Evening Star (Washington, D.C.)
Tuesday, 13 November 1888
Another Sensation in London.
THE BODY OF A WELL-DRESSED WOMAN FOUND FLOATING IN THE THAMES
LONDON, Nov. 13.-The body of a well-dressed woman was taken out of the Thames this morning. There were marks on the body which gave rise to a suspicion that the women had been murdered, but it is possible that she committed suicide, and that the marks were received by contact with objects in the water. The police searched the casual wards of the various police stations in the hope of getting some clue to the murderer, but they were unsuccessful. They arrested one man who had a bowie knife in his possession, but there is no reason to believe that he was instrumental in the woman's death, an dhe will probably be discharged.
Why Gen. Warren Resigned.
LONDON, Nov. 13.-In the house of commons this afternoon Mr. Matthews, the home secretary, stated that the resignation of Gen. Sir Chas. Warren as chief of the metropolitan police was solely due to his refusal to submit to the rule which forbids officials to publicly criticize government services. Gen. Warren, in announcing his resignation, said Mr. Matthews wrote that had he known that such a rule existed he would never have accepted the post. Mr. Goschen, chancellor of the exchequer, denied that the government proposed to withdraw the Vans bill.
THE WHITECHAPEL CRIMES.
What a Local Detective Thinks of the Crimes and Their Perpetrator.
Speaking of the Whitechapel murders in London, Private Detective Flinders said to a STAR reporter that no more mysterious crimes had ever been committed in the world What made them so mysterious was that there was no apparent motive. The victims were inmates of houses in the Whitechapel district and certainly the motive was not robbery, for there could hardly have been anything to steal. The murders, he thought, were committed by some person who is a crank on anatomy or possibly a religious crank who thinks by committing these murders he is going to reform the residents of Whitechapel. The murders were surely not, in his opinion, committed from spite, because if they were the bodies of the victims would not have been so horribly mutilated. In his opinion the murderer is a man who is well acquainted about Whitechapel. He, in all probability, is a fellow who is well acquainted with and well-liked by all the females and with whom any of them will go. When one of these crimes is committed it always looks as if Jack the Ripper met his victim and went with her to some court or dark place, and then did the ghastly work. There is a surprising feature about the crimes, Mr. Flinders said. The perpetrator of them in his butchery certainly gets his clothes very bloody, and the question arises how does he manage to escape in such condition. He must have a room in that portion of the city where he can go in a few minutes undiscovered. This confirms the theory that he is certainly well acquainted in the neighborhood in which the crimes have been committed. Being wholly unable to find a motive for the crimes the officers are at a loss to tell what class of persons to suspect. Consequently the villain cannot be captured. Many theories of the murders and how to capture the murderer have been advanced. Inspector Byrnes, it is stated, proposes to send one or two of his officers to London, and he thinks they will be able to catch Jack the Ripper. Mr. Flinders thinks that they may be able to do so, but there are serious doubts about it. Every stranger who is seen about the Whitechapel district is suspected of being a detective, and while he is probably watching some innocent person Jack is watching him. It has been stated in the papers that the work is probably that of some of the officers who were recently relieved from duty on the London police force who are working against their successors, but this the detective thought is hardly true. If there was any ill-feeling on their part, and they wanted to get even by committing crime, they would set about to blow up a bank or some large building, or would, perhaps, have several daring robberies committed. They would never resort to murder. "If I should start out to investigate the murders," said the detective, "I would watch the museums of anatomy, spot the frequent visitors who seemed particularly anxious to study those portions of the human body which have been carried from the victims, and then keep an eye on him. I would also have the bookstores closely watched for some person not a physician who might purchase medical works. I would work the case on that theory, and think it would prove successful. But then the officers in London will probably have better chance of obtaining a clue in future murders, as Jack has promised to kill twenty-one persons."
