Chief-Superintendent Hill, of the Staffordshire Constabulary, has received a letter signed "Jack the Ripper," in which the writer states that he has arrived at Burslem, and that he is going to kill eight more women there and in Hanley. He adds that his knife is eight inches long, and that he will cut the arms off the next woman he murders, and with the letter is a sketch of a dagger.
The number of paupers in London on Saturday last, exclusive of lunatics in asylums and vagrants, was 97,743, as compared with 98,054 on the corresponding day of last year, 92,380 in 1886, and 91,684 in 1885. The vagrants relieved in the metropolis on the last day of last week were 1,290, of whom 1,057 were men, 203 women, and 30 children under 16 years of age.
A matinée will be given at the Royal Avenue Theatre on Thursday afternoon, December 13th, in aid of the Samaritan Fund of the Middlesex Hospital, which is urgently in need of help, when Balfe’s popular opera of "The Bohemian Girl," with full orchestra, chorus, and ballet of 100 performers, will be produced under sole direction of Mr. A. Carli, who has most kindly volunteered his services.
Mr. Saunders, the presiding magistrate, yesterday received a letter purporting to come from "jack the Ripper," which bore the Hastings post mark, and which was addressed to "Head Magistrate, Police Court, Whitechapel." It read as follows:
"Dear Boss,
It is no use looking for me in London or in Portsmouth, for I have reached Hastings now, but I shant be long before I get in London again, back to my work again, but not the man with the black moustache. Ha! ha! ha!
Yours, ‘JACK THE RIPPER’"
A young woman of strange appearance, refusing her name and address, who when brought before the magistrate looked fixedly at a wooden cross which she carried, was charged with being disorderly the previous night.
On being asked for her name she said it was written in the book of Christ.
Vince (the assistant-gaoler): You have been here before.
Prisoner: Yes, I came here before with some letters to show that I had found Jesus. I was Lord Arthur Hill’s cook, and he will tell you my name. I cannot give it in court.
Constable Lockyer, 46 B, deposed that on Tuesday night he saw the prisoner rushing about Pout-street, Belgrave-square, shouting out that she was "Jack the Ripper’s" wife and making use of very bad language. She yelled "Murder and police" all the way to the station.
The accused here made use of a number of Scriptural texts, and reproached herself for her manner of living in very strange terms. She also said she lived in "concubine" with a gentleman who gave her jewellery, and the Lord Jesus Christ had told her not to do it.
Mr. D’Eyncourt inquired what it was that she held in her hand.
The Gaoler: It’s a cross, sir.
Prisoner (excitedly): You must not touch it. It was given to me by Jesus Christ himself, and I have seen it by night and day. I lost my beads in the police-station, where I said my prayers: but I have two diamonds given me in place of them. The prisoner carefully unwrapped a paper, to display two bright stones.
Mr. D’Eyncourt remanded her for a medical report as to the state of her mind.
