Times (London)
Thursday, 25 October 1888
THE QUEEN AND THE EAST-END
MURDERS.
During the three days of the week following the Sunday on which the two murders were committed the following petition to the Queen was freely circulated among the women of the labouring classes of East London through some of the religious agencies and educational centres: -
"To our Most Gracious Sovereign Lady Queen Victoria."
"Madam, - We, the women of East London, feel horror at the dreadful sins that have been lately committed in our midst, and grief because of the shame that has fallen on our neighbourhood.
"By the facts which have come out in the inquests, we have learnt much of the lives of those of our sisters who have lost a firm hold on goodness and who are living sad and degraded lives.
"While each woman of us will do all she can to make men feel with horror the sins of impurity which cause such wicked lives to be led, we would also beg that your Majesty will call on your servants in authority and bid them put the law which already exists in motion to close bad houses within whose walls such wickedness is done and men and women ruined in body and soul.
"We are, Madam, your loyal and humble servants."
The petition, which received between 4,000 and 5,000 signatures, was presented in due form and the following reply has been received: -
"Whitehall.
"Madam, - I am directed by the Secretary of State to inform you that he has had the honour to lay before the Queen the petition of women inhabitants of Whitechapel praying that steps may be taken with a view to suppress the moral disorders in that neighbourhood, and that Her Majesty has been graciously pleased to receive the same.
"I am to add that the Secretary of State looks with hope to the influence for good that the petitioners can exercise, each in her own neighbourhood, and he is in communication with the Commissioners of Police with a view to taking such action as may be desirable in order to assist the efforts of the petitioners and to mitigate the evils of which they complain.
"I am, Madam, your obedient servant,
"GODFREY LUSHINGTON.
"Mrs. Barnett, St Jude's Vicarage, Commercial-street, E".
THE RITTER TRIAL.
On October 16 we published a summary of two letters on the Ritter trial,
one from Dr. Josef S. Bloch, member of the Austrian Parliament, and the
other, also from Vienna, from a “Lawyer of 20 Years Standing.” Dr. Bloch
denied, and our other correspondent affirmed the existence among the
low-class Jews of Galicia of a superstition such as would account for the
mutilation of the body of the woman for whose murder the Ritters were
tried, and, it has been suggested, for the mutilations in the case of the
Whitechapel murders. Dr. Adolf Stein, of Vienna, who acted as counsel for
Ritter and his wife, now writes strongly corroborating Dr. Bloch’s view of
the case, and adding that, though the superstitions of thieves were
mentioned at the trial, it was never asserted that the superstition was
Jewish. Dr. Gotthelf Carl Mayor also writes from Vienna to the same
effect, and states that the superstition in question was never proved at
the trial as existing among the low-class Jews of Galicia, and that the
Ritters were finally acquitted by the Supreme Tribunal on the merits of
the case, and not because the only witness against them had died in
prison. (We cannot allow this subject to be discussed any further in our
columns.)
