People
London, United Kingdom
Sunday, 7 October 1888

With regard to the horrible discovery of mutilated remains made in Cannon row, the first idea was that the murderer had climbed an 8ft hoarding in Cannon row, by reason of its loneliness, darkness, and unprotectedness, dragging after him the parcel containing the body, that in the dark he made his way to the darkest and most secret part of the unwatched works, and then picked out, in the darkness, the place which would always be dark. This, however, is now thought to be impossible. It is also considered impossible for any one to have brought the load in at working time through any of the gates where the workers enter and leave, all these, it must be remarked, being in Cannon row. Equally unlikely was it for any one to have climbed the hoarding in daylight on Saturday afternoon or Sunday when it would only have been possible to have walked across the works, for though there are few people about on these days, there are always some, as Cannon row has a public house at each end of its short length, and there are always people about in the daytime. On examination of the other sides of the site it was considered equally improbable that the murderer found his way either from the gardens at the rear of Buccleuch House or from the west side. Moreover, the hoarding next the Thames Embankment is very high, and the drop from it would be through a cobweb of scaffolding into unknown depths. There is, therefore, only left the road by which the loaded carts enter, and curiously enough this is the nearest way to the recess where the body was found.

Brought in a cart, and carried as a load across the planks on to the building, its disposal would be easy in the recess, even though workmen were about, for the multitude of these are unobservant of such things as particular parcels being carried, especially if it were wrapped or covered in a cement bag. The murderer, too, could have chosen the dinner hour at which the cart should arrive, if, as is surmised, it was so brought. Upon another point there is no doubt whatever, and that is that the deposit was made by someone intimately acquainted with all the intricacies of the underground part of the works. This fact narrows the examination, and the authorities are not hopeless of touching upon some evidence which will reveal the whole of the fearful crime. An important question has arisen as to the time when the body was placed on the site. It is doubted whether the men who so positively declare that it was not there on Friday are not in some way mistaken - if they had not spoken of one recess without looking into this most remote one.

The theory that the victim of the crime was a lady, or, at any rate, a person of good position, which has been asserted by the police or doctors. It is much more likely that she was a person of the unfortunate class or a servant. Dr. Neville, the acting divisional surgeon of the B Division of police, adhered to the opinion that the hand showed indications of hard work, the skin being rough and hard, and the finger nails were dirty. The medical men who made the post mortem examination, it is said, are agreed that death took place about five weeks ago, although the detailed result of the autopsy will be kept secret until the inquest on Monday. It is believed that the head had been cleanly cut from the body by a very sharp instrument, and that the victim was a dark complexioned woman, presumed to be about 26 years of age, and in stature 5ft 7in or 5ft 8in.

Detective inspector Marshall on Friday proceeded to Guildford to bring to London some human remains, discovered near the railway line there. A woman's leg has been found there, and it is stated that it was boiled in the first instance. The limb is to be brought to London to be compared by Dr. Bond with the trunk found at Whitehall. It is believed that very important information has been obtained which will shortly lead to the identification of the murdered woman and an arrest. A later telegram from a Guildford correspondent says:-

It will be remembered that the remains found at Guildford consisted of a right foot and a portion of a left leg from the knee down to the ankle, where it had been severed. The police doctor examined the limbs at the time, and confirmed them to be human, whilst he also considered them to be those of a woman, but the flesh had either been roasted or boiled. No clue had been found to solve the mystery, but after the discovery at Whitehall Superintendent Berry, of the Guildford Borough Police force, communicated with the authorities at Scotland Yard, with the result that Detective inspector Marshall, who has the mystery in hand, proceeded to Guildford on Friday, and had the remains disinterred. He conveyed them in the evening to London. Inspector Marshall stated that, of course, he could form no opinion as to whether the limbs were part of the trunk referred to above, but on his arrival in London he would immediately take them to Dr. Bond and Dr. Hibbert, by whom they would be carefully examined.

Between three and four o'clock on Tuesday afternoon, a carpenter named Frederick Wildborn was working on the foundation of the new police office buildings, in course of erection on the site of the opera house on the Embankment, when he came across a neatly done up parcel, which was secreted in one of the cellars. Wildborn was in search of timber when he found the parcel, which was tied up in paper, and measured about two and a half feet long by about two feet in width. It was opened, and the body of a woman, very much decomposed, was found carefully wrapped up in a piece of cloth, which is supposed to be a black petticoat. The trunk was minus the head, both arms, and both legs, and presented a ghastly spectacle. The officials of the works were immediately apprised of the discovery, and the police were fetched. Dr. Bond, the divisional surgeon of the A Division, and several other medical gentlemen were communicated with, and subsequently examined the remains, which were handed over to the care of some police officers, who were told off to see that it was not disturbed. From what can be ascertained the conclusion has been arrived at by the medical men that these remains are those of the woman whose arms have recently been discovered.

Dr. Nevill, who examined the arm of a woman found a few weeks ago in the Thames, off Ebury Bridge, said on that occasion that he did not think that it had been skilfully taken from the body, and this fact would appear to favour the theory that this arm, together with the one found in the grounds of the Blind Asylum in the Lambeth road last week, belong to the trunk discovered on Tuesday, for it is stated that the limbs appear to have been taken off in anything but a skilful manner from the body found on Tuesday. the building which is in course of erection is the new police depot for London, the present, scattered headquarters of the metropolitan police force and the Criminal Investigation Department in Great Scotland Yard and Whitehall place having been found too small for the requirements of our police system. the builders have been working on the site for some considerable time now, but have only just completed the foundation. It was originally the site for the National Opera House, and extends from the Thames Embankment through to Cannon row, Parliament street, at the back of St. Stephen's Club and the Westminster Bridge station on the District Railway. The vault is about 24ft by 30ft in size, and 12 ft or 13ft deep, and it is nearly covered over with loose planks, the ground showing only a small space at each end. The trunk must have been carried either from the Embankment or from Cannon row. It certainly could not have been thrown over to where it lay from either roadway. Its general appearance, indeed, indicated rather that it had been carefully placed where it was subsequently found. It is

that any man could have carried such an offensive burden through the public street without attracting attention, and it is still more extraordinary how it could have been taken into the vault without discovery. The route from Cannon row to the vault is a difficult one. A hoarding some 7ft or 8ft high would have to be climbed, and the ground is of a very broken character. From the Embankment side the hoarding is about the same height, and to reach the vault one must actually pass through the building in course of erection, and round and about where several policemen are constantly patrolling. It is more reasonable to assume that the vault was gained from Cannon row and in that case it seems pretty certain that more than one person was concerned in the disposal of the parcel. One man probably climbed to the top of the hoarding with the assistance of his accomplice, from whom he then received the parcel, dropped it on the inner side, and then let himself down after it. The other then presumably kept watch while his confederate disposed of the remains. How the men could have known of the existence of the vault is not clear, for strangers are not admitted to the works. Possibly, the original intention was to place the remains in some out of the way corner in the works, and that they were only taken to the vault after that obviously desirable place had been accidentally discovered. The remains have been placed in spirit at the Westminster mortuary.

On Wednesday morning, Dr. Thomas Bond, surgeon to the A Division of Metropolitan Police, went to the mortuary in Millbank street, Westminster, where, in connection with Mr. Charles Hibberd, of Westminster Hospital, he carefully examined the trunk which was discovered on the site of the new police offices, near Cannon row, on Tuesday afternoon. The post mortem examination lasted nearly two hours. It is stated that the decomposition had too far advanced to allow the doctors to form an opinion as to whether the remains are those of a dark or a fair person, but they agree upon this, that the deceased was a very fine woman and that the body was exceedingly well nourished. The lower extremities had been cut off, the missing portions including a part of the lower intestine. The medical gentlemen believe that six weeks have elapsed since the body was mutilated. After giving directions for the trunk to be replaced in spirits of wine, Dr. Bond proceeded to the Home Office for the purpose of placing his notes at the disposal of the authorities for their guidance at the inquest, which will be opened by Mr. John Troutbeck, the district coroner, at the Westminster Sessions House, at three o'clock on Monday next. The doctor made Wednesday's examination under most trying circumstances, for, added to the bad condition of the remains, there were in the mortuary the bodies of the woman who was murdered by her husband in Westminster on the 29th ult., of a man who had committed suicide by hanging, and of a woman who was killed on the 30th ult. by a boiler explosion.

In the afternoon, acting under an order signed by the coroner, the keeper of the mortuary at Ebury Bridge conveyed the arm which was found in the Thames on the 11th ult. at Pimlico to the Westminster mortuary, where Dr. Hibberd and Detective inspector Marshall were in waiting. The trunk was then placed on one of the tables, and the medical gentlemen found that the arm fitted it exactly, the jagged edges of the flesh corresponding in every part. So far from the contour of the arm denoting that it belonged to a person of good position in life, Dr. Thomas Neville, the surgeon, who was first called upon to examine the limb, thought it was that of a woman who had been engaged in domestic or other work, the fingers being thick and the nails badly kept. However that may be, a discovery was made in the course of Wednesday afternoon, which tended to show that the deceased was not one of the lowest class. Inspector Marshall gave instructions to the coroner's office to have the material in which the trunk was wrapped thoroughly cleansed, and this having been done, it proved to be about two thirds of a woman's dress, made of black broché silk, with a flounce about three inches wide at the bottom. This has been taken charge of by Mr. Marshall, while Dr. Hibberd has taken possession of a piece of bloodstained newspaper.

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Sir Charles Warren's letter to the Whitechapel Board of Works is decidedly a forcible reply to their complaints. As he very truly observes, no increase in the number of policemen can prevent the occasional occurrence of a murder in cases where the possible victims really conspire with the possible murderers to get into dark places and thus to avoid the observation of the police. Furthermore, the Commissioner of Police fairly retorts that - as the vicar of St. Jude's has already pointed out - Whitechapel is not lighted as it should be, and that "darkness is an important assistant to crime." As to the demand that he should "regulate and strengthen" the police force in the district, he very properly points out that sending men to Whitechapel, means withdrawing them from other parts of London to the danger of the districts thus denuded of their proper supply of constables. For that the public have to thank themselves. If they do not choose to pay for effectual police protection they must not be surprised to find that the force cannot always do all it is expected to do.

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When the usual edition of the People went to press on Sunday morning last, those engaged on it little thought that within a few hours they would be called upon to chronicle two more fiendish atrocities at the east end, which had even then been committed, but the news of which had not at that hour reached the Strand. But such, unhappily, was the case, and the editions published later in the morning and in the afternoon contained all the particulars that were then known of the dreadful tragedies which had occurred soon after midnight, full details of which are now given below.

What appears to have been the first ghastly crime of the day took place in Berner street, a narrow, badly lighted, but fairly respectable thoroughfare turning out of the Commercial road, a short distance on the right hand side going from Whitechapel. It consists mainly of small houses, and in it is one of the fine new buildings of the London School Board. Just opposite this is what is called an "International and Educational Club," held in a private house, standing at the corner of a gateway leading into a yard in which are small houses occupied by Jewish families. The yard gates are usually closed at night, a wicket affording admission to the lodgers and others residing in the houses. As the Jewish holiday season had just ended, and the people in this part of London are largely composed of foreign Jews, some departure from regular habits was more or less general. The International and Educational Club was on Saturday evening, the 29th September, winding up the holiday by a lecture on "Judaism and Socialism." A discussion followed, which carried on proceedings to about half past twelve, and then followed a sing song and a general jollification, accompanied, as the neighbours say, by a noise that would effectually have prevented any cries for help being heard by those around. All this mirth was brought to a sudden and dreadful stop by the steward of the club, who lives in one of the small houses in the yard. He had been out, and on returning home just before one, and turning into the gateway, he observed some object lying in his way under the wall of the club, and without getting down first prodded it with his whip. Unable to see clearly what it was he struck a match and found it was a woman. He thought at first she was drunk, and went into the club. Some of the members went out with him and struck another light, and then they were horrified to find the woman's head nearly severed from her body and blood streaming down the gutter. The police were summoned, and amid intense excitement, the poor creature was taken away.

Although this murder may be regarded as of an almost ordinary character - the unfortunate woman only having her throat cut - little doubt is felt, from the position of the corpse, that the assassin had intended to mutilate. He seems, however, to have been interrupted by the arrival of a cart, which drew up close to the spot, and it is believed to be possible that he may escaped behind this vehicle. The body was removed to No. 40 Berner street, which is very near to the now notorious Hanbury street. The victim was subsequently identified as a prostitute, named Elizabeth Stride, aged about 35. At the time when the murder was committed the lights in all of the dwelling houses in the court had been extinguished, while such illumination as came from the club, being from the upper storey, would fall on the cottages opposite, and would only serve to intensify the gloom of the rest of the court. From the position in which the body was found, it is believed that the moment the murderer got his victim in the dark shadow near the entrance to the court he threw her to the ground, and with one gash he severed her throat from ear to ear. When discovered, the body was lying as if the woman had fallen forward, her feet being about a couple of yards from the street and her head in a gutter which runs down the right hand side of the court close to the wall. The woman lay on her left side, face downwards, her position being such that although the court at that part is only 9 feet wide, a person walking up the middle might have passed the recumbent body without notice. The condition of the corpse, however, and several circumstances which have since come to light prove pretty conclusively that no considerable period elapsed between the commital of the murder and discovery of the body. All the features of the case go to connect the tragedy with that which took place three quarters of an hour later a few streets distant.

