Some excitement was created in Spitalfields on Friday morning by a report which rapidly spread that a man had been found with his body greatly mutilated. The excitement increased when it was suggested that the man was a victim of the unknown Whitechapel murderer. Upon inquiry, however, it was found that the unfortunate man who was by trade a butcher, was cutting a quarter of beef into joints, when his knife slipped, inflicting a very serious wound in the abdomen. He was conveyed in great pain to the London Hospital, where he died shortly afterwards.
Latest Particulars.
The Police Despondent.
The lapse of time naturally diminishes the prospect of the discovery of the Whitechapel murderer, and from statements made to a reporter by a detective officer on Friday evening, the police are absolutely hopeless of any practical result attending their inquiries. No attempt is made to disguise the fact that arrest following upon arrest, and all equally fruitless, have produced in the official minds a feeling almost of despair. A corps of detectives left Leman street on Friday morning, and the officer under whose direction they are pursuing their investigations had in his possession quite a bulky packet of papers, all relating to information supplied to the police, and all, as the detective remarked, "amounting to nothing." "The difficulty of our work," he said, " is much greater than the public are aware of. In the first place there are hundreds of men about the streets answering to the vague description of the man who is 'wanted' and we cannot arrest everybody. The reward offered for the apprehension of the murderer has had one effect - it has inundated us with descriptions of persons into whose movements we are expected to inquire for the sole reason that they have of late been noticed to keep rather irregular hours and to take their meals alone. Some of these cases we have sent men to investigate, and the persons, who it has proved have been unjustly suspected have been very indignant - and naturally so too. The public would be exceedingly surprised if they were made aware of some of the extraordinary suggestions received by the police from outsiders. Why, in one case," the officer laughingly remarked, "it was seriously put to us that we should carefully watch the policeman who happened to be on the particular beat within the radius of which either of the bodies were found. The amount of work done by the detectives throughout this series of crime has been enormous. We do not expect that the batch of inquiries to be undertaken today will lead to any more satisfactory result than those of previous days." It is probable that the tragic fate of the woman who had been locked up for drunkenness, and was discharged from Bishopsgate Police Station at one o'clock on the morning of the murder, will result in a new regulation for such cases. Members of the detective force consider that one o'clock in the morning is a very improper hour to turn a half sober woman from a police cell into the street, and that she ought to be kept in custody until six or seven o'clock in the morning, at which time there would be a better chance of her getting home unmolested. There is a prevailing opinion among the detectives engaged in the case, that the writing on the wall to which reference was made at the inquest on the woman Eddowes, should on no account have been erased, but ought to have been carefully guarded until a copy of it had been secured.
Shortly before twelve o'clock on Thursday night, a man who gives his name as John Forster, was arrested in Belfast on suspicion of being the Whitechapel murderer, and refusing to give a satisfactory account of himself. The prisoner, who was found lodging at the house of Samuel Beatty, Memel street, had in his possession a bag containing a large knife and three razors. One of the latter bears marks of blood. the man is about 30 years of age, 5ft. 8in. or 9in. high, of slight build, and fair complexion, and is shabbily dressed. He had also close upon £20. He stated to the police that he had been in Belfast since last Sunday. Previously he was two days in Glasgow, and before that two days in Edinburgh; but he declines to give further information regarding himself. The prisoner was brought before the Belfast magistrates on Friday.
Police constable Edward Carle, who made the arrest, said the accused would give no further account of himself than that he was the son of a London brewer, that he had an income, and that he had been in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Greenock. Among articles found upon him were a large clasp knife and chisel, three razors, and a table knife. Further evidence went to show that the accused who first gave the name of William John Foster, but afterwards said it was John Foster, had informed the police that he was a watchmaker, but did not work at his trade. The prisoner wore a white turned down collar, marked with supposed blood stains upon it. He was remanded for a week.
A report was current late on Thursday night that the police have good reasons to suspect a man who is at present a patient in an East end infirmary. He was admitted since the commission of the last murder, and owing to his suspicious behaviour and other circumstances, the attention of the authorities was directed to him. Detectives are making inquiries relative to his actions before being admitted to the infirmary, and he is kept under constant and close surveillance.
