The Star
Largest Circulation of Any Evening Paper in the Kingdom.
LONDON. WEDNESDAY, 5 SEPTEMBER, 1888.
ONE HALFPENNY
Front Page
WHAT WE THINK.
SIR CHARLES WARREN, says the gossips, is going to take the hint pressed on him from every quarter, and will resign. The news is almost too good to be true, but it comes from the headquarters of the police force, where Sir Charles has nearly as many enemies as there are officials. If one more illustration were wanted as to the necessity of getting rid of a perfectly stubble and unteachable martinet, it would be afforded by the case of Mr. Frederick Morgan, who was brutally assaulted by two policemen in Rotherhithe a few days ago. One of these men - who was the worse for drink - beat him about the head with his truncheon, for the simple offence of answering the officer's clumsy chaff. The other policeman - and this is the worst part of the case - no sooner saw his comrade's mistake than he joined in the assault, and knocked Mr. Morgan down. The charge of assault preferred against him was dismissed, the two policemen were censured by the magistrate, and Mr. Morgan, who told his very sad story in our hearing with great clearness and force, is seeking redress against his assailants.
NOW comes the moral of the story. The grosser offender of the two policemen has been degraded from the first to the third class for twelve months, which means a loss of 6s. a week. His comrade has been degraded from the second to the third class for nine months - a very proper punishment for a gross offence. But the degradations were inflicted in Sir Charles Warren's absence, and presumably without his knowledge. Sir Charles is on the Continent, and it seems that a wiser head and a more discriminating hand are meantime at work in Scotland-yard. Sir Charles is only hard on the men who break his own soldier's code of laws. It is only when the public is the victim that the martinet becomes the unbending stickler for the rights of the force.
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THE WARREN-MONRO FEUD.
Matthews and the Chief - "A Gentleman of Large Indian Experience" for the London Police!
Friction between the Home Secretary and Sir Charles Warren commenced about the time of the Trafalgar-square disturbances, says the Central News, the immediate cause being that Mr. Matthews showed favor to the Receiver of the Metropolitan District, against whom the Chief Commissioner had brought charges of disregarding police regulations and giving orders to superintendents without consulting his official superiors. Sir Charles Warren protested against the course pursued by the Secretary of State, and finally
THREATENED TO RESIGN,
a threat which was repeated later on. It became necessary at length to bring the matter under the notice of the Cabinet, and Mr. W. H. Smith and Mr. Goschen were deputed by their colleagues to bring about a settlement of the points in dispute. Early in May, Mr. Smith, Mr. Goschen, Mr. Matthews, and Sir Charles Warren met in Downing-street, and as the result of a conference which lasted nearly all the afternoon, the Chief Commissioner was adjudged to have made out his case.
THE DISPUTES
between Sir Charles Warren and Mr. Monro arose out of representations made by the latter respecting the numerical weakness of the staff of the Criminal Investigation Departments, coupled with a request for the appointment of an assistant chief constable and a few additional subordinate officers. Sir Charles Warren was not at first inclined to accede to Mr. Monro's request, but ultimately, taking into account the fact that Chief Constable Williamson was at the moment absent through illness, he agreed to the appointment of
AN ASSISTANT CHIEF CONSTABLE.
A gentleman of large Indian experience was recommended for the post, with the
acquiescence of the Chief Commissioner, and the recommendation was formally made to the Secretary of State. But before the appointment had been actually made Sir Charles Warren withdrew his recommendation, on the ground that circumstances had come to his knowledge which made it undesirable that the gentleman in question should be appointed. The appointment was never made, and the question of creating the new post remains in abeyance. This did not improve the relations between Sir Charles Warren and Mr. Monro.
MATTERS REACHED A CRISIS
early in July, when the Chief Commissioner and Mr. Monro went to the Home Office and had a long interview with the Secretary of State, at which it was decided that Mr. Monro should immediately take leave of absence, with a view to his subsequent resignation. Nothing of an authoritative character has yet transpired as to the intentions of the Government in regard to Sir Charles Warren, and the officials at the Home Office and at Scotland-yard have been warned against giving information to the Press. Sir Charles Warren, who has been taking a very quiet holiday in the South of France, returns to Scotland-yard within the next few days.
A GERMAN EMIGRANT.
Wanted for the Murder of his Friend - He Comes to Liverpool.
