Introduction
Victims
Suspects
Witnesses
Ripper Letters
Police Officials
Official Documents
Press Reports
Victorian London
Message Boards
Ripper Media
Authors
Dissertations
Timelines
Games & Diversions
Photo Archive
Ripper Wiki
Casebook Examiner
Ripper Podcast
About the Casebook


Most Recent Posts:
General Suspect Discussion: Rating The Suspects. - by Herlock Sholmes 35 minutes ago.
General Suspect Discussion: Rating The Suspects. - by John Wheat 50 minutes ago.
General Suspect Discussion: Rating The Suspects. - by Lewis C 1 hour ago.
General Suspect Discussion: Police agency knowledge - by John Wheat 1 hour ago.
General Suspect Discussion: Sir William Gull - by Lewis C 1 hour ago.
General Suspect Discussion: What was Kosminski is now Lechmere: how relevant is Scobie? - by Geddy2112 3 hours ago.
General Suspect Discussion: Rating The Suspects. - by Herlock Sholmes 3 hours ago.
Frances Coles: Coles - by Herlock Sholmes 3 hours ago.

Most Popular Threads:
General Suspect Discussion: Police agency knowledge - (15 posts)
General Suspect Discussion: Rating The Suspects. - (10 posts)
General Suspect Discussion: Sir William Gull - (7 posts)
Witnesses: Packer Again - (5 posts)
General Suspect Discussion: Favoured Suspect... - (3 posts)
Other Mysteries: Torso Murders - (2 posts)


The Star
Largest Circulation of Any Evening Paper in the Kingdom.
LONDON. WEDNESDAY, 3 OCTOBER, 1888

ONE HALFPENNY.
Front Page

WHAT WE THINK.

MR. FORBES has written a letter to the Daily News upon the motive of the Whitechapel murders, in which, after dismissing many other theories, he leans to the opinion that the murders are the work of a medical student who has suffered from women of the class from which the victims are taken, and who, insane from anguish of body and distress of mind, is punishing that class for the wrong he has received from an individual. It is a plausible explanation, and one that has commended itself to many minds, but possibly, when the truth comes to be known, as it is certain to be sooner or later - for the slayer will go on slaying until he is caught - it will be found to be wide of the mark. The truth is seldom hit upon in murder cases.

WITH much that Mr. Montagu Williams said yesterday about common lodging houses we entirely agree. They are undoubtedly "the haunt of the burglar, the home of the pick-pocket, and the hotbed of vice." But we cannot agree with Mr. Williams that they ought to be put down. What is wanted is better supervision. These cheap lodging houses are necessary to the very poor, and cannot be done away with. But the system of inspection is imperfect. Mr. Williams speaks of fresh legislation, but it is not fresh legislation that is wanted so much as the will to use existing powers. The fault is rather with apathetic and interested local authorities than with Parliament.




MAINLY ABOUT PEOPLE.

Sir James Risdon Bennett, F.R.S., who has done his best to upset the "mysterious American" theory with regard to the East-end horrors, has just become an octogenarian. He was born at Romsey, in Hampshire, and took his M.D. at Edinburgh the year after the first Reform Act. Sir J. R. Bennett's strong point is diseases of the chest, and he is still consulting physician at Victoria-park Hospital for Diseases of the Chest. He is also honorary physician and governor at St. Thomas's Hospital.

He took a very prominent part in connection with the International Medical Congress held in London in 1881, and in that year received his knighthood. One of his published essays won for him the Fothergill gold medal, and he has devoted a good deal of attention to the terrible malady that carried off Frederick the Good.


Page 2

At the unemployed meeting in Hyde-park yesterday a huge placard was exhibited bearing the words:- "The Whitechapel Murders. Where are the Police? Looking after the Unemployed."




IN WHITEHALL NOW.
THE PIMLICO MYSTERY DEEPENED BY ANOTHER DISCOVERY.
THE WEST-END SHOCKED TO-DAY.
The Murderer Selects the New Police Offices on the Embankment to Deposit the Trunk of His Victim - How the Mutilation was Effected - The Difficulties He Overcame.

As announced in a second extra special of The Star last night, the accumulation of horrors in London has not yet ceased. The locale of the latest ghastliness is in Westminster, within a couple of hundred yards of both Scotland-yard and the Houses of Parliament. The horrible "find" was made yesterday afternoon in the new police buildings between Parliament-street and the Embankment. Shortly after one o'clock several workmen, on opening a bundle which they found hidden in one of the darkest archways of the vaulted foundations of the structure referred to,

LAID BARE THE REMAINS OF A WOMAN.

The corpse was a mere trunk, both head and limbs having been severed in an apparently brutal and unskilful manner. Evidently the trunk was that of a young and healthy woman. The arm found on 11 Sept. in the Thames, near Grosvenor Railway Bridge, and probably that found in Lambeth a few days ago, were cut from the mutilated trunk. Chief Superintendent Dunlap and Chief Inspector Wren viewed the remains, and took steps to collect all the evidence bearing on the case.

