The Daily Telegraph
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1888
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POLICE INTELLIGENCE
MARYLEBONE - A DRUNKEN HUSBAND. Walter Henry Knott, 25, a house painter, was charged with being drunk and disorderly, and making use of bad language; also with assaulting the police. The evidence was that the prisoner went to No. 10, Fordwych-road, West Hampstead, on Tuesday night, and, opening the scullery window, called to his wife, who was servant there, and was with her mistress in the kitchen. The mistress became alarmed because of the language the man was using, and she gave the servant permission to let him in, and she herself went upstairs. The accused continued his bad language, and threatened to give his wife the "Whitechapel rip," and followed that up by attempting to hit her. She ran up the kitchen stairs and locked the door at the top, and Mr. Gibson, a gentleman lodger, went for a policeman, who went into the kitchen and ordered the prisoner out. The latter refused, struck him several times, and threw him down. A severe struggle ensued, and at last Knott was ejected from the house. Outside he again assaulted the constable. Assistance having been obtained, the prisoner was got to the station with great difficulty. - Mr. Bower, the magistrate's clerk, informed the magistrate that there was a summons pending against the prisoner for ill-treating his wife, which the officer had not been able to serve. - Mr. Newton said he would hear that case at once. - The wife then told a very pitiful story. She was married to the prisoner five years' ago, since which time he had done scarcely any work, and she had to go into service to earn her living, and help to support him. He had been most cruel to her, and had threatened her life many times. At this court he had been bound over to keep the peace towards her. The prisoner had made disgraceful suggestions as to her conduct, but there was not a word of truth in them. He was in favour of her going to her situation, and had twice gone there and received half-sovereigns from her. On Sept. 6 he went to where she was employed, and behaved so badly that her mistress was terrified, and she had to go to the police-station about him. On the way the accused told her that if he got one day's imprisonment through her he would do for her when he came out. She was in fear of her life. - The constable, recalled, said he heard the man threaten to rip his wife up. - Assistant-gaoler Barrett stated that the prisoner was fined £3, or twenty-one days' imprisonment, last year for assaulting the police. - Mr. Newton fined the defendant 40s, or one month's imprisonment; and after that to find two sureties in £5 each to keep the peace for three months.
WORSHIP-STREET. - UNPROFITABLE CUSTOMERS. Walter Evans, 40, refusing his name and address, and Francis Sims, 39, tailor, of Brunswick-street, Hackney, were accused of feloniously obtaining a sum of 19s 6d by means of a trick, with intent to defraud Samuel Brewster. - The prosecutor is the landlord of The Star public-house, City-road, and it appeared from the evidence of his manager, Alfred brown, that shortly before nine o'clock on Tuesday evening the prisoners entered and called for liquor. Evans laid down a sovereign in payment, and the witness had put it in the till, when Sims called out, "No, I'll pay; give him his sovereign back." and the witness did so. The men then disputed for a moment which should pay, and finally Evans again put down a coin, and said, "Well, take it out of the sovereign." The witness accepted it without a second look, put it in the till and gave 19s 6d change. The prisoners then hurried out without waiting for 3d more due to them. The witness was next minute spoken to by Detective Fordham, G Division, and examined the till. No sovereign was there, and it became evident to him that during the seeming dispute Evans had substituted a shilling for the sovereign. Fordham had, it seemed, with Detective Sergeant Merroney, been watching the prisoners, and had entered the prosecutor's house and witnessed the last operation from another bar. With Merroney's help he apprehended the men, who resisted. Evans had the sovereign in his mouth and 26s in silver in his pocket. Sims had a stick for picking up money from behind public-house bars. - Mr. Saunders remanded the prisoners.
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THE GATESHEAD MURDER. - William Waddle, charged with the murder of Jane Beetmoor, at Birtley, near Gateshead, on Sept. 22, was brought before the Chester-le-Street magistrates yesterday morning. Mr. Thomas Lambert, who has charge of the prosecution on behalf of the Treasury, explained that the coroner's inquest still stood adjourned, and asked in the interest of the prosecution and the defence alike that the prisoner should be remanded. Superintendent Harrison gave formal evidence, and said he hoped to be able to go on with the case on the 25th inst., the day following the adjourned inquest. The prisoner was then formally remanded for eight days.
THE LONDON TRAGEDIES.
Although the police are unremitting in following up supposed clues, no arrests calculated to throw light on the recent outrages were made yesterday. It was stated in the course of the day that the supposed murderer had been apprehended at Chingford, but, whatever grounds of suspicion may have existed, they were insufficient to justify the man's detention, and the police at Leman-street station were not even communicated with. Last evening there was not a single prisoner suspected of the murder in custody at the East-end police-stations, a state of things which is the exact opposite of that prevailing for the first few days after the perpetration of the Mitre-square and Berner-street crimes. This is in no way owing to the apathy of the authorities, who are more than ever on the alert, but to the fact that the excitement in the Whitechapel district is abating, and that persons whose conduct may not be altogether explicable are being subjected to close scrutiny, rather than hastily given into custody on the off-chance of their connection with the recent murders.
The man arrested at Chingford has been released, the police having satisfied themselves that he could have had nothing to do with the Whitechapel murders.
Sir Alfred Kirby, colonel of the Tower Hamlets Fusiliers, recently made an offer to provide thirty or fifty men belonging to that regiment for service in connection with tracking the perpetrator of the Whitechapel and Aldgate tragedies. The Home Secretary has just written to Sir Alfred, saying that, having consulted Sir Charles Warren, he had come to the conclusion that it would not be advisable to put the men on for service.
At Dalston Police-court, yesterday, William Griffiths, a young man in a velvet-cord suit, described as a general dealer, of 1, Mildmay-avenue, Islington, was charged, before Mr. R. W. Bros, with being drunk and disorderly at Essex-road, at one o'clock yesterday morning. - Police-constable 200 J deposed that last night he was on duty in Essex-road, when the prisoner came to him and said, "I want to be taken to the police-station. If you don't take me I shall murder somebody to-night. I am 'Jack the Ripper,'" At the same time he produced a large pocket-knife. He did not open it, but made an attempt to do so. Witness told prisoner to go home, but he went into a neighbouring public-house. Coming out again, he fell down. Witness, thinking he was in a fit, picked him up, and then, finding he was drunk, got assistance and took him to the police-station. In reply to the magistrate, prisoner said he was very sorry. It was a drunken freak, and he had no intention of injuring any one. - The magistrate observed that it was a very foolish act, and prisoner must find one surety in £5 to keep the peace for three months, or go to prison for twenty-one days.