The police of Liverpool are on the track of a man charged with murder in America. Some years ago two young Germans, named Albert Ebersen and Louis Wagner, of fairly good family, left the Fatherland and emigrated to America. They had been friends from their early youth, and resolved that their companionship should continue in the land of their adoption. After knocking about the States for some time they at last settled in Milwaukie, Wisconsin. After a time they commenced business there as carmen. Both prospered. Ebersen was fond of society, lived freely, and did not seem to have saved the money he earned. Wagner was a man of frugal habits, husbanded his means, and became comparatively wealthy. Ebersen knew that his friend had several thousand dollars in the bank, and that he kept a considerable quantity of loose cash and jewellery at his lodgings. One day about a month ago Ebersen intimated to his friend that he would pay him a visit at his lodgings, and spend the evening with him. Accordingly he proceeded to the rooms occupied by Wagner, which were situated at the top of a large building. For some days nothing was seen or heard of the two Germans. The door of Wagner's room was forced open, and Wagner was found lying on the floor murdered. Ebersen had disappeared. He carried off all the jewellery and money he could find; got the murdered man's bank-book, obtained over 1,000 dollars, and sailed with his plunder for Liverpool in the Cunard steamer Gallia. It has been ascertained that he stayed in that city and Bootle, but afterwards left for the Continent.
Who Murdered This Child?
The inquest on Minnie Ferriday, the child whose foot was cut off at Birmingham on Saturday, was opened yesterday. The evidence of the mother showed that the child was insured in a Liverpool Friendly Society for 50s., and payment had been regularly kept. The child's right boot was found on the mantelpiece, and it was impossible for the girl, Alice Forrester, charged with the crime, to place it there without standing on something. The inquest was adjourned till Monday.
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FIFTH EDITION.
"LEATHER APRON."
THE ONLY NAME LINKED WITH THE WHITECHAPEL MURDERS.
A NOISELESS MIDNIGHT TERROR.
The Strange Character who Prowls About Whitechapel After Midnight - Universal Fear Among the Women - Slippered Feet and a Sharp Leather-knife.
The mystery attending the horrible murders in Whitechapel shows no sign of lessening. The detectives at work on the case, who were quick to confess themselves baffled, only continue to make the same confession, and there is every prospect that the last ghastly tragedy will go unpunished like its predecessors. Whitechapel is loud in its indignation over the inefficiency of the detectives, and is asking several questions to which there does not seem to be any satisfactory answer. Among other things the people wish to know why the police do not arrest "Leather Apron."
"Leather Apron" by himself is quite an unpleasant character. If, as many of the people suspect, he is the real author of the three murders which, in everybody's judgement, were done by the same person, he is a more ghoulish and devilish brute than can be found in all the pages of shocking fiction. He has ranged Whitechapel for a long time. He exercises over the unfortunates who ply their trade after twelve o'clock at night, a sway that is
BASED ON UNIVERSAL TERROR.
He has kicked, injured, bruised, and terrified a hundred of them who are ready to testify to the outrages. He has made a certain threat, his favorite threat, to any number of them, and each of the three dead bodies represents that threat carried out. He carries a razor-like knife, and two weeks ago drew it on a woman called "Widow Annie" as she was crossing the square near London Hospital, threatening at the same time, with his ugly grin and his malignant eyes, to "rip her up." He is a character so much like the invention of a story writer that the accounts of him given by all the street-walkers of the Whitechapel district seem like romances. The remarkable thing is, however, that they all agree in every particular.
Ever since the last murder the name "Leather Apron" has been falling repeatedly on the ears of the reporters. On the afternoon of the day following the murder a group of women in Eagle-place, near the mortuary, were busily discussing something to the detriment of their household duties. The subject was "Leather Apron," and the report had spread that
"LEATHER APRON" HAD BEEN ARRESTED
for the murder. Ever since then women have been shaking their heads and saying that "Leather Apron" did it. The strangest thing about the whole case is that in view of public opinion in Whitechapel, the man has not been arrested on suspicion, and his whereabouts on the night of the murder inquired into.
About 50 of the unfortunates in the Whitechapel district gave a description of "Leather Apron" to a Star reporter between midnight and three o'clock this morning. The descriptions all agreed, and most of them added to it a personal experience with the man during the last two years in which they were more or less injured. From all accounts he is five feet four or five inches in height and wears a dark, close-fitting cap. He is thickset, and has an unusually thick neck. His hair is black, and closely clipped, his age being about 38 or 40. He has a small, black moustache. The distinguishing feature of his costume is a leather apron, which he always wears, and from which
HE GETS HIS NICKNAME.
