THE LONDON ATROCITIES. THE FOURTH MURDER.

Otago Witness, Issue 1927, 26 October 1888, Page 27

THE LONDON ATROCITIES. THE FOURTH MURDER.

J (Pall Mall Gazette, September 8.) f A painful sensation was created all over 1 London to-day when it was known that early . this morning another shocking murder, with even t more horrible details than those which character- : ized others reported recently in the same quarter, j was perpetrated in Spitalfields. Again the victim is a woman, again there has been a fearful mutilation of the body; and this is the fourth tragedy of the kind in the Ernst End within a very short period. The first occurred some months j ago; the others quite recently. The second case was that in which the body of an w unfort unate " was found in a lodging house at George t yard buildings, Whiteohapel, covered with . wounds inflicted with a knife. Then came the , brutal murder and mutilation of a Mrs Nichols, in Buck's row, Whitechapel, in the early morning of Friday last ; and now there is the fourth case, which although as stated in the report . below as perpetrated in Spitalfields, is neverthe1 less within a few hundred yards of Buck's row, . Whitechapel. This neighbourhood is to-day in ' a state of wild excitement, bordering on panic, r for the. other cases are fresh in everybody's : memory, and nobody has been brought to justice ; for any one of the crimes. The victim is again ' a woman of the " unfortunate " class, but the circumstances are so atrocious and revolting as , to render it difficult to state the facts. , The victim was" found in the back yard at No. 29 Hanbury street, Spitalfields (close to the i spot where the other unfortunate women have been found), by a Mr Davis, who lodges in the house. As Mr Davis, who is a market, porter, was going to work at about 6 o'clock, he happended to go into the back yard, which is a piece of ground flagged with stones about 30ft long, and immediately behind the door, in the left hand corner, close to a brick wall, he found the woman lying, horribly mutilated, in a pool of blood. Her head was facing the door, the throat was cut and the body ripped. A large knife stained with blood and a leathern apron, it was at first reported, were discovered near the body, but this is not so. There was, it is true, an apron, but that belonged to a young man who lives in the house, and uses it in his work. There were blood stains on the wall, and there is bo doubt that the murder was committed where the deceased was found, although no one — and there were four families in the house at the time — heard the least sound. The house is occupied by a Mrs Emelia Richardson, who lets it out to various lodgers, and it seems that the door which admits into the passage, at the foot of which lies the yard where the body was found, is always open for the convenience of the lodgers— a fact, no doubt, known to the perpetrators of the crime. When Mr Davis found the woman she was lying on her back close up to the flight of steps leading into the yard. The throat was cut open in a fearful manner — so deep, in fact, that the murderer, evidently thinking that he had severed the head from the body, tied a handkerchief round it so as to keep it on. It was also found that the body had been ripped open and disembowelled, the heart and abdominal viscera lying by the side. The fiendish work was completed by the murderer tying part of the entrails round the victim's neck. There was no blood on the clothes. Hanbury street is a long street which runs from Baker's row to Commercial street. It consists partly of shops and partly of private houses. In the house in question, in the front room, on the ground floor, Mr Hardetman carries on the business of a seller of cats-meat. At the back of the premises are Mrs Richardson's, who is a packing-ca3e maker. The other occupants of the house are lodgers. One of the lodgers, named Robert Thompson, who is a carman, went out of the house at half-past 3 in the morning, but he heard no noise. Two unmarried girls, who also live in the house, were talking in the passage until half-past 12 with young men, and it is believed that they were the last occupants of the house to retire to rest. The body is that of a woman evidently of about 45 years of age. The third finger of the left hand bore signs of rings having been wrenched off it, and the hands and arms were considerably bruised. Deceased was otherwise respectably, though poorly, dressed. Nothing was found in her pockets but a handkerchief and two small combs, besides an envelope bearing the seal of the Sussex regiment. The excitement in the vicinity is intense, and unfounded rumours are flying about. One report has it that the leathern apron found near the place where the body lay, belonged to a man whose name is unknown, but who is nicknamed " Leather Apron," and evidently known in the district. A further report stated that another woman was nearly murdered early | in the morning, and was taken to the hospital lin a dying condition. Looking at the corpse no one could think otherwise than that the murder had been committed by a maniac or wretch of the lowest tjpe of humanity. Indeed, we should have te go to the wilds of Hungary or search the records of French lower peasant life before a more sickening or revolting tragedy could be told. The woman is believed to be Annie Siffey, known as one of the unfortunates, and has been in*the habit of living in a common lodging house at 35 Dorset street. One of the women who also lives there recognises her from the description given. The deceased was, it is said, seen in Spitalfields Market this morning at 2 o'clock, and therefore the murder muse have been committed between that hour and six. " LEATHER APRON." Reference is made in the above report to a mysterious being bearing the name of " Leather Apron," concerning whom a number of stories have for a week or more been current in Whiiechapel. A reporter of the Star, who has been making some inquiries among a number of polyandroos women in the East End, gives the following description of the man : — He is sf fc 4in or sin in height and wears a dark close fitting cap. He 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. The distinguishing feature of costume is a leather apron, which he always wears, and from which he get 3 his nickname. His expression is sißister, and seem 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 repellant. He is a slipper maker by trade, but does not work. His business te blackmailing women late at night. A number of men in Whitechapel follow this interesting profession. He has never cut anybody, to far as is known, but always carries a leather 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 in the belief that he is a Jew or of Jewish parentage, his face being of a marked s

