THE LONDON HORRORS

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 212, 23 October 1888, Page 2

THE LONDON HORRORS

THE LATE BRUTAL MURDERS. FULL AND REVOLTING DETAILS. GHASTLY SPECTACLES. NO CLUE TO THE ASSASSINS. fFaoM Pall Mall Budget.] 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 great a sensation in its vicinity as its predeceaaor. 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 Nichols, has so many points of similarity will* the murder of two other women in the same neighbourhood—one Maitha 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 were of the class called “ unfortunates,” each so very poor that robbery could have formed no motive for tha 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 three murders were committed within a distance of three hundred yards from each other. These facts hava led the polioe to, almost abandon the idea oi a Rang abroad to wreak vengeance on women of class for not supplying them with money. THE DISCOVERY OF THE MUTILATED BODY. The facts of the latest of the three mysteries are that as Constable John Neil was walking down Bick’s-ifw, Thomas Street, Whitechapel, about a quarter to four on Friday morning, he discovered a woman lying at the side of the street with her throat cut right open from ear to ear, the instrument with which ihe deed was done tracing the throat from left to right. As the corpse lisa in the mortuiry it presents a gh-iatty sight. The victim seems to be between thirty-five and forty years of age, and measures five feet two inches in height. The hair is dark —features small. The bands are bruised, and bear evL dense of having been engaged in a severs struggle Thera is the impression of a ring having been Wurn on one of deceased’s fingers, but there is nothing to show that it had been wrenched from her in a struggle. Some of the front teeth have also been knocked out, and the face ia bruised on both cheeka and very much discolored. D ’.cea-ed wore a rough brown ulster with buttons in front, a brown drens, and a petticoat which bears ths name of Lambeth workhouse.

WHAT THE DOCTOR SAID. Dr Llewellyn has made a statement, in which he says he was called to Buck’a-row about five minutes to four on Friday morn* ing by Police-conatable Thane, who said a woman had been murdered. He found deceased lying on the ground in front of tbs stable.yard door. She was lying on her back, with her legs out straight, as though she had been laid down. Police-constable Neil told him that the body had not been touched. The throat was cut from ear to ear, and the woman wag quite dead. The extremities of the body were quite warm, showing that death had not long ensued. There was a very small pool of blood on the pathway, which had trickled from the wound in the throat, not more than half a pint at the outside. This fact, and the way in which the deceased was lying, made him think at the time that it was at le tat probable that the murder was committed elsewhere, and the body conveyed to Buok’s-row. At haif-past five he was summoned to the m by the police, aud was astonished to find (ha o(her wounds, He had seen many hot; ‘jl| cases, but never such a brutal affair as this, There is a gash under the left ear reaching nearly to the centre of the throat, and another cut apparently starting from the right ear. The neck is severed back to the vertebra, which ia also slightly injured. The abdominal wounds are extraordinary for their length, and the severity with which they have been inflicted. One cut extends from the base of the abdomen to the breast bone. Deceased’s clothes were loose and tbe wounds could haft been inflicted while she was dressed.

THE SCENE Of THE MORDER. Buck’s-row where the body was found, ia a narrow running out of Thomas, street, and contains a dozen houses of a very low class. It would appear as if the murdex had been committed in a house, and the body afterwards removed to the place where it waq found, the nature of abdominal wounds being such that it womd be hardly possible for them to be inflicted whilst the deceased was dressed. When the Polioe-constab’e Neil discovered the body he roused th« people living in tne house immediately opposite where the body was found, but none of them had heard any sounds of struggle. A general belief prevails that the spot where the body was found was not the scene of the murder, and this belief is supported by the fact that what appeared to be blood stains have been traced at irregular distances on the footpath in Brady-stfeej which adjoins Buck s-row. Several persons living in Biady-street state that early in the morning they heard screams, but this is by no means an uncommon jncjdent in the neighborfiood ; and with one exception nobody seems to have paid any attention to what wag "*robab|y the death struggle of an unfortunate MtiSpUO'l WM ft Mrs Cofajll., who live. ; n ly a Bhorv ttOHl ‘ h . e L°.°» of Buck’s-row. Sha .ay. sha was awake..., .

