It would be impossible for any pen to do justice to a description of the excitement which prevailed in Whitechapel and its immediate neighbourhood all yesterday, from the time that the first news of these fresh horrors was bruited about until long after midnight. Terror and amazement were depicted in almost every face that one met in the streets of that now notorious district. I moved about the dense throngs which had grown to enormous proportions as the day wore on and whose numbers seemed to culminate in the afternoon, when people came trooping in from distant parts athirst for the latest news bearing upon these awful tragedies. Trains, trams, and omnibuses disgorged their hundreds of passengers, who wended their way to the two localities, which have, for the moment, put Buck's-row and Hanbury-street into the shade.
Has taken possession of the entire district, and its effects are to be seen in the wild, terrified faces of the women, and heard in the muttered imprecations of the men who have their homes in the densely populated streets of the East End. The very lads, ready at all times for ribald jest, and noisy horse-play, stood around in awe-struck groups, whispering to each other of the fiendish things that were happening, just as one could have supposed the people stood and talked in Goodman's Fields, near by, more than two centuries ago when the Black Death claimed some of its first victims.
"God help us," exclaimed a poor creature, whose tawdry dress and hardened countenance indicated all too clearly the wretched calling she pursued. "If the human devil who murdered all these women isn't caught, and that pretty soon, too? Why, I might be next! It makes my blood run cold."
She was standing, as she spoke, gazing down the alley leading into Mitre-square, and from whence could be seen the corner where the policeman had stumbled upon the body of the murdered woman, and at her words other women drew their shawls closer around them with a shudder at the thought of the hideous vendetta which is being waged upon their sex and class.
That was the question that assailed one's ears on every hand. It seems incredible that, within the short space of twelve minutes, a man and woman should have entered the deserted precincts of Mitre-square, that the man should have murdered his victim, disemboweled her with the same unerring skill and a precisely similar result to that achieved in the case of Annie Chapman, and should have made his escape from the scene, without being seen at all. He must, when he hurried away after accomplishing his devilish purpose, have been reeking with blood. And yet the policeman on the beat is positive that he saw nothing of either the man or the woman within those twelve short minutes until he came upon the latter weltering in her blood.
After having seen all that was to be seen in and around Mitre-square, I came away more than ever impressed with the deliberate, inhuman cunning of the monster who is still abroad in our midst, and who has added those two latest horrors to the ghastly record of his crimes. Mitre-square is quite out of the beaten track, is surrounded by warehouses and shops, and would be as deserted at midnight as though it lay in the centre of Salisbury Plain. No safer place, apparently, could possibly have been selected for the commission of such an awful crime, and the murderer, whoever he is, must have been familiar with that fact. It does not seem possible that accident could have led him to a spot so pre-eminently suited to his deadly purpose. The police, moreover, declare that they have never known the place used for the purposes for which these wretched women court secrecy.
Making the best of my way through the dense mass of people wedged in the narrow space of Duke-street, Houndsditch, I strolled along to Berner-street.
I found the street literally packed with people of both sexes, all ages, and nearly all classes. Clubmen from the West-end rubbed shoulders with the grimy denizens of St. George's-in-the-East: daintily dressed ladies, whom a wondering curiosity had drawn to the spot, elbowed their way amid knots of their less favoured sisters, whose dirty and ragged apparel betokened the misery of their daily surroundings. Policemen were there in great numbers, jealously guarding the approach to the yard in which the murdered women was found. I may mention that the same thing (the number of police on duty) struck me in passing Mitre-square, reminding one irresistibly of the old adage about locking the stable door after the steed has been stolen.
"It's a pity some of you fine chappies wasn't about 'ere larst night," said a morose individual who had been ordered to move on. "You'd a-done a deal more good than shovin' innercent folks hoff the pavement this arternoon." Then, in a jeering tone, "When do you expect you'll ketch the murderer, sonny?"
"Ketch the murderer?" laughed another dilapidated onlooker. "Not till they puts a 'bobby' to sit upon hevery doorstep in Vitechapel. And then 'alf on 'em will be asleep."
These taunts, and the manner in which they were received by the crowd, show how utterly the poor creatures in that neighbourhood have lost confidence in police protection. I shall never forget the aspect of that street, yesterday afternoon. The intense excitement, the vast swaying throng of eager, and, for the most part, terrified faces, the murmur of the hundreds of voices, the frantic struggles to get as near as possible to the scene of the sickening tragedy, all made it utterly impossible for one to realize that it was the afternoon of a Christian sabbath in the capital of the most civilized and religious country in the world.
Some three doors from the gateway where the body of the first victim was discovered, I saw a clean, respectable-looking woman chatting with one or two neighbours. She was apparently the wife of a well-to-do artisan, and formed a strong contrast to many of those around her. I got into conversation with her and found that she was one of the first on the spot.
"I was just about going to bed, sir, when I heard a call for the police. I ran to the door, and before I could open it I heard somebody say, 'Come out quick; there's a poor woman here that's had ten inches of cold steel in her.' I hurried out, and saw some two or three people standing in the gateway. Lewis, the man who looks after the Socialist Club at No. 40, was there, and his wife.
"Then I see a sight that turned me all sick and cold. There was the murdered woman a-lying on her side, with her throat cut across till her head seemed to be hanging by a bit of skin. Her legs was drawn up under her, and her head and the upper part of her body was soaked in blood. She was dressed in black as if she was in mourning for somebody.
"Did you hear no sound of quarrelling, no cry for help?" I asked.
"Nothing of the sort, sir. I should think I must have heard it if the poor creature screamed at all, for I hadn't long come in from the door when I was roused, as I tell you, by that call for the police. But that was from the people as found the body. Mr. Lewis, who travels in cheap drapery things a bit now and again, had just drove into the yard when his horse shied at something that was lying in the corner. He thought 'twas a bundle of some kind till he got down from his cart and struck a light. Then he saw what it was and gave the alarm."
"Was the street quiet at the time?"
"Yes, there was hardly anybody moving about, except at the club. There was music and dancing going on there at the very time that that poor creature was being murdered at their very door, as one may say."
" I suppose you did not notice a man and woman pass down the street while you were at the door?"
"No, sir. I think I should have noticed them if they had. Particularly if they'd been strangers, at that time o' night. I only noticed one person passing, just before I turned in. That was a young man walking up Berner-street, carrying a black bag in his hand."
"Did you observe him closely, or notice anything in his appearance?"
"No, I didn't pay particular attention to him. He was respectably dressed, but was a stranger to me. He might ha' been coming from the Socialist Club., A good many young men goes there, of a Saturday night especially."
That was all that my informant had to tell me. I wonder will the detectives think it worth while to satisfy themselves about that black bag?
