wound. Her right hand showed several contused and lacerated wounds. She was also severely bruised about the back, over both shoulder blades, but no bones were fractured. The injuries to the woman might have been produced by some rather blunt instrument, but the bonnet (produced) must have been cut through with a sharp blade. - Cross-examined: The wound on the head was about an inch and a half long. The force of the stroke was broken by the bonnet. He thought the blows on the back must have been given with the blunt side of the chopper. - Mr. Smyth: I presume, sir, that this is a case which you will think it your duty to send elsewhere? - Mr. Biron: Certainly. - After receiving the statutory caution, prisoner said he was very drunk at the time, and he did not recollect much about what had occurred. He called no witnesses at this court. - Mr. Biron committed the prisoner for trial to the Old Bailey for attempted murder.
THAMES - THE POPLAR TRAGEDY - Levi Richard Bartlett, 57, a general dealer, of 248, Manchester-road, Cubitt Town, Poplar, who has only just sufficiently recovered to be brought before the magistrate, was charged with the wilful murder of his wife, Elizabeth Bartlett, on Sunday, the 19th ult., by battering her head in with a hammer and cutting her throat. He was further charged with attempting to commit suicide by cutting his throat on the same day. - Mr. Waters defended. The facts have recently been elicited at a coroner's inquest. On Aug. 19, a few minutes after five a.m., Inspector Crawford, N Division, was called to 248, Manchester-road, the residence of the accused. He went into the first floor front room, where he saw the wife of the prisoner lying on the bed on her right side, and with only one garment on her. She had several wounds on the head from hammer blows and in the neck from stabs. The woman was still alive, but unconscious, and was bleeding. She died at five minutes past seven a.m., never having recovered consciousness. Her clothes were on the rail at the bottom of the bed. There was no evidence of a struggle having taken place. When the inspector first arrived prisoner was lying on the same bed, being held down by four constables, as he was struggling. Dr. Smyth was attending him. He had a wound in the neck. He was sent in custody to the hospital. On Sept. 3 an inquest was held on the dead woman, and the coroner's jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against prisoner. When told he would be charged with wilfully murdering his wife and attempting to commit suicide, prisoner said, "All right." - Mr. Lushington remanded the accused, and ordered that he should be removed to Holloway Gaol in a cab.
LAMBETH. - CHARGE OF ATTEMPTED MURDER. - Thomas Joseph Hoberfield, 63, described as a tailor, was brought up on remand, accused of attempting to murder his daughter, Jane Hoberfield, by cutting her throat with a razor at 268, Kennington-road, on the 13th inst. Some evidence in connection with the case has already appeared, and it was not until now that the young woman was able to attend the court. She appeared greatly distressed, and during the time she was giving her evidence the prisoner cried bitterly, and was evidently very ill. - The daughter deposed that on the day in question she was in the back parlour, which was used as a kitchen. When she entered, her father was leaning on the mantelshelf. She said, as usual, "Good morning, father. How are you?" He looked very white and ill and faint, and said he was no better. She sat down and had a cup of tea, and on getting up her father approached her, her back being towards him. She thought he was coming, as usual, to kiss her. He put his arm round her, and suddenly she felt something sharp on the left side of her throat. She screamed for help, and her father staggered out of the room. - In answer to Mr. Chance, the witness said her father was always most kind and affectionate. - Prisoner (in a pitiful tone): You know it was an accident. - Witness: Yes, father; you are too kind and good to have purposely hurt me. - Mr Chance observed that it was one of the most painful cases he remembered having before him. He was quite satisfied the prisoner did not know what he was doing, and had no intention of harming his daughter. However, he was obliged to commit him for trial. - Hoberfield was then committed to take his trial at the Central Criminal Court.