Next Week's, October 20th,
ILLUSTRATED POLICE NEWS
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Sir Charles Warren writes to say that several incorrect statements have recently been published relative to the enrolment of candidates for detective - that is to say, criminal investigation - work in the metropolitan police, which may tend to deter candidates from applying. The following is the actual state of the case:-
For many years past the standard height in the metropolitan police has been five feet eight and a half inches, and in the beginning of 1887 it was raised to five feet nine inches, but the commissioner has power from the Secretary of State to accept candidates as short as five feet seven inches, and if the criminal investigation branch should require any particular man under five feet seven inches the commissioner has at all times been prepared to obtain the Secretary of State's sanction to his enrolment. The limit of age is 35, but as a rule candidates are not taken over the age of 27, in order that the police service may not lose the better part of a man's life, and also to enable him to put in sufficient service to entitle him to a full pension. There is no rule, and never has been any rule made by the commissioner, that candidates on joining must serve for two or three years as constables in divisions before being appointed to the criminal investigation branch. The commissioner has always been prepared to consider favourably any proposal from the criminal investigation branch for a candidate for a candidate to join the commissioner's office immediately on enrolment, or at any time after his enrolment, for duty in the criminal investigation branch. But should a case occur that a candidate who wished to join the criminal investigation branch at once, and was reported favourably upon, was not physically or otherwise fit for ordinary police duties, it would be necessary, in the interests of the public, that on his enrolment a stipulation should be made that if he should subsequently be found unfit for criminal investigation work he would have to leave the police service without any compensation, should his service not entitle him to a pension or gratuity. As a general rule it has been ascertained by the criminal investigation branch that the candidates who have applied to be appointed to detective duties have not possessed any special qualifications which would justify their being so appointed.
Dreaded spectre of the eastern London streets,
Whose gory hand stern retribution cheats,
And whose stealthy footsteps roman in freedom still,
In quest of victims fresh to mutilate and kill,
Why dost thou wander? Why at midnight prowl?
Slaying Eve's lost daughters, thou red handed ghoul,
Who once within thy grasp, no struggling groan,
No shriek for mercy's heard, nor dying moan.
But for ever silent lies the heart and head,
While Justice shouts aloud, Avenge the dead!
Yet crimson monster, heaven shall set the snare,
When human wisdom fails to find thy lair.
Spirit of evil, and fiend in human shape,
Fit companion of the vulture and the ape,
Yet these low denizens of wilds and tainted air,
With thy foul deeds, their work is just and fair.
For nature did ordain e'en before the flood,
That beasts and birds should crave for blood,
Thou are not human, nor from gentle woman born,
But from Pandemonium thou wast surely torn.
Avaunt! then horrid phantom, to Satan's blackest mine,
Where streak of daylight, nor sun e'er deigns to shine,
There till crack of doom, expiate thy deeds,
Among tortured devils and other hellish breeds.
Alfred H. Marshall.
Details of the two dreadful murders committed on the 30th September, in Berner street, Whitechapel, and Mitre square, Aldgate, were given, so far as they were then known in subsequent editions of the People on that day. The full particulars since ascertained and the evidence given at the inquests, together with sketches of the scenes of the two crimes, and a plan of the district in which the six murders have been committed since April last, are embodied in the present issue of the paper.
Inquest and Verdict.
Mr. F.S. Langham resumed the inquest on Thursday, at the City Coroner's Court, Golden lane, into the circumstances attending the death of Catherine Eddowes, aged 43 years, who was found brutally murdered and mutilated in Mitre square, Aldgate, early on the morning of the 30th ult.
Superintendent Foster and Detective sergeant Outram represented the City police authorities, and Mr. Crawford, the City solicitor, appeared for the Corporation of London.
Mr. George W. Sequeira, 34 Jewry street, City, a surgeon, deposed to being the first medical man to arrive in Mitre square after the murder. He saw the body at 1.55 a.m., and noticed its position. He agreed with the evidence of Dr. Gordon Brown, given on the last occasion.
By Mr. Crawford: He was well acquainted with the square, and could state that the injuries were inflicted in the darkest corner of it; still he considered there was sufficient natural light for the perpetrator to have acted without the aid of additional light. He formed the opinion that the murderer had no special design as to particular organs of the body. Judging from the injuries inflicted, the witness did not consider that the culprit possessed great anatomical skill. As to no noise being heard, that was accounted for by the death of the woman being instantaneous after the severing of the windpipe and the blood vessels. He would not necessarily have expected to find the clothes of the person who committed the deed bespattered with blood. When he arrived the woman had not been dead more than a quarter of an hour.
Dr. W.S. saunders, 13 Queen street, Cheapside, stated that he examined the contents of the stomach of the deceased, more particularly with the view of seeing whether it contained any poison of a narcotic kind.
By Mr. Crawford: He was present at the post mortem, and agreed with the statement that the wounds were inflicted by one possessing great anatomical skill, and also could confirm the statement that the perpetrator had no particular design upon any specific internal organ.