A superficial examination of the trunk indicates conclusively that the dismemberment was effected by means of a saw; at any rate, in the case of the head and legs. It is by no means so certain yet that

THE ARMS WERE SAWN FROM THE BODY,

and this point is of importance in connection with the bearing the discovery has on the Pimlico mystery. Dr. Neville, after examining the arm recently found in Grosvenor-road, was decidedly of opinion that it had been cut from the body rather than sawn. However, the head has undoubtedly been sawn off in this case, and the same instrument was apparently used in taking off the legs. The body was sawn through just above the abdomen. The difficulty and danger which the murderer must have encountered on bearing the body to its hiding-place, increase the mystery. It is on the site of what was intended for the National Opera House that the new central police buildings are being erected. Their exact location is between Parliament-street and the Embankment, or immediately eastward of the Clock Tower and St. Stephen's Club. The place is surrounded by a high hoarding. The ground structure consists of a vast labyrinth of brick passages, archways, and vaulted chambers. As was pointed out by the foreman of the works, there are really

BUT TWO POSSIBLE MODES OF INGRESS

to the archway where the body was found, either over the high hoarding from the Embankment side, or from a little alley-way called Cannon-row, almost opposite the Home Office in Parliament-street. The difficulties of access to the ground are so great from the side facing the Embankment to a person loaded with so heavy a bundle are regarded as almost insuperable. But one avenue of approach therefore practically existed, and that was from the obscure corner at the north end of Cannon-row over a seven-foot hoarding. The man must then have conveyed his burden almost 50 yards, through a network of partly underground passages, to a remote corner of the building.

The place in which the trunk was found was such an out-of-the-way kind that one is led to the conclusion that it was deposited there by some party acquainted with the building. No night-watchman is kept at the place, and anyone once within the hoarding after working hours could move about at leisure free from observation. That it was

PLACED THERE QUITE RECENTLY

seems to be beyond question. The workmen, while making measurements on Friday, passed right over the spot, and are confident the body was not there then. They go so far as to say that it could not have been there when they left at twenty minutes to five o'clock on Saturday. Yet it was there on Monday, for it was seen by the carpenter, Frederick Wildbore, who imagined the object to be nothing but an old coat. The obvious inference is that the parcel was left either on Saturday night or during Sunday. The corpse is that of a mature, well-formed, and perhaps an unmarried woman, not over 40 years of age, and who was probably alive about 20 days ago. The man in whose breast the explanation of the mystery lies concealed

CANNOT LIVE VERY FAR OFF

the scene, it is thought, for several reasons. In the first place, the trunk being that of a broad, well-developed person, it would be a very heavy and clumsy parcel to carry for any distance, and in the second place it seems doubtful whether it was sufficiently concealed to have been carried far without incurring great risk. The skirt in which it was wrapped appeared to have been brought up as far as it would go, but the breasts apparently had never been covered by the skirt. It could never have been carried far through the streets in that partially covered manner, and the theory is advanced that it was brought in a sack and shot out into the place in which it was found. It was impossible to hold an inquest upon the arm found in Grosvenor-road. The law requires that a "vital part" can only form the subject of a coroner's inquiry. This will now take place at once. One of the breasts (the left) of the body appeared either to have been surgically operated upon at some period of the woman's lifetime, or else the process of decomposition at that part of the body became abnormally active. It is intended by the police to

PHOTOGRAPH THE REMAINS.

The present discovery recalls the somewhat similar dismemberment of the remains of the woman Harriet Lane, killed by the Wainwright brothers. A few years ago also there was the case of Kate Webster, who at Richmond murdered her mistress, and cut the body up piecemeal, and tried to dispose of it in small portions.

The arm recently found in Pimlico has been preserved in the usual way, and will be compared with the trunk.

Detective Inspector Marshall is this morning superintending the search which is being made over the premises in the event of other members having been hidden thereabouts.

The police and medical men were early astir this morning to continue their investigations. Dr. Bond and Dr. Hebbert, the divisional police surgeon and his assistant, arrived at seven o'clock at the mortuary in Millbank-street, where the trunk now lies. They were engaged for an hour and a half on the post mortem examination, and at the conclusion immediately reported the result of their researches to the police. Meanwhile the police themselves were equally busy thoroughly searching the premises.

The night waterman at the Red Lion public-house in Cannon-row explained to a Star reporter how it was possible for a man to get into the new police buildings at night. He applied to the clerk of the works for the post of night-watchman, and was told that one would not be appointed, but he is about the neighborhood every night until after twelve. He has, he says, frequently seen men going into the buildings at night to sleep - he supposes in the vaults. A large iron pillar stands at the corner of the kerb-stone in Cannon-row just against the hoarding. It is quite easy for anyone to mount on the top of the pillar, and then to

SCALE THE HOARDING.

He has seen several people enter this way. He has never seen any females go over, but a man once in could easily open a door from the inside and admit a female. It would be difficult, although not impossible, to get a heavy parcel over the hoarding at the place to which the waterman referred.



The Discovery of the Arm.

Dr. Neville's opinions on the arm found at Pimlico, which as divisional police surgeon he then examined, are in the light of this subsequent discovery, worth exhuming. As he told a Star reporter at the time, he inferred that the arm was not that of a woman of refinement, as the nails were not neatly trimmed, as those of a lady would have been. The murdered woman would be of fair complexion, the hair on the arm being light. Judging from the freshness of the skin and the tension of the muscles and sinews, the arm was considered to be that of

A YOUNG WOMAN UNDER 30 YEARS.

