Sir - Having resided for nearly ten years in America, and having carefully examined the facsimile letters you published this afternoon from "Jack the Ripper," I have not the slightest hesitation in saying they are written by an American, or by a person who had resided many years in the States. They are full of Americanisms from beginning to the end, such as boss, fix me, right track, real fits, shan't quit, squeal, fit enough, give it out straight, right away. Many of these expressions are in constant use by all classes of Americans, but never by Englishmen. This fact might become important in tracing the assassin.
I am, &c.,
S.F.G.
October 4.
Sir - Having read the story of Messrs. Grand and Batchelor, published in your columns last evening, with reference to the interview with Matthew Packer, I beg to state that I have very carefully perused and compared the remarks to him by the man who bought the grapes for the Mitre square victim with the facsimile of the letter and postcard from "Jack the Ripper," and I can trace without a doubt a perfect sequence between the alleged murderer's utterances and the bloodstained missive. I observe strong features of Americanism both in the phraseology of the man seen by Packer and the calligraphy of "Jack the Ripper." The spasmodic style of the letters, and the sound and general delivery of the assassin's voice, as described by Packer, appear to me to be identical. Although at first I viewed with incredulity the theory that the bloodstained communications were the work of the assassin, I am now completely satisfied in my own mind that the self designated "Jack the Ripper" is the perpetrator of the murderous deeds assigned to him, and, moreover, I consider, after examining the matter in every possible phase, that the culprit is a monomaniac of a homicidal tendency. Your publication of last evening has one good service, and will afford graphologists an opportunity of expressing their opinions.
I am, &c.,
C.H.L.
October 4.
Sir - We are now approaching the time when fogs will be prevalent, and everything will be wrapped in gloom. In a heavy fog, this East end death shadow would not be content with two murders per night. It is the incumbent duty of the authorities to flood the East end now with police and detectives.
I am, &c.,
J.D.CYGNET.
October 3.
It is not wonderful that popular excitement has been carried to the highest possible pitch in regard to the unfortunate victims of the maniac murderer who is still at large in the East end of London. Never since the frightful crimes committed by Williams, so well known to all readers of De Quincey's famous essay on "Murder," has public indignation and alarm been so deeply stirred as by the atrocities which, go where one will, continue to form the staple topic of conversation among persons of all classes. It is terrible to think of the possible consequences which may result if this murderer secures for any length of time that immunity from punishment which he has now enjoyed for more than five weeks - probably for some months. True, his assassinations have been aimless in their cruelty and are almost certainly the outcome of disordered brain, working, however, with consummate cunning and fiendish delight. But the terrible lesson which they, so far, have conveyed in that a massacre of this description can be effected with impunity; and it is to be feared that the perpetrator of these hideous outrages will not fail to find imitators among those members of the criminal classes who are desperate enough to take the lives of others for the sake of robbery and plunder.
