Australia
10 November 1888
THE WHITECHAPEL MURDERS.
ANOTHER HORRIBLE TRAGEDY.
London 7th November (Sic)
To-day London has again been shocked and alarmed by the discovery of the perpetration of another of the series of horrible murders which were discovered a few weeks since in Whitechapel, Houndsditch, and adjacent portions of Eastern London. In this instance the atrocity was not committed in the streets as were the previous ones, but there can be no doubt from the attendant circumstances that the perpetrator of the latest murder is identical with the man who committed the previous ones. It is believed that he feared the continued watch of the police in the streets, and therefore he beguiled his victim into a house and there butchered her.
The facts are that last night a woman of low character, accompanied by a man, engaged a room at one of the low houses which are common enough in Whitechapel. The pair retired for the night. Nothing more was heard of them till late this forenoon, when as neither of them had been seen, the door was tried and found to be locked. It was eventually burst open, and then the horrible discovery was made that the woman had been brutally murdered. The mutilated body was lying on the bed. The head hadapparently first been severed, and after that the breasts and certain organs had been removed. The breasts and organs referred to were the only portions missing.
In this case, as in the others, there was unmistakeable evidence of the murderer possessing a certain amount of anatomical knowledge. This was made the more plain inasmuch as he had less fear of being disturbed, and therefore did his horrible work more leisurely. After he had completed it he seems to have taken the portions of the body he required with him, and stolen from the room which, when burst open, presented a fearful scene of blood. He locked the door on the outside and took the key with him, his object probably being to delay the discovery of the crime for as long as possible in order to enable him to make good his escape. He was not observed leaving the house.
The report of this, the eighth and most awful of the terrible series of crimes on record has created a profound sensation. The inhabitants of the East End, and especially the women of abandoned character are in a state of wildest excitement and alarm. The police appear to be utterly helpless in the matter.