Manchester Guardian
11 October 1888
"THE WHITECHAPEL MURDERS"
The police made an arrest at Chingford to-day in connection
with the East End murders, but the prisoner was subsequently
released, the authorities having satisfied themselves that he
could have had nothing to do with the Whitechapel murders.
At all the police stations at the East End yesterday matters
were reported unusually quiet, a state of affairs due in
great measure doubtless to the elaborate system of patrols
recently instituted by the police in the neighbourhood, and
the disappearance of many of the most disorderly characters
from the streets at a comparatively early hour owing to the
prevailing terror. Members of the vigilance committees
lately instituted were also freely met with, while policemen
and detectives in plain clothes were posted at various points
within easy hail of each other in the event of an alarm being
raised. The opinion generally expressed by the police and
others on the watch for the murderer is that he will find the
district too closely watched to allow him to repeat his
terrible crime without detection, and that if head of again
it will be in some other part of the Metropolis.
A Liverpool correspondent states that the police there have
no knowledge of the report which has been circulated that
they were cognisant of the movements of a man suspected of
being concerned in the Whitechapel murders. The head
constable has, however, given instructions for the railways
stations and departing steamers to be closely watched.
Considerable excitement was caused in the neighbourhood of
Blackfriars Road last evening by the report that another
outrage had been committed on a woman in a narrow passage
leading out of that thoroughfare. It appears that a woman's
screams attracted the attention of passers-by, and two men
were seen to run away, and were pursued but not captured.
The woman had been thrown down and cuts inflicted on her
face, but it is believed the injuries are not serious. The
object of the attack was apparently robbery, for the woman's
purse, containing about eight shillings, was picked up near
the spot.
Up to eleven o'clock last night there had been no further
arrest, and there was then no person in custody. The police
do not appear to be any nearer the detection of the murderer.