Horrible, however, as are the details of these ghastly crimes, we cannot avoid the reflection that any commonplace murder, attended with robbery, would have caused quite as much, if not more, excitement and terror among the well to do classes. When Lefroy murdered Mr. Gold in a first class carriage on the Brighton line, the alarm of the rich showed itself at once; and for weeks together few travellers could be induced to journey in solitude nor to remain in their compartment alone with a stranger. The cases which are now startling Londoners, and making us ashamed of our civilisation, and dubious about our skilled detective force, are confined to women of the class known as "unfortunates." If the miscreant who has hitherto contented himself with wreaking his barbarities upon the poor creatures who only seek to ear a night's shelter were to turn his attention to the other end of the metropolis the result would be a simple panic among all classes. Or, if leaving the pursuit of women, the madman were to apply his stealthy knife to men, and to mutilate them after a similar fashion, half London would constitute itself into a vigilance committee for the purpose of tracking out and hunting down the assassin. Ought less to be done when the victims are only women who have sunk to so low a depth of degradation that their sisters can scarcely afford to risk contamination of their society? We do not wish to blame the police; but we do say that the organisation of the force must be radically wrong if this malefactor escapes or even continues his dreadful work. Whether it is the constant change of "beats," the introduction of country recruits to the Metropolitan police ranks, the incapacity of the detectives, or the lack of proper brains in their superiors, the reputation of our police system is now at stake. Nothing suppresses crime so certainly as the certainty of detection and punishment, nothing encourages it so much as the chance of impunity. We are constantly congratulating ourselves upon the average diminution of crime and long sentences. But we cannot honestly boast that the quality of criminal acts has improved, whatever may be the real truth about their quantity. The recent murders are teaching this lesson, that, if murder is done swiftly, secretly, and surely, the offender has a very good chance of escaping from justice. It is no use to blink this fact, or to shut our eyes and pretend not to recognise it. At any cost, whether by means of bloodhounds, of rewards offered, of increase of the police force, of the introduction of the electric light, or additional gas lamps into dingy neighbourhoods, we must have the mystery solved, and that speedily. The longer it is allowed to remain in its present obscurity the greater will be the peril for every one in the metropolis. It is absurd to blame the Home Secretary and Sir Charles Warren, as though they were responsible for these deeds of blood. But it is only fair to say that the people of London expect them both to be at their posts, and to use every diligence in their power to discover the murderer, now lurking in our midst; nor will the people, who are, after all, electors and voters, be content with anything short of the most untiring exertions, which must be continued until they are duly crowned with success.
Cold and rain were venting their combined discomforts upon my scantily protected frame, as I turned out of Whitechapel road into Commercial street about nine o'clock last night. The severity of the weather was such as to force even the most miserable outcast to seek some sort of shelter, but my quest was in the particular direction of the lodging house in Flower and Dean street, where the unfortunate victim of the Mitre square tragedy had been used to put up. In a short time I reached Flower and Dean street, and shuddered from other sensations than cold as I looked down its long, narrow, dingy looking precincts, wrapped, as they appeared to be, in an atmosphere of notorious and murky mystery. There is little light in the street save that thrown from the windows of the houses. At the south west end of the thoroughfare is a large block of model dwellings whose plain, but well ordered architecture lends a welcome sense of relief to the shamble like structures around.
With the exception of the model dwellings almost if not every house in Flower and Dean street is given up to accommodation of the lodging house order, and above the doors are inscriptions setting forth the licensed authority of the proprietors to let "good beds" or "well aired beds" to "single men and travellers." I had some difficulty in finding the particular house I was in search of - No. 55 - as there were either no numbers on the doors, or they were invisible in the darkness. At last, however, I struck a number 48, and by counting the houses in succession, I came to what was certainly the most commodious place of the kind in the street - my uncertain movements, by the way, being the subject of the attention of several denizens of the unsavoury quarter. On inquiring of an unkempt, bedraggled looking young woman who was standing at the door whether that was No. 55, I received an answer in the affirmative, and, telling her that I wanted a bed for the night, she conducted me to the "deputy" with the invitation, "All right, guv,nor, this way." Opening the half side of the folding doors, I found myself immediately in a capacious kitchen filled with men, women and children of all ages, and redolent with the fumes of cooked dishes and boiling tea. The deputy sat in a pay box at the entrance, and without any questions booked me a single bed at the modest sum of fourpence. Having paid my coppers, I walked up the large square-built kitchen to one of the two glowing coke fires at the top of the room. Turning to survey the surroundings, I found that divested, even as I was, of all the chief habiliments of respectability, I was regarded as an object of interest. But, after a time, the curiosity of my companions soon exhausted itself, and I was able to enter into conversation with several of the men and women standing around the fire. Naturally the main subject of interest among the lodgers was the murders. Newspapers were being read aloud by several of the occupants to eagerly listening knots, and conspicuous among this class of literature was the pink "extra special" of he Evening News. The details of the paper were enthusiastically discussed and various theories were advanced as to the personality and motive of the perpetrator of the outrages. There was, of course, a general chorus of denunciations against the unknown criminal in language more expressive than refined.
