The Eastern Post & City Chronicle
Saturday, 21 September 1889.
A REPORT having been current that a man has been found who is quite convinced that "Jack the Ripper" occupied rooms in his house, and that he had communicated his suspicions in the first instance to Dr. Forbes Winslow, together with detailed particulars, a reporter had an interview with the doctor on Thursday afternoon on the subject. "Here are "Jack the Ripper's boots," said the doctor, at the same time taking a large pair of boots from under his table. "The tops of these boots are composed of ordinary cloth material, while the soles are made of indiarubber. "The tops have great bloodstains on them." The reporter put the boots on, and found they were completely noiseless. Besides these noiseless coverings the doctor says he has the "Ripper's" ordinary walking boots, which are very dirty, and the man's coat, which is also bloodstained. Proceeding, Dr. Winslow said that on the morning of August 30th a woman with whom he was in communication was spoken to by a man in Worship Street, Finsbury. He asked her to come down a certain court with him, offering her £1. This she refused, and he then doubled the amount, which she also declined. He next asked her where the court led to, and shortly afterwards left. She told some neighbours, and the party followed the man for some distance. Apparently, he did not know that he was being followed, but when he and the party had reached the open street he turned around, raised his hat, and with an air of bravado said: "I know what you have been doing; good morning." The woman then watched the man into a certain house, the situation of which the doctor would not describe. She previously noticed the man because of his strange manner, and on the morning on which the woman Mackenzie was murdered (July 17th) she saw him washing his hands in the yard of the house referred to. He was in his shirt-sleeves at the time, and had a very peculiar look upon his face. This was about four o' clock in the morning. The doctor said he was now waiting for a certain telegram, which was the only obstacle to his effecting the man's arrest. The supposed assassin lived with a friend of Dr. Forbes Winslow's, and this gentleman himself told the doctor that he had noticed the man's strange behaviour. He would at times sit down and write 50 or 60 sheets of manuscript about low women, for whom he professed to have a great hatred. Shortly before the body was found in Pinchin Street last week the man disappeared, leaving behind him the articles already mentioned, together with a packet of manuscript, which the doctor said was in exactly the same handwriting as the Jack the Ripper letters which were sent to the police. He had stated previously that he was going abroad, but a very few days before the body was discovered (Sept. 10) he was seen in the neighbourhood of Pinchin Street. The doctor is certain that this man is the Whitechapel murderer, and says that two days at the utmost will see him in custody. He could give a reason for the head and legs of the last murdered woman being missing. The man, he thinks, cut the body up, and then commenced to burn it. He had consumed the head and legs when his fit of the terrible mania passed, and he was horrified to find what he had done. "I know for a fact," said the doctor, "that this man is suffering from a violent form of religious mania, which attacks him and passes off at intervals. I am certain that there is another man in it besides the one I am after, but my reasons for that I cannot state. The police will have nothing to do with the capture. I am making arrangements to station six men round the spot where I know my man is, and he will be trapped." The public had laughed at him, the doctor went on to say, but on the Tuesday before the last body was discovered he had received information that a murder would be committed in two or three days. In conclusion Dr. Winslow remarked, "I am as certain that I have the murderer as I am of being here."
The chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, Mr. Albert Backert, states that the police at Leman Street Station, having received a letter stating that it has been ascertained that a tall, strong woman has for some time been working at different slaughter-houses, attired as a man, searching enquiries were made on Thursday morning at the slaughter-houses in Aldgate and Whitechapel by the police. It is presumed that this has something to do with the recent Whitechapel murders, and it has given rise to a theory that the victims may have been murdered by a woman. It is remarked that in each case there is no evidence of a man being seen in the vicinity at the time of the murder.