Annie Phillips. 12 Dilston Grove, Southwark Park road, a married woman, aged 23, stated that she was the daughter of the deceased. Her mother always told the witness that she was married to her father, Thomas Conway. She had not seen him since he was living with the witness and her husband at 15 Anger street, Southwark Park road, about fifteen months ago. He left her house suddenly without assigning any reason. They were not then on the best of terms. Her father was a teetotaller, and did not live on good terms with her mother because she used to drink. He was a hawker. The witness had not the slightest idea where he was now, but was sure he bore the deceased no ill feeling. When she was alive, the witness's mother had told her that her father had been in the 18th Royal Irish, and was a pensioner for life. She could remember him receiving his allowance since she was eight years old. She was in the habit of seeing her mother after the two parted, and she frequently applied for money. The last time was two years and one month ago. Witness did not see her mother on the Saturday previous to her death. She saw her last at her house in King street, Bermondsey, but did not give her address when she left. Witness had two brother, sons of Thomas Conway, living in London. Her mother did not know where they resided. When her father was living with her and her husband, he knew that the deceased was living with Kelly.
By Mr. Crawford: Her father might have been a pensioner in the Connaught Rangers. She was not sure. The witness last saw Kelly and the deceased about three years ago in the lodging house in Flower and Dean street. Her father was now living with her two brothers, but she did not know where. She had lost all trace of father, mother, and brothers for eighteen months, and could not assist the police in the slightest.
John Mitchell, detective sergeant of the City police, proved making every endeavour without success to find the father and two brothers of the last witness. The witness had found a pensioner named Conway, belonging to the 18th Royal Irish, but he had not been identified as the person wanted.
Detective B. Hunt, who discovered Conway, the pensioner in the 18th Royal Irish, said the man had been confronted with two of the deceased's sisters and they had failed to recognise him as the man who used to live with the deceased. The witness had also endeavoured to trace Conway and his sons, but had failed to do so.
Mr. Crawford explained to the jury that Conway might not be receiving his pension under that name, such people so often changed their names. The theory had been put forward that the woman was deposited in Mitre square after having been murdered, but Dr. Gordon Brown. who was recalled, stated that such could not possibly have been the case.
Police constable Robinson, 931, said that on September 29th, the evening before the murder, he was attracted by a crowd in High street, Aldgate, and found a woman drunk. He recognised the deceased as the woman he took to the station, after having asked the people standing round whether any of them knew her. At first he placed her against the shutters of a shop, but she fell sideways on to the ground. With the assistance of another constable he then took her in custody. When asked her name at the station, she replied "Nothing."
By Mr. Crawford: No one in the crowd appeared to know her. When he last saw her in the police cell at 8.50 p.m. on the Saturday evening he noticed she was wearing the apron produced (in two pieces).
Sergeant James Byfield of the City Police, remembered the deceased being brought into the station on the Saturday evening in a very drunken condition. She was discharged at one a.m., when she was sober. Before leaving she gave the name of Mary Kelly, 6 Fashion street, Spitalfields.
Police constable Hutt, 968, gaoler at Bishopsgate street Station, deposed to having the deceased under his care while she was detained. When liberated at one a.m. he saw her leave the station and turn to the left in the direction of Houndsditch. He recognised the apron produced as the one the deceased had been wearing. The distance from the station to Mitre square could be covered in eight minutes.
George Morris, watchman to Messrs. Kearly and Yong (sic), tea dealers, of Mitre square, stated that he went on duty at seven o'clock on the evening of September 29th. About a quarter to two on the next morning he was called by Police constable Watkins, the front door being slightly on the jar at the time. Watkins said, "For God's sake, mate, come to my assistance." Before answering the witness ran to fetch his lantern. He then asked what was the matter, and the constable replied, "Oh dear, there is another woman cut to pieces." After seeing the woman he ran to the top of Mitre street into Aldgate blowing his whistle the while. He saw no suspicious person about at the time. Witness had heard no noise in the square before he was called by Watkins.
By the jury: The door had not been (missing section)
Detective Halse, City Police, deposed to being sent to Goulston street to make inquiries about the writing on the wall. It was suggested that if the words remained there it might cause a riot among the Jews. Detective inspector McWilliam gave orders to have it washed off. Inquiries were made at every tenement in the house, but no information could be gathered as to any one having arrived home late. The witness suggested that only the top line of the writing should be rubbed off. The witness protested against its being erased until Major Smith had seen it, but of course it was on metropolitan ground, and the metropolitan police suggested the likelihood of "a riot." The writing was in a good round hand, upon the black dado of the passage wall. The capital letters were about three quarters of an inch in height, the others being in proportion. He took the words down as "The Juees are not the men that will be blamed for nothing."
Police constable Long now produced his pocket book containing the entry of the writing on the wall made at the time of its discovery. The words were the same as previously given, but he now added that the inspector pointed out at the time that "Jews" was spelt "Juews."