Occasionally, for the sake of controversy only, I suppose, some cynical member of the company would interpolate a note of dissent to the observations of the revenge party, but he was speedily silenced by howls of indignation or ridicule. One frivolous individual desired that the subject should be changed to something more lively, and proposed that they should discuss "the play." Another declared that "it would be a crying sin to capture the murderer, who was doing a good work in putting so many women out of the way. He reckoned the murderer was a toff and deserved to get off." But he was told by what appeared to be the smart man of the place that "they all knew he was balmy, and that his brains had gone out for an excursion." As the evening wore on and newcomers entered the kitchen, the conversation drifted in various directions, but it all hinged on the one great question of the moment. I ventured to ask for Kelly, the man with whom the murdered woman had been living, but I was told that he had retired to bed early in the evening, being greatly upset at the events of the past few days. Kelly and the woman seem to have had a sincere attachment for each other, and one young fellow told me that since had viewed the body at the mortuary - when he fainted away - Kelly had seemed quite "off his head" and shown signs of an inclination "to do away with himself."
"Kate" herself was undoubtedly a universal favourite among her acquaintances at the lodging house. "Ah, she was a good sort, I know," said one man, "and often gave me the price of my kip when I was short of a night." "Yes, she was a good sort," agreed a burly looking matron standing by, "and I wish she were 'ere now a-putting down her teapot, as she used to do, along wi' us." Kate's friends in Flower and Dean street strongly resented the idea that she a woman of immoral character, and claimed that she was as true as any wife could be to Kelly. "Kate was a decent woman," said one of the females, "and worked for the Jews; that's how she got her living; she never did any harm in her life." And this apparently was the general opinion entertained of the unfortunate woman's character.
An old woman, who was known by the sobriquet of "Mother Crack'em" rather startled me by rushing up as I stood at the fireplace and demanding to know if I was "Jack the Ripper." The awkwardness of answering this question I was happily relieved of by the old dame herself assuring me that she did not think I was. "I know you ain't him," she said, "you wouldn't rip me up, would you now? You'd rather give me the fourpence for my doss, but I don't want it, and if you want a cup of tea I'll go and get a farthing's worth of tea and a farthing's worth of sugar, and you shall have a cup." And so the old woman went on with her meaningless but innocent jabber, and I was spared any further attention at her hands by the interference of a number of the other lodgers, who seemed to make her a but for hilarious horseplay and ridicule, all of which she took in the most good natured way.
A striking evidence of the effect of the murders upon the women of this district was shown in the fact that every one of them in the house declared that they would not venture out in the streets at night after dark. "I ain't going out at night," said one of them who informed that she was the mother of a family. "God knows, it might be my fate to meet him if I was to go out tonight, and I don't want to go just yet. I want to see my boy who is in the 60th's on the rock of Gibraltar before I die, and then to die a natural death." There was one woman amongst them more daring than the test. She was dishevelled and dilapidated looking spectacle wrapped in what seemed to be but a bundle of rags. It was evident that she had no money, as she was wishing to Heaven some one would stand her half a lint of beer. As the desire was not gratified, she resolutely tied up her boots, and saying "she would risk it," walked hurriedly out of the kitchen into the street, regarded with something like awe by those who stayed behind.
By and by, the proceedings in the kitchen became more lively. There was very little drunkenness visible. I only saw one man the worse for liquor, and even he would not have been noticed but for his falling from his reclining position on a seat to the floor with a thud. Girls commenced singing songs, and the "poet of the company" entertained the room with quotations from Shakespeare and from his own composition, the latter bearing chiefly upon the horrible murder of the day. This is the chorus of what he called his latest:
"'As any one seen him, can you tell us where he is,
If you meet him you must take away his knife,
Then give him to the women, they'll spoil his pretty phiz,
And I wouldn't give him twopence for his life."
As the time wore on the place became quieter, and one by one or in couples the lodgers retired to their beds in the rooms above where about perhaps a hundred of the most degraded and poverty stricken people in the great Metropolis sleep upon the deeds - more or less honest - of the day.
