William Bull
William Bull was born in 1861, and was 27 years of age at the time of the Whitechapel murders, he lived at 6 Stannard Road, Dalton. Bull walked into Bishopgate police station on 5th October 1888 and confessed to the murder of Catherine Eddowes, and told the police he was a medical student at the London hospital. He said, 'I wish to give myself up for the murder in Aldgate on Saturday night last, or Sunday morning. About two o'clock, I think, I met the women in Aldgate, I went with her up a narrow street. I promised to give her half a crown, which I did, while walking along together there was a second man, who came up and took the half crown from her'. Bull then began to cry and said, 'My poor head, I cannot endure this any longer, I shall go mad, I have done it, and I must put up with it'. When asked what he had done with the clothing he was wearing on the night of the murder he replied, 'If you wish to know, they are in the Lea, and the knife I threw away', he declined to say anything more. Police made enquiries at the hospital, but could not find anyone of that name working there, in fact, Bull was found to be without employment and had made the confession while drunk. He later withdrew his statement saying that he could not do such an act. Inspector Izzard made inquiries into the man's background and found he came from a highly respectable family and bore an irreproachable character, though had recently given way to drink. After speaking to the man's father, it was proved he was actually in bed when the murder occurred. Bull said he had signed the pledge.