Thomas Bates states that the woman found murdered in Berner street was known as "Long Liz," and she had lived with them for five or six years, but her real name he never knew. She was supposed to be a Swede by birth, and some years ago lost her husband, who was shipwrecked and drowned. He had always known her as a clean and hardworking woman. Her usual occupation was that of a charwoman, and it was only when driven to extremities that she walked the streets. Among her companions and the occupants of the house she was extremely popular. despite her quiet, and at time reserved demeanour. She would at times disappear for a month or so - even as much as three months, but she always turned up again, and they were ever glad to see her and welcome her back. She returned to the house on the 25th ult., after a somewhat protracted absence, and remained there until the following Saturday night. That evening she went out about seven o'clock, when she appeared to be in the most cheery spirits and in excellent health. The fact of her not returning that night was not taken any particular notice of, for it was by no means of an unusual circumstance. Their apprehensions, however, were aroused when rumours of the murders reached them, and their fears were confirmed when afterwards a man who new "Long Liz" well in, life called and informed them that he had identified her body at the mortuary.

Mrs. Ann Mill, the bed maker at the lodging house, stated that she had known the deceased for some years as "Long Liz" though until now she was never acquainted with her real name. Mrs. Stride came to the house, after a long absence, on the 25th ult., and she last saw her on the following Saturday evening, when she went out about seven. On that particular day the whitewashers were in the house, and in the course of the morning she had assisted her (Mrs. Mill) by cleaning two of the rooms where the workmen had been. The deceased at the time told her she wished she had known it before as she would have given further help. Mrs. Mill further mentioned that "Long Liz" had told her more than once that she was over 50 years of age.

The body of the second woman murdered was discovered shortly before two o'clock in the morning, in Mitre square, Aldgate, within the City boundaries, but on the confines of the now notorious district. While Police constable Watkins, of the City police, was going round his beat, he turned his lantern upon the darkest quarter of Mitre square, and saw the body of a woman, apparently lifeless, in a pool of blood. He at once blew his whistle, and on several persons coming to the spot, he despatched messengers for medical and police aid. Inspector Collard quickly arrived, followed a few moments after by Dr. G.W. Sequeira, surgeon, of 34 Jewry street, and Dr. Gordon Brown, the divisional police doctor, of Finsbury Circus.

The scene then disclosed was a most horrible one. the woman, who was apparently about 40 years of age, was lying on her back, quite dead, although the body was still warm. Her head was inclined to the left. Her left leg was extended, her right being bent, and both her arms were extended. The throat was terribly cut; there was a large gash across the face from the nose to the right angle of the cheek, and part of the right ear had been cut off. There were also other indescribable mutilations. It is stated that some anatomical skill seems to have been displayed in the way in which the lower part of the body was mutilated, but the ghastly work appears to have been done more rapidly and roughly than in the cases of the women Nicholls and Chapman. The body was removed as soon as possible to the mortuary in Golden lane.

The woman is described as being about 40 years of age and 5ft in height. She has hazel eyes - the right one having been apparently smashed in, and the left one being also injured - and dark auburn hair. She wore a black cloth jacket, with imitation fur collar, and three large metal buttons. Her dress is of dark green print, the pattern consisting of Michaelmas daisies and golden lilies. She also wore a thin vest, a drab linsey skirt, and a very old green alpaca petticoat, white chemise and brown ribbed stockings, mended at the feet with white material. her bonnet was black straw, trimmed with black beads and green and black velvet. She wore a pair or men's laced boots; and a piece of old white coarse apron and a piece of riband were tied loosely round the neck. There were also found upon her a piece of string, a common white handkerchief with a red border, a match box with cotton in it, a white linen pocket containing a white bone handle table knife, very blunt (with no blood on it), two short clay pipes, a red cigarette case with white metal fittings, a printed handbill with the name "Frank Cater, 405 Bethnal Green road," upon it, a check pocket containing five pieces of soap, a small tin containing tea and sugar, a portion of a pair of spectacles, a three cornered check handkerchief, and a large white linen pocket containing a small comb, a red mitten, and a ball of worsted.

The officer who found the body is positive that it could not have been there more than a quarter of an hour before he discovered it. He is timed to "work his beat," as it is called, in from ten to fifteen minutes. The police theory is that the man and woman, who had met in Aldgate, watched the policeman pass round the square, and then entered it for an immoral purpose. The throat of the woman having been cut, the murderer hurriedly proceeded to mutilate the body. As the wounds do not appear to have been caused so skilfully and deliberately as in the case of the murder of Annie Chapman in Hanbury street, some of the doctors think that five minutes would have sufficed for the completion of the murderer's work, and he was thus enabled to leave the ground before the return of the policeman on duty. the murderer probably avoided much blood staining on account of the woman being on the ground at the time of the outrage; and, leaving the square by either of the courts, he would be able to pass quickly away through many of the narrow thoroughfares without exciting observation. But one of the most extraordinary incidents in connection with the crime is that not the slightest scream or noise was heard. A watchman is employed at one of the warehouses in the square, and in a direct line, but a few yards away, on the other side of the square, a City policeman was sleeping. Many people would be about in the immediate neighbourhood even at this early hour, making preparations for the market which takes place ever Sunday in Middlesex street (formerly Petticoat lane) and the adjacent thoroughfares. Taking everything into account, therefore, the murder must be pronounced one of extraordinary daring and brutality.

The police authorities who have the inquiries with respect to the murders in hand, have received a statement with regard to the murder in Berner street that a man, aged between 35 and 40 years, and of fair complexion, was seen to throw the murdered woman to the ground, but that it being thought by the person who witnessed this that it was a man and his wife quarrelling, no notice was taken of it. The police have also received information that about half past ten on the Saturday night a man aged about 33 years entered a public house in Batty street, Whitechapel, and while the customers in the house were in conversation about the Whitechapel murders, he stated that he knew the Whitechapel murderer, and that they would hear about him in the morning,. after which he left. It being thought that this was idle talk, no notice was taken of the matter; but, after the murders had been discovered, information was given to the police. At various police stations throughout the metropolis information was given by persons who allege that they have seen a person answering the published descriptions of the man said to have been seen with the murdered woman, and who is supposed to be the Whitechapel murderer, and of these the most important comes from Bow road, for in that case a man having the appearance of being an American is reported to have been seen on Monday morning at five o'clock in Bow road loitering about in a suspicious manner, but when he found his movements were being watched, he decamped . Every night special search has been made at numerous lodging houses and other places with the view, if possible, of tracing out the murderer, but no good results have been obtained, and several persons who were arrested on suspicion were afterwards discharged.

A postcard, bearing the stamp "London, E., October 1st," was received on Monday morning, addressed to the Central News Office, the address and subject matter being written in red and undoubtedly by the same person from whom a sensational letter was received the previous Thursday. Like the previous missive this also has reference to the horrible tragedies in East London, forming, indeed, a sequel to the first letter. It runs as follows:-

"I was not codding, dear old Boss, when I have you the tip. You'll hear about Saucy Jacky's work tomorrow. Double event this time. Number one squealed a bit; couldn't finish straight off. Had not time to get ears for police. Thanks for keeping last letter back till I got to work again - Jack the Ripper."

The Central News adds that the card is smeared on both sides with blood, which has evidently been impressed thereon by the thumb or finger of the writer. Some words are nearly obliterated by a bloody smear. It is not necessarily assumed that this has been the work of the murderer, the idea that naturally occurs being that the whole thing is a practical joke. At the same time the writing of the previous letter immediately before the commission of the murders of Sunday last was so singular a coincidence that it does not seem unreasonable to suppose that the cool calculating villain who is responsible for the crimes has chosen to make the post a medium through which to convey to the press his grimly diabolical humour.

The following is the letter referred to above:-

"September 25th, 1888.
Dead Boss - I keep on hearing the police have caught me, but they won't fix me just yet. I have laughed when they look so clever, and talk about being on the right track. Great joke about Leather Apron. Gave me real fits. I am down on _____, and I shan't quit ripping them till I do get buckled. Grand work the last job. I gave the lady no time to squeal. How can they catch me now? I love my work and want to start again. You will soon hear of me with my funny little games. I saved some of the proper red stuff in a ginger beer bottle over the last job to write with, but it went thick, like glue, and I can't use it. Red ink is fit enough, I hope. Ha, ha! The next job I do I shall clip the lady's ears off, and send to the police officers, just for jolly - wouldn't you? Keep this letter back till I do more work, then give it out straight. My knife's so nice and sharp. I want to get to work right away if I get the chance. Good luck.
Yours truly, Jack the Ripper.
Don't mind giving me the trade name. Wasn't good enough to post this before I got all the red ink off my hands; curse it. No luck yet. They say I'm a doctor now. Ha, ha!"

On Tuesday, at the Marylebone Police Court, a man, evidently of the artisan class, applied to Mr. De Rutzen for process against a gentleman living at Tottenham, for injuries which he alleged he had sustained through being arrested on suspicion of being the perpetrator of the Whitechapel murder. He had been helping in the repair of the organ at St. Saviour's church, Warwick road, Paddington, and was on his way home when the person against whom he was applying said he was "Leather Apron," and gave him into custody on suspicion of being the Whitechapel murderer. He was taken to the Carlton terrace police station, where he was detained for three and a half hours.

Mr. De Ritzen told the applicant he could not grant him process in that court, if he had suffered any wrong by being locked up in suspicion of being the author of the murders in Whitechapel, and thought he could recover redress, he must bring an action in the County Court.

Numerous calls were made on Tuesday at the mortuary in Golden lane, where the unidentified body of the woman who was found in such a mutilated condition in Mitre square still lies. It was all to no purpose, however, and the matter remains as great a mystery as ever. The police are becoming more and more convinced that the murderer must have had a very narrow escape when he succeeded in getting away from the yard in Berner street after cutting the throat of "Long Liz." The theory now advanced is that he was actually in the yard engaged in the horrible work when the steward of the club, Mr. Diemschitz, drove in in his trap and disturbed him, and that during the confusion that followed he succeeded in mingling with the members of the club as they rushed out in a body into the enclosure, and finally escaped unobserved before the police arrived on the scene. How far this is true it is, of course, impossible to say, but the theory is at least a feasible one.

Bills offering £500 reward on behalf of the City authorities are widely circulated. The City Police are in receipt of innumerable suggestions, not only from London, but from all parts of the country. Many of these are, of course, of no practical value, but some of the information which has thus come into their hands has led them to prosecute inquiries which would otherwise not have been made, and which may lead to important results.

Down to as late an hour as ten o'clock on Monday night large crowds of people continued to assemble around the spots where the murders of Sunday were perpetrated, and so great was the crush at Mitre square that it was found requisite to keep a considerable number of extra constables on duty. Towards midnight the streets in the district, within the limits of which six murders have now been successively perpetrated without detection, began to assume a most deserted appearance. The one exception, perhaps, was the main thoroughfares, which were thronged with people as usual until the hour for the closing of the public houses. The night air was keen and cutting, but this alone did not account for the remarkable absence of anything in the shape of pedestrian traffic, which heretofore has invariably continued until an advanced hour in the morning. The appearance of the whole district conveyed the only too palpable fact that at the present moment the East end - and Whitechapel in particular - is panic stricken.

By one o'clock the streets were absolutely denuded of the unfortunate women who are accustomed to roam about throughout the night, while revellers of the sterner sex were almost equally as scarce. Wherever one went he had to listen to the same perpetual growl of the coffee stall keepers that their trade had gone; and, when asked how they accounted for the fact, the invariable reply was, "the murders." The answer was as significant as it was brief. In the small hours of the morning as the reporters plodded through street after street, and still street after street, without coming across a living soul of any kind beyond the solitary policeman on his monotonous round, it was in all truth a weary round, this perambulation of Whitechapel, its main thoroughfares, its back slums, and its environs, and the heavy showers which fell at intermittent periods, did not tend to enhance the pleasures of the night.

There is, however, one fact that cannot fail to strike very forcibly even the most casual observer who cares to make an early morning survey of Whitechapel, with its multitudinous streets, alleys, and dark tortuous passages - that is, the convenient nooks and crannies, well in the shade, which almost at every turn seem to suggest themselves as fit and suitable places for the perpetration of crimes such as those which within the last day or two have horrified the metropolis. There is no mistaking the fact that if the East end is to be protected in the future against such outrages, the police force stationed there for that purpose ought at least to be doubled in strength. In the course of a night's wandering in these slums and back ways, our representative conversed with not a few of the men whom he found on duty. Almost to a man, when questioned on the subject, they pointed out the impossibility of adequately performing all that was asked of them in the way of protecting the public from outrages such as those that are now disgracing the East end. Again and again attention was called to open staircases in huge piles of modern dwellings erected for the artisan, to dark secluded corners in every direction, and to this, that, and the other in the way of affording scope for crime, until one's eyes became almost dazed from perpetually peering into Cimmerian darkness. It was a positive relief to at length again emerge into broad, well lighted thoroughfares.