The East-end fiend is still abroad and two other victims have become his prey. On Sunday morning a woman was found with her throat cut and her body partially mutilated in a court in Berner-street, Whitechapel, close by the International Club situated in that locality. The discovery seems to have been made at one in the morning by Lewis Diemschitz, the steward of the club. Another member of the club, Mr. Morris Eagle, had passed through the court at twenty minutes to one, and had not seen anything unusual near the premises. Even if it was too dark to see the body of this woman it is impossible to suppose that Morris Eagle would not have tripped over it had it been there when he went into the club. The inference is therefore this: if the woman was murdered and mutilated where she was found, the deed was done in the short period of twenty minutes - the deed was done in the time which the police surgeon said a medical expert would take to do it. The residents in the court know nothing about the murder. Neither they nor the people in the club heard or had seen anything that led them to suspect that foul play was going on around them. About three-quarters of an hour after this corpse was found, another was discovered in Mitre-square, Aldgate. It was that of a woman with her throat cut, but in her case the inevitable abdominal mutilation had been accomplished. A watchman was on duty in a counting-house in the square at the time the assassin was operating. Firemen were also on duty at a station close by. Yet nobody heard or saw anything likely to rouse suspicion. The silence and secrecy in which the atrocities were perpetrated wrap them in an impenetrable veil of mystery for the moment. As in former cases the murderer seems to have been almost miraculously successful in securing his retreat. His success in this respect seems to indicate a wonderful power of combination and organisation - an amazing gift for calculating the chances against the success of his schemes or purposes. In fact, the similarity of the murders leads to the conclusion that they have been committed by the one man or the one gang. The worst of it is that we do not know what a "gang" may mean. It might mean an organisation of great extent, or only the partnership between a criminal and his "pal." Recent events seem to suggest that there is more than one individual in the horrid business.
The public cannot fail to be impressed with one fact-the apparent bravado of the assassin. He seems to revel in brutality-and the more energetic the police become in tracking him, the more contemptuously does he defy their efforts. At first he seems to have lost nerve at the critical part of his operation. Now he holds the fancied interruptions of the police patrol in contempt, and commits his murder, and hacks his victim's body, almost within their sight and hearing. Nay, he does this in spite of the fact that Sir Charles Warren has trebled his patrols in the region of the murders, and that it is under the close supervision of a vigilance committee. Cui bono? The assassin it is clear can baffle all ordinary means of detection, and till he commits a singular act of indiscretion-which murderers usually do sooner or later-it appears to use very unlikely that he will ever be discovered. If he has a "pal" that will increase the chance of detection. If he has many and is a member of a gang, his secret will probably be betrayed when a suitable reward is offered as "blood money." The revolting details of the last murders need not be specified here.
We need not say that no plausible explanation of these crimes is as yet forthcoming. The new feature in them is the fact that one followed the other within the space of three-quarters of an hour. All the old features are present, The (sic) victims are women of the same class. As women of this sort are now on the alert in Whitechapel, we may infer that the assassin must appeal to them in some way that disarms suspicion. In other words, he cannot suggest by his appearance that he is a bloodthirsty miscreant. Hence the police are justified in coming to the conclusion that whoever he may be, he is not a person of the "Leather Apron" class. For the rest, all that we know about him is that for some reason he selects one locality as his hunting-ground, that his fixed idea is to obtain possession of a certain portion of a woman's body, and that he perpetrates his atrocities at the end of the week, some time between Friday night and Sunday morning. Here we see a curious element of periodicity in the crime. This suggests the idea that if the murderer be a maniac at once lustful and bloodthirsty, he is a homicidal maniac of the type whose attacks only recur at regular intervals. The idea that he is a medical man, who for scientific purposes wants to obtain certain portions of the human body under unique conditions, is not quite compatible with the facts. Why should he want an indefinite number of specimens? Why should he want them at the end of each week? The notion that he means to sell or issue them as illustrations to a book seems now to be abandoned even by the police. And rightly; for to sell the specimens would be to lose the market for them, and inevitably lead to suspicion being concentrated on the murderer. Sexual insanity, however, is, on the face of the facts, the only intelligible motive of the murder-but then the facts essential for the formation of a sound judgment are at present wanting. There are so few available facts that it is impossible to arrive at a very definite opinion as to the cause of these murders. Meantime the people of the East end are again becoming angry, first, because the police are unable to protect them, and, second, because the Government does not offer a reward for the discovery of the murderer.
Two more ghastly tragedies were, yesterday, added to the appalling list of crimes with which the East-end of London has been associated during the last few months; and there is every reason to believe that the whole series is the work of one man. The first of the two murders was committed in a yard turning out of Berner-street. The body was discovered by a Russian Jew named Diemschitz, about one o'clock yesterday morning, on his return from the neighbourhood of Sydenham, where he had been selling cheap jewellery. He drove into the yard, which is situate (sic) next to a working man's club, of which he is steward, and noticed that his pony shied at something which was lying in a heap in a corner of the yard. Having fetched out a friend from the club, he looked more closely into the matter, and then found a woman lying on the ground, dead, with her throat cut clean to the vertebrae. The body was quite warm, and blood was still flowing freely from the throat, so it is pretty certain that the murder must have been committed within a very few minutes of the time when Diemschitz discovered the body. Indeed, all the facts go to show that it was the arrival of Diemschitz in his trap which disturbed the murderer, and we may safely assume that, but for this disturbance, the miscreant would have proceeded to mutilate the body in a similar way to that in which he mutilated the bodies of the two unfortunate women, Mary Anne Nichols and Annie Chapman. The wound in the throat is almost identical with the throat wounds of the other victims-a savage cut severing the jugular and carotids, and going clean down to the vertebrae. It bears, if we may be permitted to use the phrase, the trade-mark of the man who has so infamously distinguished himself before, and leaves no room for doubt that the three murders were committed by one and the same person.
Having been disturbed in his first attempt, yesterday morning, the murderer seems to have made his way towards the City, and to have met another "unfortunate," whom he induced to go with him to Mitre-square, a secluded spot, lying off Aldgate, and principally occupied by warehouses. He took her to the south-western corner of the square, and there cut her throat, quite in his horribly regulative way, and then proceeded to disembowel her. He must have been extremely quick at his work, for every portion of the police beat in which Mitre-square is included, is patrolled every ten minutes or quarter of an hour, the City beats being much shorter than those of the Metropolitan Police. Police-constable Watkins 881 passed through the square at about 1.30 or 1.35, and is quite certain that it was then in its normal condition. Within a quarter of an hour he patrolled it again, and then found a woman lying in the corner with her throat cut from ear to ear. On closer examination he found that her clothes had been raised up to her chest, and that the lower portion of the body had been ripped completely open from the pelvis to the sternum, and disemboweled, just as were Mrs. Nichols and Annie Chapman. Indeed, this last murder is in its main features an almost exact reproduction of the horrible tragedies of Buck's-row and Hanbury-street, and, humanly speaking, it is absolutely certain that it also was committed by the same man. There were certain deviations from the murderer's ordinary plan, but they are not inexplicable, or very significant. He gashed her face in several places, but there is evidence to show that the woman at the last moment suspected his design, and struggled with him, and it is not improbably that he stabbed her in the face before cutting her throat and committing the other atrocities.
This brief summary of the facts connected with the two tragedies which startled London, yesterday, brings us then face to face with the almost indubitable fact that there exists somewhere in the East-end at this moment, a fiend in human shape, who has committed at least four murders, if not six. The two wretched women-Mary Ann smith and Annie Tabram, who were done to death in George's-yard, and were the first of the East-end victims, may or may not have been murdered by the slaughterer of Mrs. Michols, Mare Annie Chapman, and the two unfortunates whose mangled remains were found yesterday in Berner-street and Mitre-square. In Smith's case the death wound was given by some blunt instrument which was thrust into the lower part of the body, and the woman Tabram was savagely stabbed in thirty-nine places. We may charitably assume that the Whitechapel fiend, whose handiwork we are now describing, had no hand or part in those two crimes; though even on this assumption it is more than probable that the impunity with which these atrocities were committed tempted him to enter upon that more horrible sphere of action in which he is now startling the whole country.