The earnestness and energy with which The Evening News has taken part in the pursuit of the perpetrator of the Whitechapel murders, which is sufficiently evidenced by the fullness and accuracy of our reports of every detail of the cases, and by our publication yesterday morning of the startling facts discovered by the private detectives who are working for us, is the best explanation of the premature publication, yesterday, of an uncorroborated report as to the arrest of the supposed murderer. The report reached us from two independent sources (one a parish official of the district) and pending its confirmation by our own reporter, we issued the story in the brief form in which it reached us that the public might at least know what was currently believed to be the truth in the locality.
New York, Friday morning.
The atrocious crimes committed in Whitechapel have raised intense interest here. The following statement has been made here by an English sailor named Dodge:
He says he arrived in London from China on August 13, by the steamship Glenorlie. He met at the Queen's Music hall, Poplar, a Malay cook, named Alaska.
The Malay said he had been robbed by women of bad character in Whitechapel of two years' savings, and he said that unless he found the woman and recovered his money, he would murder and mutilate every Whitechapel woman he met.
He showed Dodge a double edged knife, which he always carried with him.
He was about five feet seven in height, one hundred and thirty pounds in weight, and apparently thirty five years of age. Of course he was very dark.
It is a remarkable fact that in yesterday's Times there was a letter signed "Nemo," in which this very theory of the murders was proposed. The coincidence is so curious that we print the letter hereunder:
Sir - Having been long in India and, therefore, acquainted with the methods of Eastern criminals, it has struck me, in reading the accounts of these Whitechapel murders, that they have probably been committed by a Malay, or other low class Asiatic coming under the general term of Lascar, of whom, I believe, there are large numbers in that part of London. The mutilations, cutting off the nose and ears, ripping up the body, and cutting out certain organs - the heart, &c. - are all peculiarly Eastern methods, and universally recognised and intended by the criminal classes to express insult, hatred, and contempt; where here the public and police are quite at a loss to attach any meaning to them, and so they are described as the mere senseless fury of a maniac.
My theory would be that some man of this class has been hocussed and then robbed of his savings (often large), or, as he considers, been in some way greatly injured by a prostitute - perhaps one of the earlier victims; and then has been led by fury and revenge to take the lives of as many of the same class as he can. This also is entirely in consonance with Eastern ideas and the practices of the criminal classes.
Hundreds of these men have resided long in that part of London, speak English well - although when necessary they cannot understand a word - and dress in ordinary English clothes.
The victims have been the poorest and most miserable, and probably only such would consort with the class of man I speak of.
Such a man would be quite safe in the haunts occupied by his yellow countrymen, or, should he wish to escape, he could join a crew of Lascars on the first steamer leaving London.
Unless caught redhanded, such a man in ordinary life would be harmless enough, polite, not to say obsequious in his manners, and about the last a British policeman would suspect.
But when the villain is primed with his opium, or bang, or gin, and inspired with his lust for slaughter and blood, he would destroy his defenceless victim with the ferocity and cunning of the tiger; and past impunity and success would only have rendered him the more daring and reckless.
Your obedient servant,
NEMO.
October 2.
The Press Association's Bishop Stortford correspondent telegraphs:
A man has been arrested at Tiptree Heath on suspicion of being concerned with the Whitechapel murders. He was met by Police Sergeant Cresswell, of whom he asked alms. He objected to be searched and insisted on keeping his hand in his pocket. He was taken to Kelvedon, and it was seen that the appearance of the man answered to the description circulated by the Metropolitan police of the Whitechapel murderer in almost every particular. He was detained in custody.
Upon inquiry at the Leman street Police station at nine o'clock this morning, a representative of the Central News was informed that no further arrest had been made in connection with the Whitechapel murders, and that nothing new had transpired in relation to the matter. At the Bishopsgate Police station a similar reply was given by the City police.
The Central News learns that another sister of Catherine Eddowes has been found by the police, and has also identified the body, notwithstanding its mutilated condition. She saw it yesterday and at once recognised it. She is a married woman, and lives in the South of London.
