St. James's Budget
September 22nd, 1888
Page 3
More fortunate than one or two innocent persons, the Whitechapel murderer
continues to elude the vigilance of the police. They inquest on the body of his victim has
been resumed; and the surgical evidence shows that the crime was committed by some
ruffian who must be skilful and deliberate in the work of murder, as well as brutal. The
Home Secretary has refused to yield to the "pressure" put upon him to offer a reward for
the discovery of the Whitechapel murders. Since £300 or thereabouts has already been
subscribed towards raising a reward, there can be no occasion to further stimulate the
cupidity of the assassin's possible accomplices. But it may be hoped that the outcry now
raised will cause the whole subject to be gone into Parliament. It was always very
doubtful whether the authorities were right in dropping the reward system.
Pages 5-6
MAKING TOO MUCH OF THE WHITECHAPEL MURDERS.
IT is no doubt a most desirable thing that a community should be disabused of any
illusions as to its social condition and surroundings. On that point we shall be all agreed;
and if, therefore, there be any considerable number of persons among us who have been
till now under the impression that Whitechapel was a perfect home of the civil and
domestic virtues, or even that it was a region in which, as the discontented Western
American complained, "respectability stalks unchecked," they should be duly grateful to
those philanthropic gentlemen who are endeavouring to awaken them to a perception of
the true state of the case. For ourselves, however, we should have thought that the
persons standing in need of this sort of enlightenment form an extremely limited class; and
we are certainly not prepared to admit that the "Whitechapel horrors" as one enthusiast
has just assured us, "will not be in vain" if they assist the enlightening process. Four
murders of unexplained barbarity are rather heavy price to pay for opening the eyes of the
people who must have been hitherto in the habit of keeping them most obstinately shut,
and who must be so very little likely to use them to any purpose now that they are
opened. Moreover, it must be said, with unfeigned respect for "S.G.O." and the Rev.
SAMUEL BARNETT, that the particular crimes which they profess to consider so
"awakening" do not form by any means an appropriate text for the particular sermon
which they are preaching upon them. If they wish -- as they do, and very rightly, wish --
to enforce the truth that the normal condition of certain of the poorer and more populous
districts of London is deplorable, and that the social reformer should redouble his efforts
to improve it, they do not act wisely in resting so much of their case on the perpetration
of certain atrocities which are of a quite abnormal character even for the crime-haunted
district in which they have occurred. If the murderer or murderers of these four
unfortunate women be ever discovered, it is tolerably certain, whatever else is doubtful,
that he or they will be found to belong to a class of criminal which Whitechapel has no
more a specialty for engendering than has any other region of the world in which a human
monster from time to time makes his appearance. "Society" is in these days made
responsible for much, and is accustomed to accept that responsibility without much
question. But when Society is told that, if it does not at once prosecute to
accomplishment certain extremely difficult social and economical reforms, it will be held
responsible for the existence and growth of a class of criminals who make it their business
or their pastime to murder and disembowel women, common sense revolts. And since
common sense must, in the long run, direct and guide all efforts for the amelioration of
the human lot, if they are to do good instead of harm, it is not well to alienate it from the
cause for which Mr. BARNETT in his own day, like "S.G.O." in his, has so laudably and
unselfishly laboured.
There is nothing, moreover, in the measures which the former of these
philanthropists has been urging upon us which is not familiar enough to every one, or
which needs to be recommended by four savage murders of a kind entirely outside all
ordinary experience. "Efficient police supervision," for instance, is a detail of municipal
government which ought not to be defective in any quarter of a great city; although there
is no doubt much reason to fear that there is in fact a serious lack of it in Whitechapel.
When provided, however, it is much more likely to be effective in preventing the "rows,
fights, and thefts" which are so common in the locality than in anticipating the occasional
commission of secretly planned and swiftly executed murder. "Adequate lighting and
cleaning," "removal of slaughter-houses," and "control of tenement-houses by responsible
landlords," are, again, all of them doubtless reforms of substantial if of unequal value.
They have all of them, we admit, a more or less direct connection with the general
improvement of the morals and manners of the inhabitants of this or any other locality;
but their bearing upon the particular crimes with which we are now concerned is really
exceedingly remote. Men with a maniacal thirst for bloodshed would still appear
occasionally, even if all the slaughter-houses were removed from Whitechapel and all the
tenement-houses placed under responsible landlords: nor could the most perfect system of
"lighting and cleaning" the streets of the district leave such miscreants without a
back-yard near at hand in which to commit a murder. It cannot possibly enlist fresh
efforts on behalf of any cause to set before its well-wishers and object which they must
know to be impossible of attainment. And, adverting for a moment to another question
raised by these crimes, we may add that it does not hopefully stimulate the efforts of
anybody in any undertaking, to make no allowance for its difficulties and to obstruct its
progress by unreasonable and unseasonable interference. We are not concerned to defend
the conduct of the inquiry into these murders by the police; least of all to justify the way
in which they have presented the case to the coroner. But it is fair to remember that the
murders themselves are of a character which make it peculiarly difficult to trace the
perpetrators, and that certain sensational organs of the press have done their utmost from
the outset of the case to render the work of detection as hard as possible.
Pages 16
It must be a very easy task to manage the London police. Everybody seems to
know how it ought to be done. Unfortunately, the methods proposed by two different
reformers are generally contradictory. Here is one of them writing to the Times that
every policeman ought to be kept to his own beat; he would be so much more useful if he
were allowed to get a thorough knowledge of his district and its inhabitants. Another
amateur will tell you that the only plan is to keep the policemen in constant circulation.
Let a man be kept in any particular district and he becomes dangerous accomplice of the
thieves, bullies, and other persons who ply their vocations in his neighbourhood.
Page 31
THE SPITALFIELDS MURDER.
The adjourned inquest on the body of Annie Chapman was resumed on
Wednesday. The most important evidence given was that of Dr. Bagster Phillips, who
stated the further results of the examination. There were three scratches below the lower
jaw and bruises on the face. He thought the face was bruised at the same time that the
incision in the throat was made.
The rest of the surgical evidence, however, is mainly unfit for publication, beyond
the fact that several vital portions of the body were missing. The doctor added that the
weapon used must have been at least from five to six inches long, and probably longer. It
must also have been very sharp, and the mode in which the abdominal wall was removed
indicated a certain amount of anatomical skill. There were also other indications that the
murderer had made certain calculations consequent upon the possession of anatomical
knowledge.
The coroner: How long would all the injuries take to inflict?
The witness: I could not have performed all the injuries, even without a struggle
being made, under a quarter of an hour. If I had done it in a deliberate way, such as
would fall to the duty of a surgeon, it would probably have taken me the best part of an
hour.
The inquest was then adjourned until next Wednesday. Nearly £300 has been
subscribed towards the reward fund.