The first murder discovered was that in the little yard in Berner-street, off Commercial-road. About a hundred yards down Berner-street, on the right hand side, are the rooms of the International Working Men's Educational Society, a club used principally by Russians, Poles, and Jews generally. Adjoining in the entrance to the yard, where Messrs. Walter Handley and Co., sack manufacturers, and Mr. Arthur Dutfield, van and cart builder, carry on business. The entrance to the yard is by a double gate. The right hand side of the yard is occupied for some distance by the house occupied as the International Society's Club, which has a private entrance to the yard.
In this yard, almost against the International Club house, the body of the first victim was found. She lay within three feet of the public street along which the public must have been passing at the time. Her feet were towards the gate and her head was in the gutter running down along the yard.
The body was discovered by Mr. Diemschitz, the steward of the club, who had driven into the yard about one o'clock on Sunday morning. The pony he was driving appeared to avoid the north side of the yard, and Mr. Diemschitz imagined there must be some dust heap or something of that sort which his horse was trying to escape. He poked with the butt end of his whip, and found some bulky substance lying near the wall. Striking a match, he saw the body of a woman, and immediately entered the club and gave the alarm. The concert going on in the club was immediately stopped, and the members flocked out to see whether another "Whitechapel horror" had been committed. Their investigation too plainly discovered the fact, and several members started off to communicate with the police. It was nearly two o'clock yesterday morning before a constable was found, and he, along with some comrades who were early at the spot, conveyed the body to the mortuary connected with the workhouse of St. George's-in-the-East.
The yard off Berner-street is almost exactly in front of a Board school, and is immediately adjoining the International Society's rooms. Although Messrs. Handley and Co. and Mr. Dutfield carry on their business there it is not entirely devoted to commercial purposes. The International Club have (sic) an entrance to it, and there are in it three cottages, occupied as dwelling houses by foreigners. People were, therefore, likely to be passing in and out about the time the murder was committed, say shortly after midnight. The inhabitants f these cottages had not then retired to rest. Some of their lights were burning and the International Club were having a concert. The inhabitants of the court, or several of them, were lying awake listening to the German songs. Suddenly the singing was stilled on the announcement made by Mr. Diemschitz.
The woman was found lying on her left side face downwards, her position being such that, although the court at that part is only nine feet wide, a person walking up the middle might have passed the recumbent body without notice. The condition of the corpse, however, and several other circumstances which have come to light, prove pretty conclusively that no considerable period elapsed between the committal of the murder and the discovery of the body. The gates at the entrance to the court having been closed, and a guard set on all the exits of the club and the cottages, the superintendent of the district and divisional surgeon were sent for. In a few minutes Dr. Phillips was at the scene of the murder, and a brief examination sufficed to show that life had been extinct some minutes. Careful note having been taken of the position of the body, it was removed to the parish mortuary.
In her right hand were tightly clasped some grapes, and in her left she held a number of sweetmeats. Both the jacket and the bodice were open towards the top, but in other respects the clothes were not disarranged. The linen was clean and in tolerably good repair.
That any one should have selected for the commission of a murder such a comparatively frequented spot, at such an hour, shows considerable confidence on the part of the murderer that he was able by his dexterity to preclude all possibility of detection.
That the purpose of the assassin of the woman in Berner-street was to extract the uterus is almost certain despite the opinion of Dr. Phillips given further on. This is deduced from the way in which he went about his operations, so identical with what went before and after. He was disturbed in his fiendish operation, and the corpse of the poor woman escaped the horrible indignity of being eviscerated.
The woman now lying at the mortuary of St. George's-in-the-East appears to have been about 30 years of age. It is difficult to judge of the height of a person in a recumbent position, but she appears to have been about middle height. Her features are pinched, like those of one who has suffered want, but her expression is not unpleasant. Her cheek bones have a tendency to prominence, and her nose is sharp and well chiselled, with a slight marking at the bridge, far removed, however, from the protuberance of the Roman organ. Her hair is auburn, her lips thick, the upper one especially so, with that sort of double fold often noticed in lascivious women. She has the appearance of being an Irishwoman, but might be a German. She lies there on the stone with a smile of her pale face, as if she had died without a struggle. Her right hand, however, is encrusted with blood, as if she had tried to thrust her murderer away. Her clothing is described by the police as "Black diagonal cloth jacket, feather trimming, black alpaca skirt, black velveteen bodice, black crape bonnet, side-spring boots, white stockings." This seems all right enough except in regard to the "feather" trimmings. The trimming of the short dark jacket is imitation sealskin.
As she lies in the mortuary her dress is open over her bosoms, but her stays have not been undone. The left side of her face is much dirtied and bruised, as if she had been forcibly thrust down into the mud of the Court.
The cut in the woman's neck is not exactly as has been described by our morning contemporaries. It is not from ear to ear. The knife seems to have been stabbed in deeply at the left side to reach the external carotid, and to have emerged at the carotid on the right side. The superficial length of the wound is from three-and-a-half to four inches.
At the mortuary our reporter saw three men who had their suspicions raised on Saturday night by the conduct of a man and a woman in Settles-street, Commercial Road.
J. Best, 82, Lower Chapman-street, said: I was in the Bricklayers' Arms, Settles-street, about two hundred yards from the scene of the murder on Saturday night, shortly before eleven, and saw a man and woman in the doorway. They had been served in the public house, and went out when me and my friends came in. It was raining very fast, and they did not appear willing to go out. He was hugging her and kissing her, and as he seemed a respectably dressed man, we were rather astonished at the way he was going on with the woman, who was poorly dressed. We "chipped" him, but he paid no attention. As he stood in the doorway he always threw sidelong glances into the bar, but would look nobody in the face. I said to him, "Why don't you bring the woman in and treat her?" but he made no answer. If he had been a straight fellow he would have told us to mind our own business, or he would have gone away. I was so certain that there was something up that I would have charged him if I could have seen a policeman. When the man could not stand the chaffing any longer he and the woman went off like a shot soon after eleven.
I had been to the mortuary, and am almost certain the woman there is the one we saw at the Bricklayers' Arms. She is the same slight woman, and seems the same height. The face looks the same, but a little paler, and the bridge of the nose does not look so prominent.
The man was about 5ft. 5in. in height. He was well dressed in a black morning suit with a morning coat. He had rather weak eyes. I mean he had sore eyes without any eyelashes. I should know the man again amongst a hundred. He had a thick black moustache and no beard. He wore a black billycock hat, rather tall, and had on a collar. I don't know the colour of his tie. I said to the woman "that's Leather Apron getting round you." The man was no foreigner; he was an Englishman right enough.
John Gardner, labourer, 11, Chapman-street, corroborated all that Best said respecting the conduct of the man and the woman at the Bricklayers' Arms, adding "before I got to the mortuary to-day (Sunday) I told you the woman had a flower in her jacket, and that she had a short jacket. Well, I have been to the mortuary, and there she was with the dahlias on the right side of her jacket.
She is the same woman I saw at the Bricklayers' Arms, and she has the same smile of her face now that she had then.
The idea has got abroad that in some way it is sought to advance medical science by human vivisection, but however likely or unlikely the theory may be, it must not too readily be assumed that the two murders of yesterday morning had the same object. Dr. Phillips who was called to Berner-street shortly after the discovery of the woman's body, gives (so says Dr. Gordon, who has made a post-mortem examination of the other body) it as his opinion that the two murders were not committed by the same man. Upon this point Dr. Phillips is an authority. He it was who examined Annie Chapman and discovered the purpose of the murder. Since that he has been to Newcastle to investigate the brutal murder there, and he is qualified in some measure to speak of the manner of the assassin's workmanship.