Dr. Neville's opinion was that the person must have been dead only an hour, or two at the outside, when the limb was severed from the trunk, as the muscles were contracted, and the ccontraction and retraction also of the muscles would indicate that death had occurred not long before, rigor mortis not having set in. The proportions of the limb indicated to the doctor that the woman was about 5ft. 8in. in height, stout, well-built, well-proportioned and well nourished, with which description, it is important to note, this body just found tallies as far as can be ascertained. When the doctor examined the arm he believed it had not been removed from the body beyond two days before, which would give the date of the dismemberment as about 9 Sept.

(For further details see page 3.)

WHITECHAPEL.
THE MITRE-SQUARE VICTIM IS NOW FULLY IDENTIFIED.
THE SIMPLE STORY OF HER "MATE."

Though Warned by Him of the Dangers of the Streets - She Fell a Victim to the Wiles and Fury of the Monster - The Presence of the Pawntickets and the Tattoo Marks Explained.

Both of the latest victims of the master-murderer have now been identified. The recognition of the body of the Berner-street victim by Mary Malcolm, of 50, Eagle-street, Red Lion-square, Holborn, as her sister, Elizabeth Watts, does not contradict the identification by "One-armed Liz" and other frequenters of the Flower and Dean-street lodging-house. Mrs. Malcolm had lost sight of her sister for a long time, and it transpires that it was she who was known in the lodging-house district by the name of Stride and familiarly called "Long Liz." The body that was found in Mitre-square has been positively identified as that of

A WOMAN NAMED KELLY,

who, strangely enough, lived in a lodging-house in the same street as the one frequented by her fellow victim. There can be no possible doubt of the identity. The body was identified at a late hour last night by a man who has been living with her for seven years, and all the mystery connected with the pawn-tickets and with the India-ink marks on her arm are cleared up. The man's name is John Kelly, and

THE STORY HE TELLS

is one of very great interest, throwing no light on the probable authorship of the crime, but illustrating in a very pathetic manner the mode of life in those low lodging-houses. A Star reporter had a long conversation with Kelly this morning at the lodging-house, No. 55, Flower and Dean-street. He is about 40 years of age, and, to all appearance, is a poor hard-working man. He told his story in a manner that carried with it an unmistakable stamp of genuineness. At times he almost broke down with emotion, for, as he expressed it, "I have lived with that girl a long while, and we never quarrelled." We will give his story as nearly as possible in his own words:-

"It is nigh on to seven years since I met Kate, and it was in this very lodging-house I first set eyes on her. We got throwed together a good bit, and the result was that we made a regular bargain. We have lived here ever since, as the people here will tell you, and have never left here except when we've gone to the country together hopping. I don't pretend that she was my wife. She was not. She told me long ago that she had a husband, and told me what his name was. It was

TOM CONWAY.

She said he was a pensioner from the Royal Irish Artillery. She had had several children by him, but I don't know that I ever heard where they were except one daughter, who is married to a gunmaker and lives in King-street, Bermondsey. She told me all about her husband one night, when I spoke about the letters "T. C." being pricked in her arm. It was Conway that did that years and years ago, and it was by them letters partly that I recognised her last night. But she had a falling out with her husband and

THEY PARTED.

She used to tell me she never wanted to see him again, but I remember her saying once or twice that she had met him in the street. The last time she spoke of him was a good while ago. She never said anything about his trying to cause her any trouble, or that she was in any way afraid of him. I don't believe he ever bothered her at all. Well, Kate and me lived on here as best we could. She got a job of charing now an then, and I picked up all the odd jobs I could in the Spitalfields Market. The people here were very kind to us. If Kate ever went with other men I never knew it. She would take a drop to drink, but she was never troublesome. I remember once she was up at the police station, and I suppose the police officers were right who thought they recognised her by that. We went hopping together mostly every year. We went down this year as usual. We didn't get on any too well, and started to hoof it home. We came along in company with another man and woman who had worked in the same fields, but who parted with us to go to Chatham when we turned off towards Maidstone. The woman said to Kate, "I have got

A PAWNTICKET

for a flannel shirt. I wish you'd take it, since you're going up to town. It is only in for 9d., and it may fit your old man. So Kate took it and we trudged along. It was in at Jones's, Church-street, in the name of Emily Burrell. She put the ticket back in our box and we moved on. We did not have money enough to keep us going till we got to town, but we did get there and came straight to this house. Luck was dead against us. On last Saturday morning we were both done up for cash. I had nothing but a pair of boots that would bring anything, and I says to her, "We'll pop the boots and have a bite to eat anyway." "Oh, no," says she, "don't do that;" but I told her I'd pawn the shirt off my back to keep her out of the street, for she had had only a few odd jobs for a goodish spell back But she said she'd go and see what her daughter could do. Howsomever, we popped the boots, and sat in this 'ere kitchen and had what turned out to be

OUR LAST MEAL TOGETHER.

