Decatur Daily Republican
Illinois, U.S.A.
25 April 1891

New York, April 25.
Jack the Ripper is believed by the police to have at last come to this city. This morning in the East River hotel the body of a wretched woman was found with her abdomen horribly cut and her bowels protruding. Her name is not known. The resort in which her body was found is one of the lowest in the city. It is located on the southwest corner of Catherine and Market streets. The woman was known about the neighborhood as one of the half drunken creatures who hang about the low resorts of Water street and the river side. She went to the hotel in company with a man who registered as Knickloi and wife. The couple were assigned to a room on the upper floor and retired to it at once. Nothing was seen or heard of them during the night. No cry or unusual noise was heard. This morning the attendant rapped on the door of the room occupied by the couple. There was no answer, and he rapped again with no better result, and finally broke in the door. A horrible sight met his gaze. On the bed lay the woman in a big pool of blood. She had been dead for hours. Her abdomen had been fairly ripped open with a dull, broken table knife that lay in the pool of blood. The viscera had been cut and from appearances a part was missing.

The woman's head was bandaged. A cloth had been tied about her neck and face, but whether for any foul purpose or to hide any other traces of murder the attendant did not wait to see. He gave the alarm at the office and a messenger was hastily dispatched to the police station. The police responded at once, and after viewing the body the captain of the precinct in which the murder was committed lost no time in notifying police headquarters of the horrible tragedy, and in a short while Inspector Byrnes had three of his sharpest detectives on the case.

No one had seen the man since he went upstairs with the murdered woman. He had escaped under the cover of night when the bloody deed was done. A very imperfect description was given of him to the police, and they went to work with much secrecy to unearth the murder (sic). The little that could be learned about the man was that he was shabbily dressed and was about 32 years old. At noon a detective arrested an old crony of the dead woman, but she was too drunk to tell what she knew. She was locked up to sleep off the effects of her liquor, and the police hope that she will at least give them some further clew. The house in which the tragedy was committed is guarded on all sides, and no one is allowed to approach the upper floors.

The coroner found the woman's petticoat tied securely around her head. After this was taken off a sheet was found, and below this the woman's chemise was tied around her head with one of her stockings. The face was indented by the force of the bandages. On the woman's back, near the base of the spine, the mark of a cross had been made with the knife. Similar marks were found on the bodies of the London victims of Jack the Ripper.

The police are straining every nerve to apprehend the murderer. Four central office detectives have been detailed to aid the ward detectives in the matter and a search is being made of all the downtown lodging houses to ascertain whether any stranger had taken a room subsequent to the perpetration of the awful butchery. The murdered woman has been positively identified as an all night "rounder" of many years' standing in the district where the crime was committed, which is similar in many respects to the Whitechapel district of London. Though the woman's real name could not be ascertained, it was learned that she was known as "Shakespeare" among her associates. This sobriquet was applied to her because of the fluent way in which she repeated the lines of the great bard. She was a handsome woman, with striking features of a roman cast and a form of remarkable symmetry for a woman of her age. There are even traces of refinement visible beneath the marks left by a life of dissipation.

The place in which the woman's life was ended is known to the residents in the locality as the "house of all drinks." It has a bad reputation and is probably one of the worst of its class. The police say that numerous crimes have been committed within its portals, and only recently the bartender was arrested for cutting a man down with a sabre.

The woman was identified last night by Mary Harrington, who keeps a lodging house on Oliver street, as Carrie Brown.

At 10 o'clock last night two detectives arrested a young Frenchman, who is called "Frenchy." It is claimed that Frenchy was seen with the Brown woman on Thursday night at about 10 o'clock. This is strenuously denied. He was locked up. Altogether the police, up to midnight, had arrested four men and seven women who are supposed to be able to throw light upon the affair.