An incident which occurred at one of the local police stations at an early hour on Tuesday morning will very well illustrate the sense of insecurity that now prevails in the East end. A respectably dressed young fellow, whose mannerisms, irrespective of his own admission proclaimed him a seaman, was brought in by a constable charged with having been found loitering with a loaded weapon in his possession. According to the statement made by the zealous custodian of the peace to his superior officer, the prisoner had passed and repassed a young couple, who were standing talking together, and his movements exciting suspicion, he was challenged by the policeman as to what he had about him. The seaman - a smart, good looking lad of about 21, laconically replied, "Nothing," whereupon the constable, still credulous, passed his hands down his back until he came to the hind pocket of the trousers. This led to the discovery of the fact that he had upon him a five chambered revolver loaded. He was accordingly marched on to the Leman street Station. Here he was confronted by the couple who had been the immediate cause of this denouement, and it must be confessed that they had but little to say against him. The inspector, however, thought it fit and proper to inquire why he carried such a dangerous weapon about with him. The reply came back from the seaman that "he did not wish to be 'Whitechapeled.'" This confession, however, did not save him, for he was detained in custody. This circumstance shows the moral that at the present time it is a risky thing to be found in the East end in the possession of weapons of any kind.

. What is considered by some to be the most important clue yet discovered with regard to the perpetrator of the murders came to light, through information given by Mr. Thomas Ryan, who has charge of the Cabman's Reading room at 43 Pickering place, Westbourne grove. Mr. Ryan is a teetotaler, and is the secretary of the Cabmen's Branch of the Church of England Temperance Society. He says that on Sunday afternoon, the 30th September, while he was in his shelter, the street attendant brought a gentlemanly looking man to him and said, "This 'ere gentleman wants a chop, guv'nor; can you cook one for him? He says he's most perished with cold." The gentleman in question. Ryan says, was about 5ft 6in in height, and wore an Oxford cap on his head, and a light check ulster, with a tippet buttoned to this throat, which he did not loosen all the time he was in the shelter. He had a thick moustache, but no beard; was roundheaded, his eyes very restless, and clean white hands. Ryan said, "Come in; I'll cook one for you with pleasure." This was about four o'clock in the afternoon. Several cabmen were in the shelter at the time, and they were talking of the new murders discovered at Whitechapel. Ryan exclaimed, "I'd gladly do seven days and nights if I could only find the fellow who did them" This was said directly at the stranger, who, looking into Ryan's face, said quietly, "Do you know who committed the murders?" and then calmly went on to say, "I did them. I've had a lot of trouble lately. I came back from India and got into trouble at once. I lost my watch and chain and £10." Ryan was greatly taken aback at the man's statement, and fancied he was just recovering from a drinking bout; so he replied, "If that's correct, you must consider yourself engaged." But he then went on to speak to him about temperance work and the evils wrought by drink. Meanwhile the chop was cooking, the vegetables were already waiting, and the stranger began eating. During the meal the conversation was kept up with Ryan and others in the shelter, all of whom he thought that man was recovering from a heavy drinking bout, and that his remarks as to his being the murderer were all nonsense. Ryan reasoned with him as to the folly of drinking, and at last he expressed his willingness to sign the pledge, a book containing pledges being shown him. This the stranger examined, and at length filled up one page, writing on the counterfoil as well as on the body of the pledge. In the hand of a gentleman he wrote the following words:-

"J. Duncan, doctor, residence, Cabman's Shelter, 30th September, 1888." Ryan called his attention to the fact that the man had not filled in his proper residence, and the man replied, "I have no fixed place of abode at present. I am living anywhere." While Duncan was eating his chop he again asked for something to drink, and water was brought him, but then he said he would have ginger beer, and when that was brought him he filled yup the glass with the liquid from a bottle he had in his pocket.

"This he drank," said Ryan, "differently to what people usually drink; he literally gulped it down." In answer to further conversation about teetotalism, Duncan accepted an invitation to go with Ryan to church that evening, and said he would return to the shelter in an hour, but he never came back. Duncan carried a stick, and looked a sinewy fellow, just such a one as was capable of putting forth considerable energy when necessary.

A singular discovery, which it is hoped may form another clue to the murderer, is being investigated by the police at Kentish Town. At about nine o'clock on Tuesday morning the proprietor of the Nelson tavern, Victoria road, Kentish Town, entered a place of convenience adjoining his premises for the purpose of pointing out to a builder some alterations he desired executed, when a paper parcel was noticed behind the door. No particular importance was attached to the discovery until an hour later, when Mr. Chinn, the publican, while reading the newspaper, was struck with the similarity of this bundle to the one of which the police have issued a description as being seen in the possession of the man last seen in company with the woman Stride. The police at the Kentish Town road Police Station were told of the discovery, and a detective officer was at once sent to make inquiries. It was then found that the parcel, which had been kicked into the roadway, contained a pair of dark trousers. The description of the man wanted on suspicion of having committed the murders give the colour of the trousers he wore as dark. The paper which contained the trousers was stained with blood.

The New York correspondent of the Daily News telegraphing on Monday night, states that not a great many months ago a series of remarkably brutal murders of women occurred in Texas. The matter caused great local excitement, but aroused less interest than would otherwise have been the case because the victims were chiefly Negro women. The crimes were characterised by the same brutal methods as those of the Whitechapel murders. The theory has been suggested that the perpetrator of the latter may be the Texas criminal, who was never discovered. The Atlanta Constitution, a leading Southern newspaper, thus puts the argument:-

"In our recent annals of crime there has been no other man capable of committing such deeds. The mysterious crimes in Texas have ceased. They have just commenced in London. Is the man from Texas at the bottom of them all? If he is the monster or lunatic he may be expected to appear anywhere. The fact that he is no longer at work in Texas argues his presence somewhere else. His peculiar line of work was executed in precisely the same manner as is now going on in London. Why should he not be there? The more one thinks of it the more irresistible becomes the conviction that it is the man from Texas. In these days of steam and cheap travel distance is nothing. The man who would kill a dozen women in Texas would not mind the inconvenience of a trip across the water, and once there he would not have any scruples about killing more women."

The superintendent of the New York police admits the possibility of this theory being correct, but he does not think it probable. "There is," he says, "the same brutality and mutilation, the same suspicion that the criminal is a monster or lunatic who has declared war literally to the knife against all womankind, but I hardly believe it is the same individual."

In Vienna attention is being called to a crime of an exactly similar kind which preoccupied the public mind in Austria for nearly three years. A Galician Jew named Ritter, was accused in 1884 of having murdered and mutilated a Christian woman in a village near Cracow. The mutilation was like that perpetrated on the body of the woman Chapman, and at the trial numbers of witnesses deposed that among certain fanatical Jews there existed a superstition to the effect that if a Jew became intimate with a Christian woman he would atone for his offence by slaying and mutilating the object of his passion. Sundry passages of the Talmud were quoted which, according to the witnesses, expressly sanctioned this form of atonement. The trial caused an immense sensation, and Ritter, being found guilty, was sentenced to death. The Judges of the Court of Appeal, however, feeling that the man was the victim of popular error and anti Semitic prejudice, ordered a new trial upon some technicality. Again a jury pronounced against Ritter, and once more the Court of Appeal found a flaw in the proceedings. A third trial took place, and for the third time Ritter was condemned to be hanged, but upon this the Court of Appeal quashed the sentence altogether, and Ritter was released after having been in prison thirty seven months. There is no doubt the man was innocent.

Some misapprehension having arisen as to whether two rewards of £500 had been issued, one by the Lord mayor and a separate one on behalf of the City Police, it may be as well to state that only one sum of £500 emanates from the Corporation in its official capacity, and that this reward is offered by the Lord Mayor through Sir J. Fraser, the Commissioner of City Police. Outside the City steps in a similar direction have been taken by public bodies and private individuals. A sum of £300 was forwarded to the Home Office on behalf of several readers of the Financial News, with a request that it might be offered in the name of the Government. To this request a reply was received which stated:-

"I am directed by Mr. Matthews to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of this date, containing a cheque for £300, which you say has been contributed on behalf of several readers of the Financial News, and which you are desirous should be offered as a reward for the discovery of the recent murders in the East end of London. If Mr. Matthews had been of opinion that the offer of a reward in these cases would have been attended by any useful result he would himself at once have made such an offer, but he is not of that opinion. Under these circumstances, I am directed to return you the cheque (which I enclose) and to thank you for the liberality of the offer, which Mr. Matthews much regrets that he is unable to accept."

The above, with other sums - including the £100 offered by Mr. Samuel Montague. M.P., and the £200 collected by the Vigilance Committee - make an aggregate sum of £1,200, sufficient to excite the cupidity even of an accomplice, and to sharpen the wits of the dullest detective. It is, however, more than probable that the reward will be increased to £2,000 as the Lord Mayor has been urged to open a subscription list, and the members of the Stock Exchange seem disposed to take the matter up. Colonel Sir Alfred Kirby, the officer commanding the Tower Hamlet's Battalion Royal Engineers, has offered on behalf of his officers an additional reward of £100. Sir Alfred Kirby is also willing to place the services of not more than fifty members of his corps at the disposal of the authorities, to be utilised in assisting them in any way they may considerable desirable at this juncture, either for the protection of the public or finding out the criminal. Of course the volunteers will have to be made use of as citizens, and not in a quasi military capacity.

At the Vestry Hall, in Cable street, St. George's in the East, on Monday, Mr. Wynne E. Baxter, coroner for South east Middlesex, opened an inquiry into the cause of death of the woman who was found early on Sunday morning brutally murdered just within the entrance to a badly lighted courtyard opening off Berner street, under circumstances reported above. The body was identified as that of Elizabeth Stride, known among her companions as "Long Liz." The most extraordinary excitement was evident in the locality. The poorest of the inhabitants, who could not afford a newspaper, were assembled in small crowds in front of the newsagents' shops, feasting upon what little information could be gleaned from newspapers placards. The scenes of the atrocities were visited by a constant stream of residents, whose nervous bearing testified to the almost unprecedented feeling of alarm, which has now received a fresh impetus. Strangely enough, hardly a person was outside the vestry hall when the coroner's jury left to view the body, but around the deadhouse in St. George's in the East churchyard a large crowd, chiefly of women, was congregated. On viewing the body it was evident that the injuries to the throat had been inflicted in the most determined manner, revealing as they do the windpipe and the smaller tubes running through the neck. The gash, which must have been inflicted by a sharp instrument, owing to the absence of all jaggedness, extends completely across the front of the neck, and suggests the idea that a square piece has been cut out, leaving bare all the severed arteries.

William West, of 2 William street, Commercial road, a printer, said:-

At No. 40 Berner street, there is the International Working Men's Club. On the ground floor, facing the street, there is a window and a door which leads into a passage. At the side of the house there is a passage leading into a yard. The passage has folding gates shutting it off from the street, and containing a smaller door. Sometimes the gates remain open all night, but as a rule they are closed, and the small door in one of the gates is also locked. This duty devolves upon no particular person so far as I know. In the yard is one house arranged in small tenements, having three doors opening into the yard, out of which there is no other means of exit except through the gate mentioned. Opposite the gate is the workshop of Messrs. Hindley, sack manufacturers, and I do not think there is any way out there. They occupy the second floor, the ground floor being unrented. Next to Hindley's in the yard there is a stable. I think it is unoccupied, and adjoining this is the club. Our premises run back a long way into the yard. The front room on the ground floor is occupied as a dining room, at the back of which is a kitchen, the window and doorways opening into the passage leading to the yard. Behind the kitchen is a printing office, and a room for the editor of The Worker's Friend. On Saturday the compositors left work about noon, and the editor then came into the club, which numbers about seventy five to eighty members. There is a recess beside the house divided into tenements. Persons of whatever nationality are eligible for election providing they profess Socialistic principles. On the first floor of the club premises, where entertainments and lectures are given, there are three windows looking into the yard. In this room on Saturday night a discussion took place which ceased about midnight. It was attended by about 100 persons, the bulk of whom left the premises by the street door. About thirty members remained behind in the upper room, the windows of which were partly open. There is no lamp whatever in the yard, and none in Berner street illuminates it, the only light it receives being from the houses and the club. About ten minutes past twelve I went into the yard, and then saw some lights in the house, as well as in the printing office, where the editor was reading. Some of the club members were singing, and this could be heard in the yard. I looked towards the gates, where there was nothing unusual to attract my attention. I did not see any object on the ground, but, it being dark, anything might have escaped my notice. I afterwards returned to the club, and left by the street door. I saw no one in the yard, and cannot recollect meeting any person in Berner street. I often proceed home about one a.m., but never see low women about Berner street, nor in the yard.