The coroner, in summing up, said there was no need to go through the evidence. It had been clearly shown that this fiendish murderer took hold of the deceased and cut her throat so suddenly that no sound was uttered by the woman. The murderer then cut her face about to render identification impossible. The coroner mentioned certain of the facts connected with the case, and said there was no doubt that one person committed the foul deed.
Without a minute's deliberation, the jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against some person or persons unknown.
The Real Mrs. Watts Found.
It will be remembered that at the inquest on the body of the woman murdered in Berner street, and who had previously been identified as Elizabeth Stride, Mrs. Mary Malcolm of Red Lion square, swore that the deceased was her sister, Elizabeth watts, whom she had last seen alive on the Thursday preceding the murder. The Central News has succeeded in finding Elizabeth watts in the person of Mrs. Stokes, the wife of a brickyard labourer living at Tottenham. Mrs. Stokes says:- "My father was publican by the
(Missing section)
married three times. My first husband was Mr. Watts, a wine merchant at Bath. To whom I was married at Bristol. My second husband's name was Sneller, whom I married at Deal; and my third and present husband's name is Stokes, to whom I was married at St. Andrew's Church, New Kent road, on December 15th, 1884. He has been employed lately at Plowman's Brickfield, Tottenham. Mrs. Malcolm, who gave evidence at the inquest, is my sister, but I have not seen her for years, and I do not expect to see her until I attend the adjourned inquest on the 23rd inst. My sister, Mary Malcolm, has never, as she swore, given me any money. It is untrue that I saw her on the Thursday preceding the murder. I was out washing on that day at Mrs. Peterkin's laundry, near White Hart lane. I never used to meet her, as she said, in Red Lion street, to receive a shilling from her. I am not short of clothes, and I never lived in Commercial road nor kept a coffee house at Poplar. I may take a little drink now and then; but my sister never saw me in drink. My two children by my first husband, Watts, were taken from me and that preys on my mind at times. I never quarrelled with my first husband. Watts's friends did not approve of our marriage, on account of my being a poor girl. He was sent abroad, and died in America, leaving me with the two children, a boy and a girl. Where they are I do not know. Their father's friends took the children from me, and I was placed in the lunatic asylum of Fisherton House, near Salisbury. The relieving officer of Bath got me out, and I then went to live as a domestic servant at Walmer. There I made the acquaintance of Sneller, whom I afterwards married at Deal church. He was engaged on a vessel in the Royal Navy, which was stranded on St. Paul's Island, and there he died. His half pay was then stopped, and I was left destitute. Subsequently I was put in the Peckham Lunatic Asylum, under Dr. Stocker and Dr. Brown, because I endeavoured to gain possession of my two children whom I have never seen or heard of since they were taken from me. The lunacy commissioners afterwards pronounced me to be sane, and I was again discharged, perfectly destitute. Owing to my troubles, my memory is somewhat impaired. I married my present husband, Stokes, four years ago."
A Vienna correspondent states that Dr. Bloch, a member of the Austrian Reichsrath for the (missing section)
in statutes of a more recent date, punishments are prescribed for the mutilation of female victims, with the object of making organs, the so called Diabslichter, or Schlafslichter, respectively "thieves' candles," or "soporific candles." According to an old superstition, still rife in various parts of Germany, the light from such candles will throw those upon whom it falls into the deepest slumbers, and they may, consequently, become a valuable instrument to the thieving profession. Hence their name. In regard to these schlafslichter, quite a literature might be cited. They are referred to by Ave Lallement in his "Das Deutsche Gaunerthum," published at Leipsic in 1858; by Loffler, in "Die Mangelhafte Justix;" byThiele, and numerous others. They also played an important part in the trials of robber bands at Odenwald and in Westphalia, in the years 1812 and 1841 respectively. The schlfslichter were heard of, too, at the trial of the notorious German robber, Theodor Unger, surnamed "the handsome Charley," who was executed at Magdeburg in 1810. It was on that occasion discovered that a regular manufactory had been established by gangs of thieves for the production of such candles. That this superstition has survived amongst German thieves to the present day was proved by a case tried at Biala, in Galicia, as recently as 1875. In this the body of a woman had been found mutilated in precisely the same way as were the victims of the Whitechapel murderer. At that trial, as at one which took place subsequently at Zeszow, which is also in Galicia, and in which the accused were a certain Ritter and his wife, the prevalence among thieves of the superstition was alluded to by the Public Prosecutor. In the Ritter case, however, the Court preferred harping on another alleged superstition of a ritual character among the Jews of Galicia, which, however, was shown to be a pure invention of the Judenhetzer. Dr. Bloch, who for ten years was a Rabbi in Galicia, and has made the superstitions of that province his special study, affirms that the "thieves' candle" superstition still exists among robbers of every confession, and, as he believes, also of every nationality. He considers, however, that it prevails most among German thieves. Among other German laws where the crime in question is dealt with, the Code Theresina, chap. XXII, clause 52, may be referred to.