She told me she had made up her mind to go to her daughter's in Bermondsey. I begged her to be back early, for we had been talking about the Whitechapel murders, and I said I did not want to have that knife get at her. "Don't you fear for me," said she, "I'll take care of myself, and I shan't fall into his hands." With that she went out. I went with her to the street corner below, and I never laid eyes on her again till I saw her down at the mortuary last night. I was out in the market all day, but did no good. When she did not come home at night I didn't worry, for I thought her daughter might have asked her to stay over Sunday with her. So on Sunday morning I wandered round in the crowds that had been gathered by the talk about the two fresh murders. I stood and looked at the very spot where my poor old gal had laid with her body all cut to pieces and I never knew it. I never thought of her in connection with it, for I thought she was safe at her daughter's. Yesterday morning I began to be worried a bit, but I did not guess the truth until after I had come back from another bad day in the market. I came in here and asked for Kate, she had not been in. I sat down on that bench by the table and carelessly picked up a Star paper. I read down the page a bit, and

MY EYE CAUGHT THE NAME OF "BURRILL."

It looked familiar, but I didn't think where I had seen it until I came to the word "pawn-ticket." Then it came over me all at once. The tin box, the two pawn-tickets, the one for that flannel shirt, and the other for my boots. But could Kate have lost them? I read a little further. "The woman had the letters 'T. C.,' in India ink, on her arm." Man, you could have knocked me down with a feather. It was my Kate, and no other. I don't know how I braced up to go to the police, but I did. They took me down to see the body, and

I KNEW IT WAS HER.

I knew it before I saw it, and I knew her for all the way she was cut. I told the police all I have told you, and I suppose I will tell it again to the Coroner. I never knew if she went to her daughters at all. I only wish to God she had, for we had lived together a long while and never had a quarrel.

The keeper of the lodging-house fully confirms Kelly's statements as to the recent history of the murdered woman. Kelly himself bears a good character, both at the lodging-house and among the butchers in the market. None of the frequenters of the lodging-houses in the neighborhood seem to have ever seen any man but Jack Kelly in company with the woman, and no one knows of any other relations of the deceased further than the daughter she talked of visiting, except a sister who was said to be the wife of a farthing book seller living in Thrawl-street, Spitalfields. The police will look up this sister, and both she and Kelly will be at the inquest.

The identification of the bodies does not seem to throw any light upon the authorship of the atrocities. The police have found that

NONE OF THOSE ARRESTED YESTERDAY

are connected with the crimes. The arrest that is reported to have been made in Chingford is said to have had the same result. The man with a black shiny bag who was wanted for having been seen in Berner-street under suspicious circumstances just before the murder turns out to be a respectable man who fully explains his conduct. The only new feature in the way of possible clues comes from the discovery of a pair of trousers at the Nelson Tavern, Victoria-road, Kentish Town, on Monday, lying behind the door in an outbuilding. The trousers, however, were picked up and carried away by a tramp. The fragments of paper in which they had been wrapped were collected and found to be stained with blood.

Kelly has gone, in company with Sergeant Outram and other officers, to find the victim's two daughters and her sister.




VICE COWED AND ARMED.

There was nothing unusual about the appearance of the streets in Whitechapel and adjoining districts last night, unless it be in the fact that there were fewer women parading the footways after a late hour.

A woman who was out in the small hours of the morning was asked, "Aren't you afraid to be out at this time?" She replied, "No; the murders are shocking, but we have no place to go, so we're compelled to be out looking for our lodgings." Another woman in reply to a similar question said, "Afraid? No. I'm armed. Look here," and she drew a knife from her pocket. She further declared, "I'm not the only one armed. There's plenty more carry knives now."

The coffee-stall keepers are grumbling that their trade has been much injured by the terror in the district, for although the condition of the thoroughfares is as usual up to "closing time" there is a great diminution in the numbers of their customers after midnight.

(For further details see page 3.)


Page 3

FIFTH EDITION.

THE MITRE-SQUARE VICTIM.
The Police Seek Out Her Relatives - Hints and Hoaxes.

The police are proceeding with the task of securing a complete identification of the woman Kelly. Her sister was found at her home in Thrawl-street, and had no difficulty in identifying the body. She said she had not seen the deceased for a long time, and did not know where she was living. She had no knowledge that she was known by the name of Kelly, and had no idea that it was her sister who had been murdered until the police came after her. It is expected that the daughters will be found during the day.

LETTERS OF ADVICE.

The numbers of letters received by the police offering advice or suggestions as to the best way of catching the murderer is something enormous. They come from all over the world. America sends quite as many as all other countries outside of England, and even Australia has been heard from. Practical jokers of the same school as "Jack the Ripper" try to crack their nuts on the police as well as through the Press, but the detectives have yet to learn that they are in possession of a specimen of the way the genuine expert knife handler can use a pen.




A Confession and a Contradiction.

This morning at the Guildhall William Bull, describing himself as a medical student of the London Hospital, and giving an address at Stannard-road, Dalston, was charged on his own confession with having committed the Aldgate murder. He appeared to have been drinking heavily.

