THE NINTH VICTIM OF THE WHITECHAPEL MONSTER
THE BODY OF A WOMAN FRIGHTFULLY MUTILATED, FOUND IN A ROOM IN DORSET ST., SPITALFIELDS
BLOODHOUNDS OF NO AVAIL
THE MATTER BROACH
ED IN PARLIAMENT
London, Nov. 9. The Whitechapel murder fiend has added another to his list of victims. At 11 o'clock this morning, the body of a woman, cut into pieces, was discovered in a house on Dorset street, Spitalfields. The police are endeavoring to track the murderer with the aid of bloodhounds. The body was mutilated in the same horrible manner as were those of the women murdered in Whitechapel.
The appearance of the body was frightful, and the mutilation was even greater than in the previous cases. The head had been severed and placed beneath one of the arms. The ears and nose had been cut off. The body had been disembowelled and the flesh was torn from the thighs. Certain portions of the body were missing. The skins had been torn off the forehead and cheeks. One hand had been pushed into the stomach.
The victim, like all the others, was a fallen woman. She was married and her husband was a porter. They had lived together at intervals. Her name is believed to have been Lizzie Fisher, but to most of the habitués of the haunts she visited she was known as Mary Jane. She had a room in the house where she was murdered. She carried a latch key and no one knows at what house she entered the house last night, and probably no one saw the man who accompanied her. Therefore it is hardly likely that he will ever be identified. He might easily have left the house at any time between 1 and 6 o'clock this morning without attracting attention. The doctors who have examined the body refuse to make any statement until the inquest is held.
Three bloodhounds belonging to private citizens were taken to the place where the body lay and placed on the scent of the murderer, but they were unable to keep it for any great distance, and all hope of running the assassin down with their assistance will have to be abandoned.
The murdered woman told a companion last evening that she was without money, and would commit suicide if she did not obtain a supply.
It has been learned that a man, respectably dressed, accosted the victim and offered her money. They went to her lodgings on the second floor of the Dorset street house. No noise was heard during the night, and nothing was known of the murder until the landlady went to the room early this morning to ask for her rent. The first thing she saw on entering the room was the woman's breasts and viscera lying on a table.
Dorset street is short and narrow, and is situated close to Mitre square and Hanbury street.
In the House of Commons today Mr. Conybeare asked the question whether, if it was true that another woman had been murdered in London, General Warren, the Chief of the Metropolitan Police, ought not to be superceded by an officer accustomed to investigate crime.
The question was greeted by cried of "Oh! Oh!" The Speaker called, "Order" Order!" and said that notice must be given of the question in the usual way.
Mr. Conybeare replied: "I have given private notice."
The Speaker - The notice must be made in writing.
Mr. Cunninghame-Graham then Asked whether General Warren had already resigned, to which Mr. Smith, the Government leader, replied, "No."
This last addition to the number of terrifying murders in the Whitechapel district makes the ninth victim who has been butchered under the same mysterious circumstances. The first Whitechapel murder occurred about a year ago. No notice was taken of the crime as the victim was a fallen woman, and it was supposed to be nothing uncommon that such a deed should be committed in such a locality, where the vilest resorts of London are located. The victim was buried in the Potter's Field, and little effort was made to discover the murderer. The second murder did not occur till August 7 last, but it was undoubtedly the work of the same hand, the woman being mangled and mutilated in a peculiar manner. The police made some unusual efforts to find the murderer this time, but without success.
The excitement caused among the people of the East End over this second crime had hardly begun to subside then a third woman was found murdered under the same revolting circumstances, on the morning of August 31. The victims were all of the same class of fallen women. Then a panic of horror and fear began to seize upon the people of London, especially among the class which the unknown fiend seemed to single out for his awful work. This panic was intensified by the murder of a fourth woman eight days later. This time the woman was butchered in the backyard of No. 29 Hanbury street, not 100 yards from the place where one of the former victims was murdered. On a wall above the mangled body were written these words:
Fifteen before I surrender.
The police were now thoroughly aroused, but all efforts to track down the monster proved unsuccessful. Scarcely had they begun to relax their efforts before the murderer struck again, killing his fifth victim on September 23, at Gateshead, near Newcastle on Tyne. On September 30, at 1 o'clock in the morning, the sixth murdered woman was found in Berners street, Whitechapel, but the murderer had probably been frightened away, as the body was not mutilated as in all the other cases. Fifteen minutes after discovering the sixth body, the seventh was found in Mitre square, Whitechapel. This time the murderer had completed his work for the body was mutilated as in the other five instances. On the day following, the eighth body was found on the Thames Embankment in the Whitechapel district. This last victim, however, had been dead for some time when found.
This series of atrocities rapidly succeeding each other created the wildest excitement in London, and the clamor against the police officials for their failure to find the fiend was great. The London papers devoted many columns to the murders, and many suggestions as to the method of finding the murderer were advanced. Bloodhounds were used without effect by the police. People who live in the Whitechapel neighborhood came forward and gave descriptions of a shabby genteel man with a wild look in his eyes who had been noticed in the vicinity and had been seen with some of the murdered women. The papers were full of descriptions of him and it is supposed that the length of time which has elapsed since his last victim fell was due to the murderer's desire to let the excitement subside so that he could resume his awful work in safety. According to his legend on the wall above the body of the Hanbury street victim, there still remain six unfortunates to fall before the mysterious murderer.