Morris Eagle, of 4 New road, a traveller in jewellery, said he was at the club on Saturday night, and left to see a young woman home at 11.30. He returned at twenty five minutes to one, and finding the front door closed, entered by the passage into the yard and through the back door. The witness continued: I noticed nothing near the gateway, but the deceased might have been concealed by the darkness. As soon as I entered the yard I could hear singing in the club. I went upstairs, and in about twenty minutes a man named Giddleman came rushing in and said,

I went out, and striking a match found a woman lying with her feet 6ft from the gate, near the club wall, with her head to the wall. Others came with me, but seemed frightened to go near. Assuming it was drunken and not a dead woman, before striking a match, I said, "Get up." There being no reply, I then ignited a match, and was fearfully upset by seeing a woman lying in a lot of blood. I immediately ran away for a policeman, and found two. When we reached the yard again there were some members and some strangers who had been attracted by the cries for the police. One of the constables turned his lantern upon the deceased, and immediately sent his comrade for a doctor, while I went for the Inspector. The people surrounding the body did not touch it, as all seemed too frightened to approach. On Saturday nights there is a full discussion at the club open to any one. There were some women present on Saturday, but all of them were known to us. There were six or eight, but no strangers. Although there was singing and a little dancing, I believe we should have heard any cries such as "Murder."

Lewis Diemshitz, steward of the club in Berner street, stated that on Saturday he left the club at about 11.30 p.m., his wife being in charge. He returned home exactly at one a.m. on Sunday. He drove home in a kind of costermonger's barrow, which he used as a stall. He always brought his goods home to the club. The witness continued:

I drove into the yard through the gates, which were wide open. It was rather dark there. All at once as I came through the gate my pony shied to the left, and caused me to look down on the ground to my right. I could see a heap in the darkness, but was unable to distinguish what it was. I tried with my whip handle to feel what it was before I got off the barrow. Not being able to move it, I jumped down and struck a match, but it being a windy night I could not get sufficient light to see much, only that the bundle was a woman. I left the pony in the yard, and entering the club found several members in the front room. I said to them, "There is a woman lying in the yard," but I could not state whether she was drunk or dead. I then got a candle and could see there was a great deal of blood before I reached the body. I did not touch it but went off at once for the police. I passed several streets without seeing a constable, and I returned without one. The men with me shouted as loud as they could for the police, but we could not make one hear. When I returned to the club a man whom we met in Grove street and told about the murder lifted the woman's head, and then for the first time I saw the wound in the throat. At the same time Eagle, with two constables, came up, and a doctor arrived ten minutes later. The woman's clothes were in no way disarranged. She was lying on her side with her face towards the wall of the club. The doctor untied the top of the deceased's dress, and said he found the body was quite warm.

One of the constables corroborated this statement.

I have never seen men and women in the yard, nor have I heard of them being there. All strangers and members of the club were detained, questioned, and searched. Dr. Phillips examined their clothes and hands. It would have been possible for any one to escape unseen while I went into the club to inform the members of my discovery.

On the resumption of the inquiry on Tuesday, Henry Lamb, police constable 252H, deposed:

About one o'clock on Sunday morning last I was in Commercial road, between Christian street and Batty street. Two men came running to me shouting. I went towards them. They said, "Come on, there has been another murder." I asked "Where?" As they got to the corner of Berner street, they pointed down the street. Seeing people moving about some distance down Berner street I ran, followed by another constable, 436H. I went into the gateway of No. 40 Berner street, and I saw something dark lying on the right hand side, close to the gate. I turned my lamp on and found it was a woman. I observed that her throat was cut, and she appeared to be dead. I at once sent another constable for the nearest doctor. When I looked round the yard after I arrived, there were about thirty people there. Some of them had followed me in. No one was near the body when I got into the yard, and no one was touching the body. As I was examining to see whether there were any other injuries beyond that on the throat, the crowd pressed close in. I begged of them to keep back as they might get blood on their clothes and get themselves into trouble. I put my hand on the face and on the arm. The face was slightly warm. I felt the wrist, but could not feel the pulse. The body was lying on the left side, and her arm was lying under. I did not examine to see if there was anything in the hand, The right arm was lying across the breast. Her face was not more than five or six inches from the wall. Her clothes were not disturbed. No part of her legs was visible, and the boots could scarcely be seen excepting the soles. She looked as if she had quietly laid down. There was no appearance of her having struggled in any way. Her dress was not crumpled. The blood was liquid in some places and in others congealed. It had run close to the door of the club. I could hardly say whether any blood was flowing from her throat when I first saw the body. If there was it was a very small quantity. Dr. Blackwell examined the body and the surrounding ground and wall. Dr. Phillips arrived about twenty minutes after. Inspector Pinhorn had arrived before that.

I had the gate shut before the inspector came, and directly after Dr. Blackwell had finished his examination of the body; in fact, while the examination was going on. The gates were wide open, and though the feet of the deceased came very close to the gate, they did not prevent its being closed without disturbing the body. I put a constable at the gate with instructions to let no one either in or out. I then went into the club, and started from the doorway, so that no one should get out before I saw him. I turned my light onto the different parties there. I examined a number of their hands by taking them up and looking at them. I looked at all their hands as they hung by their sides. I also examined their clothes. There were from fifteen to twenty persons there. They were in the room on the ground floor. I went into every room, including that in which there is a stage. I saw no traces of blood anywhere. I did not stop the entrance to the front door of the club as I had not a policeman to put there. I did not see anyone leave the club. I did not try the front door to see whether it was locked, and I did not see the key in it. I went into the yard and looked into the cottages there. The occupants of them were in bed, except a man who came down half dressed to let me in. One of the cottages was locked and the other unlocked. All the people in the cottages were undressed. I examined the recess in the yard, and examined the dustbin. I did not look over the wooden partition in the yard. The people in the cottages seemed frightened. They were not many minutes in opening the door.

The Coroner: was there anything to prevent a man escaping while you were examining the body?

There were a lot of people inside as well as outside the gate. It was possible for him to get away, but I should think he would have been sure to have been noticed with marks of blood upon him. There was much confusion, and the attention of the people was turned towards the body.

Do you think the person might have escaped before you arrived?

It was quite possible; indeed, more likely before than afterwards.

Edward Spooner deposed:

I live at 26 Fairclough street, and I am a horse keeper at Messrs. Meredith's. On Sunday morning, between half past twelve and one o'clock, I was standing outside the Beehive public house at the corner of Christian street and Fairclough street, along with a young woman. We had been in a beershop at the corner of Settle street, Commercial road, and remained till closing time. I stood at the top of Christian street for w few minutes, and then walked down the street. We had been standing there about five and twenty minutes, I suppose, when two Jews came running along. They hallaoed out "Murder!" "Police!" They ran as far as Grove street and turned back. I stopped them and asked what was the matter. They said, "There has been a woman murdered in Berner street." I went with them to the yard adjoining No. 40. I saw a young woman lying just inside the gate. There were about fifteen people in the yard standing round, most of them Jews. They were not touching her. I could see it was a young woman before they struck a light. One of the Jews struck a match and I lifted up the chin. The chin was slightly warm. Blood was still flowing from the throat. I did not feel any other part of the body. I noticed she had a piece of paper doubled up in her right hand, and a red and white flower pinned on her breast. I am sure I did not move the position of her head at all. the body was lying on one side, with the face turned towards the wall. The blood was running down the gutter. I stood by the side of the deceased about five minutes, till Police constable Lamb came. I did not notice any one leave while I stood there, and I cannot say whether any one did or did not. I should think, however, no one did, as there were too many people about. I believe it was about twenty five minutes to one o'clock when I ran round to the yard. The legs were drawn up. I noticed none of the clothes were disturbed. As soon as Police constable Lamb arrived I stepped back. I helped him to fasten the gate. Before I left I was examined by Dr. Phillips, and gave my name and address. Directly I got inside the yard I could see there was woman there.

Mary Malcolm, called and examined:

I live at 50 Eagle street, Red Lion square, Holborn. I am married. My husband, Andrew Malcolm, who is a tailor, is alive. I have seen the body in the mortuary, I saw it on Sunday last and twice on Monday.

Who is it?

My sister, Elizabeth Watts.

You have no doubt about it?

Not the slightest.

You had some doubts about it?

I had at first, but now I see I have none whatever.

When did you last see her alive?

Last Thursday, September 27th, at a quarter before seven o'clock in the evening. She came to me where I work at the tailoring at 59 Red Lion square, Holborn. I am a trousers maker, She came to me to ask me to give her a little assistance, which I have been in the habit of doing for the last five years. I gave her a shilling, and a little short black jacket. That is not the jacket she was wearing when found. She was only a few moments with me. She did not say where she was going.

Where was she living?

I don't know exactly, but I knew it was somewhere in the neighbourhood of the tailoring Jews, and somewhere at the East end. I understood she was living in lodging houses.

Did you know what she was doing for a living?

Witness (sobbing): I had my doubts.

Was she the worse for drink at the time?

No.

But sometimes she was the worse for drink?

Unfortunately, that was a failing of hers.

How old was she?

Thirty seven on the 27th of last month.

Was she married?

Yes, to the son of Mr. Watts, a large wine and spirit merchant in Walcot street, Bath. I believe her husband's name is Edward.

Is he in partnership with his father?

I believe her husband is now in America. His father sent him away.

Had the husband got into trouble?

No.

What did his father send him away for?

On account of my sister.

When did she leave him?

About seven or eight years ago; I cannot say exactly. She had two children, a boy and a girl. Her husband sent her home to my poor mother with the two children. The little girl, I believe, is dead, and the boy is at a boarding school. I believe Miss Watts, the sister of the husband, has the boy. Her mother died in 1883.

was your sister, the deceased, subject to epileptic fits?

No, not so far as I know. She was a very excitable woman and had drunken fits.

Do you know has she ever been before the Thames police magistrates?

Yes, I believe so.

On a charge of drunkenness?

Yes.

Has she not been let off in consequence of its being supposed she was subject to epileptic fits?

Yes, I believe so.

You don't believe she was subject to them?

No, I am certain she was not. Deceased lived with a man. I do not know his name.

Detective Inspector Reid: Did your sister live with a man who kept a coffee stall at Poplar?

Yes. His name was not Stride. I think it was Dent. I will try to find out by tomorrow. This man went to sea, and was wrecked on the isle of St. Paul's.

The Coroner: How long ago was that?

About three and a half years. I can tell you all tomorrow.

Has she lived with any one since then?

Not to my knowledge, but there is a man who says he has lived with her. I have never heard her having any trouble with any man. She always brought her trouble to me. I never heard of any one having threatened her. I never heard her say she was afraid of any one.

(Witness, who was sobbing while giving her evidence, and seemed much affected, here ejaculated "Poor old soul.")

By the Coroner: How often did you see her?

She used to come and see me every Saturday afternoon at four o'clock, and I used to give her 2s. She did not come to me last Saturday. The Thursday visit was an unusual one.

Did you think it was strange she did not come on Saturday?

I did.

Has she ever missed a Saturday?

Not for two or three years. She used to meet me on the Saturday afternoons at four o'clock, at the corner of Chancery lane. I was there last Saturday from half past three, and I remained till five. She did not turn up as usual. On Sunday morning, when I read the paper, as my sister had not turned up on Saturday as usual, some presentiment came to my mind that it was my sister. I went down to Whitechapel and met a policeman, to whom I described my sister. He conducted me to St. George's mortuary, and when I first saw the body I did not recognise it as that of my sister. It was gaslight when I first saw her; between nine and ten o'clock at night. She used to have beautiful black wavy hair.

Did you have some presentiment that this was your sister?

I was lying on my bed about twenty minutes past one o'clock on Sunday morning, and I felt a pressure on my bed, and heard three kisses quite distinctly. I did not see a vision of my sister. My sister never broke any limbs to my knowledge.

By a Juryman: Is there any mark on your sister?

There was a small black mark on her leg, and I saw this on the body of the deceased. I had not seen it for more than twenty years. I said I could recognise the body by this particular mark before I saw it. It was from the bite of an adder. We were rolling on a mowing green when we were children. The adder bit me, and I have the mark on my hand. It then bit my sister on the leg.

Has your husband seen your sister?

Yes; once, about sixteen years ago. He won't come to see the body. I have a brother and a sister, but they have not seen her for years. My sister lives in Folkestone, and my brother in Bath. These are the only people who could identify her.

(Witness again broke down, and sobbed out, "It will kill my sister. Oh, the disgrace to my family.")

There is no one at the place I work at who could identify her, as I kept that from every one; I was so ashamed. Deceased had a hollowness in the right foot, and the absence of this made me doubt that it really was my sister, but I think it must have passed away in death. The cause of the hollowness was an accident; she was run over by a machine about three years ago. She said she was going to get some money.