Dr. Gordon, speaking of the Mitre-square murder, assured our representative that he was sure it was the work of a lunatic. Dr. Gordon has made his post-mortem of the Mitre-square body without waiting for the coroner's order. He knows that is out of the rule, but he thought under the circumstances that it was necessary, and he hopes he will be backed up by public opinion.
When the alarm of murder was raised a young girl had been standing in a bisecting thoroughfare not fifty yards from the spot where the body was found. She had, she said, been standing there for about twenty minutes, talking with her sweetheart, but neither of them heard any unusual noises. A woman who lives two doors from the club has made an important statement. It appears that shortly before a quarter to one o'clock she heard the measured, heavy tramp of a policeman passing the house on his beat. Immediately afterwards she went to the street-door, with the intention of shooting the bolts, though she remained standing there ten minutes before she did so. During the ten minutes she saw no one enter or leave the neighbouring yard, and she feels sure that had any one done so she could not have overlooked the fact. The quiet and deserted character of the street appears even to have struck her at the time. Locking the door, she prepared to retire to bed, in the front room on the ground floor, and it so happened that in about four minutes' time she heard Diemschitz's pony cart pass the house, and remarked upon the circumstance to her husband.
Presuming that the body did not lie in the yard when the policeman passed-and it could hardly, it is thought, have escaped his notice-and presuming also that the assassin and his victim did not enter the yard while the woman stood at the door, it follows that they must have entered it within a minute or two before the arrival of the pony trap. If this be a correct surmise, it is easy to understand that the criminal may have been interrupted at his work. Diemschitz says he thinks it quite possible that after he had entered the yard the assassin may have fled out of it, having lurked in the gloom until a favourable moment arrived.
Files of people were allowed to pass through the mortuary, yesterday, in the hope that some clue would be obtained of the woman's identity. It was late in the afternoon, however, before any one was able to say they knew her. Eventually she was identified as Elizabeth Stride, familiarly known as Long Lizzie, who had been living at a common lodging-house, No. 32, Flower and Dean-street and who plied her painful trade in the neighbourhood. She is said to have a sister in Holborn. She was a married woman separated from her husband, who resides in Bath.
Another account says: She left Flower-and-Dear-street between six and seven o'clock on Saturday night. She then said that she was not going to meet any one in particular. Stride is believed to be a Swedish woman from Stockholm. According to her associates, she was of calm temperament, rarely quarrelling with any one; in fact, she was so good-natured that she would "do a good turn for any one." Her occupation was that of a charwoman. She had the misfortune to lose her husband in the Princess Alice disaster on the Thames some years ago. She had lost her teeth, and suffered from a throat affection. It appears that she was identified at the mortuary, yesterday morning, by John Arundel and Charles Preston, who reside at 32, Flower-and-Dean-street.
A third account says the victim was an unfortunate, named "Wally" Warden, who had lived in Brick-lane.
Lewis Diemschitz, who is a steward of the International Working Men's Educational Society, has made the following statement: "I am a traveler in the common jewellery trade, and work only for myself. I have also been the steward for the International Working Men's Club for between six and seven years, and I live on the premises of the club. For some time I have been in the habit of going to Westow Hill, at the Crystal Palace, every Saturday, in order to sell my goods at the market which is there. I got back this Sunday morning about one o'clock, and drove up to our club-room gate in my pony cart. My pony is frisky and apt to shy, though not much, and it struck me when I was passing through the double gates into the yard that he wanted to keep too much to the left side against the wall. I could not make out what was the matter, so I bent my head to see if there were anything to frighten him. Then I noticed there was something unusual about the ground, but I could not tell what it was, except that it was not level. I mean there was something there like a little heap; but I thought it was only mud, or something of the kind, and I did not take much notice of it; still I touched it with my whip, and then I was able to tell it was not mud. I wanted to see what it was, so jumped (sic) out of the trap and struck a match. Then I saw there was a woman lying there. At that time I took no notice, and I didn't know whether she was drunk or dead. What I did was to run indoors, and ask where my missus was, because she is of weak constitution, and I didn't want to frighten her. I found my wife was sitting downstairs, and I then told some of the members of the club that something had happened in the yard, but I did not give any opinion as to whether the woman was dead or only drunk. I did not say that she had been murdered. One of the members named Isaacs came out with me. We struck a match, and then a horrible sight came before our eyes: we saw a stream of blood flowing right down to the door of the club. We sent for the police without delay, but it was some time before an officer arrived; in fact we had some difficulty in finding one. A man called Eagle, also a member of the club, went out to find a policeman; and going in a different direction to what we did, found a couple in Commercial-road. One of them was 252 H. One of the constables blew a whistle. Several policemen immediately came on the spot, and one of them went for a doctor. Two surgeons were soon with us, namely, Dr. Phillips, the police surgeon, of Spital-square and Dr. Kaye, of Blackwall. After that the police took the names of all the members of the club, and told us that we should all be ordered to give evidence. The police left about five in the morning.
Diemschitz being then asked to describe the body as well as he could, said: "In my opinion the woman was about 27 or 28 years old. Her skin and complexion were fair. (This is not correct, according to the latest accounts that we have received, but the man was evidently too frightened at the time to be able to remember.) Her clothes were in decent order, but her neck and throat had been fearfully gashed and presented a frightful spectacle. There was a cut between two and three inches wide in it. All her clothes were black, even to the bonnet, which had crape on it. Her hands were tightly clenched, and when they were opened by the doctor I saw immediately that one had been holding sweetmeats and the other grapes. I should not like to say whether or not she had been knocked about at all in the face; but speaking roughly, she seemed to me to be a more respectable sort of woman than we generally see about these parts. I conclude this because it appears that nobody about here had ever seen or heard anything about her before. The police removed the body to the mortuary at Cable-street. When I first of all came across the woman, she was lying on her left side, her left hand was on the ground, while the right was lying across her breast. Her head was on the ground of the yard, while her feet pointed towards the entrance. The body was only a yard or so within the entrance. I keep my pony and trap in Cable-street, but I am in the habit of going to the club first to leave my goods there."
The above is an accurate statement of what Diemschitz told our representative. Diemschitz is a Russian Jew, but he speaks English perfectly. He is a man with more intelligence than is usually to be found amongst men of his class, and in every way is a credit to the neighbourhood in which he resides. This may not seem to be a compliment; but we mean it as such, for our informant is, so far as we are able to judge, an honest, truth-speaking man, on whose evidence we feel that we are able to rely.
The next person whose information we intend to place before our readers in Morris Eagle. He is likewise a member of this club, which has attained a notoriety hardly enviable. His evidence is shortly this: I frequent the club. I went into it about 12.40 on this night that you are asking me about, which was about 20 minutes before the body was discovered. I had been in the club before that evening, and had left the premises at midnight in order to see my girl home, with whom I was keeping company. I saw my sweetheart to the door of the house where she was living, and then walked back to the club through little small streets. On my way I saw nothing to excite my attention. There were numbers of persons about of both sexes, and several prostitutes; but there are always a lot of people in the streets, and they are generally very lively at this time of night. I can swear that there was nothing in the streets to arouse my suspicions or the suspicions of any other man in his senses. After seeing my girl home, I went back to the club in Berner-street. The front door was closed, so I went round to the back door on the left-hand side. Later on I went over the same ground with Diemschitz. There is nothing unusual in members of the club going in to the club by the side door; in fact, we often do so, when we go in to the club late at night, so as to prevent the knocking at the door, which might be a nuisance to the neighbours. There is no light of any sort in the yard, though there are lights in the street, as there are in every other street. In the club we had a rare good time. We were singing songs and all that sort of thing. Then there was a sudden scare among us; Diemschitz came in and said a woman had been murdered outside. I ran into the yard immediately and I saw in the yard a stream of blood. There was a general hue and cry for the police. I an others went off to find the officers, so I had no opportunity of seeing the body. Besides, I did not want to look at it, as those sights make me feel ill.
