Saturday, 15 September 1888
Up to a late hour last night no arrest had been made in connection with the murder of Annie Chapman, whose remains were buried yesterday with the utmost privacy. A Press Association reporter has elicited that Mr. Cardoche [Cadosch], who lives in the next house to No. 29, Hanbury-street, where the murder was committed, went to the back of the premises at 5.30 a.m., and as he passed the wooden partition he heard a woman say: "No, no." On returning he heard a scuffle and then someone fall heavily against the fence. He heard no cry for help, and so he went into his house. Some surprise is felt that this statement was not made in evidence at the inquest. In a later telegram, the Press Association says the police made another arrest last night in connection with the recent murder.
Early on Saturday morning a discovery was made in Hanbury-street, Whitechapel, of the body of a woman shockingly mutilated and murdered. The scene of the crime is not far from Buck's Row, where the woman Nicholls [Nichols] was recently killed. The discovery was made by John Davis, in the yard of whose house the body was found. Mr. Davis was crossing the yard at a quarter to six, when he saw a horrible-looking mass lying in the corner. While he was gone to give information to the police, Mrs. Richardson, an old lady sleeping on the first floor, was aroused by her grandson, and looking out of the back window, saw the body lying in the yard. The throat was cut from ear to ear, and the deceased was lying on her back with her legs outstretched. Her clothes were pushed up above the knees, and the body was ripped up from groin to breastbone. The deceased has been identified as being an unfortunate named Chapman, who had been sleeping at a common lodging house, at 35, Dorset-street, Spitalfields, where she was seen at 2 o'clock on Saturday morning. The universal opinion in the locality is that the murderer is the same man who killed Mrs. Nicholls, and possibly also the two other women who were killed earlier in the year. On the wall near where the woman's body was found were the words, "Five - fifteen more, and then I give myself up." The inquest was opened on Monday by Mr. Wynne Baxter, coroner, and was - after evidence of identification and the finding of the body had been given - adjourned. Throughout Monday, the excitement aroused among the people of Whitechapel showed no sign of abatement, and the streets near the scene of the crime and about the police stations of the district were the resorts of crowds of people eager to gather the latest details of the affair. Several arrests were made, but with the exception of a capture at Gravesend, they appear to be people who had no difficulty in proving their entire innocence. The man arrested at Gravesend had marks of blood upon his clothes and boots, and stated that he was in Whitechapel during the whole of Friday night. He was afterwards pronounced by the police doctor to be of unsound mind. No evidence connecting either Pigott or Piser with the murder was obtained, and on Tuesday evening the latter was discharged from custody. The man Pigott, who was arrested at Gravesend was placed in the Infirmary, where he is being closely watched. A reward of £100 has been offered by Mr. S. Montague, M.P., for the capture of Chapman's murderer, but every effort of the police to trace him has failed up to the present, and they appear to be absolutely without a clue to the mystery. The inquest was resumed on Wednesday afternoon. John Piser, otherwise "Leather Apron," who was liberated on the previous evening, gave evidence as to his movements on Friday night and Saturday morning. His story had been tested by the police and found to be correct.