Hebrew type. But the most singular characteristic of the man is the universal statement: thai in moving about he never makes any noise. What he wears on his feet the women do not kuow, bub they agree that 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. ..." Leather- Apron " never by any chance attacks a man. He runs away on the slightest appearance of rescue. One woman whom he assailed some time ago boldly prosecuted him for it, and he was sent up for seven days. He has no settled place of residence, but has slept oftenesb in a fonrpenny lodging house of the lowest kind in a disreputable lane leading from Brick lane. The people at this lodging house denied that he had been there, and appeared disposed to shield him^ "Leather Apron's " pal, "Mickeldy Joe," was in the house at the time, and his presence doubtless had something to do with the unwillingness to give information. M Leather Apron " was last at this house some weeks ago, though this account may be untrue. He ranges all over London, and rarely assails the same woman twice. He has lately been seen in Leather lane, which is in the Holborn district.

AffGLICAtf DIOCESAN BYKOD.

The fir«t session of the eighth synod of the diocese of Dunedin will commence on the 30th inst. The Yen. Archdeacon Stocker will preside. The Church Congress will be held on the 29th, when the ques* tions of charitable ai4 reform and church finance will be discussed. The following have been elected as lay representatives.— Edward Ed. O. Quick and George H. Ashcroft, St. Paul's, Dunedin; Jamea Allen aud A. D. Lubecki, All Saints', Dunedin; George Joachim and William B. Boyd, St. Mat« thew's, Dunedin ; D'Arcy Haggitt and Percy Proo« tor, Oamaru; William Black and William B. Scandrett, Invercargill ; Edward Herbert and M. Fraer, Tuapeka and Waitahuna; Henry Manderand George A. Heade, Roslyu; Hy, Mackenzie and Spencer Brent, Queonstown ; General Fulton, Arrowtown; Henry Orbell, Waikouaitiand Goodwood ; George G.Russell, Peninsula; George S. Brodrick, Caversham and Green Island; Henry King, Port Chalmers; R. Ewiug, Palmerston ; James ß. Archer, Naseby; Charles H. Statham, Waitaki Plain; Dauiel Brent, Otepopo, Hampden, and Moeraki; Frederick Twiss, Tokomairiro ; R. H. Leary, East, West, and North Taieri ; H. J. Ainger, Gore and Tapanui ; P. C. Neill, Mataura and Toi-tois; W. S. Pillanß, Balclutha, Inch Clutha, and Clinton ; J. M. Ritchie, Dunstan; John R. Hooper, Roxburgh; George G. Bridges, Blueskin; James Ashcroft, Gladstone, Winton, and Lumsden; E, A. Cogan, Cromwell ; William Henry Churton, Riverton.