His expression is sinister, and seems to be full of terror for the women who describe it. His eyes are small and glittering. His lips are usually parted in a grin which is not only not reassuring, but excessively repellant. He is a slipper maker by trade, but does not work. His business is blackmailing women late at night. A number of men in Whitechapel follow this interesting profession. He has never cut anybody so far as known, but always carries a leather knife, presumably as sharp as leather knives are wont to be. This knife a number of the women have seen. His name nobody knows, but all are united in the belief that he is a Jew or of Jewish parentage, his face being of a marked Hebrew type. But the most singular characteristic of the man, and one which tends to identify him closely with last Friday night's work, is the universal statement that in moving about
HE NEVER MAKES ANY NOISE.
What he wears on his feet the women do not know, but they all agree that he moves noiselessly. His uncanny peculiarity to them is that they never see him or know of his presence until he is close by them. When two of the Philpott-street women directed the Star reporter to Commercial-street, opposite the Princess Alice Tavern, as the most likely place to find him, she added that it would be necessary to look into all the shadows, as if he was there he would surely be out of sight. This locality, it may be remarked, is but a few steps from the model dwellinghouse in George's-Yard, where the murdered woman of four weeks ago was found.
The noiselessness of 'Leather Apron's' movements recalls the statement of Mrs. Colwell, of Brady-street. She said that about the time the murder was said to have been committed she heard a woman running up the street shrieking "Murder; Police." "She was running away from somebody," said Mrs. Colwell, "who, from the way she screamed, was hurting her as she ran. And it struck me as very strange that I did
NOT HEAR THE SOUND OF ANY FOOTSTEPS
whatever except hers. This took place where the bloodstains were found, and where the woman evidently received her death cuts. Taken together with the absolutely noiseless way in which she was carried up Brady-street; so noiselessly that three people wide awake and only a few feet distant heard no sound, this looks as though "Leather-Apron" was worth interviewing, to say the least.
"Leather-Apron" never by any chance attacks a man. He runs away on the slightest appearance of rescue. One woman whom he assailed some time ago boldly prosecuted him for it, and he was sent up for seven days. He has no settled place of residence, but has slept oftenest in a fourpenny lodging-house of the lowest kind in a disreputable lane leading from Brick-lane. The people at this lodging-house denied that he had been there, and appeared disposed to shield him.
"LEATHER-APRON'S" PAL, "MICKELDY JOE,"
was in the house at the time, and his presence doubtless had something to do with the unwillingness to give information. "Leather-Apron" was last at this house some weeks ago, though this account may be untrue. He ranges all over London, and rarely assails the same woman twice. He has lately been seen in Leather-lane, which is in the Holborn district. There is no question, considering his general character and the certainty that the murders were done by some unsettled character of this kind but that he should be taken into custody and investigated.
There is one point in connection with the murder which has not yet been brought out. This is the certainty that the abdominal mutilation was done not only after death, but after the woman was laid down at the gateway in Buck's-row. She was so horribly cut that anybody who viewed the body will admit that she could not have stood erect with her clothes on, and remained as she was when found. Furthermore,
THE TWO LARGE DROPS OF BLOOD,
clear and undeniable, which were visible on the Buck's-row pavement, 25 and 35 feet above the place where the body lay, were made by fresh thick blood, and were probably caused by something in the hands of the murderer as he walked away. Added to this is the slight abdominal hemorrhage, such as would be the case if the cutting were done after death.
IN THE POLICE-COURTS TO-DAY.
Penal Servitude for a Pair of Boots.
Ellen Jenkins, who was found guilty at the Middlesex Sessions of stealing a pair of boots, was proved to have spent the greater part of her life in prison. There were on record 10 or 11 previous convictions against her, and she has served terms of seven and ten years' penal servitude. She was now sentenced to five years. On hearing the sentence, the prisoner became very violent and shouted, "Oh, my poor child, my child, what will become of her."
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NEWS OF ALL SORTS.
Opium v. Alcohol.
The Colonial Surgeon of Hongkong, in the course of his report for the past year, refers to the subject of opium smoking, and says the experience obtained in the Hongkong gaol is that the habit of opium smoking is far less deleterious than spirit drinking. Old confirmed opium smokers were found to have preserved a good appetite and healthy digestion, and it was further found that the suffering attendant on the deprivation of opium, which is not allowed to any one in the prison, was not more than in the case of a tobacco smoker deprived of his pipe. There were no evidences of suffering from the deprivation, though opium in any form is carefully excluded, and though they are subject to exactly the same diet as all other prisoners they remain of the average weight. "Opium smoking, held forth as the Chinaman's greatest vice, is certainly not to be compared in its evil effects with the European vice of spirit drinking, a habit to which the Chinese, as a nation, are not given."