Inspector Izzard said that last night, at twenty minutes to eleven, the prisoner went to Bishopsgate-street Station and made the following statement, which he took down :-

"I WISH TO GIVE MYSELF UP

for the murder in Aldgate. On Saturday night or Sunday morning, about two o'clock, I think, I met the woman in Aldgate. I went with her up a narrow street not far from the main road for an immoral purpose. 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. I cannot endure this any longer. My poor head! (He put his hands to his head and cried, or pretended to cry.) I shall go mad. I have done it and I must put up with it." The inspector asked what had become of the clothing he had on when the murder was committed? The prisoner said, "If you wish to know, they are in the Lea, and

THE KNIFE I THREW AWAY."

At this point the prisoner declined to say any more. He was drunk, and apparently had been drinking heavily. Part of the statement was made in the presence of Major Smith. The prisoner gave a correct address, but is not known at the London Hospital. His parents are very respectable, and the prisoner has been out of employ. The inspector asked for a few days to make enquiries.

The prisoner, in answer to the Alderman, said he was mad drunk when he made the statement. It was impossible for the murder to have been committed by him.

Inspector Izzard said that when searched the prisoner had on him a very small knife, a halfpenny, and a wheel from a watch.

Prisoner was remanded, Alderman Stone refusing to grant bail.

The police, after investigation, are inclined to believe that the murderer avoids common lodging-houses. Detection would be too easy there, and they have searched every common lodging-house in the neighborhood, and made inquiries as to the persons who entered them last Saturday morning after one o'clock.




A Scare at Lowestoft.

In Lowestoft during the past few days a man has been going into different shops and threatening to serve females behind the counter in the same way as the murderers did at Whitechapel. The man has left the town.




A Tory Complaint of Matthews.

The Dublin Express to-day says :- It is unfortunate that the Home Secretaryship should be in the hands of a Minister without sagacity or sympathy, who looks with cold in-indifference on the excitement caused by the murders, and doggedly resists all pressure to offer a reward.



A New Light on It.

"One Who Knows" expects to find in the Times shortly a facsimile letter of Mr. Gladstone's, showing that he is employing the assassin in order to demonstrate, when the full number of murders are completed, that there is more crime committed in the English capital in three months than in all Ireland in three years.




Whitechapel to be Better Lighted.

The Shoreditch Vestry last night resolved to fix improved lamps in Commercial-street. Mr. Barham said if they did their part, he was sure the Whitechapel Board of Works would do theirs in putting Commercial-street in a proper state of lighting, rendered doubly necessary by recent events.

Crane Accident in Cannon-row.

There was an alarming accident this morning at Cannon-row, Westminster, where the woman's trunk was found. A crane, weighing several tons, on a staging 60ft. high collapsed, to the great consternation of the many people and police on the scene. The men on the staging however managed to preserve their positions, and nobody was seriously hurt. The driver of the engine had a marvellous escape. He leapt on the platform from the engine as it fell.




LATEST DESPATCHES.

Found Death at Bethnal Green.

At about half-past ten this morning the twenty or thirty people waiting for trains at Bethnal-green Junction were startled to see a man, evidently of the artisan class, jump off the platform in front of an approaching up train. One of his legs was cut right off by the wheels, and death was instantaneous, two large pools of blood between the lines telling the sad story to the passengers who subsequently arrived at the junction.




OUR POLICE AND DETECTIVE SYSTEM.

In The Star of 18 Sept. we pointed out some of the shortcomings of our existing detective system. We now supplement our remarks with other facts bearing on the detective as well as the police system generally, which are within our knowledge.

The present head of the Criminal Investigation Department is Mr. Anderson, who succeeded Mr. Monro. The actual working chief of the department is Superintendent Williamson, who has had some 40 years experience in the detective force, and is generally allowed to be a very capable officer.

Possibly neither of these officials is responsible for the unsatisfactory system that prevails. The names of those really responsible, if not for its inception, at least for its continuance, are pretty well known; but more responsible than either of these offenders is the perverse Tory Government that persists in retaining them in office while everybody is crying out for their dismissal.

Our police as a body are merely machines, and they know it. As an illustration of this let us take the system of

"FIXED POINTS."

At the principal points of all the great thoroughfares - for instance, at the Elephant and Castle - one or more constables are always stationed ready for emergencies; but they are not allowed to move away any distance under any pretext whatever, even though it might be to follow suspicious characters whom they might observe plotting "a job."

The police are so fenced in by rules and regulations that they seem to be afraid to act on their own responsibility in a grave emergency. If a deadly fight is taking place in a house they will not enter unless they hear cries of "Murder." If a lodger calls a policeman's attention to the fact that murder is being committed he is asked if he is the landlord, and if he says no, then he is told that the policeman has no authority to enter the house unless invited to do so by the landlord or his deputy. It is quite common in low neighborhoods for a woman to come up to a policeman in the dead of the night and ask him to come with her to her lodgings because her husband, or so-called husband, is there, mad drunk, threatening to murder her. The policeman looks at her, mentally studies his code-book, and tells her to go back, and that no doubt it will be all right.

A few words here as to the general system adopted in setting about

THE INVESTIGATION OF A MURDER MYSTERY,

such as the latest Whitechapel one and the others that have preceded it, may not be out of place.

