THE WHITECHAPEL FIEND IN AN ASYLUM
London, March 8.
The fact has been developed, although so far it has been kept a profound secret, that the authorities have got on the track of Jack the Ripper. The information leaks out from Scotland yard, and has been guardedly confirmed by a leading officer of the metropolitan police. The atrocious criminal it is said, is an inmate of the government asylum at Dartmoor, in which he was incarcerated within a few weeks after the last Whitechapel horror, the authorities having no knowledge of his antecedents at the time of his committal as an insane pauper with homicidal tendencies. The Scotland yard authorities have possession of the knife, which is of Chinese make, with which the Whitechapel murders were committed. They are also familiar with the Ripper's movements during the intervals between the murders, and have been able to trace him to the asylum after his last crime.
Although pronounced incurably insane by the asylum physicians the man has a clear recollection of the past, and all his conversations and remarks have reference to his crimes in the East End. Correspondence has passed between the government criminal department and the asylum authorities relative to the murderer's condition, and as to whether now or at any time in the near future he is or will be likely to be sufficiently rational to be placed on trial. The result of these inquiries has not yet been disclosed.
