TELEGRAM AND LETTER FROM JACK THE RIPPER
The Press Association says the following postal telegram was received by the Metropolitan Police at 11.55 last night. It was handed it at an office in the Eastern District at 8 p.m.:-
"Charles Warren, Head of the Police News, Central Office.
Dear Boss, - If you are willing to catch me, I am now in City road lodging, but 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 at the Commercial street police station by the first post this morning. It was addressed to the "Commercial street police station," in black lead pencil, and the contents were also written in pencil and couched in ridiculous language. The police believe the letter to be the work of a lunatic. It was signed "Jack the Ripper," and said he was going to work in Whitechapel last night. He added that he was going to commit another murder in the Goswell road tonight, and spoke of having "several bottles of blood underground in Epping Forest." He frequently referred to "Jack the Ripper under the ground."
Detective Inspector Abberline has been informed of the correspondence, and the police of the G Division have been communicated with.
We are requested to state that Sir Charles Warren has been making inquiries as to the practicability of employing trained bloodhounds for use in special cases in the streets of London; and having ascertained that dogs can be procured that have been accustomed to work in a town, he is making immediate arrangements for their use in London.
The police authorities of Whitehall have had reproduced in facsimile and published on the walls of London the letter and postcard sent to the Central News Agency. The language of the card and letter is of a brutal character, and is full of Americanisms. The handwriting, which is clear and plain, and disguised in part, is that of a person accustomed to write a round hand like that employed by clerks in offices. The exact colour of the ink and the smears of blood are reproduced in the placard, and information is asked in identification of the handwriting. The postcard bears a tolerably clear imprint of a bloody thumb or finger mark.
At the Birmingham Police Court today, a man giving the name of Alfred Napier Blanchard, canvasser, from London was charged on his own confession with being the Whitechapel murderer. The prisoner was arrested on the strength of a statement he had been making in a public house, giving a circumstantial account of his proceedings. He now denied any connection with the murders and explained his "confession" by pleading mental excitement, caused by reading about the affair. He was remanded for inquiries.
THE DISCOVERY AT GUILDFORD
A telegram from Guildford last night says:- "Some sensation was caused in Guildford by the report that remains which were discovered on the 24th of August, in a brown paper parcel, lying on the railway bear Guildford station were supposed to be part of the trunk of a woman found in the vault of the new police headquarters at Whitehall. 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 limbs at the time, and certified 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 today and had the remains disinterred. He conveyed them in the evening to London."