The detectives from Scotland-yard go down to the station in the locality of the crime, and they and the chiefs and detectives of the police whom they have come to assist have a consultation. Each suggests what is the best way to set to work, and finally a theory is adopted and acted upon. People who are supposed to know something bearing on the case are invited to give evidence, and everything they say is taken down - sometimes openly, sometimes by a concealed shorthand writer. If they are suspected of knowing more than they care to disclose, they are treated in a friendly manner, and pleasantly invited to come again. Meanwhile their movements are closely watched.

The services of "noses" - that is to say, people who are hand in glove with persons of indifferent character, are frequently called into play, and they are deputed to go to the low lodging-houses and other places that are the resort of low characters, and keep their eyes and ears open for anything likely to give a clue to the individual or individuals wanted. Women often act as "noses."

In investigating a crime,

DETECTIVES PROCEED VERY QUIETLY -

often too quietly, it might be thought - and frequently through the agency of too credulous reporters lead the really suspected person to believe that the scent lies quite in another quarter, while in reality his every movement is being closely watched. In some instances, the reluctance of witnesses to come forward with evidence is a great stumbling block in the way of success.

The police are generally held responsible for the particular kind of evidence that is brought against a person charged with committing a crime when the case goes for trial, but it seems they are not responsible for the line adopted by the prosecution.

The duties of detectives sometimes cast their lines in pleasant places. At noblemen's balls helmeted policemen keep the doors, but the detective, in dress coat and kid gloves, enters with the company. It is not generally known that even at

BALLS GIVEN BY THE HIGHEST NOBILITY,

by Ambassadors, and the most exclusive of the "Upper Ten," a detective in evening dress, with a bland smile on his face, and his moustache curled in the most aggravating fashion, stalks about and makes a note of divers things.




EAST-END LODGING-HOUSES.
Montagu Williams Denounces Them as the Haunt of the Burglar and the Prostitute.

Mary M'Carthy, a powerful young woman well-known to the police, was charged at Worship-street yesterday with stabbing Ann Neason, deputy of a lodging-house in Spitalfields. Mr. Montagu Williams immediately became interested on hearing this, and asked Neason, How many beds do you make up there? - Witness: Twenty-eight singles and 24 doubles. - Mr. Williams: By "doubles," you mean for a man and a woman. Can the woman take any man she likes? You don't know if the couples are married or not? - Witness: No, sir; we don't ask them. - Mr. Williams: Precisely what I thought. And the sooner these lodging-houses are put down the better. They are the haunt of the burglar, the home of the pick-pocket, and the hotbed of prostitution. I don't think I can put it stronger than that. It is time the owners of these places, who reap large profits from them, were looked after. - It subsequently transpired that the "missus" was a Mrs. Wilmot, a baker, of Brick-lane. - Mr. Williams: Has she any more of these common lodging-houses? - Witness: Yes, sir, two in Wentworth-street, close by where I am in George-yard. - Mr. Williams: And how many beds does she provide there? - The Prisoner: Sixty or seventy, sir. - Mr. Williams: What is the price of a bed? - Witness: Fourpence and eightpence. - Mr. Williams: Eightpence for a double. Was M'Carthy a double or single? - Witness: Double. - Mr. Williams: Is she married? - Witness: No; I don't think so. - Mr. Williams: Then the place is a brothel? - Mr. Enoch Walker, vestry clerk of Shoreditch, said such places could only be touched by one section of the Criminal Law Amendment Act. - Mr. Williams: Then I hope they will not be exempt from future legislation. They are places where, according to the witness, the thief or the criminal can hide all day for the payment of 4d. or 8d. for a bed each night. As a magistrate I have made it my business to go over some of these places, and I say that the sooner they are put down the better. In my humble judgement they are about as unwholesome and unhealthy, as well as dangerous to the community, as can well be. There are places among them where the police dare not enter, and where the criminal hides all day long. I have seen so much that I hope what I have said will do something to call attention to them. - The prisoner was sentenced to a month's hard labor, and left the dock threatening the prosecutrix.


Page 4

THE PEOPLE'S POST BOX.

Blood Money to Whitechapel.

SIR, - Permit me to comment on Mr. Shaw's letter. I trust it will lead your readers to study the accursed nature of landlordism which preys on our vitals and threatens our national extinction.

I demur to one allusion by Mr. Shaw. We have too good a cause to require such dishonest tactics of statescraft as manufacturing outrages for Ireland, and inventing "Parnellism and Crime." The class Press, that he complains of, perceived that the strike of the Bryant and May girls was a sham. They were paid better than chain-makers or agricultural laborers, and 25 per cent. more than other East-end industries. Some had married and brought up their children in the employ. Socialist leaflets were thrust into their hands when they left work, and grievances were concocted. Such questionable tactics estranged our friends and played into the hands of the enemy. Above all things let us be honest. - Yours, &c.

JOHN WHEELWRIGHT.