The Coroner: Perhaps after she got the money the hollowness disappeared?

I do not know if she ever got the money. I cannot recognise the clothes, as I never noticed what she wore.

She left a baby naked outside my door.

One of those two you spoke of?

Oh, dear, no; she had this one by some policeman, I believe. She left it with me, and I had to keep it till she fetched it away again. I believe that child died in Bath. She took it down there with her. She was a girl that any one would like. I do not think that a photograph of her remains in our family at all. My brother has not seen her for years.

By a Juryman: Did you think it unusual that she came to you on a Thursday?

No, she came occasionally in the week, but not often. She said she had no money to pay her lodging, and she appealed to me for some assistance. I said,

By the Coroner: Deceased has come regularly to me every Saturday for nearly three years past, and I had given her 2s. She might have been locked up for drunkenness on a Saturday night, but only after she had been to see me. I am quite confident it is my sister. I will go to Chancery lane on Saturday next, and see if she turns up as usual, to make certain.

Dr. Frederick William Blackwell deposed:

I reside at 100 Commercial road. On Sunday morning last I was called to 40 Berner street, at ten minutes past one o'clock. I am sure of the time. I was called by a policeman. My assistant, Mr. Johnson, went back with the policeman. I followed immediately I had dressed. I consulted my watch on my arrival and it was just 1.16. The woman was lying on her left side completely across the yard. Her legs were drawn up; her feet against the wall on the right side of the yard passage. Her head was resting almost in the carriage wheel rut. Her feet were almost three yards from the gateway, and almost touching the wall. The neck and chest were quite warm, also the legs and the face slightly so. The hands were cold. The right arm was lying on the chest, and was smeared with blood. The right hand was open. The left hand was lying on the ground, and was partially closed. It contained a small packet of cachous, wrapped in tissue paper. There was no name on the tissue paper nor stamp on the sweets. There were no rings or marks of rings on her hand. The appearance of the face was quite placid. The mouth was slightly open. There was a checked silk scarf round the neck, the bow of which was thrown to the left side, and pulled very tight. There was a long incision in the neck, which exactly corresponded with the lower border of the scarf. The scarf was above the wound. the lower edge of the scarf was slightly frayed, as if by a sharp knife. The incision in the neck commenced on the left side, two inches and a half below the angle of the jaw, and almost in a direct line with it. The nearest vessels were severed on that side; it had cut the windpipe completely in two, and terminated on the opposite side one inch and a half below the angle of the right jaw, but without severing the vessels on the right side. The more complete appearances of the post mortem examination will be given subsequently. I did not notice whether the bloody hand had been moved after the body was found, and before I saw it. The blood was running down the gutter into the drain. It was running in the opposite direction to the feet. There was about a pound of clotted blood close by the body, and then a stream from there all the way to the door, where there is a stone drain. There were no spots of blood to be seen anywhere, but there was some trodden blood near to where the body was lying. There was no blood on the soles of her boots, and no splashings of blood on the wall. We could only see by the aid of a policeman's lantern, and I observed no splashings. I have not examined the place since. I examined the clothing. There was no blood on any part of the clothes, and they were all intact. The bonnet was lying on the ground a few inches from the head. I did not see any strings to it. It was one of those round bonnets. Her dress was undone at the top. I did not examine the clothes. I noticed a bunch of geraniums and maidenhair fern on her chest.

Could you say whether the injuries were self inflicted?

Not on any account in the least. They were beyond the possibility of self infliction. I think deceased could not have been dead more than twenty minutes to half an hour when I arrived. It was a mild night - not cold at all at that time. It was not raining. The clothes were not wet with rain. She would have bled to death comparatively slowly on account of the vessels on one side only being severed and the artery not completely. The body heat would be retained slightly longer on that account.

After those injuries were inflicted was there any possibility of any cry proceeding from the deceased?

No; she could not have uttered a cry after the windpipe had been severed.

By a Juryman: Could the doctor give us any opinion as to whether the throat was cut while the woman was lying down or standing up?

I formed the opinion myself that probably he took hold of this silk scarf, which was tightly knotted, and pulled her backwards, and cut her throat in that way. The position of the blood would indicate that her throat was cut when she was lying down or as she fell. It is, perhaps, most probable that she was on the ground before her throat was cut.

The inquiry was again adjourned.

On the inquiry being resumed on Wednesday, Elizabeth Tanner, 32 Flower and Dean street, said:

I am deputy of the common lodging house at that address. I have seen the body of the deceased in the mortuary. I recognise the features as those of a woman who had lodged at 32 off and on for the last six years, and who was known as "Long Liz." I do not know her right name. She used to tell me that she was a Swedish woman. She told me that she was a married woman, but that her husband and children had gone down in the Princess Alice disaster. I last saw her alive at half past six o'clock on Saturday afternoon. She never told me the name of her husband. When I saw her she was in the Queen's Head public house, Commercial street, with me. We went back to the lodging house. At that time the deceased had no bonnet or cloak on. She went into the kitchen and I went to another part of the building. I never saw her again until I saw the body in the mortuary. I am quite sure it is "Long Liz." I recognise her besides through the features, by the fact that the roof of her mouth is missing. Deceased used to account for this by stating that she was in the Princess Alice when it went down, and that her mouth was then injured. She had been at the lodging house last week only on Thursday and Friday nights. She had not paid for her bed for Saturday night. I only know of one male acquaintance that she had. She left this man with whom she had been living on Thursday to come and stay at my lodging house, at least, so she told me. I saw this man on the following Sunday evening. I do not know that she had ever been before the Thames Police Court, or that she was subject to fits. I only know of her having lived in Fashion street. I did not know that she had ever lived in Poplar, or that she had a sister living near Red Lion square. She was a very quiet and sober woman. She sometimes stopped out late at night. The deceased cleaned two rooms for me on Saturday, and I paid her 6d. for doing it. I do not know whether she had any other money. I recognise her coat and skirt, which I have seen in the mortuary. She never told me that she was afraid of any one or that any one had threatened to injure her. I took no notice of her not coming home on Saturday night. I do not remember at what hour she came to the lodging house on Thursday. I recollect taking 4d. of her for her bed. I have never heard her speak of her sister allowing her money nor did she ever mention the name of Stride. The deceased was the only one of the name of "Long Liz" who has stopped at my lodging house. Before she came on Thursday she had stopped away for three months, but I used frequently to see her during that interval, sometimes once a week and sometimes every other day. She told me she was at work amongst the Jews, and that she was living with a man in Fashion street. Besides English, which she spoke well, she could also speak Swedish. I should not have known her to be a foreigner from her manner of speaking English. I never knew of her associating with Swedes. I don't remember her saying that she had ever hurt her foot or in her childhood broken a limb.

Catherine Lane, also living at 32 Flower and Dean street, said:

I am a charwoman, and my husband is a dock labourer. I have been living in the lodging house since February last. I have seen the body in the mortuary and recognise it as "Long Liz" who sometimes came to the lodging house. I have known her for six or seven months. I spoke to her on Thursday last, when she said she had had a few words with the man she was living with and had left him. I saw her again on Saturday, when she was cleaning the deputy's rooms. I last saw her in the evening, between six and seven, in the kitchen. She was then wearing a long coat and a black bonnet. I saw the body in the mortuary on Sunday afternoon last, when I recognised it as that of "Long Liz." When deceased left the kitchen on Saturday evening, between six and seven o'clock, she gave me the piece of velvet produced, and asked me to mind it. I do not know why she asked me to do so, as the deputy will take charge of anything we want to leave in the lodging house. I know she had 6d., but whether she had more I do not know. She showed me the 6d. and said the deputy gave it to her. She did not say when she intended to come back. She had not been drinking that I am aware of. I do not know of any one who was likely to injure her. I have heard her say that she was a Swede, and that at one time she lived in Devonshire street, Commercial road. She told me that she had had a husband, but that he was dead. I am quite satisfied that the deceased is "Long Liz." I could tell by her accent that she was a foreigner - she did not bring all her words out plainly. I have heard her speaking to women in the street in a foreign language. She used to speak with the foreign Jews she worked with, but I do not know who they are. I never heard of her having a sister.

Charles Preston deposed:

I live at 32 Flower and Dean street, and am a barber. I have lived there for eighteen months. I identified the deceased as "Long Liz" on the evening of the 29th ult. I am quite sure it is "Long Liz," who lodged at my present address. I last saw her on the evening of the 29th ult., between six and seven in the kitchen of the lodging house. She was dressed to go out. She asked me for a clothes brush just before going out. I could not lend it because I had mislaid it. She had on the jacket I have seen in the mortuary, and a coloured striped silk handkerchief round her neck - the same one as in the mortuary. She had no slower on her breast. She has told me that she was a Swede, and came to England in a foreign gentleman's service. I think she told me once that she was about 35. She said that she had been married, and told me that she had lost her husband and children in the Princess Alice. I have some recollection of her saying that her husband had been a seafaring man. She also said she had had a coffee house in Chrisp street, Poplar. I have only known her to be in custody once, and that was in Commercial street Police station on a Saturday afternoon. That was for being drunk and disorderly at the Ten Bells tavern. That must have been four or five months ago. I know nobody who would have been likely to injure her, and she never expressed fear of anything of the kind to me. She did not say where she was going on Saturday night, or when she was coming back. She always gave me to understand that her name was Elizabeth Stride. She never mentioned any sister to me. She said her mother was still alive in Sweden.

Michael Kidney deposed:

I live at 38 Dorset street, Spitalfields, and am a waterside labourer. I have seen the body in the mortuary and it is that of the woman I have been living with. Her name was Elizabeth Stride. I have know her about three years, and she has been living with me nearly all that time. She was between 36 and 38 years of age. She told me she was a Swede and was born about three miles from Stockholm. She said she first came to England to see the country, and another time that she had come over with a family in a situation. She told me she was a widow when I met her, and that her husband had been a ship's carpenter belonging to Sheerness. She also said he had kept a coffee shop in Chrisp street, Poplar, and had been drowned when the Princess Alice went down. The roof of her mouth was deficient. I last saw deceased alive on Wednesday week, when I left her on friendly terms in Commercial street, between nine and ten o'clock in the evening, as I was coming from work. I got home half an hour afterwards, expecting to find her there - but heard she had been in and gone out. I did not see her again until I saw her body in the mortuary. She was perfectly sober when I left her. She was subject to go away like that at times when she thought she would like to. During the three years I have known her she has been out my possession like for about three months, for no particular reason that I can say. I always treated her as I would a wife. I have seen the address of the brother of the gentleman with whom she lived as a servant - it was somewhere near Hyde Park. On each occasion she returned to me voluntarily. I do not believe she had picked up with any other man, for she liked me better than any other man on earth. It was drink drove her to go away each time. I do not think she was without a shilling, at any rate out of the money I had given her to keep house with. When last saw her she was not in such a state as would make me believe she had spent all the money I had left her with.

The witness at this point said he had called the previous night at Leman street Police Station and asked for a "young detective to work on his information," and was told he could not have one.

In answer to Inspector Read (sic), the witness said he was intoxicated at the time and drove up to the station in a cab. He wanted a young detective who was not known in the district, and was told there was not one at hand. He was an Army Reserve man and drawing a pension; he was also " a lover of discipline." He wanted the young detective so that he could go amongst people who did not know him and hear what they had to say.

Pressed by the Coroner to give his information to the jury or subsequently to the police, it appeared that he had none in particular to offer, but was convinced that he could place 100 constables in such positions in the neighbourhood that the murderer must be caught. He was, further, certain that he could effect the capture "if he had the police at his command." (Laughter.)

By the Jury: The witness (Mrs. Malcolm) who stated that she was the sister of the deceased, very much represents the appearance of the deceased. The latter never had a child by me, but she told me that she had been intimate with a policeman when she lived at Hyde Park and before she was married to Stride. I never heard that she had a child by the policeman. She told me she had been the mother of nine children. Two of them were drowned in the Princess Alice disaster, and the others are in some school connected with the Swedish Church, somewhere over London Bridge. The deceased could speak Swedish.

Thomas Coran (sic), a lad, of 67 Plummer's row, Commercial road, said:

On Sunday night last, at about half past twelve, I was coming away from a friend's at No. 6 Bath Gardens, Brady street. I walked down Grain street, towards Whitechapel road. In front of No. 253 Whitechapel road, towards Aldgate, I saw a knife lying on the bottom doorstep. There is a laundry at 253. The knife produced is the one I found. (The knife has a long narrow blade, somewhat worn, a strong wooden handle, and is heavily stained with blood. It is like the knives commonly used in butchers' shops.) The blood stained handkerchief produced was wrapped round the handle. It was folded. A policeman was coming towards me so I showed it to him. He picked it up and took it to Leman street Police Station. I accompanied. I passed about a dozen people between Brady street and where I found the knife. It could easily be seen. I passed about three policemen on my way between the two points.

