London, Nov. 14.
The hopes of the police of catching the Whitechapel murderer, which had
almost entirely died out, were raised to the acme of buoyancy yesterday in
consequence of the testimony, at the Kelly inquest, of George Hutchinson,
a groom, who had known the victim for some years, and who saw her with a
male companion shortly before 2 o'clock on the morning of the murder.
Hutchinson testified that he saw a well dressed man, with a Jewish cast of countenance, accost the woman on the street at the hour mentioned, on Friday morning, and the circumstances of his acquaintance with her induced him to follow the pair as they walked together. He looked straight into the man's face as he turned to accompany the woman, and followed them to Miller court, out of mere curiosity. He had no thought of the previous murders, and certainly no suspicion that the man contemplated violence, since his conspicuous manifestations of affection for his companion as they walked along, formed a large part of the incentive to keep them in sight.
After the couple entered the house Hutchinson heard sounds of merriment in the girl's room and remained at the entrance to the court for fully three quarters of an hour. About 3 o'clock the sounds ceased and he walked into the court, but finding that the light in the room had been extinguished he went home. During the hour occupied in standing at the entrance to, or promenading the court he did not see a policeman. There is every reason to believe Hutchinson's statement and the police place great reliance upon his description of the man, believing that it will enable them to run him down.
The witness who testified to having seen the woman enter the house with a man with a blotched face was evidently mistaken as to the night, as his description of her companion is totally unlike that of Hutchinson in every particular. The bulk of the evidence taken fixes the time of the murder at between 3:30 and 4 o'clock. It has transpired that in addition to the facial mutilation of the murdered woman the uterus was wholly and skilfully removed and laid in a corner of the bed.
