Sunday Times (London, U.K.)
Sunday, 23 December 1888

THE WHITECHAPEL MURDERS A CONFESSION - At Dalston Police-court, yesterday, Theophil Hanhart, 24, lately a French and German master at a school near Bath, was charged with being a person of unsound mind, and with confessing to be the Whitechapel murderer. The prisoner, who, it was said, exactly corresponded in description with the man "wanted" for the Whitechapel murders, was seen on Friday afternoon on the bank of the Regent's Canal at Haggerston. He told a constable that he was the cause of the Whitechapel murders, and he was very uneasy in his mind about it. He was seen by a medical man, who had certified that he was suffering from mental derangement, and not fit to be at large. The Rev. W. Mathias said the prisoner had been in his care since Sept. 16, and from that date he had never been out of his sight. A few days ago, finding that he was suffering from delusions he, on medical advice, brought the man to London, but on Thurday afternoon he missed him in the Strand. The prisoner was the son of a German pastor, and the matter had been reported to the German Consul in London. Inspector Reid, from Whitechapel, said he was satisfied that the prisoner could not have committed the murders, but Mr. Bros, being satisfied that the prisoner was not fit to be at large, sent him in a cab to the Shoreditch Infirmary.