Police constable Drage, 282H, deposed:

About 12.30 on Sunday night the last witness pointed out the knife to me as it lay on the doorstep of 253 Whitechapel road. I picked up the knife, and found it was smothered with blood, which was dry. A handkerchief was wound round the handle and tied with string. The handkerchief was also blood stained. I asked Coran how he came to see it. He said, "As I was walking along I saw something white." I asked him what he did out so late, and he said, "I had been to a friend's in Bath Gardens," and gave me his name and address. We then went to the police station together. The witness Coran was quite sober, and his manner natural. He said, "When I saw the blood on the knife it made my blood run cold - there are such funny things nowadays." A few minutes before this a horse had fallen down close to where the knife was found, and there had been a crowd of about half a dozen people round. I had been past the step about a quarter of an hour previously, but I could not say positively whether the knife was there or not. About an hour previously I had stood outside the door, when the landlady let out some female friend. I handed the knife and handkerchief to Dr. Phillips on Monday afternoon.

Dr. Phillips, divisional police surgeon, deposed:

I was called on Sunday last, at 1.20 a.m., to Leman street Police Station, and thence went on to Berner street to a yard at the side of a house. I found Inspector Pinhorn and Acting Superintendent West in possession of a body, which had already been seen by Dr. Blackwell, who had arrived some time before me. The body was lying on its left side, face turned toward the wall, head toward the yard, feet toward the street, left arm extended from elbow, which held a packet of cachous in her hand. Similar ones were in the gutter. I took them from her hand, and handed them to Dr. Blackwell. The right arm was lying over the body, and the back of the hand and wrist had on them clotted blood. The legs were drawn up, the feet close to the wall, the body still warm, the face warm, the hands cold, the legs quite warm, a silk handkerchief round the throat, slightly torn (so is my note, but I since find it is cut.) I produce the handkerchief. This corresponded to the right angle of the jaw; the throat was deeply gashed, and an abrasion of the skin about an inch and a quarter diameter, apparently slightly stained with blood, was under the right clavicle. Theses notes were taken from me, at my dictation, by Inspector Pinhorn, and the original I produce. On October 1st, at three p.m., at St. George's Mortuary, present Dr. Blackwell and for part of the time Dr. Reigate and Dr. Blackwell's assistant; temperature being about fifty five degrees, Dr. Blackwell and I made a post mortem examination, Dr. Blackwell kindly consenting to make the dissection, and I took the following note:-

"Rigor mortis still firmly marked. Mud on the face and left side of the head. Matted on the hair and left side." We then removed the clothes. We found the body fairly nourished. Over both shoulders, especially right, from the front aspect under the selar bones and in front of chest there is a bluish discolouration (which I have watched and seen on two occasions since.) Cut on neck; taking it from left to right there is a clean cut incision six inches in length, incision commencing two and a half inches in a straight line below the angle of the jaw. Three quarters of an inch over undivided muscle then becoming deeper, about an inch dividing sheath and the vessels, ascending a little, and then grazing the muscle outside the cartilage on the left side of the neck, the cut being very clean, but indicating a slight direction downwards through resistance of the denser tissue and cartilages. the carotid artery on the left side, and the other vessels contained in the sheath were all cut through save the posterior portion of the carotid to about a line or one twelfth of an inch in extent, which prevented the separation of the upper and lower portion of the artery. The cut through the tissues on the right side of the cartilages are more superficially cut, and the cut tails off to about two inches below the right angle of the jaw. It is evident that the haemorrhage, which probably will be found to be

was caused through the partial severance of the left carotid artery. There is a deformity in the lower fifth of the bones of the right leg, which are not straight, but bow forward; there is a thickening above the left ankle. The bones are here straighter. No external recent injury, save to neck. No sign of ulceration, no sores or warts. Soles of feet scaling, probably through want of cleanliness. The body being washed more thoroughly, I saw six more or less healing sores on the left forehead. The lower lobe of the left ear was torn, as if by the forcible removing or wearing of an earring, but it was thoroughly healed. The right ear was pierced for an earring, but had not been so injured, and the earring was wanting. On removing the scalp there was no sign of bruising or extravasation of blood between it and the skull cap. The skull was about one sixth of an inch in thickness, and dense in texture. The brain was fairly normal. The left lung had old adhesions to the chest wall through its pleura, and the right slightly so adhered. This had old organised lymph on its surface. Both lungs were unusually pale. There was no fluid in the pericardium, a small deposit of fat outside the muscular substance deposited on the heart, round the base and large vessels. The heart was small, left ventricle firmly contracted, right less so; no escape of blood on division of vessels, no clot in pulmonary artery or bronchial veins. Right ventricle full of dark clot; left firmly contracted, so as to be absolutely empty. Valves healthy and competent; stomach large; mucous membrane only congested naturally, as formed during digestion, contained partly digested food, apparently consisting of cheese, potato and farinaceous edibles; spleen pale and unusually oblong; left kidney large and anaemic; left smaller, fairly healthy; liver fatty, portal veins congested. The teeth on the left lower jaw are absent. On Tuesday at the mortuary I went to observe marks on the shoulders in the presence of Police constable 318H. I found the total circumference if the neck twelve and a half inches. I found in the pocket of the underskirt of the deceased a key as of a padlock, a small piece of lead pencil, and a broken piece of comb, a metal spoon, half a dozen large and one small button, and a hook, as if off a dress, a piece of muslin and one or two small pieces of paper. Examining her jacket I found that, although there was a slight amount of mud on the right side, the left was well plastered with mud.

By the Jury: The deceased had a black mark on her left leg, but he could not say whether it was caused by an adder bite. He did not notice whether the roof of the mouth was missing.

The inquiry was then adjourned.

Charles Ludwig, charged on remand at the Thames Police Court with having threatened to stab a woman named Burns and a man named Finlay, in Whitechapel, has been discharged. A policeman on duty in the Minories heard a woman screaming, and on going into a court he found the prisoner and the woman Burns. He sent the prisoner away and walked with the woman to the end of his beat, and she then made a statement to the effect that the accused had threatened her with a knife.

At Bow street Police Court John Sullivan, 18, was charged with stealing a file, value 8d., the property of George P. freeman, describing himself as a reporter, living at 2 Vine street, Leather lane.

The prosecutor, who was very eccentric in his manner, said he was a reporter and a private man under the solicitors.

Mr. Bridge asked what he meant.

The prosecutor said he went about "tapping old ladies."

Mr. bridge: What do you mean by "tapping old ladies"?

The Prosecutor: Well, you know, looking after them for their own benefit.

For what form of solicitors do you work?

I'm a private detective under the Sheriff of London.

Where do you live?

In Vine street. I think it's 24. I also have a house in Woodfield lane, Harrow road. You know, near the Prince of Wales.

What is prisoner, and what has he done to you?

He's a newspaper boy, and a member of a gang of thieves. Whenever I get down off the bus at Chancery lane, he called out to me, "hallo, old Leather Apron." (Laughter.)

Prosecutor (shouting): Silence in the gallery in there.

(To Mr. Bridge.) Well, on Saturday night, the prisoner came up, and was kind enough to undo this parcel, in which I had three files.

What sort of files - newspaper files?

No; ordinary files, and they dropped on the ground. The prisoner put a newspaper over my head, and battered in my hat, while his friend picked up one of the files. He wanted to give it me back again, but I wouldn't have it. You see if I'd taken it, I should have had a whole crowd round me, and a nice hullabaloo.

What did you want these files for?

Why, for my business.

Your business as a reporter?

Well, if you must know, I'm a jeweller.

The prisoner said he had never seen the old gentleman before. He was running to sell his papers, and accidentally knocked up against him, and the files fell out of the parcel. He picked one up, and offered it to the prosecutor, who gave him into custody.

The police reported that the prisoner bore a very good character. The prosecutor had never complained of being annoyed by boys at this particular spot before.

Mr. Bridge discharged the prisoner.

The Prosecutor: You remand him for a week, and the School Board officer will prosecute him.

As the boy was leaving the court the prosecutor shouted to him: "You'll see me again very soon." (Laughter.)

Prosecutor: (to a spectator in court) Who are you laughing at, stupid?

The prosecutor then left the court.

Mary M'carthy, a powerful young woman, well known at Worship street Police Court, was charged with stabbing Ann Mason in the face.

The prosecutrix said she was deputy of a lodging house in Spitalfields, and the prisoner was a lodger.

The Magistrate (Mr. Montagu Williams, Q.C.): Is it one of the common lodging houses one hears of?

Witness: Yes, sir.

Mr. Williams: Then tell me this: how many beds do you make up there?

Witness: Twenty eight singles and twenty four doubles.

Mr. Williams: By "doubles" you mean for a man and a woman?

Witness: Yes, sir.

Mr. Williams: And the woman can take any man she likes. You don't know if the couple are married or not?

Witness: No, sir. We don't ask them.

Mr. Williams: Precisely what I thought. And the sooner these lodging houses are put down the better. They are the haunt of the burglar, the home of the pickpocket, and the hotbed of prostitution. I don't think I can put it stronger than that. It is time the owners of these places, who reap large profits from them, were looked after.

The witness then continued her evidence, and said that because the prisoner had become quarrelsome the "missus" told her, the deputy, to refuse the woman's money for the future, and M'Carthy out of spite stabbed witness in the face and neck with a piece of a skewer.

Mr. Williams: Who's the "missus" you mentioned?

Witness: Mrs. Wilmot.

Mr. Williams: Oh! A woman is the owner, then. But she doesn't live there.

Witness: No, sir. In Brick lane.

Mr. Williams: What is she?

Witness: A baker.

Mr. Williams: Has she any more of these common lodging houses?

Witness: Yes, sir, two in Wentworth street, close by where I am in George yard.

Mr. Williams: And how many beds does she provide there?

Witness: Sixty or seventy, sir.

Mr. Williams: What is the price of a bed?

Witness: Fourpence and eightpence.

Mr. Williams: Eightpence for a double. Was she a double or single?

Witness: Double. She always had a man with her.

Mr. Williams: Is she married?

Witness: No; I don't think so.

Mr. Williams: Then the place is a brothel.

The inspector on duty in the court said that the beds were let for the night.

Mr. Williams: That makes no difference, whether let for a short time or for a night. The witness says that a woman can take any man in there, and so long as 8d. is paid no question is asked. What is that but a house carried on for immoral accommodation?

Mr. Enoch walker, vestry clerk of Shoreditch, said that he had had a good deal of experience with such places, but they could only be touched by one section of the Criminal Law Amendment Act.

Mr. Williams: Then I hope they will not be exempt from future legislation. They are places where, according to the witness, the thief or the criminal can hide all day for the payment of fourpence or eightpence for a bed each night. As a magistrate I have made it my business to go over some of these places, and I say that the sooner they are put down the better. In my humble judgement they are about as unwholesome and unhealthy, as well as dangerous to the community, as can well be. There are places among them where the police dare not enter, and where the criminal hides all day long. I have seen so much that I hope what I have said will do something to call attention to them.

The prisoner, after the evidence of a police constable had corroborated that of the lodging house deputy, was sentenced to a month's hard labour.

She left the dock threatening the prosecutrix.

Up to Wednesday the second victim who had been found murdered and mutilated in Mitre square, Aldgate, had not been identified, but on that day a man named Kelly and other persons went to the mortuary in Golden lane and came to the conclusion that the body was that of Catherine Eddowes, known also as Kate Kelly or Conway. This was borne out by the evidence given at the inquest, which was opened on Thursday before Mr. Langham, the City coroner. The City police were represented by Major Smith, the acting commissioner, Superintendent Foster, and Detective Inspector M'William. Mr. Crawford, the solicitor to the Corporation, also represented the City police authorities.

Eliza Gold, 6 Thrawl street, Spitalfields, a widow, was the first witness called. She said:

I recognise the deceased as my poor sister, Catherine Eddowes. She was single woman, about 43 years of age. She had been living with John Kelly for some years. She got a living by hawking, and was a woman of sober habits. Before she went to live with Kelly she lived with a man named Conway for some years, and had two children by him. I do not know whether Conway is still living. He was an Army pensioner and used to go out hawking things. I cannot say whether they parted on good or bad terms, nor whether she has ever seen him since.

By Mr. Crawford: I have not seen Conway for seven or eight years, and then my sister was living with him on friendly terms. I saw the man Kelly and the deceased together three or four weeks ago on amicable terms.

John Kelly, 55 Flower and Dean street, a labourer, had seen the body of the deceased, and recognised it as that of Catherine Conway, with whom he had been living for seven years. The deceased used to sell a few things about the streets. He was last in her company at two o'clock on Saturday afternoon in Houndsditch, when they parted on very good terms. The last words she said were to the effect that she was going over to try to find her daughter, Annie, who lived in Bermondsey. She promised to return by four o'clock, but did not do so. He heard later on that she had been locked up in Bishopsgate street Police Station, but he made no inquiries, feeling sure that she would be out on Sunday morning. He was told she was taken in charge for having a "drop of drink." He never knew her to go out for immoral purposes. She was not in the habit of drinking to excess. When the witness left her she had no money, her object being to see her daughter, with a view to obtaining some to prevent them walking the streets.