The next person in importance to Eagle, on whose information we may look forward to getting a clue to the perpetrator of these outrageous crimes is Isaac M. Kozebrodsky. Kozebrodsky was born in Warsaw, and can only speak English very imperfectly. His information, which we are obliged to give very shortly, is this: "I came into the club about which you are asking me at half-past twelve o'clock. Shortly after I came in Diemschitz asked me to come out into the yard, as he saw there was something unusual had taken place there. So I came out with him, and he then pointed out to me a stream of blood, which was running down the gutter in the direction of the gate, and flowed from the gate to the back-door. The blood in the gutter extended to between six and seven yards. I immediately went for a policeman, and ran in the direction of Grove-street, but could not find one. Then I went into the Commercial-road, where I found two policemen. I brought them back with me, and they sent for a doctor. The doctor arrived shortly afterwards, and with him came an inspector. While the doctor examined the body I saw that there were some grapes in her right hand and some sweets in her left hand. To the best of my recollection, she had on a dark jacket and a black dress, and in her bosom she had a small bunch of flowers."
Our next informant was Joseph Lave, a man just arrived in England from the United States. Lave is now living at the club, till such time as he can find permanent lodgings. What he tells us is this: "I was in the yard of the club this morning about twenty minutes to one. At half-past twelve I had come out into the street to get a breath of fresh air. There was nothing unusual in the street. So far as I could see I was out in the street about half an hour, and while I was out nobody came into the yard, nor did I see anybody moving about there in a way to excite my suspicions."
So far as we can gather from the information we have collected, and from the persons we have interviewed, there is not the slightest tittle of evidence to show that the yard in question has been habitually used for immoral purposes. In fact, the traffic there is too great and too constant to allow of that secresy (sic), which is the companion of immorality. We trust, further, that we shall not be accused of catering to the tabloid tastes of our readers if we describe more fully the geography of the place where this fatal tragedy has taken place. The yard in which the body was found is about ten feet wide. This width is continued for a distance of eight or ten yards at which point there occurs on the left-hand side a row of houses which are set back a little, at which point the width is increased by two feet or more. The extreme length of the court is thirty yards, and it terminates in a workshop, which is now used as a dwelling-house. The exact spot, then, where this horrible murder was committed is overlooked on three sides, and as the gates were open it seems to the ordinary mind that it would be impossible for this fiend in human form to have committed his diabolical crime without having been detected. The windows of the club are within ten feet of the spot, while the cottages stand about opposite, and command a complete view of the spot where the murderous act was committed.
Abraham Heshburg, a young fellow, living at 28, Berner-street, said: "Yes, I was one of those who first saw the murdered woman. It was about a quarter to one o'clock, I should think, when I heard a policeman's whistle blown, and came down to see what was the matter. In the gateway two or three people had collected, and when I got there I saw a short, dark young woman lying on the ground with a gash between four and five inches long in her throat. I should say she was from 25 to 28 years of age. Her head was towards the north wall, against which she was lying. She had a black dress on, with a bunch of flowers pinned on the breast. In her hand there was a small piece of paper containing five or six cachous. The body was found by a man whose name I do not know - a man who goes out with a pony and barrow, and lives up the archway, where he was going, I believe, to put up his barrow on coming home from market. He thought it was his wife at first, but when be found her safe at home he got a candle and found this woman. He never touched it till the doctors had been sent for. The little gate is always open, or, at all events, always unfastened. There are some stables up there - Messrs. Duncan, Woollatt, and Co.'s, I believe and there is a place to which a lot of girls take home sacks which they have engaged in making. None of them would be there, though, after about one on Saturday afternoon. None of us recognised the woman, and I do not think she belonged to this neighbourhood. She was dressed very respectably. There seemed to be no wounds on the body.
The house which adjoins the yard on the south side, No. 38, is tenanted by Barnett Kentorrich, who, (sic) as to whether he heard any disturbance during the night, said: I went to bed early, and slept till about three o'clock, during which time I heard no unusual sound of any description. At three o'clock some people were talking loudly outside my door, so I went out to se what was the matter, and learned that a woman had been murdered. I did not stay out long though, and know nothing more about it. I do not think the yard bear a very good character at night, but I do not interfere with any of the people about here. I know that the gate is not kept fastened.
Mrs. Mortimer, living at 36, Berner-street, four doors from the scene of the tragedy, says: I was standing at the door of my house nearly the whole time between half-past twelve and one o'clock this (Sunday) morning, and did not notice anything unusual. I had just gone indoors, and was preparing to go to bed, when I heard a commotion outside, and immediately ran out, thinking that there was another row at the Socialists' Club close by. I went to see what was the matter, and was informed that another dreadful murder had been committed in the yard adjoining the club-house, and on going inside I saw the body of a woman lying huddled up just inside the gate with her throat cut from ear to ear. A man touched her face, and said it was quite warm, so that the deed must have been done while I was standing at the door of my house. There was certainly no noise made, and I did not observe any one enter the gates. It was soon after one o'clock when I went out, and the only man whom I had seen pass through the street previously was a young man carrying a black shiny bag, who walked very fast down the street from the Commercial-road. He looked up at the club, and then went around the corner by the Board School. I was told that the manager or steward of the club had discovered the woman on his return home in his pony cart. He drove through the gates, and my opinion is that he interrupted the murderer, who must have made his escape immediately under cover of the cart. If a man had come out of the yard before one o'clock I must have seen him. It was almost incredible to me that the thing could have been done without the steward's wife hearing a noise, for she was sitting in the kitchen, from which a window opens four yards from the spot where the woman was found. The body was lying slightly on one side, with the legs a little drawn up as if in pain, the clothes being slightly disarranged, so that the legs were partly visible. The woman appeared to me to be respectable, judging by her clothes, and in her hand were found a bunch of grapes and some sweets. A young man and his sweetheart were standing at the corner of the street, about twenty yards away, before and after the time the woman must have been murdered, but they told me they did not hear a sound.
Charles Letchford, living at 30, Berner-street, says: I passed through the street at half-past 12 and everything seemed to me to be going on as usual, and my sister was standing at the door at ten minutes to one, but did not see any one pass by. I heard the commotion when the body was found, and heard the policeman's whistles, but did not take any notice of the matter, as disturbances are very frequent at the club, and I thought it was only another row.
The scene of yesterday's second murder is a partially enclosed space, about thirty yards square, lying behind Mitre-street, a thoroughfare running off from the western end of Aldgate, within a few yards of the junction of Fenchurch-street and Leadenhall-street. The entrance to the square from mitre-street is some 15 yards wide, and perhaps eight yards long. The square then widens some seven or eight yards on each side, forming secluded corners on the north-west and south-west. Running from the north-east corner of the square is a covered passage leading to St. James's-place, otherwise known as the "Orange Market," where three men of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade are always on duty at a fire escape station until daybreak. From the north-west corner another passage runs into Duke-street, so that there are in all three entrances to the square. The east and part of the north sides of the square are occupied by the warehouses of Messrs. Kearley and Tonge, tea and coffee merchants, and on the north side there is also a private house, occupied by a city policeman named Pierce. On the south side there is the warehouse of Messrs. Horner and Sons drug merchants. On the fourth side, where the roadway leads into Mitre-street, one corner is occupied by Messrs. Walter Williams and Co., and the opposite corner is used as a workshop, and is locked up at night. Next to it are three empty houses, the backs of which look into the square. During business hours the square is extensively used, but after six o'clock it is comparatively deserted, and, according to people in the vicinity, it is about a quiet place as could be found in the City of London. It may be added that the square is well lighted, there being one standard lamp in the square itself, another fixed to the wall at the left hand entrance from Mitre-street, a third at the corner of the court at the St. James's-place end, one being placed at each end, so that altogether there are five lamps showing their light into the square.
