"JACK THE RIPPER" HOAXERS.
_____________
AN ARREST IN GLASGOW.
Some time ago the Glasgow police received the following letter through
the post, enclosed in an unstamped envelope:--"Dear ol Boss,--I am
known as 'Jack the Ripper,' and I am going to pay Glasgow a trip.
I hear there are fine women in Saltmarket, Glasgow, so I am going
to pay you a visit.--Yours truly, JACK THE RIPPER."
The letter, which was written in red ink, was placed in the hands of Sub
Inspector Carmichael, with the result that the writer, a boy belonging
to a respectable family in Glasgow, was discovered. The lad was examined
privately before Superintendent Orr at the Central, but owing to his youth,
and his evidence frightened condition, it was resolved not to proceed further
against him. He was therefore reprimanded and set at liberty. The boy stated
he "wrote the letter for a lark," but did not intend posting
it. He lost it, and it must have been picked up and posted by some other
person.
On Saturday morning the Bradford (Yorkshire) police arrested a young
woman, 22 years of age, named Maria Corroner, on a charge of having written
letters signed "J. Ripper" to the chief constable and to the
editor of the "Bradford Daily Telegraph," and thereby endangering
the public peace. The letters were posted about a week ago, and since that
time the police have been engaged in diligent search for the writer. After
having "shadowed" various people they eventually obtained a clue
in teh shape of a short of notepaper similar to those which had been used
for the letters, and which were of an exceptional kind. The girl's boxes
were searched in her absence, and copies and partial drafts of the two
letters were found there together, with one of the singular visiting cards
which James Berry, the public hangman, has had printed, and a batch of
newspapers containing reports of the Whitechapel murders. The girl has
an excellent character, and has worked as a mantle hand in Bradford for
the last two years. She appears to be of perfectly sound mind, and of more
than average education, and says that she merely wrote the letters for
a joke.
The credulity of the public, intensified for the time being by the sensational reports of Whitechapel horrors, is being played upon by a clumsy imitator who succeeded on Saturday in getting publication for a grossly ridiculous effusion signed "One of the Ripper Gang." The author fo this very indifferent copy of the style of the original "Jack the Ripper" warns all decent girls not to venture out after ten p.m., and accompanies his threat, which is written on a scrap of paper sent to one of the local evening papers, by a rude drawing of a big knife. In regard to the alarming assault on a young woman named Watt in the Footdee district last week, latest particulars do not add to the seriousness of the case. The girl, who remained in a hysterical condition for a considerable period after being assailted, is now quite well again. No clue has been obtained as to the man's identity or whereabouts, although the residents in th elane where the girl lives have it that during Friday night a man in woman's dress, whom they assert to be the assailant himself, entered the girl's house, and had some conversation with her mother, who was not, however--so goes the story in the locality--aware as to the sex or identity of her visitor.