in the morning by a woman screaming * Murder 1 police 1 ’ five or six times. The voice faded away as though tbe womsn was going in the direction of Buck’s-row, and was quiet. She only heard the steps of one person. Inspector Helstone has however since stated that the report that the blood-stainl were found leading from Brady-street to Buck’s-row wa« not- true. The place was examined by Sergeant Enright ami himself on Friday morning, and neither blood-stains nor wheel-marks found to indicate that the. body had been deposited where found, tbe murder being committed elsewhere. Both himself and Inspector Abberline, indeed, had ooms to the conclusion that it was committed on the spot, That conclusion was fortified by the post-mortem examination made by Dr Llewellyn. At first the small quantity of blood found on tbe ep >t suggested that the woman was found i'., a neighboring house, Dr Llewellyn, however, is understood to have satisfied himself that ihe great quantity of blood which must have followed the gashes in the abdomen flowed into the abdominal oavity, but he maintains hi. opinion that the tint wounds were those in the throat, aud they would have effectually prevented any screaming. It is, morever, considered unlikely that the woman could have entered a house, have been murdered, and |have been removed to Buok’s-row within a period of an hour and a quarter.

IDENTIFICATION OF THE DECEASED BY HER HUSBAND. The murdered woman was indentifled iu course of tbe day as Mary Anu, or Polly Nicholls, by several of the women with whom i the deceased lived in a coininou lodge house at 18 Traw-.treet bpitalfields. 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 u ual terms with such houses—nightly payment of 4d each, each woman having a separate bed. Tbe deceased had lodged ia the house only fur about three weeks. The busband visited the mortuary on Saturday aud on viewing the corpse, idedtided it as that i.f his wife, from whom he had been separated eight years. He stated that she was nearly forty four years of ags, Tbe husband, who was greatly affected, exclaimed on reeoguifting tne body, “ I forgive you, as you, for what you have been to me. " WHEN SHE WAS LAST SEEN ALIVE. Nothing more was known of her but that when she presented herself for her lodging on Thursday night she Was turned away by because she had not the money, diuuk, and turu ß <f’W.l or drink, b>t not “ I'll soon g, t my “ do “ling, • jolly bonnet I’ve got n w " SnJw ” WU ” •ng a bunuet which .he had „ Sl . le ’“ B ’“«■ with before and left th f 1 * d , not been seen A woiftu » Xtbou-t"! ± ,e h du ° r ’ tata M hftif past iw.%

in’Whitechapel Road, opposite the church, and at the corner of Osborne street. Mary Ann Monk, an inmate of Lambeth workhouse. was taken to the mrtuary. and identified the body as that of ‘ Holly ’ Nicholl*. She knew her, she said, as they were innnes Of the Limbeth Workhouse together iu April and May, the deceased having been passed there to another workhouse. On May 12, according to Monk, Nicholls left the workhouse to take a situation as servant at Ing eside, Wandsworth common. It afterwards became known that Nicho ls betrayed her trust as domestic servant by stealing £3 from her employer and absconding. From that time she has been wandering about Monk met her she said about six weeks ago, when herself out of the workhouse, and drank w.th her.