The funeral of Catherine Eddowes, the victim of the Mitre square murder, took place on Monday at Ilford Cemetery. The body was removed shortly after one o'clock from the mortuary in Golden lane, where a vast concourse of people had assembled. A strong force of the City police, under Mr. Superintendent Foster, was present, and conducted the cortege to the City boundary. At Old street a number of the metropolitan police were present under Inspector Barnham. The cortege passed Whitechapel parish church, and along Mile End road, though Bow and Stratford to the cemetery. The sisters of the ill fated woman and the man Kelly, with whom she had lived for seven years, attended the funeral. Along the whole route great sympathy was expressed for the relatives.
The Bishop of Bedford writes:-
"Will you kindly allow me to reply to many correspondents who have desired to be informed of the best way to befriend the poor women in Whitechapel, Spitalfields, and the neighbourhood, whose miserable condition has been brought lately before the public so prominently by the late murders? I was for ten years Rector of Spitalfields, and I know full well the circumstances of these poor creatures, and have been constantly among them by day and by night. A night refuge has been proposed, and it was but natural it should suggest itself as a means of benefitting the class. In my judgement it would serve no good end, and I earnestly hope nothing of the kind will be attempted. I am sure it would but aggravate the evil. It is not the fact that many of these women are to be found in the streets all night, because doors are closed against them. Another night refuge is not required. It would attract more of these miserable women into the neighbourhood, and increase the difficulties of the situation. But what is needed is a home where washing and other work could be done, and where poor women who are really anxious to lead a better life could find employment. There are penitentiaries and there are mission houses, into which younger women can be received. The public generally are little aware of how much good work has been done of late among these. But for the older women, many of whom have only taken to their miserable mode of earning a living in sheer despair, and who would gladly renounce it, we have not the home, and it is of the utmost importance one should be provided. It would in its management differ from the ordinary penitentiary. If entrusted with means to provide such a home I would gladly undertake the responsibility of conducting it in conjunction with the clergy and others, who are only too anxious to see it established. It has oftentimes saddened my heart to be unable to assist the older women and to save those who were hopelessly falling into a life of sin. Such a home would be a fitting addition to the 'court house', the home for younger penitents which bears the name of Mrs. Walsham How, and was founded by her in the time of my predecessor, the present Bishop of Wakefield. If anything is to be done, it should be done at once. Two thousand pounds would enable the experiment to be tried, and I have no doubt at all of its being a success. Pray allow me space to say to ladies who have been moved to devote themselves for work in these parts, that I shall be delighted to hear from such, and to advise them where their services are most required, and how they can best give effect to their charitable intentions. It is my bounden duty to use my position and experience to turn to the best account the painful interest that has been excited by late events in the East end."
Sir Charles Warren, it is stated, witnessed a private trial of bloodhounds in one of the London parks the other morning. The hounds are the property of Mr. Edwin Brough, of Wyndgate, near Scarborough, a well known breeder of those animals. On the 4th inst. Mr. Brough was communicated with by the Metropolitan police as to the utility of employing bloodhounds to track criminals, and the correspondence resulted in that gentleman coming to London, bringing with him two magnificent animals named Barnaby and Burgho. At the Warwick Dog Show two years ago Barnaby divided with Mr. Wright's Hector II the Castle Park Stakes for single hounds. Mr. Brough tried Barnaby and Burgho in Regent's Park at seven o'clock on Monday morning. The ground was thickly coated with hoar frost, but they did their work well, successfully tracking for nearly a mile a young man who was given about fifteen minutes law. They were tried again in Hyde Park that night. It was of course dark, and the dogs were hunted in a leash, as would be the case if they were employed in Whitechapel. They were again successful in performing their allotted task, and at seven o'clock on Tuesday morning a trial took place before Sir Charles Warren. To all appearances Tuesday morning was a much better one for scenting purposes than was the one on Monday, but the contrary proved to be the case. In all half a dozen runs were made, Sir Charles Warren in two instances acting as the hunted man. In every instance the dogs hunted persons who were complete strangers to them, and occasionally the trail would be crossed. When this happened the hounds were temporarily checked, but either one or the other would pick up the trail again. In one of the longest courses the hounds were checked on half the distance. Burgho ran back, but Barnaby making a fresh cast forward, recovered the trail, and ran the quarry home. The hound did this entirely unaided by his master, who thought that he was on the wrong track, but left him to his own devices. In consequence of the cold the hounds worked very slowly, but they demonstrated the possibility of tracking complete strangers on whose trail they had been laid. The chief commissioner seemed pleased with the result of the trials, though he did not express any definite opinion on the subject to those present.
