The Munster News and Limerick and Clare Advocate
Limerick, Ireland
Wednesday, 12th September 1888

THE WHITECHAPEL MURDER

No further arrests have been made in Whitechapel, though the police are following up with praiseworthy perseverance the new evidence which came to light yesterday.

Annie Chapman, murdered in Spitalfield, was identified by her brother to-day, and will be taken away for interment on receipt of the Coroner's order. The place of funeral will be kept secret.

The inquest was resumed at Whitechapel this afternoon. James Kent, one of two who first saw the body, said the appearance of the corpse led him to believe that deceased had struggled while on her back. Mrs Richardson, occupier of the premises, deposed that she slept badly on the night of the murder, but heard no sounds. The first floor back was occupied by an old man and his imbecile son, but the latter was quite inoffensive.

An arrest has been made at Halloway of a man suspected of being concerned in the Whitechapel murder. He has been detained at Halloway police station, and has been pronounced insane, and is now in the workhouse infirmary.

The stains found in the yard at 25 Hanbury street, prove on examination not to be bloodstains.

THE PIMLICO TRAGEDY

The police are busily engaged investigating the Pimlico tragedy, but without making further discoveries up to the present.

THE WHITECHAPEL MYSTERY

In Saturday's issue we published details of another horrible butchery in Whitechapel - the fifth within a very short period in which the murders of murders, remain undetected. London papers ascribe the deeds to one man nicknamed "Leather Apron," the following description of whom has been published in the "Star":- He is five feet four or five inches in height, and wears a dark clean fitting cap. His hair is black, and closely clipped, his age being about thirty eight or forty. He has a small black moustache. The distinguishing feature of his costume is a leather apron, which he always wears, and from which he gets his nickname. His expression is sinister, and seems to be full of terror for the women who describe it. His eyes are small and glittering. His lips are usually parted in a grin which is not only not reassuring, but excessively repellent. He is a slipper maker by trade, but does not work. His business is blackmailing women late at night. A number of men in Whitechapel follow this interesting profession. He has never cut anybody, so far as is known, but always carries a leather knife, presumably as sharp as leather knives are wont to be. This knife a number of the women have seen. His name nobody knows, but all are united in the belief that he is a Jew or of Jewish parentage, his face being of a marked Hebrew type. But the most singular characteristic of the man is the universal statement that in moving about he never makes any noise. What he wears on his feet the women do not know, but they agree that he moves noiselessly. His uncanny peculiarity to them is that they never see him or know of his presence until he is close by them . . . "Leather Apron" never by any chance attacks a man. He runs away on the slightest appearance of rescue. One woman who he assaulted some time ago boldly prosecuted him for it, and he was sent up for seven days. He has no settled place of residence, but has slept oftenest to a fourpenny lodging house of the lowest kind in a disreputable lane leading from Brick lane. Thousands of people visit the scene of the murders, and the owner of the house is turning the ghastly event to account by charging visitors one penny to enter the yard. One man named James Spilsby has been arrested on suspicion. The police hold that the murderer is a maniac, as on the wall these words were found written:- "Five; fifteen others and then I give myself up." The latter sentence would almost force the belief that the ruffian had been a student of the sensational literary production, "Dr Jekyll or Mr O'Hyde."

Inspector Thickie on Monday succeeded in arresting the man known as "Leather Apron." His real name is said to be Piser, and instead of being in the leather trade as stated at first, he has been employed as a cabinet maker. It is stated that his arrest is on mere suspicion, Piser being well known to the police in Whitechapel as a "bully." A number of men outside Leman street station yesterday afternoon were admitted into the station yard, and Piser was brought out and placed amongst them. A man of dark complexion was then asked if he "could identify the man," and he picked out Piser. This is supposed to imply that Piser was seen in the morning in Hanbury street in company with the deceased.