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THE WHITECHAPEL MURDERS
It has been ascertained that the incident to which Mr. Wynne Baxter, coroner for East Middlesex, so emphatically referred in his summing up of the evidence given at the inquest concerning the death of Annie Chapman, occurred some months since, towards the close of last year. The person who made the singular application, as described, at one of the great London hospitals, and which he repeated at a scientific institution, was for some time a student at the hospital in question, and it is stated he would have been able to procure what he required without incurring any risk. As a matter of fact, according to the experience of demonstrators of anatomy, there is no such value to be attached to what was mentioned by the coroner, who was informed that £20 would be given by the American in every case. In a pecuniary sense there would be no value attaching at all. As a student the applicant must have been conversant with the rules of the dissecting room and with the very strict regulations of the Government in regard to the disposal of post-mortem subjects. He certainly would have excited suspicion by pressing a demand with unusual conditions, the more especially as under proper treatment glycerine, as the medium of preservation, would have been totally unnecessary. This at all events is the view taken by some experts, while others state that the use of glycerine, as opposed to spirits of wine, as a preserving agent would depend to a great extent upon the experiment subsequently intended to be made. Inquiry at the London Hospital, Whitechapel-road, the nearest institution to the scene of the murder, elicited the fact that no applications of the kind indicated have recently been made to the warden or curator of the pathological museum. An opinion was express that an American pathologist would scarcely endeavour to obtain his specimens from London, when the less stringent laws prevailing on the Continent would render his task comparatively easy there. It was stated, however, that a considerable number of Americans, holding medical degrees of more or less value, were in the habit of studying at London pathological museums. On the other hand, if the real object was to add to the practical value of a technical publication in preparation, as alleged, the purposes in view could have been easily attained in America, without the necessity of committing murder. It is the theory, however, of some among those who are well acquainted with the medical details of the recent mysterious deaths in Whitechapel, that the offer of £20 must have become known to some one in the habit of frequenting dissecting rooms, and that, under temptation, this individual had yielded to the impulse of taking life. The circumstances that two murders had been perpetrated in the streets of Whitechapel within a short period without causing much comment would have led, it is supposed, the miscreant to assume that the police protection in the neighbourhood was so insufficient that he might commit a third murder with impunity. Upon the body of Mary Anne Nicholls, the Buck's-row victim, there were indications that the murderer had entertained, but not fully carried out his project, and had had to hurry away to evade discovery. In the case of Annie Chapman, the opportunity was more favourable and the object was attained. Both women had had their throats cut by a left-handed assailant. Although many hospital authorities do not attach very great importance to the story, the police have given due attention to the matter. In their view, however, it does not provide a clue which will facilitate the identification of the murderer.
A man, giving the name of John Fitzgerald, surrendered at Wandsworth Police-station on Wednesday night, and made a statement to the inspector on duty to the effect that he was the murderer of Annie Chapman, in Hanbury-street, Whitechapel. He was afterwards conveyed to Leman-street Police-station. The man, who is a plasterer or a bricklayer's labourer, says he has been wandering from place to place, and is believed to have been more or less under the influence of drink lately. His description does not tally with that given at the inquest by witnesses of a certain man seen on the morning of the murder. It seems that Fitzgerald first communicated the intelligence to a private individual, who subsequently gave its purport to the police. A search was made, and the man was discovered in a common lodging-house at Wandsworth; he is known to have been living recently at Hammersmith. His self-accusation is said to be not altogether clear, and it is even reported that he cannot give the date of the murder, so that the authorities are disinclined to place much reliance on his statements.
WHISTLING FOR THE POLICE
At Portsmouth Police-court, yesterday, a youth of eighteen, named Joseph Woods, the son of a licensed victualler, was placed in the dock on a charge of indecently assaulting Eleanor Candey, a single woman. Prosecutrix stated that she was in Commercial-road shortly after midnight on Tuesday, when she met the prisoner and another man, who accosted her. Prisoner approached her in a very rough manner, and seized her by the waist and the throat, breaking her necklace. He then threw her to the ground and assaulted her. She remonstrated with him, and he thereupon produced a clasp knife, exclaiming "Look at this. I'll put it right through you!" She said "Are you one of the Whitechapel men?" and he replied "Yes, I am." Witness then blew a whistle for the police, and a constable took prisoner's name and address. She had carried a whistle for protection ever since the Whitechapel murders, but she had never used it before this.
The Clerk: You never carry it with you in the day time, I suppose? - Witness: No, sir.
Clerk: Only at night? - Witness: Yes.
Police-sergeant Brading said that he heard the whistle blown, and, seeing the prisoner and the woman near the Waterworks office, asked what was the matter. The woman accused prisoner of having assaulted her, and said that he was the Whitechapel murderer, and had threatened her with an open knife. Finding that he had a knife witness asked him to accompany him to the police-station, where his name and address were taken. On the way prisoner said, "That woman is drunk; I did tell her I was the Whitechapel murderer, but I did not touch her."
The Clerk: You have no reason to suppose that he is the Whitechapel murderer? - Witness: No, sir. (Laughter.)
The Clerk: Was he sober? - Witness: No, he was drunk, but the woman was quite sober.
Addressing the Bench for the defence, Mr. King, solicitor, submitted that the prosecutrix first accosted prisoner, and while they were conversing she mentioned that since the murders she had carried a whistle. He then said, "And I always carry a knife. If you want to know who I am, I am the Whitechapel murderer," whereupon she called the police and alleged that he had illtreated her. He maintained that there was no foundation for the charge, which was entirely without corroboration.
The magistrate dismissed the charge of assault, but bound the defendant over in the sum of £10 to keep the peace, ordering him to find a surety for a like amount.
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Thomas Joseph Hoberfield, tailor, was again charged at the Lambeth Police-court, yesterday, with attempting to murder his daughter by cutting her throat with a razor. The young woman, who cried bitterly while giving her evidence, said he father was always kind and affectionate, and she was sure he would not purposely hurt her. Mr. Chance observed that he was satisfied the prisoner did not know what he was doing, but he was obliged to commit him for trial. This was accordingly done.
Levi Richard Bartlett, a general dealer at Poplar, was remanded by Mr. Lushington, at the Thames Police-court yesterday, on the charge of wilfully murdering his wife and attempting to commit suicide.