A FRESH OUTRAGE AND A POSSIBLE CLUB. The evidence at tne inquest did not throw any light on the mystery But annth. r des perate assault, which stopped only just short of murder, was committed upon a woman in Whitechapel on Saturday night. The victim was leaving the Foresters' Music hall, Cambridge Heath-road, where she had ’ been spending the evening with a sea captain, When she was accosted by a well dressed man, who r*quested her to walk a short distance with him, as he wanted t > meet a friend. They had reached a point near the scene of the murder of the woman Nicholls, when the man violently seiaed her by the throat and dragged her down a court. He was imme diately joined by a gang of women and bullies, who stripped the unfortunate woman of necklace, earrings, and brooch. Her x purse Was also taken, and she was brutally Upon her attempting to shout aid, one of the gang laid a large knife across h-r throat, remarking. ‘ We will serve you as we did the others.’ She was, however, eventually released. The police hive been informed, and are prosecuting Inquiries Into the matter, it being regarded as a probable clue to tbe previous tragedies. THS STOBT OF ** MACBETH ” RETOLD. Upto the present time.however, no definite clue has been obtained ; and meanwhile the terror in tbe neighborhood is, as might be expected, very great. *At every street corner,’ says a correspondent of the Daily News, ‘ goseirs eluate ed round anybody who cou d give the fullest particulars of the inquest. and the end of Ruck’* r> w, the spot On which the body h-kd b*ea found, is the scene of eager debate us to the probabilities Of discovering ihr criminal. Groups <*f hardfeatured, sorrowful looking women clustered together and Went over what they supposed to - be the blood «’ *iued pav ng-stones, and told Strange stories of the difficulties credibly reporte d to be always experienced in obliterating the marks of human gore. One thia fued. blue-eyed little • Id man, who no doubt at sotne point in bls threescore years and ten bad cn the stage seen Lady Macbeth trying to wash her hands «»t the 1 fe blood of King Duncan and still retained some vague outlines of the story, recounted wh*t he could remember as an actual historical fact. The narrative, distorted almost out of recognition, was listened to with the keenest interest, and was Unhesitatingly accepted in corroboration of the general belief as to the ineradicable nature Of blood stains?

• SHUDDERING DREAD ’ IM THE NEIGHBORHOOD. • People in the neighborhood seem very much divided in opinion,’ continues the same correspondent, *as to the probability of its being the work of one person or sever >l. The women f r the most part appear to incline to the belief that it is a g%ng that has done this and the other murders, and the shuddering dread of being abroad in the streets after nightfall, expressed by the more nervous of them, is pitiable. ‘Thwk God I I needn’t be out after dark, * ejaculated one woman. ‘ No more needn’t I,’ said another ; * but my two girls have got to come home latish, and I’m all of a fidget till they cozne? Very rarely his anything occurred even in this quarter of London that has created so profound a sensation, and seldom have the

people in this part been so appalled by a tense of insecurity. There seems r o be a prevalent confidence that the police are doing all iu their power to discover the criminal, but there is at least an equal general conviction that until this mysterious assassin is taken the neighborhood should have a strong contingent of police for i’s protection. ‘ Life ain’t no great things with many of us? said one little woman, whose sprightly manner and rosy cherub face rather belied her pea aimi*tn, 1 hut we don’t all want to be murdered, and if things go on liua this it won’t b« safe for nobody to put their ’eada out o’ doors. ’ ”

WHO IS ‘ LEATHER APRON V (From Lloyd’s Weekly.) The po’ice are state 1 to be actively prosecuting their investigations into the circum stances attending the mysterious murder of the woman Mary Anne Nicholls, but so far no arrest has been effectel. Whitechapel is loud in its indignation over this seem ng inactivity. Amongst other things the people wi«h tn know why the police do not arrest ‘Leather Apron.’ When the latest horror was first discovered on Friday la’t the hapless females who haunt the Eist-end freely denounced a particular i» dividual they style ‘ Leather Apron? • Leather Apron’ bv himself is, it appears, quite an unp’easunt character. He has ranged Whitechapel for a long time. He exercises over the unfortunates who pl v ’ heir trade after 12 o’clock at night a sway that is based on uni ersal terror. He has k : cked; injured, and terrified, a hundred • f them who Bke ready to testify to the outrages. He has wßade a certain th -eat, too literally horribly Carried out in the ease of the woman Niph«dls. He carries a rozor like knife, and twn weeks ago drew it nut on a woman called • Widow A r nie ’ a« she was crossing the g.-’i'T? HW Txjndon hospital, thre itening at the same time, with an u?ly gri» and his m dignant eyes, tn do her harm. He is a character much like the inyen rion of a story writer that the accounts of him given bv all ’he street walkers of the Whi’echspel district seem 'ike romances, Th p rmvhbb thing is. however »ha» thev all agree. From all accounts be five fnur or fivo inches in height, an* wars a dark close-fitting rap.

