THE LONDON MURDERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9186, 16 October 1888, Page 5

THE LONDON MURDERS.

A CLUE LOST. fPHESS ASSOCIATION.] London, October 14. A handkerchief, which has been ideniified as the property of one ot' the victims of the recent Whiteohapel murders, has been discovered in an untenanted house in the vicinity. Upon the walls of the room in which the handkerchief was found was some writing, including the words, "the Jews are not to be blamed for this." The detectives intended to have the writing photographed, but the words were obliterated (?) at the instigation of Sir Charles Warren, Commissioner of Police. The_ detectives are very indignant at the interference of Sir Charles, and aver that an important clue to the perpetrator of the murders has thus been lost.

The latest victim at the time the mail left London on September 8 was a woman named Mary Ann Nicholl, who was the third woman who had been murdered. All three women were of the class called " unfortunates," each so very poor that robbery could have been no motive for the crime. There is a widespread idea in the Whitechapel district of London that the perpetrator of the latest murder is a man known as " Leather Apron," and there is general wonder why he has not been arrested by the police. " Leather Apron " by himself is, it appears, quite an unpleasant character. He has ranged Whitechapel for a long time. He exercises over the unfortunates who ply their trade after twelve o'clock at night a sway that is based on universal terror. He has kicked, injured, bruised, and terrified a hundred of them who are ready to testify to the outrages. He has made a certain threat, too literally carried out in the case of the woman Nicholls. He carries a razor-like knife, and two weeks ago drew it on a woman called " Widow Annie," as she was crossing the square near London Hospital, threatening at the same time, with an ugly grin and his malignant eyes, to do her harm. He is a character so much like the invention of a story writer that the accounts of him given by all the street-walkers of Whitechapel district seem like romances. Tho remarkable thing is, however, that they all agree. From all accounts he is five feet four or five inches in height, and wears a dark, close-fitting cap. Ho is thickset, and has an unusually thick neck. His hair is black, and closely clipped, his age being about 38 or 40. He has a small, black moustache. Tho distinguishing feature of his costume is a leather apron, which lie always wears, and from which he gets his nickname. His expression is sinister, and seems to be full of terror for the women who describe it. His eyes are small and glittering. His lips are usually parted in a grin, which is not only not reassuring, but excessively repellent. He is a slipper maker by trade, but does not work. He has never cut anybody so far as known, but carries a knife, presumably as sharp as leather knives are wont to be. This knife a number of women have seen. His name nobody knows, but all are united in the belief that he is a Jew, or of Jewish parentage—his face being of a marked Hebrew type. But the most singular characteristic of the man, and one which tends to identify him closely with the Friday night's work, is the universal statement that in movintr 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 till he is close by them. The St. James's Gazette, commenting on the latest tragedy, says :—We are not surprised to hear that the East-end is in a state of consternation this morning. The shocking murder and mutilation which we report elsewhere makes the third of these atrocious crimes perpetrated within the last few weeks, and the fourth within the last few month?. In each case the victim was a woman ; in each case sho was murdered in the early hours of the morning within a short distance of frequented thoroughfares, in the midst of a densely populated district; in each case the crime was accompanied or followed by circumstances of such monstrous and disgusting barbarity that it is impossible to give all the details. Such is the state of affairs ; and it is plain that if there is not to be a regular panic in the East-end, followed, as panics generally are, by some act of blind savagery, the murderer or murderers must be capuired without delay. Two theories have been suggested to account for these assassinations. Ono is that they are the work of a gang of desperadoes something like (but infinitely worse than) the " High Rip " ruffians of Liverpool. The other is that they have been committed by a maniac, whose madness has taken the form of a thirst for blood and the mutilation of the dead. This suggestion, fanciful as it seemed at jfirst, has gained in plausibility until it is very largely accepted in the district. The crimes have been almost motiveless, so far as can bo ascertained. There was scarcely enough to be gained by killing these poor women to tempb the most hardened desperadoes as long as they were in their senses ; nor is it easy to conceive that any sane beings, however wicked, would run the risks of committing this morning's murder while the hue and cry raised upon that of the 31st of August is so hot. But if we suppose that there is some savage creature to whom the lust of slaughter has become an insatiable instinct, the horrible series of crimes will at least have an explanation— shocking and terrifying as it is.