Indiana Evening Gazette
Indiana, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
18 March 1924
"Strangler Jack" Terrorizes London As List of His Little Victims Grows
By Milton Bronner
NEA Service Staff Writer
Chichester, England, March 17.
Jack the Ripper, infamous murderer of 1887-89 who knifed women to death, is succeeded by Jack the Strangler who strangles girls of tender years.
Scotland Yard is just as baffled over the new torturer as they were of old Jack, whom they never apprehended.
Violet Mansfield, 14, disappeared from her home in Farnham, Surrey. Days later her body was found in a deserted house.
The body of little Mary Bailes, enticed from her home by a strange man, was found in a subway station wrapped in a blanket.
Madge Kirby, 7, who vanished while playing in front of her home on Liverpool street was found dead in an empty shack, months later.
The body of Maggie Nally, 10, strangled, was discovered in the lavatory of a subway station.
The latest event to strike terror in the hearts and minds of every mother in this ancient market town is the terrible fate of pretty 12 year old Vera Hoad.
She left home to take a music lesson and never returned.
A thorough search by police and Boy Scouts availed nothing.
Several days later a deaf and dumb mute, white with terror and excited to tragic shrieks attracted the attention of the superintendent of the asylum of which he is an inmate.
Led to the cause of the disturbance the superintendent saw the body of a little girl half buried in a recent snow storm. The girl was Vera. The conditions surrounding her death was the same as in all the others. She had been outraged and strangled.
A thousand dollar reward has been offered for any working clue. But none has been found.
Jack the Ripper created a reign of terror in the White Chapel district. Women, his victims, were afraid to leave their homes after nightfall. Detectives in plainclothes sidled about the district - but the murders went right on. Suddenly they stopped. Police believed that the man went to America.
But the new Jack - Jack the Strangler - has created even more mortal terror. For he attacks defenseless children.