The City Police have no one in custody, and up to the present have not obtained a tangible clue.
As a proof of the widespread excitement which has taken place over the horrible tragedies which have occurred in East London, it may be mentioned that Mr. Wynne. E. Baxter, the coroner for south east Middlesex, has daily received about 50 letters from all parts of the united Kingdom, and from all classes of the community suggesting theories by which the murderer may be brought to justice.
One letter received by that gentleman covered eight pages of paper, and stated that the writer was acquainted with the murderer, and knew his name and address, but that of course has been proved to be false. Another was from a clergyman, who stated that he had had a large experience amongst the East London poor and upheld the coroner's theory. A third was from a doctor, stating that the murderer must be a butcher. This was handed to the police, as the coroner states that he saw no reason why the doctor should be so anxious to fix the crime on a butcher. Mr. Baxter at first handed all the communications to the police, but latterly he has only given them those to which he attaches any importance.
Early this morning a man was found wandering through the streets of Whitechapel, and his movements being suspicious and his replies unsatisfactory, he was taken into custody. On being searched at the police station, a bayonet was found upon him. Inquiries by the police, however, showed plainly that he could have had no connection with the crime, and he was released.
The Central News says: The date of the funeral of the woman Catherine Eddowes or Kate Eddowes is not yet fixed. The relatives of the deceased have not yet decided whether they will bear the expenses of the funeral themselves or whether the body shall be buried by the City authorities, who are willing to do so. A gentleman in the City has also expressed his willingness to bear the expenses of the funeral, if the relatives should so desire.
At the Thames Police court, yesterday, the man Pizer, who was arrested on suspicion of being connected with the murder of Annie Chapman in Hanbury street, and who gave a satisfactory account of himself, complained to Mr. Lushington that since he was released from custody he had been subjected to great annoyance. Only that morning a woman accosted him in the street, and after calling him "Old Leather Apron" and other insulting expressions, struck him three blows in the face. Mr. Lushington told Pizer he could have a summons against the person who had assaulted him.
At the close of his Thursday morning service in the City Temple, yesterday morning, DR. Parker referred at length to the East end murders. Replying to the question how far the pulpit was responsible for such crimes, the Rev. gentleman said the pulpit had undertaken instrumentally to convert society, and the pulpit had signally failed. Always allowing for exceptions, the pulpit was the paid slave of respectable society. The pulpit loved respectability - the pulpit boasted of respectable, intelligent congregations. The pulpit had lost its hold on the tragic and impetuous life of the world. The outcasts of society turned away from the preacher as from a man who talked in an unknown tongue, and troubled himself about antiquities and metaphysics for which the sad and maddened heart of the world cared nothing. Men were wanted who knew the country they lived in, the sorrows which surged in billows around their very homes, the poverty that was completed by hopelessness, and the mental unrest which could not be touched by dead fathers or living pedagogues.
Every pulpit in the world should denounce the crimes which London mourned; but denunciation was a poor part of pulpit duty - every congregation should offer a reward for the discovery of the criminal. What the Home Secretary was doing, or thinking of doing passed his (Dr. Parker's) comprehension. If offering a reward for the discovery of the criminal did not detect the perpetrator of the crime, what harm was done? But if offering a reward should end in the detection of the criminal, great good would be done. This quick murder of women, however, was nothing compared to the slow murder that was going on every day. Compared with many who were cruel deliberately, the perpetration of these East end crimes was gentleness - mercy itself. The magistrates should be armed with greater powers.
Nothing would really make a certain class of criminals feel their crime but bodily chastisement. It was no use trying moral suasion upon garotters, violent robbers, cruel husbands and fathers; they must be flogged. A creature in Wiltshire recently felled his helpless wife, kicked her, and used her infamously. She fled for refuge under the bed; he dragged her out, tore every rag from her body, made her walk in nakedness before her children for two hours, dragged her round the room by the hair of her head, until the poor maddened creature flew through the window. And the husband was sentenced to three months' imprisonment! ("Shame!") Church Congress and Non-conformist assemblies should suspend their sittings that these tremendous grievances might be attended to. They had bad papers enough upon distant subjects, addressed enough upon things that were only in the air. What were they to do with the real concrete intolerable life immediately around them?