Related pages:
  Catherine Eddowes
       Home: Timeline - Catherine Eddowes 
       Dissertations: A Piece of Apron, Some Chalk Graffiti and a Lost Hour 
       Dissertations: Anything But Your Prayers: Victims and Witnesses on the N... 
       Dissertations: By Accident or Design? A Critical Analysis of the Murder... 
       Dissertations: Catherine Eddowes: Wolverhampton and Birmingham 
       Dissertations: Double Trouble: Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes 
       Dissertations: Grave-Spitting & Other Tall Tales 
       Dissertations: Hyam Hyams 
       Dissertations: May My End A Warning Be: Catherine Eddowes and Gallows Li... 
       Dissertations: Stephen White, Amos Simpson and Eddowes' Shawl 
       Dissertations: The Funeral of Catherine Eddowes 
       Dissertations: The Marking of Catherine Eddowes 
       Message Boards: Catherine Eddowes 
       Official Documents: Catherine Eddowes's Inquest 
       Official Documents: Mitre Square - Census Listings 
       Press Reports: Alderley and Wilmslow Advertiser - 5 October 1888 
       Press Reports: British Daily Whig - 1 October 1888 
       Press Reports: City Press - 10 October 1888 
       Press Reports: City Press - 13 October 1888 
       Press Reports: City Press - 17 October 1888 
       Press Reports: City Press - 3 October 1888 
       Press Reports: City Press - 6 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Daily News - 1 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Daily News - 12 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Daily News - 2 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Daily News - 4 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Daily News - 5 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Daily News - 6 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Daily Telegraph - 12 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Daily Telegraph - 5 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Daily Telegraph - 9 October 1888 
       Press Reports: East London Advertiser - 13 October 1888 
       Press Reports: East London Advertiser - 6 October 1888 
       Press Reports: East London Observer - 13 October 1888 
       Press Reports: East London Observer - 6 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Eastern Post - 13 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Echo - 1 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Echo - 11 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Echo - 2 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Echo - 3 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Echo - 4 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Echo - 8 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Evening News - 1 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Evening News - 10 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Evening News - 11 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Evening News - 12 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Evening News - 20 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Evening News - 3 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Evening News - 4 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Evening News - 5 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Evening News - 6 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Evening News - 9 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Evening Standard - 1 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Frederick News - 2 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Freemans Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser - 1 Octo... 
       Press Reports: Freemans Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser - 12 Oct... 
       Press Reports: Freemans Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser - 2 Octo... 
       Press Reports: Freemans Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser - 3 Octo... 
       Press Reports: Freemans Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser - 4 Octo... 
       Press Reports: Freemans Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser - 5 Octo... 
       Press Reports: Freemans Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser - 6 Octo... 
       Press Reports: Illustrated Police News - 20 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Illustrated Police News - 6 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Irish Times - 1 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Irish Times - 12 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Irish Times - 2 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Irish Times - 3 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Irish Times - 4 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Irish Times - 5 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Irish Times - 6 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Irish Times - 8 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Lloyds Weekly News - 30 September 1888 
       Press Reports: London Evening News - 1 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Macclesfield Courier and Herald - 6 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Manchester Guardian - 12 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Manitoba Daily Free Press - 1 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Montreal Daily Star - 1 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Montreal Daily Star - 3 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Morning Advertiser - 1 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Morning Advertiser - 11 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Morning Advertiser - 12 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Morning Advertiser - 2 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Morning Advertiser - 4 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Morning Advertiser - 5 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Morning Advertiser - 8 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Morning Advertiser - 9 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Munster News - 6 October 1888 
       Press Reports: New York Times - 1 October 1888 
       Press Reports: North Eastern Daily Gazette - 1 October 1888 
       Press Reports: North Eastern Daily Gazette - 3 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Pall Mall Gazette - 01 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Pall Mall Gazette - 03 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Pall Mall Gazette - 04 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Pall Mall Gazette - 05 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Pall Mall Gazette - 06 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Pall Mall Gazette - 11 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Penny Illustrated Paper - 6 October 1888 
       Press Reports: People - 14 October 1888 
       Press Reports: People - 7 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Philadelphia Times - 3 December 1888 
       Press Reports: Police Gazette - 19 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Police Gazette - 5 October 1888 
       Press Reports: St. James Gazette - 1 October 1888 
       Press Reports: St. James Gazette - 12 October 1888 
       Press Reports: St. James Gazette - 4 October 1888 
       Press Reports: St. James Gazette - 5 October 1888 
       Press Reports: St. James Gazette - 8 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Star - 1 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Star - 11 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Star - 4 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Star - 6 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Times - 11 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Times [London] - 1 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Times [London] - 12 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Times [London] - 16 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Times [London] - 2 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Times [London] - 3 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Times [London] - 5 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Times [London] - 6 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Times [London] - 9 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Trenton Times - 23 May 1892 
