Eight Year Old Johnny Gill Murdered and His Body Mutilated After the Manner of Whitechapel's Fiend
London, Dec. 31.
A murder equal in atrocity to those committed by the Whitechapel fiend occurred at Bradford, Yorkshire. The victim was Johnnie Gill, an eight year old boy. When the lad failed to return home on Thursday evening his parents became alarmed, and reported his disappearance to the police. The next day his mutilated body was found in an outhouse a mile from the place where he was last seen alive.
The body had been disemboweled in the manner made shockingly familiar by the Whitechapel fiend. The heart had been torn out entirely and hung upon the throat, and both boots had been taken off the lad's feet and thrust into the gaping body. Both arms and legs had been roughly chopped off and tied to the body by means of the suspenders worn by the child. The face and body generally were hacked as if in wanton brutality. There were other mutilations which cannot be described here.
A comfortable theory which the local police profess to entertain is that this fiendish murder was the work of drunken lads whose imaginations had been influenced by the grewsome accounts published of Whitechapel atrocities; but it is incredible that any one but a strong nerved man could have mutilated the poor little corpse in the bestial fashion in which the work was actually done.
The police have received and traced to their origin letters which lead them to believe that Jack the Ripper is living in the vicinity of Drury Lane. They do not accept the theory that the Whitechapel fiend had anything to do with the murder of little John Gill, and seem confident that the clew upon which they are now working will result in the murderer's capture in London.