The Coroner: What do you mean by that?

Well, sir, many a time he have not had the money to pay for a shelter, and have had to tramp about. The witness knew no one with whom the deceased was at variance. He had never seen Conway in his life, and did not know here he was living.

By the Jury: The deceased usually returned to the lodgings about eight or nine o'clock.

By Mr. Crawford: The witness did not know with whom she had been drinking on the Saturday afternoon. There had been no angry words about money before they parted. He had heard that the daughter lived in King street, Bermondsey. On the 28th ult., as the deceased had no money she slept in the casual ward in Mile End, while he remained at the lodging house. The whole of last week they did not live together in the house, as until Thursday last they had been hopping in Kent. On that night they went into the Shoe lane casual ward. He only earned sixpence on the Friday, and the deceased insisted upon going to the casual ward to allow him to pay for his own lodging. He arranged to see her next morning, but was surprised to meet her accidentally as early as 8 a.m. The tea and sugar found in a tin were bought out of the money he obtained by pawning a pair of boots on Saturday morning, September 29th. For them he received 2s. 6d., which they spent in drink and food. When she left to find her daughter she was sober. His boots might have been pawned on the Friday. The "missus" took them in while the witness stood outside the door with his bare feet.

Frederick Wilkinson, the deputy of the lodging house in Flower and Dean street, deposed to having known the deceased and Kelly for the last seven or eight years. They lived on very good terms, never having more than a few words, and then only when the deceased was in drink. He believed the deceased got her living by hawking about the streets and cleaning for the Jews. he had never seen her husband drunk, nor did the deceased stay out late at night.

By Mr. Crawford: He saw the deceased on the Saturday morning when he believed she was wearing an apron. The distance from the lodging house to Mitre square was about half a mile. He did not remember anyone taking a bed about two on Sunday morning. Kelly slept in No. 52 room on Friday and Saturday.

Mr. Crawford: Does your book enable you to tell us whether any person came to your lodgings about two o'clock on Sunday morning?

The Witness: I cannot exactly say about the time.

Can you give me any information about it?

Not as to the time they came in.

You have nothing whatever to refresh your memory as to anybody coming in about two o'clock in the morning?

No.

Does your book show you had any strangers in?

We had six strange men in on Saturday evening sleeping.

Can you tell me whether any of these men came in about two o'clock on Sunday morning?

I cannot tell.

Do you remember any strangers going out soon after twelve o'clock on Sunday morning?

At twelve o'clock I would be very busy in the kitchen or at the door. I cannot say whether or not any stranger went out. the police came about three o'clock. I saw nothing to excite my suspicion. The house is usually shut up about half past two o'clock. Sometimes more than a hundred persons sleep in the house.

Police constable Watkins, of the City police force, stated that on September 29th he went on duty at a quarter to ten. The beat extended from the corner of Duke street, Aldgate, into Leadenhall street, then into Mitre street, Mitre square, and around it into Mitre street again along King street and back to Duke street. The whole beat could be traversed in twelve or fourteen minutes. The witness had been continually patrolling that beat from 10.0 p.m. until 1.0 a.m. during which time no person excited his attention. Passing through Mitre square at 1.30 a.m. with his lantern shining from his belt, he, according to practice, inspected passages and warehouses. He saw no one about and no person could have been there without his having seen them. About 1.44 the witness again entered the square, turned to the right, and saw a woman lying on her back with her feet facing the square. Her clothes were disarranged. He saw her throat was cut and her stomach ripped up. She was lying in a pool of blood. He did not touch the body, but ran across the road to the warehouse of Messrs. Kearley and Tonge and called Morris, the watchman, who went for assistance. The witness remained in the square until the arrival of Police constable Holland. There was no one else there. Dr. Sequeira followed the constable, and Inspector Collard and Dr. Gordon Brown, the police surgeon, arrived. When the witness first entered the square he heard no sound of a person running away. When he called the watchman he found him working inside.

Frederick William Foster, 26 Old Jewry, produced plans of Mitre square, with the route from Berner street to Mitre street, a distance of three quarters of a mile.

In examination by Mr. Crawford, the witness said the direct route from Mitre square to Flower and Dean street would be through Goulston street.

Mr. Crawford said evidence would be given that a portion of the woman's apron was afterwards found in Goulston street, and the jury would at once see the importance of the evidence just given.

Police inspector Edward Collard said at five minutes before two on Sunday morning September 30th, he received information at Bishopsgate Police Station that a woman had been murdered in Mitre square. Information was telegraphed to headquarters, and a constable was despatched for a doctor. On proceeding himself to Mitre square, he found there Dr. Sequeira, several police officers, and the deceased, lying in the south west corner of the square. The body was not touched till the arrival of Dr. Brown, who came to the square shortly after the witness. The medical men examined the body, and Sergeant Jones picked up some small buttons and other articles, including a small mustard tin, which contained two pawn tickets. The body was conveyed to the mortuary. No money was found about her, but on her was found a portion of an apron corresponding to the piece found in Goulston street. Search was immediately made in all directions for the murderer, and several men were stopped and searched in the street without any result. House to house inquiries were made in the vicinity of Mitre square, but nothing could be found or heard that related to the murder. In the square there was no appearance of a struggle, and from what he saw he inferred that the body had not been there more than a quarter of an hour. He could find no trace of footsteps, although a search was made at the back of the empty house.

Dr. Gordon Brown, 17 Finsbury Circus, surgeon to the City of London police, said:

I was called shortly after two o'clock on Sunday morning, and reached Mitre square about 2.18. My attention was called to the body of a woman lying in the position described by Police constable Watkins. The deceased was lying on her back with her head turned to the left shoulder, with the arms lying at the sides of the body. The fingers were slightly bent, and a thimble was lying on the ground near her right hand. The bonnet was at the back of the head. There was a great disfigurement of the face, and the throat was cut across. Below the wound was a neckerchief. The upper part of the dress was pulled open. The intestines were drawn out to a large extent and placed over the right shoulder, and a piece of them about two feet in length was placed between the left arm and the body, apparently by design. The lobe of the left ear was cut completely through. There was a quantity of clotted blood on the pavement near the left side of the neck. The body was quite warm, no death stiffening having set in, and death had certainly taken place within thirty or forty minutes before I saw the body. We looked for superficial bruises, but found none.

By Mr. Crawford: There was no blood on the front of the clothes.

Continuing, the witness said:

I sent for Dr. Phillips, as he had seen some of the recent cases. When the body arrived at the mortuary in Golden lane the clothes were carefully removed, and the piece of the ear dropped from them.

The post mortem examination was made on Sunday afternoon, and on washing the left hand carefully I found a recent bruise the size of a sixpence on the back of the hand between the thumb and first finger. There were no bruises on the scalp, the back of the body, or the elbows. The face was very much mutilated. There was a cut about a quarter of an inch in length through the lower left eyelid, dividing the structures completely. The upper eyelid on that side was scratched near the angle of the nose. The right eyelid was cut through for about half an inch. There was a deep cut over the bridge of the nose, extending from the left border of the nasal bone, down nearly to the angle of the jaw on the right side. The knife had gone into the nasal bone, and divided all the structures of the cheek except the mucous membrane of the mouth. The tip of the nose was quite detached by an oblique cut from the bottom of the nasal bone to where the wings of the nose or corners of the nostrils join on to the face. A cut from this divided the upper lip and extended through the substance of the gum, over the right upper lateral incisor tooth. About half an inch from the tip of the nose was another oblique cut, also one at the right angle of the mouth, as if made with the point of a knife, which penetrated the mucous membrane, and extended about an inch and a half parallel with the lower lip. There was on each cheek a cut, which peeled up the skin, forming a triangular flap. On the left cheek there were two abrasions on the outer skin, also two slight abrasions under the left ear. The throat was cut across to the extent of about seven inches. The superficial cut commenced about one inch and a half behind the lobe of the left ear, and about two and a half inches below, and extended across the throat to about three inches below the lobe of the right ear in a line. The larynx was severed below the vocal chords, and all the deep structures were severed to the bone, the knife marking the vertebral cartilage. The carotid artery had a pinhole opening, the internal jugular vein being open to the extent of one inch and a half. The anterior fibres of the muscles which cross the front of the throat were severed. the wounds must have been inflicted by some very sharp instrument. The cause of death was haemorrhage from the left carotid artery. Death must have been immediate. Most of the injuries were inflicted after death.

With regard to the injuries to the abdomen, the front wall was laid open from the breast downwards. There were two incisions into the liver, and the left lobe of the liver was slit right through for three or four inches by a vertical cut. The witness then explained in detail the other injuries inflicted, showing that the same organs had been removed as in former cases.

By Mr. Crawford: My opinion is that when the throat was cut the woman was lying on the ground.

Mr. Crawford: Would you consider the person who inflicted the wounds had great anatomical skill?

Well, a good deal of knowledge of the position of the abdominal organs, and the way of removing them. It requires a great deal of knowledge to abstract the left kidney, which might easily be overlooked. That knowledge would be likely to be possessed by one accustomed to cutting up animals. The organs taken away would be of no use to medical science.

Do you think the murderer was disturbed?

I think he had sufficient time; he would not have cut the lower eyelids if he had been in a great hurry. The wounds could not have been inflicted in less than five minutes. The bladder was in no way injured in the body, and I may mention that a man accustomed to remove the portions removed was asked by me to do so as quickly as possible. He accomplished the task in three minutes, but not without injuring the bladder. I should think no struggle took place between the parties. The fact that there were no cries heard is easily understood, as the throat would be cut so suddenly as to allow of no time to make any noise. There was a piece of apron found in Goulston street with finger marks of blood upon it, which fits on to the piece left round the body. I think the face was mutilated simply to disfigure the corpse.

The inquest was then adjourned for a week.

A Wolverhampton correspondent says additional interest has been given in Wolverhampton to the London horrors, owing to the discovery that the victim of the Mitre square tragedy is a native of that town, where several relatives still reside. A married woman named Croote, wife of Jessie Croote, a horse dealer, and an aunt of the woman named Eddowes, who lives in Lilston street, Wolverhampton, have been interviewed. They state that the deceased woman, Kate Eddowes, was the daughter of a tin plate worker, who for some years was employed at the Old Hall Works, Wolverhampton, as a tinplate stamper. Her mother was a cook at the Peacock Hotel in that town, and the family went to London some years ago, where the father and mother died, leaving a family with twelve children. How many of them are living the relatives in Wolverhampton are unable to say. Mrs. Croote states that the murdered woman would be about 43 years of age. When she was about 20 years of age she ran away to Birmingham, where she became acquainted with pensioner, who had gained a living by selling pamphlets relating to his own history, and with whom she lived. She travelled with him and assisted him to sell his pamphlets. Four or five years afterwards she suddenly appeared at the residence of her aunt, by whom she was reared as a child, in a destitute and dirty condition. An uncle of the deceased lives at Birmingham.

William Eddowes, a respectable working man, living at Wolverhampton, states that the deceased, when young, was given to keeping late hours, and that she was of a "jolly" disposition.

Mr. Wynne Baxter resumed the inquest, at the Vestry hall, Cable street, St. George's in the East, on Friday, on the body of the woman who has been identified as Elizabeth Stride, and who was found dead, with her throat cut, in a yard off Berner street, on Sunday morning, the 30th ult.

Dr. George B. Phillips, continuing the evidence which he began to give at the last sitting, said he had examined the mouth of the deceased, but could not find any injury to or absence of the hard or soft palate, as was alleged, and he was satisfied that the deceased had not swallowed any grapes, either skin or seed, within some hours before death. The knife shown on the last occasion was delivered to the witness by the police, and on examination he found it to be such a knife as is used in a chandler's shop, and is a called a slicing knife. It had blood upon it which had characteristics similar to that of warm blooded animals. It had been recently blunted, and its edge turned by rubbing on such a stone as a kerb stone. It evidently was before a very sharp knife. Such a knife could have produced the incision and injuries to the neck; but it was not such a knife as he would have chosen to inflict the injuries with in this case; and in his opinion, looking to the position of the body and of the inflictor of the injuries, the knife in question would be an improbable instrument for causing the incision. He was of opinion that the wound in the neck was cut from the left side to the right of the deceased.

The Coroner: How long do you think the deceased was dead before you arrived?

The Witness: Within an hour she was alive.

Would the injury take long to inflict?

It would only take a few seconds to inflict; it might be done in two seconds.

You assume, I suppose, that the injury was not self inflicted?

I have seen several self inflicted wounds more extensive than this; but then they have not uselessly involved the carotid artery. Probably you will gather from that there seemed to be in this case, as in others I have seen, some knowledge of where to cut so as to cause fatal results.