It was in vain to meet as quiet, respectable, gospel imbibing congregations, drinking orthodoxy to the full, and setting down the empty goblet with a sigh of impious satisfaction. The devil laughed at the sacrifice. As to denouncing the criminal, better ask how far they were responsible for his creation, by making labour a disappointment, by running profits down so small as to turn young men to gambling, by surrounding men with drinkeries and then fining them for drinking. Away with the piety that trifled with the stream when it might dry up the fountain!
(The first part of this article is a reprint of the article from 4 October 1888)
On resuming after luncheon.
Inspector Edward Collard of the City Police said: At five minutes to two on Sunday morning I received information at Bishopsgate Police station that a woman had been murdered in Mitre square. The information was at once telegraphed to headquarters, and I despatched a constable at once for Dr. Gordon Brown. I also went to Mitre square myself; arriving a few minutes past two, I there found Dr. Sequeira, several police officers, and the deceased person lying in the southwest corner of the square, in the position described by Constable Watkins. The body was not touched until Dr. Brown arrived shortly afterwards. The medical gentlemen examined the body in my presence. Sergeant Jones picked upon the footway on the left side of the deceased three small black buttons generally used for women's boots, a small metal button, a common metal thimble, a small mustard tin containing two pawn tickets. They were handed to me. Te doctors remained until the arrival of the ambulance, and saw the body placed in it. It was then taken to the mortuary and stripped by the mortuary keeper in the presence of the two doctors and myself. There was no money whatever about the clothes.
Witness here produced a portion of deceased's apron found on the body after the murder, which he said corresponded with another piece found in Gouldstone street later on. Both pieces had been examined by the doctors. He continued: I took immediate steps to have the neighbourhood searched for the murderer. Inspector McWilliams, chief of the detective department, on his arrival shortly afterwards with a number of detectives, sent them to search in all directions in Spitalfields, both in the streets and at lodging houses. Several men were stopped and searched in the streets without any good result. I have had a house to house inquiry made in the vicinity of Mitre square, as to whether any noises had been heard at the time of the murder, or if any persons had seen, but can find nothing. Examined by Mr. Crawford: When I first saw the corpse, her neck and shoulders were lying in blood. I did not touch the body. There were no signs whatever of any struggle having taken place. There was no blood, except that which had flowed from the neck. The blood was not congealed, and I should not think that the body had been there more than a quarter of an hour. I tried to trace footsteps, but could not do so. A search was made at the back of the adjoining empty houses.
Dr. F. Gordon Brown, surgeon to the City of London police authorities, said: I was called up shortly after two o'clock on Sunday morning. I left home at 2.18, and at Mitre square my attention was called to a woman lying there. The body was lying in the position that the constable has already described. It was on its back, the hand turned to the left shoulder, the arms by the side of the body, as if they had fallen there, the palms turned upwards the fingers slightly bent, a thimble was lying on the ground near the right hand. The clothes were drawn up above the abdomen. The bonnet was at the back of the head. There was great disfigurement of the face which I will mention presently. The throat was cut across. Below the cut was a neckerchief. The upper part of the dress was open as if it had been pulled open. The abdomen was all exposed, the intestines drawn out to a large extent and placed over the right shoulder. A piece of the intestines about two feet long was quite detached from the body, and placed between the left arm and the body, apparently by design. The lobe of the right ear of cut obliquely through, there was a quantity of clotted blood on the left side of the body, on the pavement, above the shoulder, and fluid blood coloured with serum which had flown under the neck to the right shoulder, the pavement sloping in that direction. The body was quite warm, and there was no rigor mortis. She must have been dead but a few minutes, less than half an hour. We looked for superficial bruises then and saw none. There was no blood on the abdomen, There was no spurting of blood on the bricks or pavement around. No marks of blood below the middle of the body. The buttons were found in the clotted blood after the body was removed. When the body arrived at Golden lane the clothes were more covered with blood than when I first saw them, but that was in consequence of the removal. The clothes were carefully taken off the body as described by Inspector Collard. We made a post mortem examination at 2.30 on Sunday afternoon. Rigor mortis was well marked; body not quite cold; green discoloration near the abdomen, post mortem. On washing the left hand carefully, a recent bruise, the size of a sixpence, was discovered on the back of the left hand between the thumb and first finger. There were a few small bruises on the right shin of older date, and a slight graze on the scalp. The hands and arms were browned, as if from exposure to the sun. There were no bruises on the scalp, or the elbows, or the back of the body. The face was very much mutilated.