He is thick tel, and has an unnanally thick seek. His hair is Wack and closely clipped, bis age being about 38 or 40. He has a small Wack moustache. The distinguishing feature of hi« costume is a leather apron, which he rlwavs wears, and from which he gets his nickname. His expression is sinister, and seem« tn be full of terror for the women who describe K Hiaeye# ar? small and glittering. His lips are usually parted in a grin which is net only not reassuring, hut excessively repellent. He is a si inner maker by trade, but does not work. He has never cut body so far as known, but carries a knife, presumably as sharp as leather knives are wont to be. This knife a number of the Women have seen. His name nobody knows, but all are united jn the belief that he is a Jew, or of Jewish parentage, hi" face being of a marked Hebrew type. But the most singular characteristic of tbe man, and one which tends to identify pim closely with the Friday night’s work, is tbe universal statement that in moving about he never makes any noise—he moves noiselessly. His uncanny peculiarity to them is that they never see him or know of his presence until he is close by them. STRANGE STOBT ABOUT THE POLICE.

A party signing himself “Eye-witness” writes :—I live nnt many minutes* walk from the murder, and I thought pmbab’y an inci* dent which I witnessed on Bunday between Half past four and a quarter past five p.m. would throw a little light on it. Coming from school at tbe time above stated, I was just about to turn into Albert S:reet, by Cohen’s sugar refinery, when a woman rushed aorors tbe street and screamed out, “ There goes * Leather Apron,’ the Whitechapel murderer,” to the poligeman standing at the Oorner of the turning. “ Run after him?-she shouted ; ** now you have a chance of catching him. you won’t try. There he goes,” pointing to a low, villainous looking man. The constable then mustered up courage to run after the man. who s**>m*d to be in a burry. After about 400 yards* run be caught the man, whereupon two other constables put in their appearance, and enquired what the matter was. The woman, who vgiiix policeman up to th* at onoe began to accuse him of being tbe man the police were looking for—“ Leather Apron.” This she repeated about 20 times without receiving a sing’s denial from the man. She said she knew the o>an well by sight. This the man denied by saying be had never seen tbe woman before, but later on he ssU io ene of the other HUttbM tMt Ui« WOffiW YU Miutii/

annoying him like this ; she should be careful what sha was saying. She thereupon said she knew two women, and could bring them, who saw him pacing up and down Baker’* Row with the murdered women about two hours before the murder took place. She further accused him of cruelly illusing two unfortunates in a common lodging house in the City road one night last week; and, further, she said that among the unfortunates of Whitechapel he was well known as a cruel wretch. These accusations the man simply met with a sneer, and said she did not know what she was talking about. But she stuck to her point. But, sir, to crown it all, the policemen then let the man go.

FROM AMERICAN SOURCES. In American papers th* following appears under da‘e London September 8:— The horribly mutilated body of a woman was found early this morning in the yard attached to a lodging-house in Spitalfield. The throat was out from ear to ear, the body wag ripped open, the bowels and heart were lying on the ground, and a portion of the entrails were tied round the neck. This is the fourth murder of a similar character that has been committed recently in this neighborhood. All tke victims were women of the lowest character. The author of the atrocities remains undiscovered, and the excitement in the immediate neighborhood borders upon panic. In the special correspondence cabled from London to New York on the same day by the Tribune’s London correspondent, Mr Smalley, appears the following;—

The panic in the past of London from thp PX’ster.ce at large of a maniac whn slave fipfencp'pas women on th* afreet, has been intensified bv another fiendish crime, still committed within a radios of shout a quarter of a mile. Th* fourth victim was found thi° morning in the street through which la«t wppk’a victim was earripd nn h*r way tn burial. In each ca"« the woman’s heart and liver had been wrung from her and ’brown over her h*ad. There is nn longer anv doub’ that a madman perpetrates the devilish de*ds. Ev«*rvthing points to an identity nf operations The deeds done, however, the murderer slink" «wav as ♦houo’h h« had the power of invisibility. The difficulty of tracing him arises from the probability that h* had nn previous rotations with the woman whom nnssib’v he kills bi bring, tn his maniacal frenzy, enemies of the humam race.