The Ottawa Free Press (Canada)
21 November 1888

EXCITEMENT IN LONDON

Report of Another Murder in Whitechapel

THE ASSASSIN FAILS THIS TIME

He Flies in Terror and is Hotly Pursued--His Capture is Certain.

London, Nov. 21--Great excitement was occasioned this morning when it was reported that another woman had been mudered and mutilated in Whitechapel. The police immediately formed a cordon around the premises and an enormous crowd gathered.

ONLY AN ATTEMPT

An investigation of the reported murder reveals the fact that the woman was only wounded in the throat. She stated to the police that a man visited her lodgings and suddenly attacked her with a knife. She struggled and screamed and the man becoming alarmed fled. The would be murderer was chased fully 300 yards, but succeeded in eluding his pursuers. The woman states that she will be fully able to identify her assailant. His arrested is hourly expected.

A BARONET ARRESTED

New York, Nov. 21.--The World's London correspondent says:--The most intense amusement has been caused among all classes of the London world by the arrest of Sir George Arthur on suspicion of being thte Whitechapel murderer. Sir George is a young baronet holding a captaincy in the regiment of Royal Horse Guards, and is a member of most of the leading clubs in town. He is also a well-known amateur actor, and was a great friend of the late Prince Leopold.

Since the past few weeks the old mania for "slumming" in Whitechapel has become fashionable again. Every night scores of young men who have never been to the East end in their lives prowl around the neighborhood in which the murders were committed, talking with the frightened women and pushing their way into overcrowded lodging houses.

THE VIGILANT POLICE

So long as any two men keep together and do not make a nuisance of themselves the police do not interfere with them, but if a man goes alone and tries to lure a woman of the street inot a secluded corner to talk with her he is pretty sure into trouble. That was the case with Sir George Arthur. He put on an old shooting coat and a slouch hat and went down to Whitechapel for a little fun. He got it. It occurred to two policemen that Sir George answered very much the popular description of Jack the Ripper. The watched him and when they saw him talking with women they proceeded to collar him. He protested, expostulated and threatened them with the vengeance of Royal wrath, but in vain. Finally a chance was given him to send to a fashionable western club to prove his identity, and he was released with profuse apologies for the mistake.

The affair was kept out of the newspapers, but the jolly young baronet's friend at Brook's Club considered the joke too good to be kept quiet. Sir George is quite a figure in his way in London. He is a son of the late Sir Frederick Arthur.

A score of other men have been arrested by the police on suspicion of being the murderer, but the right man still roams at large. The large sums offered for the capture of the fiend have induced hundreds of amateur detectives to take a hand in the chase, but all of no avail.