Sir Alfred Kirby, colonel of the Tower Hamlets Fusiliers, recently made an offer to provide thirty or fifty men belonging to that regiment for service in connection with the tracking of the perpetrator of the Whitechapel and Aldgate murders. The Home Secretary has written to Sir Alfred, saying that having consulted Sir Charles Warren, he had come to the conclusion that it would not be advisable to put the men on for service.
Inquest on the Remains.
How the Trunk was Found.
Mr. John Troutbeck opened an inquest in the Westminster Sessions House, on Monday, on the remains of an unidentified woman, a portion of whose body was found on the 2nd inst. in the new police offices in course of erection on the Embankment, under circumstances previously reported in the People.
Frederick Wildbore, of Clapham Junction, a carpenter, deposed:
I went into a vault to find my tools, my mate having taken them down there on the previous Saturday. I noticed what I took to be an old coat lying on the ground in a recess. The vault was, as usual, very dark. I did not find my tools, as my mate had removed them earlier in the morning. At half past five on Monday evening I went to the vault once more. I noticed the object again, and drew my mate's attention to it. We struck a match and looked at it, without forming any idea what it was. I did not report the matter to anyone. On the next day at about one o'clock I saw the object again, and spoke about it to Mr. Brown, the assistant foreman. The parcel was not opened in my presence. I had not been to the vault for eight days when I went there on Saturday. During that period I did not hear any one refer to the presence of the parcel. I heard of the discovery about an hour after I spoke to the deputy foreman. I never noticed any smell in the vault. I only place my tools there from Saturdays to Mondays. (A tracing of the architect's plan of the basement of the building having been handed to the witness, he indicated the situation of the vault.) Any one unacquainted with the building would, I think, have had a difficulty in finding his way to the vault. Questioned by a juror the witness said:
On each occasion on which I went to the vault I struck a match.
George Bugden, of 21 Salisbury Buildings, Walworth, a bricklayer's labourer, said:
I was in the vault on Tuesday afternoon, having been sent down by the foreman to inspect the parcel. I found it partially wrapped in an old cloth. It had three or four strings round it, and I took hold of these strings and dragged it into a lighter vault. I then cut the strings (produced) and removed the wrappers, exposing to view part of a human body. Mr. Cheney, foreman of the bricklayers, was with me at the time. Presently the police arrived and took charge of the remains.
Thomas Hawkins, detective attached to the A Division, deposed:
About twenty minutes past three on the 2nd inst. Mr. Brown came to the police station, and in consequence of a statement he made, I was sent to the new police buildings, where, lying in one of the vaults, I found a portion of a human body. It had apparently been wrapped in a piece of dress material (produced), which was lying beside it. I went to a vault in which I was told that the remains had been discovered, Later on I communicated with Detective inspector Marshall, who came and took charge of the remains. I should think it impossible for any one unacquainted with the building to have found his way to the vault without artificial light. There is a trench in the vault.
Frederick Moore, 86 Great Peter street, a porter, said:
At about a quarter to one in the 11th of September, I was standing outside the place where I work, 113 Grosvenor road, when my attention was called to an object lying in the mud of the river, underneath a sluice. With the aid of a ladder I approached the object, and found it was a human arm, which was quite bare. A string was tied tightly round the upper part. I fished the arm up, and put it on some timber, and afterwards examined the mud to ascertain whether there were any more remains about. I did not find any. The tide was going out just at the time of the discovery.
Police constable Jones, 127B, said:-
On the 11th September my attention was called by the last witness to an arm that had been found in the mud of the river. For a week subsequently I was engaged in examining the mud of the river in this locality, but did not find any more remains.
Charles William Brown, of 5 Hampton terrace, Hornsey, an assistant foreman employed on the new police offices, deposed:
The works are shut off from the surrounding streets by a hoarding about 7ft. high. There are three entrances, two in Cannon row, and one on the Embankment. There are gates at these entrances, and the gates are as high as the hoarding. The vaults have been completed about three months. Nobody is admitted to the works except the workmen and people having business with the clerk of the works. Nobody is kept at the gates, but there is a notice prohibiting strangers from entering. On Saturdays all the gates are locked except a small one in Cannon row. No watchman remains at this gate, and no watchman remains on the building during the night. The little gate is latched, and there is a trick in opening the latch. From the time the workmen leave on Saturdays until they come again on Mondays the works are deserted. There is not a watchman stationed outside. The vaults are difficult of approach. Carpenters were at work down there in the week preceding the discovery. In order to get to the vault a previous knowledge of the building is required. I first saw the parcel on the afternoon of the 2nd inst. I had been in the vault several times on the 1st and 2nd inst., but I did not notice the parcel, as I had no light with me. I noticed no smell. A man drew my attention to the parcel and I did not take much notice of it at first. Later I told Mr. Cheney and a labourer that there was a curious parcel in the basement.
