William Holt
Holt was a doctor at St Georges hospital, who also thought of himself as a bit of a detective, he donned various disguises and went patrolling the East End hoping to capture Jack the Ripper. On 11 November, two days after the murder of Mary Kelly, when fear of the Ripper was at an all time high, Holt, dressed in one of his disguises, stepped out of the shadows wearing spectacles and with his face blackened with burnt cork. His strange appearance frightened a woman called Humphreys in George Yard, almost at the exact spot where Martha Tabram had been murdered. When she asked him what he wanted he simply laughed and ran away, her screams of, 'Murder', drew a crowd, who quickly encircled Holt. He was rescued just in time by the police as sticks were brandished and cries of, 'Lynch him', could be heard coming from the angry crowd. He was arrested, but was released the following day after he was able to satisfactorily prove his innocence. Described by the press as about 35 years of age, 5ft 7"tall, with a dark complexion and dark moustache, he wore no waistcoat but had an ordinary jersey beneath his coat, in his pocket he had a double peaked light check cap and was bareheaded. In press reports his spectacles were described as, 'White painted rings around his eyes', and thus was referred to as the white eyed man.