There was a cut about a quarter of an inch long below the left eyelid dividing the structures completely through. On the upper eyelid on that side there was a scratch through the skin near to the angle of the nose. The right eyelid was cut through to about half an inch in extent - a similar cut. There was a clean cut over the bridge of the nose, extending from the left border of the nasal bone down near to the angle of the jaw on the right side, across the chin. This cut went into the nasal bone and divided all the structures of the cheek, except the mucous membrane of the mouth. The tip of the nose was quite detached from the nose by an oblique cut from the bottom of the nasal bone to where the wings of the noise join on to the face. A cut from this divided the upper lip and extended through the substance of the gums from the right upper lateral incisor tooth. About half an inch from the tip of the nose was another oblique cut. There was a cut at the right angle of the mouth, as if by the point of a knife, through the mucous membrane, and a cut extended for an inch and a half over the upper lip. There was, on each side of the cheek, a cut which peeled up the skin, forming a triangular flap of an inch and a half. On the left cheek there were two abrasions of the epithelium. There were also similar abrasions under the left ear. The throat was cut, of course, to the extent of about six or seven inches. The superficial cut commenced about an inch and a half behind the lobe of the left ear, and about two and a half inches below the ear, and it extended across the throat to about three inches below the lobe of the right ear. The sterno mastoid muscle was divided, and the large vessels of the left side of the neck was severed. The larynx was severed at the middle of the cricoid cartilage. All the deep structures were severed to the bone, the knife marking the vertebral cartilage. The sheath of the vessels on the right side was just opened. The left carotid artery had a pin hole opening, and the left jugular vein was opened to the extent of an inch and a half. The anterior fibres of the sterno mastoid were cut to the extent of half an inch. The cause of death was haemorrhage from the left carotid artery. The other injuries were inflicted after death. We examined the injuries to th abdomen. The front walls were laid open from the sternum to the pubes. The cut commenced opposite the ensiform cartilage. The incision went upwards and did not penetrate the skin that was over the sternum; it was then divided the ensiform cartilage. The knife must have been held so that the point was towards the left side and the handle to the right. Behind this the liver was stabbed as if by the point of a knife; below this was another incision into the liver about two and a half inches deep; and below this again the left lobe of the liver was cut through about three or four inches. The cuts were shown by a jagging of the skin as if the knife had been drawn and stabbed in again. The abdominal walls were divided vertically in the middle line to within a quarter of an inch of the navel. The cut then took a horizontal course of two and a half inches to the right side, and then divided the navel on the left side, and made a parallel incision to the former horizontal one, leaving the navel on a tongue of skin. The incision then took an oblique course to the right. It divided the lower part of the abdomen, and went down to half an inch behind the rectum. There was a cut which wounded the peritoneum. At the top of the thigh was another cut. After describing various other wounds, the witness continued: There was little or no bleeding from the abdominal injuries, showing that they were inflicted after death. The cuts were probably made by some one on the side of the body, kneeling below the middle of the body.