It was in the south-west corner of this little square that the murder was committed. Police-constable Watkins, whose duty it is to pass through the square every quarter of an hour or so, was on the spot shortly after 1.30, and then found everything in its ordinary condition. A quarter of an hour later he passed through the square again, and then saw a woman's corpse lying in the south-west corner. The body was lying on its back, on the footway, with the head towards a boarding and the feet towards the kerbstones.
The corpse was that of as woman, and it was lying on its back, in the south-west corner, on the footway, with the head towards a boarding, and her feet to the carriage-way. The head was inclined on the left, and both the arms were extended outwards. The left leg was extended straight out, and right leg was bent away from the body. After the first shock of the discovery, the constable bent down and felt the body, which he found to be quite warm. Blood was all around and on the body, but it had not congealed. Watkins immediately ran across to George James Norris, a night watchman in the employ of Messrs. Kearley, and sent him to Dr. Sequeira, at 34, Jewry-street, and then proceeded to call up Constable Pearce, who lives in one of the houses in the square itself. The constables then returned to the south-west corner, and throwing the light of their lanterns full upon it, found to their horror that the woman's throat was cut from ear to ear and half-way round the head. The clothes had been raised up to the chest, and, more horrible still, the body had been completely ripped up from the pelvis right up to the chest, the flaps of flesh being turned back and revealing the intestines.
All the viscera were cut out, and the lower part of the abdomen lifted up bodily towards the breast; in fact, a more fearful case of mutilation cannot be imagined.
In addition to these fearful injuries a portion of the right ear was also cut off, and the nose was slashed half-way through. The face was also slashed and cut about in the most brutal fashion, and a portion of the intestines was also placed on the neck.
From various descriptions she is said to be a woman of fine physique, though undoubtedly debauched beyond all respectability. Dr. Brown, of Finsbury-circus, was immediately summoned, and ordered the body to be removed to the mortuary in Golden-lane, where it lies at present. No minute examination has as yet been made of the body, and it lies as it was found. To show how mysteriously and quietly the murder must have been committed a watchman was on duty in the square in a counting-house all the morning, and saw nothing. Besides this, in St. James's-place, as we have said, there was a fire-station, where the firemen are on duty all night, and on being closely questioned they affirm that they heard no sound of a scuffle, nor anything to indicate that such a diabolical deed was taking place.
Dr. Sequeira arrived at five minutes to two o'clock and shortly after that time Major Smith, assistant chief commissioner of the City Police; Detective-inspector M William, chief of the City Detective Department; Superintendent Foster and Inspector Collard, of Bishopsgate-street Station were on the spot. They had been preceded, however, by Dr. Brown, surgeon to the City Police Force, while Dr. Phillips, of Spital-square, surgeon to the H division of Metropolitan Police, who had previously examined the body of the woman found in Berner-street, was also present.
As soon as the corpse had been removed from Mitre-square the south-west corner was carefully washed down, in order to disappoint morbid sightseers, and it was not long before all traces of the awful crime had been removed. A sketch of the place was also made, under the direction of the police in charge of the case.
The following is the official description of the body and clothing:
Age about 40, length five feet, dark auburn hair, hazel eyes. Dress - black jacket with imitation fur collar, three large metal buttons, brown bodice, dark green chintz (with Michaelmas daisy and Gordon lily pattern), skirt (three flounces), thin whit vest, light drab linsey underskirt, dark green alpaca petticoat, white chemise, brown ribbed stockings, mended at feet with piece of white stocking, black straw bonnet trimmed with black beads and green and black velvet, large white handkerchief round neck, a pair of men's old laced boots, and a piece of coarse white apron. The deceased had T. C. on left forearm tattooed in blue ink.
Mr. Foster, the superintendent of the City Police, upon being called upon last night by a representative of the Press, expressed his willingness to afford any information it would be safe to publish. Shortly before three o'clock on Sunday morning, he was called up from bed by a report that a most terrible murder had been committed just inside the City boundary on the eastern side. Measures had already been taken to detect if possible, the murderer, and these he supplemented by sending out a force of detectives and uniform men. He stated the Police-constable Watkins, No. 881, who is an old and steady and careful officer, was on night duty in the neighbourhood of Houndsditch, Mitre-square, being part of the beat. At half-past one he passed through the square and looked well round, but the space seemed to be positively empty. The square is well lighted with two lamps, but the corner in which the woman was found is over-shadowed by two empty houses, but still the officer feels certain there was nothing in the corner at that time. It is part of his duty to look into this corner, and he is certain he did look in. A quarter of an hour later he again passed through the square, and then was horrified to see a woman with her throat fearfully gashed lying there in a pool of blood. On turning his light full on he further found that she had been disembowled. Parts of her entrails were lying on the pavement and another portion was twisted round her throat. He blew his whistle, and in a few seconds other offers came running up, and medical aid was summoned, but the woman was, of course quite dead. Two sides of the square are formed by the extensive warehouses of Messrs. Kearly and Tonge, and Superintendent Foster says the watchman who was on duty in these buildings avers that the square was very quiet at the time, and he did not hear the slightest sound of anything unusual. Near the scene of the murder there is also a night fire-station, and the several men who were on duty also state that they heard nothing to attract their attention. A number of persons living within a few yards have also been questioned with a similar result, and they further say they saw nothing of a man and woman about the place. The superintendent further said that Constable Watkins is a most reliable man and is no doubt correct about the time.
Shortly before midnight a man, whose name has not yet become known, was arrested in the Borough on suspicion of being the perpetrator of the murders in the East-end yesterday morning. A tall, dark man, wearing an American hat, entered a lodging-house in Union-street, known as Albert Chambers. He stayed there throughout the day, and his peculiar manner riveted the attention of his fellow-lodgers. He displayed great willingness to converse with them, and certain observations he made regarding the topic of the day aroused their suspicions. Last night this mysterious individual attracted the notice of the deputy-keeper of the lodging-house, whose suspicions became so strong that he sent for a policeman. On the arrival of the officer the stranger was questioned as to his recent wanderings, but he could give no intelligible account of them, though he said he had spent the previous night on Blackfriars Bridge. He was conveyed to Stones'-end Police-station, Blackman-street, Borough.
Two men at present detained at Leman-street Police-station in connection with the Commercial-road murder. One was arrested late last night, and the other this morning. They are now waiting for the arrival of detectives from Scotland-yard for identification. The police are extraordinarily reticent with reference to the Mitre-square tragedy. The articles pledged at Jones, the pawnbroker, in Church-street, have been taken away by Detective-inspector M William, who has charged of the case. The pawnbroker states that the articles must have been pledged by a woman, as it is against the rule to receive goods from a man pledged in a woman's name. She cannot have been a regular customer, and he is doubtful whether he could identify her.
