Birmingham Daily Gazette, U.K.
9 October 1888
THE "CONFESSION" IN BIRMINGHAM.
At the Birmingham Public Office yesterday morning, before Mr. T. M. Colmore (Stipendiary), Alfred Napier Blanchard (34), canvasser, who has been lodging at 2, Rowland Grove, Rowland Road, Handsworth, was again placed in the dock charged on his own confession with the Whitechapel murders.-Detective-sergeant Ashby said that the Chief Constable had instructed him to ask for the prisoner's discharge. Inquiries had been made, and the police were quite convinced that there was no truth in the statement of the accused.-Mr. Farndale said he had received a telegram that morning from the City police which stated that the prisoner had been in the neighbourhood of Manchester for two months prior to his visit to Birmingham, and that he was much addicted to drink and very excitable. There was not the slightest reason to believe his assertion of Friday.-
Mr. Colmore (to prisoner): What a foolish man you have been. You are discharged.
