Morning Advertiser (London)
28 September 1888
The Whitechapel Murders - The Press Association says:
As a concequence of the startling statement made by the coroner
on Wednesday, public interest in the fate of the unfortunate Annie
Chapman has been stimulated afresh, and the clue afforded is being
followed up by the police,who have now had the information in their
posession for a week; but it has not transpired whetherthey have
yet obtained any tangible result. The inquiries of the police would
necessarily extend to America, and on that account it may be some
time before fresh facts could be in the hands of the public.
An important point yet to be made clear is as to whether the object
of the murderer was the same in the case of the woman Nichols as in
that of Annie Chapman. The coroner in the former case, when he
summed up last Saturday, appeared to think that it was, and at the
time of expressing that opinion he must have been in receipt of the
important communication from the sub-curator of the pathological
museum attached to one of the metropolitan hospitals to which he
referred in his summing up on the body of Annie Chapman. The opinion
he expressed last Saturday regarding Nichols' case thus carries
weight. The "shabby genteel" man who was seen in Chapman's company
shortly before her murder is being sought for; but up to the
present it would appear without success. From inquiries made at
some of the great medical institutions it has been ascertained that
requests similar to that of the American gentleman had been made
before, but the peculiar conditions attaching to the requests
could not possibly be complied with, unless the operation were
performed before or immediately after death. From inquiries made
at a late hour last night it was ascertained that the man John
Fitzgerald, who was arrested on his own confession at Wandsworth
on Wednesday for the murder of Annie Chapman, was still detained
in custody at the Leman-street (Whitechapel) police-station.
Numerous detectives throughout yesterday were engaged in
investigating Fitzgerald's antecedents, but nothing was discovered
to justify the authorities in charging the man with the murder.
A Stupid Freak - Joseph Woods was charged at the Portsmouth Police Court
yesterday with assaulting a woman named Candey, at midnight, on Tuesday
last. Candey stated that the prisoner took hold of her in a disgraceful
manner in the street, and produced a knife. She then asked him if he was
the Whitechapel murderer, to which he replied in the affirmative. She then
blew a whistle, which she said she had always carried since the Whitechapel
tragedies, and a policeman came to her assistance. The prisoner told the
constable that he had frightened the woman by telling her he was the
Whitechapel murderer. The magistrates regarded the matter as a stupid
freak, and bound the prisoner over to keep the peace.
