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Pall Mall Gazette
21 September 1888

THE WHITECHAPEL MURDERS

The man who was arrested at Holloway on suspicion of being concerned in the Whitechapel murder and subsequently removed and detained at Bow asylum, will be shortly released. His brother had given satisfactory explanation as to his whereabouts on the morning of the murder. It has transpired that the authorities of the asylum would not allow the police to interrogate the patient whilst there, as it is against the rules laid down by the Lunacy Commissioners.

A Medical View of the Case

Either a deep sense of wrong suffered or a profound feeling of the good to be done, might (says the British Medical Journal) induce a young insane man to perform such acts as those recorded at Whitechapel; the fact which chiefly militates against this is the special mutilations which took place; these point rather to a person being actuated by some feeling of revenge. If the murderer turns out to be insane at all, he may not improbably turn out to be a young man of some refinement who was driven by delusions and who had suffered from hallucination of his senses for some time. There are no good medical grounds for suspecting any ordinary chronic lunatic who may have escaped from control.


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