       Press Reports: Weekly Herald - 5 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Woodford Times - 12 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Woodford Times - 5 October 1888 
       Ripper Media: Catherine Eddowes: Jack the Ripper Victim 
       Victims: Catherine Eddowes 
       Victims: Catherine Eddowes: Her Last Known Movements and Discovery... 
       Victorian London: Mitre Square 
       Witnesses: Dr. Frederick Gordon Brown 
       Witnesses: Emily Birrell 
       Witnesses: James Blenkingsop 
  George Bernard Shaw
       Press Reports: Blood Money to Whitechapel 
       Press Reports: George Bernard Shaw 
       Press Reports: Star - 24 September 1888 
  Lodging Houses
       Dissertations: An East End Lodging House in the 1880s 
       Official Documents: Parliamentary Debates - November 16 1888 
       Official Documents: Parliamentary Debates - November 22 1888 
       Press Reports: Daily News - 17 November 1888 
       Press Reports: Daily News - 23 November 1888 
       Press Reports: Daily News - 3 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Daily Telegraph - 17 November 1888 
       Press Reports: Daily Telegraph - 21 September 1888 
       Press Reports: Daily Telegraph - 22 September 1888 
       Press Reports: Daily Telegraph - 23 November 1888 
       Press Reports: Daily Telegraph - 24 September 1888 
       Press Reports: Daily Telegraph - 26 September 1888 
       Press Reports: Daily Telegraph - 27 September 1888 
       Press Reports: Daily Telegraph - 6 October 1888 
       Press Reports: East End News - 05 October 1888 
       Press Reports: East End News - 4 January 1889 
       Press Reports: East London Advertiser - 10 November 1888 
       Press Reports: Echo - 5 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Evening News - 23 November 1888 
       Press Reports: Leytonstone Express and Independent - 1 September 1888 
       Press Reports: Morning Advertiser - 14 December 1888 
       Press Reports: Morning Advertiser - 17 November 1888 
       Press Reports: Star - 12 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Star - 20 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Times [London] - 10 June 1914 
       Victorian London: The Worst Street in London 
  Montagu Williams
       Ripper Media: Later Leaves 
       Ripper Media: Round London: Chapter 1 
  Police Criticism
       Press Reports: East and West Ham Gazette - 29 September 1888 
       Press Reports: Echo - 10 September 1888 
       Press Reports: Echo - 15 September 1888 
       Press Reports: Echo - 20 August 1888 
       Press Reports: Echo - 9 August 1888 
       Press Reports: Edwardsville Intelligencer - 31 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Evening News - 2 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Fun - 10 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Fun - 17 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Fun - 21 November 1888 
       Press Reports: Fun - 24 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Fun - 26 September 1888 
       Press Reports: Fun - 3 October 1888 
       Press Reports: New York Herald - 11 November 1888 
       Press Reports: Pall Mall Gazette - 08 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Pall Mall Gazette - 09 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Pall Mall Gazette - 10 September 1888 
       Press Reports: Pall Mall Gazette - 28 August 1888 
       Press Reports: Punch - 13 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Punch - 20 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Punch - 22 September 1888 
       Press Reports: Punch - 27 July 1889 
       Press Reports: Star - 18 September 1888 
       Press Reports: Times [London] - 13 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Times [London] - 18 September 1888 
       Press Reports: Trenton Times - 8 October 1888 
       Ripper Media: Killer Among Us: Public Reactions to Serial Murder 
  Street Lighting
       Press Reports: Daily News - 8 October 1888 
       Press Reports: East End News - 2 November 1888 
       Press Reports: East London Observer - 15 September 1888 
  Whitehall Mystery
       Dissertations: The Thames Torso Murders of 1887-89 
       Message Boards: The Whitehall Mystery 
       Official Documents: Whitehall Mystery Inquest 
       Press Reports: Alderley and Wilmslow Advertiser - 19 October 1888 
       Press Reports: British Daily Whig - 3 October 1888 
       Press Reports: British Daily Whig - 9 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Daily News - 16 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Daily News - 18 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Daily News - 23 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Daily News - 9 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Daily Telegraph - 18 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Daily Telegraph - 19 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Daily Telegraph - 23 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Daily Telegraph - 3 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Daily Telegraph - 4 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Daily Telegraph - 8 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Echo - 10 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Echo - 15 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Echo - 16 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Echo - 17 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Echo - 18 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Echo - 19 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Echo - 20 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Echo - 22 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Echo - 30 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Echo - 6 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Evening News - 17 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Evening News - 18 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Evening News - 19 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Evening News - 30 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Freemans Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser - 9 Octo... 
       Press Reports: Irish Times - 18 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Irish Times - 23 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Irish Times - 9 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Manchester Guardian - 19 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Morning Advertiser - 17 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Morning Advertiser - 18 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Morning Advertiser - 19 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Morning Advertiser - 22 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Morning Advertiser - 23 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Morning Advertiser - 3 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Morning Advertiser - 31 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Morning Advertiser - 6 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Munster News - 17 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Newark Daily Advocate - 9 October 1888 
       Press Reports: People - 28 October 1888 
       Press Reports: People - 4 November 1888 
       Press Reports: St. James Gazette - 3 October 1888 
       Press Reports: St. James Gazette - 6 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Star - 10 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Star - 18 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Star - 30 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Star - 5 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Star - 8 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Star - 9 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Times [London] - 18 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Times [London] - 19 October 1888 
       Press Reports: Times [London] - 23 October 1888 
       Victims: The Whitehall Mystery 
  William Bull
       Press Reports: Munster News - 3 October 1888 
       Ripper Media: Jack the Ripper: A Suspect Guide - William Bull