American Jack the Ripper.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVII, Issue 156, 4 July 1896, Page 3 (Supplement)

American Jack the Ripper.

Cakl Fetgenbaum, who was exesuted in the electric chair at Sing Sing last week, is reported to have lefb a remarkable confesßion with his lawyer. The account of the lawyer reads :—• I have a statement to make which may bhrow some liglib on the murder for which ,the man was executed. Now thab Feigenbaum is dead and ndfching moro can be done for him in this.world, I wanb to say a« hia counsel that I am absolutely sure of his guilb in bhis case, and I feel morally certain thab he is the man who committed many, if nob all, of the Whiteehapol murders. ' Here are nay reason*, and on fchia statement I pledge my honour :—When Feigenbaum was in the Tombs awaiting trial! saw him several times. The evidence in his case seemed so clear thab I casb about for a theory of insanity. Certain actions denoted a decided mental weakness aomowhere. When I asked him point blank, *pid you kill Mrs Hoffmann ?' he raade this reply: 'I hnve for years suffered from a singular disease which induces an all-absorbing passion ; this passion manifests itself in a desire to , kill and mutilate the womaD who falls in my way, Ab such times I am unable to control myself.' On my next vfsib to tho Tombs I asked him whether ho had nob been in London ab various times during the whole period oovered by the Whifeeehapal murdera. "Yea, I was,' he answered, I asked him whether ho oould neS some of these oases on the theery whi&h, hfl had snggeßted to me, and he ajrapl? looked at me in reply. The abatement;, w^feh is a long one, proves eenelnsively (hat| Peigsnbaum was mere er ]esa insane, but the ewl: dence of Ms Identity with &§ notorious Whiteehapol erlraiaalis net Batisf«otfl£.v.