Examination showed that there was very little in the stomach in the way of food or fluid. After describing the condition of the various organs, and the nature of other wounds discovered by post mortem examination, witness said: The left kidney was completely cut out and taken away. The renal artery was cut through about three quarters of an inch. This must have been done by some one who knew the position of the kidney and how to take it out. The membrane over the uterus was cut through, and the womb was cut through, leaving a stump of about three quarters of an inch. The rest of the womb was absent - taken completely away from the body. together with some of the ligaments. Mr. Crawford: have you formed any opinion as to whether the woman was standing when the wounds were inflicted? - I believe she was lying on the ground. The wounds were inflicted with a sharp pointed knife, with a blade at least six inches long.
Do you consider that the person who inflicted the wounds had a great deal of anatomical knowledge and skill? - A great deal of knowledge of the position of the abdominal organs.
Could the parts removed be used for professional purposes? - They would be of no use for professional purposes.
Would the extraction of the left kidney show great anatomical knowledge and skill? -
Great knowledge of its position, for it is very easily overlooked.
Would not such a knowledge be possessed by one accustomed to cutting up animals? - Yes.
Have you been able to form any opinion as to whether the perpetrator of this act was disturbed during the performance of it? - I should think he had sufficient time as he would not have nicked the eyelids unless he had.
How long would the whole thing take to do? - It could be done in five minutes. I may say that a man who is accustomed to removing the womb was asked to take one out, and it took him three minutes.
Can you, as a professional man, assign any reason for these parts being taken away? - I cannot.
Have you any doubts in your own mind that there was no struggle? - I am sure there was no struggle.
Are you equally of opinion that the act is that of one man? - I think so.
Can you, as a medical man, account for the fact of no noise being heard by those in the immediate neighbourhood? - The throat had been so instantly severed that I do not suppose there would be any time for the least sound to be uttered.
Would you expect to find much blood on the person who inflicted those wounds? - No, I should not.
Was your attention called to this portion of an apron which was found upon the woman? - It was. There were stains of blood upon the apron.
Are the stains of recent origin? - They are. Dr. Phillips afterwards brought me a piece of apron which had been found in Goldstone street by a policeman. The stains are those of blood, but it is impossible to say that it is human blood.
On the piece of apron brought in by Dr. Phillips were there smears of blood as if some one had wiped bloodstained hands upon it? - Yes. There were also what appeared to be stains of faecal matter.
With regard to the mutilation of the face, can you form any opinion as to why it was done? - I suppose to disfigure the corpse.
The inquiry was adjourned until next Thursday.
At the Hampstead Police court, yesterday, William Webb, 43, a labourer and army pensioner, living at New End square, Hampstead, was charged, before Mr. B.W. Smith and Mr. G.H. Powell, with appearing in Heath street in female costume, with a carving knife in his possession, supposed for an unlawful purpose. Mackenzie, 591S, deposed that on Wednesday night, about a quarter to eight, he was on fixed point duty near the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Station, when he saw a crowd outside the Horse and Groom public house, Heath street. Witness went to ascertain the cause, and saw the prisoner in the midst of a crowd dressed up in the woman's clothes now produced - hat, skirt, petticoat, and jacket - and with a handkerchief round his neck. Witness thought prisoner was a man, and told him to go away. The prisoner would not go, but drew the knife produced (about a foot long with the blade) from up his sleeve, and acting about with it, said he was going to Whitechapel to catch the murderer. Witness did not know prisoner, but he was known in Hampstead. He did not seem to be the worse for drink. Witness took him to the station. The prisoner said he was drunk in the morning, and had some more drink in the evening. Some of his companions had told him that he had not got the pluck to go down to Whitechapel to look after the murderer, and so he went home and put his wife's clothes on, in which he came out, but with no intention of going to Whitechapel. It was only a joke. Inspector Sly, S division, said that prisoner had shaved off his moustache. Witness thought it right to detain him when he was brought to the station, but now believed that prisoner's conduct was nothing but a joke. Prisoner admitted that he had shaved off his moustache. The bench said the constable had acted properly in taking the prisoner into custody, and fined the accused 10s., or in default seven days' imprisonment, for disorderly conduct. Prisoner was locked up in default.