By a Juryman: Tools have been stolen during the progress of the works, but this did not suggest the necessity of placing a lock on the little gate in Cannon row.
Ernest Hedge, a general labourer, said:
I was in the vault on Saturday evening at twenty minutes to five. I went there to get a hammer. I passed the spot which has been pointed out to me as that on which the parcel was found, and there was certainly nothing there then. I might have been in the vault on the Monday, but not on the spot in question. On the Tuesday, I went into the vault after the body had been found. When I left the vault on the Saturday there was a plank over the trench. Men often went into the vault for various reasons. At twenty minutes to five I believe I was alone in the works. I was locking up. I left everything secure. All the workmen know how to open the little gate in Cannon row. All that is necessary is to pull a piece of string.
Police constable Ralph, 634A, said:
I placed the remains in a shell and saw them conveyed to the mortuary. I also directed the arm to be brought to the mortuary.
Mt. Thomas Bond, F.R.C.S., deposed:
On October 2nd, shortly after four o'clock, I was called to the new police buildings. I was there shown the decomposed trunk of a woman. It was lying in the basement, having been removed from the vault. The string was cut, and the trunk was partially unwrapped. I visited the place where it was found. The wall was stained black. I was unable to form any definite opinion as to how long it had lain there, but from the appearance of the wall it seemed to be several days. On the following morning, assisted by my colleague, I made an examination. The trunk was that of a woman of considerable stature and well nourished. The head had been separated from the trunk through the sixth cervical vertebra. That had been sawn through. The lower limbs and the pelvis had been removed. The fourth lumbar vertebra had been sawn through by a series of long, sweeping cuts. The length of the trunk was 17 inches, and the circumference of the chest was 35 and a half inches. The circumference of the waist was 28 and a half inches. We found no marks of injuries on the skin. The breasts were prominent. Some parts of the skin were not much decomposed. The arms had been removed at the shoulder joints by several incisions. The cuts apparently had been made obliquely from above downwards and then around the arm. The arm had been disarticulated through the joint. Over the body were clearly defined marks where the skin had been tightly tied. It appeared to have been wrapped up in a very skilful manner. On close examination we could find no marks to indicate that she had had children. The neck had been divided by several incisions sawn through below the larynx. On opening the chest we noticed that the rib cartilages were not ossified; that one lung was healthy, but that the other showed that at some former time the woman had had severe pleurisy. The substance of the heart was healthy, and there was no indication that she had died either of suffocation or drowning. The liver and stomach, kidneys and spleen were normal. the lower parts of the viscera, including the uterus and bladder, were absent; in fact, all the lower parts were absent. She appeared to have been a woman of about 24 or 25 years of age. She seemed to have been large, well nourished, of fair skin, and dark hair. The appearance of the breast rather indicated that she had not suckled a child. The date of death, as far as could be judged, was from six weeks to two months before the examination. The body had not been in the water.
I examined an arm that was brought to the mortuary, and I found that it accurately fitted the trunk. The hand was long and appeared to be very well shaped. Apparently it was the hand of a person not used to manual labour. All the cuts on the trunk seem to have been made after death. There was nothing to indicate the cause of death, though as the inside of the heart was pale and free from clots, it probably arose from haemorrhage or fainting. From a series of measurements we took we came to the conclusion that the woman was about 5ft. 8in. in height.
Dr. C.A. Hibberd, of 18 Great College street, Middlesex lane, deposed:
I saw and examined the arm on the 16th September. It measured thirty one inches in length, and the hand measured seven and a half inches. There were no scars or marks of violence upon it, and it had apparently been separated after death. I thought the arm had been severed by a person who knew what he was about. It does not of course follow that he had any dissecting room experience, but he evidently knew where the joints could be reached readily. The six or seven cuts round the joint had evidently been done by a very sharp knife. I examined a piece of newspaper (produced) which was handed to me, and I ascertained that it was stained with blood. It was mammal blood, but I cannot say whether it was human blood. There were no marks of rings on the fingers.
Inspector Marshall, of the Criminal Investigation Department, and attached to the A Division, deposed:
At about five o'clock on the 2nd inst. I went to the new police buildings on the Embankment and saw the woman's trunk. In the vault where it had been found I discovered the piece of newspaper referred to the last witness, a piece of string, and two pieces of some dress material. With other officers I made a thorough search in the vaults in the vicinity, but we found nothing more of a suspicious nature. The piece of paper was part of an Echo, dated the 24th August last. Other pieces of paper were handed to me. The dress was made of broché satin cloth of Bradford manufacture. I have ascertained that it is an old pattern - probably three years old. It is a rather common material, and probably about sixpence halfpenny a yard when new. There was a flounce on the dress 6in. deep. I have examined the hoarding round the new police buildings. A person might easily scale it, but I did not discover any indication that it had been scaled. From appearances, I should have imagined the parcel containing the trunk must have lain many days on the spot where it was found.