The Central News says: A man was arrested, last night, at a coffee-shop opposite the Thurlow Arms public-house at West Norwood, on suspicion of being connected with the Whitechapel murders. Suspicion appears to have been excited by his face being much scratched and by marks apparently of blood upon his clothes. No guilt either of complicity or of actual commission of the crime has, however, yet been proved against him.
The Central News gives us the following information, namely, that on Thursday last a letter bearing the E. C. post mark, directed in red ink, was delivered at their agency.
"September 25, 1888.
"Dear Boss - I keep on hearing the police have caught me, but they won't fix me just yet. I have laughed when they look so clever and talk about being on the right track. That joke about Leather Apron gave me rare fits. I am down on whores, and I shan't quit ripping them till I do get buckled. Grand work the last job was. I gave the lady no time to squeal. How can they catch me now? I love my work. I want to start again. You will soon hear from me with my funny little games. I saved some of the proper stuff in a ginger-beer bottle over the last job. I did write with it, but it went thick like glue and I couldn't use it. Red ink is fit enough, ha, ha, ha! The next job I do I shall clip the lady's ears and send them to the police-officers just for folly. Wouldn't you keep this letter back till I do a bit more work; then give it out straight? My knife is so nice and sharp, I want to get to work right away, if I get the chance. Good, luck.
"Yours truly,
"JACK THE RIPPER.""Don't mind me giving the trade name. Wasn't good enough to post this before I got all the red ink off my hands, curse it. They say I'm a doctor. Ha! ha! ha! ha!
The whole of this extraordinary epistle is written in red ink, in a free bold clerkly hand. It was of course, treated as the work of a practical joker, but it is singular to note that the latest murders have been committed within a few days of the receipt of the letter, and that also in the case of the last victim the murderer made an attempt to cut off the ears, and did actually mutilate the face in a manner which has never before been attempted. The letter has been placed in the hands of the Scotland yard authorities.
The Central News says: A post-card bearing the stamp "London, E., October 1," was received this morning, addressed to the Central News Office, the address and subject matter being written in red, and undoubtedly by the same person from whom the sensational letter already published, was received on Thursday last. Like the previous missive, this also has reference to the horrible tragedies in East London, forming, indeed, a sequel to the first letter. It runs as follows:
"I was not codding, dear old Boss, when I gave you the tip. You'll hear about saucy Jacky's work tomorrow. Double event this time. Number one squealed a bit. Couldn't finish straight off. Had not time to get ears for police. Thanks for keeping last letter back till I got to work again.
"JACK THE RIPPER."
The card is smeared on both sides with blood, which has evidently been impressed thereon by the thumb or finger of the writer, the corrugated surface of the skin being plainly shown. Upon the back of the card some words are nearly obliterated by a bloody smear. It is not, necessarily assumed that this has been the work of the murderer, the idea that naturally occurs being that the whole thing is a practical joke. At the same time the writing of the previous letter immediately before the commission of the murders of yesterday was so singular a coincidence that it does not seem unreasonable to suppose that the cool, calculating villain who is responsible for the crimes has chosen to make the post as medium through which to convey to the Press his grimly diabolical humour.
This morning a representative of the Central News interviewed two eminent London physicians for the purpose of ascertaining whether they could throw any scientific light on the East-end murders.
Sir James Risdon Bennett, of Cavendish-square, West, in the course of a conversation with the reporter said: "I have no desire to promulgate any theory in reference to these murders. My purpose in writing to the Times the other day was simply to demonstrate the absurdity of the theory that the crimes were being committed for the purpose of supplying an American physiologist with uteruses. I cannot believe for a moment that any commission has been given out for the collection of uteruses. It would be extremely easy here, or in America either, for a physiologist to secure this portion of the intestines. All he would have to do would be to apply to the public hospitals where there are always many paupers or unclaimed persons who are made the subjects of experiments, and his demands would be easily met. Supposing, for instance, that a specialist proposed to lecture in the theatre of his institution upon the uterus, he would communicate with the surgeon, who would have no difficulty in providing him with sufficient number of specimens for all his purposes. The notion that the uteruses were wanted in order that they might be sent out along with copies of a medical publication is ridiculous; not only ridiculous, indeed, but absolutely impossible of realization. I attach no importance whatever to that. If one sane man had instructed another sane man to procure a number of specimens of the uterus, the modus operandi would have been very different from that which has been pursued in these cases. The murderer has run a fearful and a quite unnecessary risk. The mutilations which he committed were to a great extent wanton, and did not assist him in the accomplishment of his intention.
My impression is that the miscreant is a homicidal maniac. He has a specific delusion, and that delusion is cronic. Of course we have at this moment very little evidence indeed, in fact I may say no evidence at all, as to the state of the man's mind except so far as it is suggested by the character of the injuries which he has inflicted upon his victims. I repeat that my impression is that he is a religious fanatic. It is possible that he is labouring under the delusion that he has a mandate from the Almighty to purge the world of prostitutes, and in the prosecution of his mad theory he has determined upon a crusade against the unfortunates of London, whom he seeks to mutilate by deprivation of the uterus. There are, on the other hand, a number of theories which might be speculated upon as to the particular form that his mania takes; but inasmuch as we have no knowledge of the man himself, but only of the characteristics which surround the commission of his crimes wherewith to guide us; I come to the conclusion that his delusion has reference to matters of a sexual character.
The two crimes which were perpetrated, yesterday morning, do not lead me to modify my opinion that the assassin is a lunatic. Even if it should transpire that in the case of the Mitre-square victim the uterus is missing I should not be disposed to favour what I may call the American theory in the slightest degree, and I must confess that it was with considerable surprise that I noticed in certain newspapers a disposition to readily accept the theory which the coroner who investigated the circumstances attending the murder of the woman Chapman first suggested. It is my opinion hat if any person wanted a number of specimens of the uterus, and was himself a man possessed of surgical skill he would himself undertake to secure them rather than employ an agent. No love of gain could possibly induce a sane man to commit such atrocities as these, and besides this there is the circumstance remaining, as I have previously said, that they might all be secured at the medical institutions either of England or America - that is to say if they were needed for legitimate purposes - practically without any consideration at all. It has been said - and it is a very natural observation - that if the murderer were a lunatic he could not commit these crimes and escape with impunity. That is a comment which any person not fully acquainted with the peculiarities of lunatic subjects might very well make. In my view, however, the extraordinary cunning which is evinced by the homicide is a convincing proof of his insanity. No sane man could have escaped in just the same fashion as this man seems to have done. He must almost necessarily have betrayed himself. It is a matter of common knowledge, however, amongst "mad doctors," that lunatics display a wonderful intelligence - if it may be called so - in their criminal operations, and I have little doubt that if the murderer were other than a madman he would ere this have been captured by the police. In many instances a madman's delusion is directed to only one subject, and he is mad upon that subject alone. I doubt, however, that the number of these women is other than a man suffering from acute mania, and that being so, his infirmity would be obvious to almost every person with whom he came into contact. That is to say, if he were in the presence of either of us, we should probably say, "Oh, he's a madman." There are many instances in which the common test is for the doctor to enter into conversation with the subject, to touch upon a variety of topics, and then, as if by accident, to mention the matter in regard to which the patient has a specific delusion, when the person's madness is manifested, although upon every other point he converses rationally. But here the disease is acute and I should say that those persons with whom he comes into daily contact, cannot regard him as a sane person. Dr. Phillips has stated that the injuries inflicted upon these women have been apparently performed by a person possessing some anatomical knowledge. That is likely enough; but would not a butcher be quite capable of treating the body in this way? Since I wrote my letter to the Times I have received several communications in support of my view. One of these comes from the Bishop of Bedford, who agrees with me that the theory of the American physiologist has no claim to credit. I wish to have it understood that my only desire is to remove from the public mind the evil impression which has been made by the suggestion that a member of the medical profession is more or less responsible for these murders. I, however, believed in that theory, and these two last murders confirm me in the opinion that they are the work of a man suffering from acute mania to whom the ordinary rules of motive and procedure do not apply.