Is there any other similarity between this case and Chapman's?

In Chapman's case the neck was severed all round and down to the vertebral column, and there had been an apparent attempt to separate the bones.

Would the perpetrator be likely to get bloodstained?

Not necessarily, for at the commencement of the wound the vessels would be away from him. There was no perceptible trace of any anaesthetic or narcotic. The absence of any noise is a difficult question under the circumstances of this case to account for; but I do not mean to say that there was not any noise. The cut was made by drawing the knife across the throat.

Dr. Blackwell confirmed Dr. Phillips' evidence. As to whether it could possibly be a suicide, he said that, taking all the facts into consideration, more especially the absence of any instrument on the spot, he thought it was impossible for it to be a suicide. With respect to the knife found in Whitechapel, he confirmed Dr. Phillips' opinion that although it might possible have inflicted the injury, it was an extremely unlikely instrument to be used. It appeared to him that a murderer in using a round pointed instrument would considerably handicap himself, as he could only use it in a particular way. The witness was told that slaughterers always used a sharp pointed knife.

Mr. Sven Olssen, said:

I live at 33 Princess square, St. George's in the East, where I am clerk to the Swedish church there. I have seen the body of the deceased in the mortuary. I have known her for seventeen years, and have often seen her during that time. She was a Swede. Her name was Elizabeth Stride, and she was the wife of John Stride, carpenter. Her maiden name was Elizabeth Gustafstopper (sic), and she was born near Gothenburg on the 27th of November, 1843. I got these facts from the registry in the Swedish church. The entry in the registry is dated July 10th, 1866. I know the Swedish hymn book produced (which was found in the house of the deceased), and I gave it to her last winter. I think she was married in 1869, and she told me that her husband was drowned in the Princess Alice. She was very poor, and I gave her some assistance at the time of the Princess Alice disaster.

The Coroner: I can tell you that there was a collection made for the relief of those injured in connection with the Princess Alice; it was distributed at the Mansion House, and no one of the name Stride made application for relief. The books have been searched.

William Marshall, 64 Berner street, a labourer in an indigo warehouse, had seen the body in the mortuary. He saw the deceased in Berner street at 11.45 p.m. on the 29th ult., standing on the pavement between Christian street and Boyd street. She was then talking to a man. They were not quarrelling, but talking quietly. There was no street lamp near, but the witness could see that the man was wearing a black short coat and dark trousers. He seemed to be middle aged, and was wearing a round cap with a small peak, something like what a sailor would wear. He was about 5ft. 6in. in height, rather stout, and appeared decently dressed. He did not look like a dock labourer nor a butcher, but had more the appearance of a clerk. The witness did not think the man had any whiskers, nor had he anything in his hands. He did not notice anything in the hands of the deceased. The witness was standing at his door, and his attention was attracted by seeing the man kissing her. He heard the man say to the deceased, "You would say anything but your prayers." He was "mild speaking," and spoke as an educated man would. The witness did not hear the deceased say anything; she only laughed. The witness heard nothing more, as they went away, walking in the middle of the road towards Ellen street. The deceased was wearing a black jacket and dress. Neither of them appeared to be the worse for drink. The witness went indoors about twelve o'clock, and heard nothing more until the cry of "Murder" was raised, just after one a.m. When he saw the man and the deceased talking together they were standing between witness's house and the Working Men's Club. They walked down the road, the man having his arms round deceased's neck, but witness did not notice his face. It was not raining at the time.

James Brown, 35 Fairclough street, deposed to seeing the body in the mortuary, and recognising it as the woman he saw on the morning of the 30th ult. about a quarter to one o'clock. The witness was going from his own house to procure some supper at a chandler's shop at the corner of Berner street and Fairclough street. He was in the shop three or four minutes, and while returning saw a man and woman standing by the Board School in Fairclough street. Witness passed them in the road, just by the kerb, and heard the woman say, "No, not tonight; some other night." The witness then turned round and looked at them. He was almost certain that the deceased was the woman he saw. The man was leaning with his hand on the wall. So far as the witness could see, the man had on a long dark coat which reached nearly to his heels. He saw nothing light in colour about either of them. The witness did not stop when he heard them talking, but passed on. He had nearly finished his supper, when he heard screams of "Murder" and "Police." That was about a quarter of an hour after he reached home. The man looked about the same height as the witness - 5ft. 7in. - and was not stout. Neither of them appeared to be the worse for drink.

Police constable William Smith, 452H, stated that on Saturday, the 29th inst., he went on duty at ten o'clock, his beat extending along the Commercial road, down Christian and Fairclough streets into Grove street as far as Backchurch lane, thence into Commercial road again. That walk included all the interior streets, including Berner street, the whole beat occupying about thirty minutes. He was in Berner street about 12.35, and subsequently arrived at No. 40 in his ordinary round about one o'clock, and then saw the crowd of people in the yard and two policemen. He heard no cries of police, and was not called to the spot. When the witness came through Berner street at 12.30 he saw a man and the deceased talking together. She was standing on the pavement, a few yards up the street, on the opposite side to where she was found. The man who was talking to her had a parcel, covered with a newspaper, in his hand. He was about 5ft. 7in. in height, and wore a dark felt deerstalker hat with dark clothes. He had on a kind of "cutaway" coat. The witness overheard no conversation. Both appeared to be sober. He did not see much of the man's face, but he had no whiskers. He looked about 28 years of age. The man was of respectable appearance.

James Kidney recognised the hymn book (produced) as belonging to the deceased. The witness found it in the room of Mrs. Smith, adjoining his own.

Phillip Krantz, residing at 40 Berner street, editor of a Hebrew Socialistic journal, stated that he was in the printing office, which abuts on the yard, from nine p.m. on September 29th until he was called to see the body. During that time he heard no unusual noise in the yard.

The inquiry was then adjourned until the 23rd inst.

The fact that the previous murders have mostly been committed either on Friday or Saturday morning caused the police in the Whitechapel district to be exceptionally vigilant during Friday night. Not only was Whitechapel under observation hitherto, perhaps, unprecedented, but the whole of the metropolis is under the keenest surveillance in order to trap the mysterious murderer who, it is feared, may spring up in some other part of London. The story circulated about a woman being lifted insensible from a cab, and deposited in Hare street, Bethnal green, turns out to have had no foundation in fact. It is pointed out that the murderer, after the commission of his last crime undoubtedly proceeded from Mitre square by way of Church passage, Duke street, Houndsditch, Gravel lane, Stoney lane, to Goulston street, at which spot all clue appears to have been lost of him. In this neighbourhood he evidently entered one of the notorious houses which exist in the locality.

The following postal telegram was received by the Metropolitan Police at 11.55 p.m. on Friday night. It was handed in at an office in the Eastern district at 8 p.m.:-

"Charles Warren, Head of the Police, Central Office. Dr. Boss,
If you are willing enough to catch me I am now in City road, in lodgings, but the number you will have to find out, and I mean to do another murder tonight in Whitechapel.
Yours,
Jack the Ripper."

A letter was also received from the Commercial street Police Station by the first post on Saturday morning. It was addressed to the "Commercial street Police Station" in black lead pencil, and the contents, also written in pencil, were couched in such ridiculous language that the police believe the letter to be the work of a lunatic. It was signed "Jack the Ripper," and said the writer was "going to work" in Whitechapel on Friday night. He added he going to commit another murder in the Goswell road, and spoke of having "several bottles of blood underground in Epping Forest," and frequently referred to "jack the Ripper under the ground." Detective inspector Abeline (sic) has been informed of the correspondence, and the police of the G Division have been communicated with.

It is pointed out by the Daily Telegraph that search for an individual answering to the description of the man seen talking to the Berner street victim shortly before she was murdered on Sunday morning last has been made by the police in Whitechapel ever since Saturday, September 1st, the day following the Buck's row tragedy. Information was tendered at the King David's lane Police station, at about that time, by a dairyman who has a place of business in Little Turner street, Commercial road. It will be recollected that on Saturday, September 1st, a desperate assault was reported to have been committed near to the music hall in Cambridge Heath road, a man having seized a woman by the throat and dragged her down a court, where he was joined a gang, one of whom laid a knife across the woman's throat, remarking, "We will serve you as we did the others." The particulars of this affair were subsequently stated to be untrue; but the milkman has reason to suppose that the outrage was actually perpetrated, and he suspects that the murderer of Mary Ann Nicholls in Buck's row had something to do with it. At any rate, upon that Saturday night, at five minutes to eleven o'clock, a man corresponding with the description given by Packer of the individual who purchased grapes in Berner street, called at the shop, which is on the left of a covered yard, usually occupied by barrows, which are let out on hire. He was in a hurry, and he asked for a pennyworth of milk, which he was served and he

Asking permission to go into the yard or shed, he went there, but the dairyman caught a glimpse of something white, and, having suspicions, he rejoined the man in the shed, and was surprised to observe that he had covered up his trousers with a pair of white overalls, such as engineers wear. The man had a staring look, and appeared greatly agitated. He made a movement forward, and the brim of his hard felt hat struck the dairyman, who is, therefore, certain of the kind that he was wearing. In a hurried manner the stranger took out of a black shiny bag, which was on the ground, a white jacket and rapidly put it on, completely hiding his cutaway black coat, remarking meanwhile, "It's a dreadful murder, isn't it?" although the subject had not been previously mentioned. Without making a pause the suspicious person caught up his bag, which was still open, and rushed into the street, towards Shadwell, saying, "I think I've got a clue!" The matter was reported to the police, and although strict watch has been maintained for the reappearance of the man he has not been seen in the street since. He is said to have had a dark complexion, such as a seafaring man acquires. He had no marked American accent, and his general appearance was that of a clerk or student whose beard has been allowed three days' growth. His hair was dark, and his eyes large and staring. The bag carried by the young man, whose age the dairyman places at 28, is stated to have been provided with a lock at the top, near the handle, and was made, as stated, of a black glistening material. In connection with the Whitechapel murders a black bag has been repeatedly mentioned.

A news agency has received a telegram from New York with respect to a statement alleged to have been made in that city by an English sailor bearing the peculiar name of Dodge. The statement is that he arrived in London from China on August 18th by the steamship Glenorchy, that he met at the Queen's Music hall, Poplar, a Malay cook, and that the Malay said he had been robbed by a woman of bad character, and that unless he found the woman and recovered his money he would murder and mutilate every Whitechapel woman he met. The statement also includes the following description of the Malay:-

"He was about 5ft. 7in. in height, 130lb. in weight, and apparently 35 years of age." Judging from the precise figures relating to the Malay's appearance, it is evident that Dodge must have scrutinised him very closely. Inquiries have been made by the news agency in London, but no information has been obtained in verification of the sailor's story. It appears that the Glenorchy returned to London from China on August 14th.

A man has been arrested at Tiptree Heath, on suspicion of being connected in the Whitechapel murders. He was met by Police sergeant Creswell, of whom he asked alms. He objected to be searched, and insisted on keeping his hand in his pocket. He was then taken to Kelvedon, and it was seen that the appearance of the man answered the description circulated by the Metropolitan Police of the Whitechapel murderer in almost every particular. He was detained in custody until his account of himself had been verified by the police, and was then discharged. Early on Friday morning a man was found wandering through the streets of Whitechapel, and, his movements being suspicious and his replies unsatisfactory, he was taken into custody. On being searched at the police station a bayonet was found upon him. Inquiries by the police, however, showed plainly that he could have had no connection with the crime, and he was released.

At the Guildhall Police court on Friday, William Bull, 27, describing himself as a medical student, of 6 Stannard road, Dalston, was charged on remand, on his own confession, with committing the murder on Mitre square, Aldgate, on the 30th ult.

The facts, which have been reported, show that the prisoner on Tuesday evening entered the charge room of the Bishopsgate Police Station, and made a statement which Inspector Izzard wrote down. It was to the effect that on the night or morning of the murder he met the woman in Aldgate, and went up a back street with her. He gave her half a crown, which another man took away from her. He had committed the murder and could not put up with the suspense any longer. The accused was very drunk at the time he made the statement. Inquiries had been made, and it was ascertained that he was well connected, but he was not a medical student, nether was he, according to his father's statement, out on Saturday evening.

On Friday Inspector Izzard said that the inquiries had led to the most satisfactory conclusion. The defendant bore a most irreproachable character, and he had been in his situation for a long time.

Mr. Alderman Stone said that he was very sorry he was unable to punish the prisoner in some way, as it was a most dangerous thing, now that these scares were about, for people to make such foolish statements. He thought the prisoner ought to be thoroughly ashamed of himself for his conduct. He would now be discharged.

The prisoner said that since he had been locked up he had signed the pledge.

In connection with the arrest of James Johnson, an American, who, as reported in the People last week, was remanded at the Dalston Police Court on a charge of assaulting a woman in Richmond road, Dalston, and threatening to stab her, it should be mentioned that Johnson was subsequently discharged, there being no foundation for the woman's assertion.