THE LONDON MURDERS.

Evening Star, Issue 7749, 22 October 1888, Page 4

THE LONDON MURDERS.

From papers received by the San Francisco mail we extract the following additional particulars : The ‘ Pall Mall Gazette ’ says: Scarcely has the horror and sensation caused by the discovery of the murdered woman in Whitechapel some short time ago had time to abate when another discovery is made, which, for the brutality exercised on the victim, is even more shocking, and will no doubt create as great a sensation in the vicinity as its predecessor. What adds so much horror to the mystery is that the murder, in the early hours of Friday morning last, of the woman now known as Mary Ann Nicholls, has so many points of similarity with the murder of two other women in the same neighborhood one Martha Turner, as recently as August 7, and the other less than twelve months previously that the police admit their belief that the three crimes are the work of one individual. All three women were of the class called “ unfortunates,” each so very poor that robbery could have formed no motive for the crime, and each was murdered in such a similar fashion that doubt as to the crime being the work of one and the same villain almost vanishes, particularly when it is remembered that all tiiree murders were committed within a distance of three hundred yards from each other. These facts have led the police to almost abandon the idea of a gang being abroad to wreak vengeance on women of this class for not supplying them with money. IDENTIFICATION OF THE DECEASED BY HER HUSBAND.

The murdered woman was identified in the course of the day as Mary Ann, or Polly Nicholls, by several of the women with whom the deceased lived in a common lodging-house at 18 Trawl street, Spitalfields. Women from that place were fetched, and they identified the deceased as “ Polly,” who had shared a room with three other women in the place on the usual terms of such houses—nightly payment of 4d each, each woman having a separate bed. The deceased had lodged in the house only for about three weeks. The husband visited the mortuary on Saturday, and, on viewing the corpse, identified it as that of his wife, from whom he had been separated eight years. He stated that she was nearly fortyfour years of age. The husband, who was greatly affected, exclaimed, on recognising the body: “ I forgive you, as you are, for what you have been to me.”

THE FOURTH MURDER. The following is taken from a New York paper, and gives the details of the fourth crime, telegraphed over the Atlantic by a correspondent on the spot: —“London, September B.—Not even during the riots and fog of February, 1886, have I seen London so thoroughly excited as it is tonight. The Whitechapel fiend murdered his fourth victim this morning and still continues undetected, unseen, and unknown. There is a panic in Whitechapel which will instantly extend to other districts should he change his locality, as the four murders are in everybody’s mouth. The papers are full of them, and nothing else is talked of. The latest murder is exactly like its predecessor. The victim was a woman street-walker of the lowest class. She had no money, having been refused lodgings shortly before because she lacked Bd. Her throat was cut so completely that everything but the spine was severed, and the body was ripped up, all the viscera being scattered about. The murder in all its details was inhuman to the last degree, and, like the others, could have been the work only of a bloodthirsty beast in human shape. It was committed in the most daring manner possible. The victim was found in the back yard of a house in Haubury street at six o’clock. At 5.15 the yard was empty. To get there the murderer must have led her through a passageway in the house full of sleeping people, and murdered her within a few yards of several people sleeping by open windows. To get away, covered with blood as he must have been, he had to go back through the passage-way and into a street filled with early market people, Spitalfields being close by. Nevertheless, not a sound was heard, and no trace of the murderer exists. All day long Whitechapel has been wild with excitement. The four murders have been committed within a gunshot of each other, but the detectives have no clue. Such a series of murders has not been known in London for a hundred years. There is a bare possibility that it may turn out to be something like a case of Jekyll and Hyde, as Joseph Taylor, a perfectly reliable man, who saw the suspected person this morning in a shabby dress, s wears that he has seen the same man coming out of a lodging-house in Wilton street very differently dressed. However that may be, the murders are certainly the most ghastly and mysterious known to English police history. What adds to the weird effect they exert on the London mind is the fact that they occur while everybody is talking about Mansfield’s ‘ Jekjll and Hyde ’ at the Lyceum.”