Dr. Forbes Winslow, the eminent specialist in lunacy cases, said to our representative; I am more certain than even that these murders are being committed by a homicidal maniac, and there is no moral doubt in my mind that the assassin in each case is the same man. I have carefully read the reports in the morning papers, and they confirm me in the opinion which I had previously formed. While I am clearly of opinion that the murderer is a homicidal maniac, I also believe him to be a mono-maniac, no I see no reason why he should not, excepting, at the periods when the fit is upon him, exhibit a cool and rational exterior. I have here, in my book - a work on psychology - a case in which a man had a lust for blood, as in this case, and he was generally a person of bland and pleasant exterior. In all probability the whole of the murders had been committed by the same hand, but I may point out that the imitative faculty is very strong in persons of unsound mind, and that is the reason why there has been a sort of epidemic of these crimes. We shall probably find that a good many knives will be displayed to people within the next few weeks. Still all the evidence that is forthcoming up to the present moment shows clearly enough that the Whitechapel crimes have been perpetrated by the same hand. My idea is that under the circumstances the police ought to employ, for the protection of the neigbourhood, and with the view of detecting the criminal, a number of officers who have been in the habit of guarding lunatics - that is to say, warders from asylums and other persons who have had charge of the insane. These men, if properly disposed in the neigbourhood, would assuredly note any person who was of unsound mind. I have sent a letter embodying this suggestion to Sir Charles warren, but I have received only a formal communication acknowledging its receipt. It is not easy to prevail upon the police to accept a suggestion from outside sources. This I discovered the other day when a man in emulation of the Whitechapel murder drew a knife and sharpened it in the presence of a relative of mine at Brighton under circumstances which have been published in the newspapers. When I made a statement to the police on that occasion they thought very little of it indeed. I attach not the least importance to the American physiologist story. It is a theory which is utterly untenable, and I should think there were very few medical men who ever entertained it seriously. All that has recently happened appears to me to be a strong confirmation of the views which I have previously given expression to upon the subject. The murderer is a homicidal monomaniac of infinite cunning, and I fear he will not be brought to justice unless he be caught while engaging in the consummation of one of his awful crimes.
The police have made an important discovery, which they are of opinion affords a clue to the direction in which the murderer made his escape. Yesterday afternoon a portion of an apron was found in Goldstein-street, and when the body of the woman found in Mitre-square as searched, it was discovered that she was wearing he upper portion of the apron to which the piece found belonged. It is therefore concluded that the murderer made his way into Whitechapel.
Early this morning a police-constable was passing on his beat in the Whitechapel-road, when he came upon a black-handled knife, keen as a razor, and pointed like a carving-knife. The blade was ten inches long, about the length of weapon assumed by Dr. Phillips to have been used by the Hanbury-street murderer. It is looked upon by the police as supplying a link n the "man from Southampton arrest"
The Central News says: Between the hours of midnight last night and eight o'clock this morning the Aldgate Post Office, situated at the corner of Duke-street, Aldgate, was entered by thieves. It is supposed that the entrance was gained by the skylight. On reaching the second-floor, which is occupied by the boy telegraph messengers, about £3, the wages of the lads, was taken, and their uniforms and other things about the room were scattered in all directions. Descending the staircase to the basement floor, all the postal orders and forms were disturbed, and some torn into shreds, whilst tills were forced open, and about £50 in gold and silver extracted. The safe, however, which contained £400 in gold, was left untouched. Either in effecting their escape or in the hope that booty lay in the basement, two of the steps of the wooden staircase were torn up, but no other material damage was done. The thieves made good their escape.
At the Vestry Hall, Cable-street, St. George's-in-the -East, this morning, Mr. Wayne Baxter, coroner for East Middlesex, opened the inquest on the remains of Elizabeth Stride, alias "Long Liz," the unfortunate woman who was so foully murdered in Berner-street early yesterday morning.
The room in which the inquiry was held is extremely spacious, and afforded ample accommodations for the jury, the representatives of the Press, who mustered in strong force, and members of the general public, who, however, were only sparingly admitted. The most intense excitement naturally reigns, this morning, throughout the whole district of St. George's-in-the-East, but the coroner's arrangements for preventing anything like over-crowding in the Vestry Hall were admirable.
The jury having been sworn, they accompanied the coroner to the mortuary, where the dead woman was lying, and many of them shuddered with horror as they viewed the ghastly sight. The corpse still lies in the condition in which it was taken to the mortuary, fully dressed, with the gaping wound in the throat unclosed, and with the bloodstains still on the face. It will be remembered that in previous cases the bodies had been washed and laid out before the jury had an opportunity of viewing them, but the coroner has wisely prevented this premature interference with the remains in the present case.
The first witness called was William West, who said: I live at 40, Berner-street, Commercial-road, and am a printer. I live in one of the houses on the right hand side of the yard where the murder was committed. At No. 40 there is an International Working Men's club. Facing the street there is one window and a door on the ground floor. The door leads into a passage. At the side of the house there is another passage into the yard. There are two wooden gates at the entrance from the street into the yard. In the right had side gate there is a little doorway. The gates are sometimes left open all night. Sometimes the small door is also locked. There is no particular person to lock the gates so far as I know. In the yard, on the left hand side, there is only one house, but it is arranged into three small tenements, which have separate doors. There is no other way out of the yard except through the gate. Opposite the gate on the first floor there is a workshop occupied by Messrs. Hindley, sack manufacturers, but I do not think there is any way out through these premises. After Hindley's place there is a stable, which I think is unoccupied. Next to the stable are the premises of the Club, which run back a considerable distance from the street into the yard. The front room on the ground floor is occupied as a room for meals. In the middle of the passage there is a staircase leading o the first floor. At the back of the dinning room there is a kitchen, between which and the yard there is a passage. There is a window from this kitchen into the passage, from which there is a doorway leading to the yard. The passage is only lit by a small window above this door. At the back of this kitchen there is a printing office, consisting of two rooms. The room adjoining the kitchen is a composing room, and the room behind that is used for the editor. As far as I remember, the compositors finished their work about 2 p.m. on Saturday. The editor was on the premises all day, either in his office or in the club, of which he is a member. He was there at the time of the discovery.
The Coroner: How many members are there of the club?
About 75-80.
Is there any particular qualification for membership? Any working-man can be a member, of any nationality?
Yes. It is a Socialist Club, and no one is supposed to be a member unless he professes Socialist principles. I had been to work in the printing-office until 2 p.m., on Saturday, and remained in the club until 9 p.m. I returned about 10.30, and remained there until a short time before the discovery of the deceased. When I returned at 10.30, I entered the club through the street door. A discussion was going on upstairs on the first floor where there is a large room for lectures and entertainments. There are here windows from this room into the yard. There would be about a hundred people in the room n Saturday night. The discussion cased between 11.30 and 12, when he bulk of the people left the premises through the street door as that is the most convenient exit. About 30 members remain behind, about 20 being upstairs and the rest downstairs. Some of those upstairs were discussing amongst themselves and others were singing.
(Inquest proceeding.)
