The Mysterious Murders.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 266, 10 November 1888, Page 2

The Mysterious Murders.

PANIC IN LONDON,

London was startled again on September 50fch, almost to panic, by the discovery of two more mysterious murders at Whitechapel, the crimes having bean perpetrated between 11 and 12 o'clock the previous night, and doubtless by the same hand. The body of t.he first woman discovered had the head nearly severed ; there were i>,o other mutilations. Tho body of th<j second, when found, was mutilated in the same terrible manner as thrtt of Minnie Chapman. It was disembowelled, the throat cut, the nose severed, and the heart and lungs thrown aside. The incisions showed rough dexterity, the work of dissection having evidently been clone with the utmost haste. The iirst M'omun had nodoubb been seized by the throat and her cries choked ; the murderer, by.isweeping cuf, opened the throat from ear to e;ir. She vras identilied as Elizabeth Lotride, lately living1 at :i common lodging-house in Spitalfields, and who picked up a scanty; Jiving by charring". She was found Shortly after midnight, lying under a dark gateway in Berners-sfcrcet. Just over this aiteway a Socialist Club was holding iv concert, Ringing and carousing while the murderer was at work; but so swiftly die! he accomplish it that not a cry jras heard from the victim. One clubman, on entering' the court, scumbled over tho body, which was iyin<; two yaids from the street, a stream of warm blood flowing from tho gashed throat into the gutter. The murderer had evidently been disturbed" before lie bad time to mutilate his victim. The second murder, and more atrocious one, was committed three hours later at Mitre Square, within live minutes' -walk of thescenu of the first crime. Policemen patrolled the square every ten minutes.

The murder of the woman at Gatesbead

on September 24th was the ordinary outcome of a drunken brawl, and possessed none or tins features of the mysterious

Whitechapcl tragedies. On the morning of October 2nd,the badlydecomposed corpse of a woman, with the head and arm? severed from the body, was found in a vault on tho site of the projected opera house on the Thames Embankment, near tlie Houses of Parliament, and within sight of Scotland Yard. Tiie body was wrapped up and tied with cords that cue the skin. The place is one of the busiest parts of London. A few days before the rijjht arm of a woman was found by some boys in tho

Thames, near Waterloo Bridge. Ifc evidently belonged to a young woman ; was plump, shapely and graceful, and had-been rudely hacked from the shoulder. Last week another arm corresponding to it was found in a yard behind the Asylum at Southwark, half-a-milo from Waterloo Bridge. 1b is now admitted by tho police that "the second firm found matched the first one. Should the arm* Ifolong to the body, they will serve as n <:lue. They seemed in a much better state of preservation than tho body.

In connection with thfiso dark and terrible crimes, it may be mentioned that tlio coroner, summing up at the inquest held September 26th, on the body of a previous Whitechopel vieti'm, stated to tlvj jury that shortly aftnr the details of their la?t sitting had been published, the sub-curabor of an^ English pathological museum informea him that some months ; D<?o an American visited him and asked "that he procure for-him-a number of anatomical specimens. Th/j visitor Paid he would willingly pay £20.each for the specimens, his object being Vo issue an actual specimen V/iUi .each copy of. a book upon which .'he was thw.i engaged. The sub'cnrator J.nformed tbe applicant thai; compliance rVith such a'request was impossible. The .American urged the feaaibiluv oi'it. Thiy. request btf'mgtnacta at a sccoiid institution of the same kind, the sub-curator proiuptly infnvm ad the authorities of Scotland Yard of the,'fact.

There have. Ween various i arrests on suspicion, but there is no ho no I hat any of ihose 'detained, will be wanted. Huth the Lord Mayor and the manager of the "Financial iNews" have ('offered £300 reward for the apprehension' of the muvdem1, and a fnfld fov the same pi npose was raised by members of the Stock Exchange. There is "0 c^uo- aiK* HcofcUmd. Yard is at its wits' end. Drs. F/o'rbes and Window, Sir Risdbn Bennett, a n(ii other medical experts are convinced, that the perpetrator of the crime?, is a homicidal lunatic. CJeo. M. 1 Joclge, a sailor, came forward on October. 4t/ii, and described a Malay cook, calleid Alaska, whom he knew as having received !?500 for two years' wages (About August 13th, and winch was stolem from him by a Whitechapel street-walker. Dodge heard the Malay threaten that unless ho recovered the money he would murder and rautiliat^ every; Whi.techapel woman he met. He is described as sft 7in in height,, weight j 130. witlh straight black hair" and biack eyes, biaclc moustache and fine features. Age. 35. Chief Warren, of the. Metropolitan Police,; has deoipef1/ to om/ploy blood hounds to scent the murderers. The police^ hare seized and, occupied several houses in the \Yluteohn,pol ecction, At the, inquest, October Bth, on the trunk of a wjian found in a collar at Whitechapel, the surgeon who examined the remains testified that! deceased hud probably oc?«p/ed v, good iso/iial position, j Sp icial from Lqndon, October Oth, said j an .'/trresi- wJitoH 'the police thought^ itru portanfc ]ia4 been unade the jiigM previous, Qv> Wednesday a iitrang*i' called at-a shop

in the Gray's Inn Road with ah overcoat to be cleaned. The garment was stained with bloody especially the pockets, which were dyed red. The shopman notified Scotland Yard. Detectives were secreted on the premise.l?, aiid wneri the man. called for the coat they arrested him. He refused to give an account of himself or explain the stains, and was held prisoner. A searching investigation was entered on.

Sir Charles Warren, Chief Inspector of the Metropolitan Police, replying to the criticisms of the press, declare; that London is the safest city in the world. He says his detectives are straining every nerve to discover the perpetrator of these murders, and calls attention to the fact that the victims voluntarily place themselves in such a position as to be unable bo resist the murderer or obtain assistance. The " Evening News " of October 3rd printed in red ink a fax simile of a letter and postal card received a few days before ftt the office of the Central News Company purporting to have been written by the murderer, in which he gloats over his crimes, and threatens to commit others in defiance of the police, of whose eflicicony he expresses a very poor opinion. The police are inclined to the belief that the letter and card are genuine. Two person?, both Americans, were arrested as suspects on the 'evening of October 3rd, but afterwards discharged.

The police have adopted the theory that the postal card and letter before mentioned and signed "Jack, tho Ripper," sent to the Central News Agency, September 27th, emanated from tho actual murderer. Fat simile.* of the letter a?id card are posted in every police station, and upon every dead wall, accompanied by a paragraph begging any person recognising the writing to communicate with the hoad of the police. A second communication was received at tho Agency on the evening of October sth from "Jack, the Rapper," announcing his intention to commit more murders on the night of tho 6th, and up^on the strength of this every policeman was ordered on duty, assisted by hundreds of amateur detectives A roign of terror prevailed in Wuitechapel, and daylight on the 7i!i was hailed with joy.

George Luato, tho builder, who is the head of a Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, received by the parcel post on Tuesday, October 16th, a box containing; a meaty substance, and with it a note reading as follow* : "1 send you half of the kidney .1 took from ono of the women. 1 preserved it for you ; t'other piece I fried and ate. It was very nice. 1 may scud on the bloody knife that took it out, if yon only wait a while loncror." The box was taken to the London Hospital, and Dr. Openshaw said the contents certainly cam© from n full-jrrown woman. The ghastly package is now at Scotland Yard. Jt is supposed that tho matter was cut from the Mitre-street victim. 'uc hand-writinjj of the r.01.e is not »t all like that of ".Jack tho Kipper's" letters.