The inquest was adjourned for a fortnight.
It may be mentioned that the remains found at Guildford, as reported last week, and which were at first supposed to be a leg belonging to the body found in Whitehall, proved on examination to be the leg of a bear.
A farmer named John Barry, on the property of Mr. Hutchins, at Lyredane, near Mallow, has been charged with having mutilated a sheep, the property of Denis Kempey, a tenant on the same estate, who also filled the position of rent warner. Barry, who had not paid his rent, was recently notified of his landlord's intention to dispossess him. A man named Keefe states that while he lay concealed he saw Barry commit the outrage. Keefe went to Barry's house and told his wife what had happened; whereupon she replied, "May bad luck and misfortune attend him that he did not kill yourself instead of the sheep, for it is long ago you deserved it." When Barry was arrested, a pen knife, stained with blood and with wool adhering to it, was found in his possession.
A Govan young man, named Michael Divine, flourished a penknife, and declared he was "Jack the Ripper," a little exploit which the magistrate rewarded with a fine of three guineas.
The particulars of a sad case of suicide, which took place at No. 65 Hanbury street, Spitalfields, a house a few doors away from the spot where the unfortunate woman Annie Chapman was murdered, reached Dr. Macdonald, the coroner for North east Middlesex, on Thursday. It appears that the top floor of the address is occupied by a silk weaver named Sodeaux, his wife, and child, aged 8 years. For some time past Mrs. Sodeaux has been depressed, and since the perpetration of the horrible murders which have taken place in the district she had been greatly agitated. On Sunday, the 7th inst., she was found to have a razor in her possession, and it was taken form her, as it was thought she meditated suicide. The following day she appeared to be more cheerful, and was left alone with her child. On Wednesday, however, she left her room, saying she was going on an errand, but when some time had elapsed and she did not return, her daughter went in search of her, and was horrified to find her hanging with a rope round her neck to the stair banisters. The child ran for assistance, but no one would go up to the body, and eventually the police were called in and the body cut down. Life was then extinct, but as the body was quite warm it is believed that, had assistance been rendered immediately on the discovery being made, the woman's life might have been saved.
James Phillips, aged 37, and William Jarvis, 40, cab washers, of Hackney road, were charged before Mr. Bros, at the Clerkenwell Police Court on Tuesday, with being concerned together in cutting and wounding Detective sergeant Robinson, of the G Division, in Phoenix place, St. Pancras, early that same morning. Jarvis was further charged with cutting and wounding Henry Doncaster, a private person, on the same occasion. The heads of both prisoners were bound with blood stained bandages, and the face of Sergeant Robinson had surgeon's straps upon wounds around the left eye. Mr. Ricketts, solicitor, appeared for the prisoners.
Detective sergeant Robinson said that between twelve and one o'clock on Tuesday morning he was on duty, disguised in female clothing, and in company with Detective sergeant Mather, in ordinary dress. A man named Doncaster and several Italians were watching the actions of a man who was in company with a woman under circumstances of which he had suspicion. They were in Phoenix place. About twenty minutes to one two men (not the prisoners) came up to him and asked him what he was doing there. He answered that he was a police officer, and they went away. Shortly afterwards Jarvis came up to him, and asked, "What are you messing about here for?" Witness took off his woman's hat and answered, "I am a police officer," and added that the other men were with him. Jarvis said, "Oh, you are cats and dogs, are you?" and struck him a violent blow with his fist. He seized Jarvis by the coat, but Jarvis pulled out a knife, and stabbed him over the left eye. He fell to the ground, and Jarvis again stabbed him, as he lay, on the bridge of his nose. Lying on his back, witness drew his truncheon and struck and Jarvis's hand, which held the knife, but the blow so intended missed the hand and struck Jarvis on the head. The prisoner Phillips then kicked him (witness) on the arm, and again in the ribs. Both prisoners ran away, and directly afterwards he saw Jarvis strike Doncaster (who had been assisting witness) on the face, and Doncaster cried out, "I am stabbed." Jarvis then called out, "Come on, George, cats and dogs," and several men came out of the cab yard with pitchforks and other implements, but did not use them. Several constables had by this time arrived, and the prisoners were taken into custody.
Mr. Ricketts, in asking for bail, said he expected to be able to show that the struggle was caused by misunderstanding, owing to the failure to inform the prisoners that Robinson was a constable.
Mr. Bros remanded the prisoners, refusing bail.
