ECHO OF “RIPPER” SCARE.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18541, 11 April 1930, Page 9

ECHO OF “RIPPER” SCARE.

Search For Murderers. DUSSELDORF POLICE ACTIVE. (United Press Association —By Eiectrlo Telegraph—Copy right.) BERLIN, April 9. The Dusseldorf police have circulated an official memorandum, which has been*sent to all prisons, reformatories and mental asylums in Germany asking help in the search for the Ripper murderers. They express the opinion that at least four different persons were concerned in the fifteen outrages. The police believe that the first five outrages were committed by an imbecile youth, Johann Straussberg, who confessed, and is now in an asylum, but the four subsequent murders of servant girls were committed by an imitative criminal, whose fiendish instincts were aroused by Straussberg’s example. The Dusseldorf police attribute their failure to catch the murderer to the false ideas prevailing in regard to sexual criminals. They declare that such criminals are not brutal, rough and violent, but precisely the opposite. Frequently these monsters appear gentle and kind-hearted.

[Over a score of fiendish murders in Dusseldorf last year caused a panic in the city. Young women and young girls were the victims chosen by the killer, or killers, and the crimes, resembling as they did the work of the fiend who committed murder after murder in London years ago, became known as "Jack the Ripper’s.” Extraordinary precautions were taken by the police, but, in spite of their efforts, the roll of victims continued to mount. Two or three arrests were made, but the suspects were eventually released. Then came the arrest of the imbecile youth, who admitted some of the crimes, but the murders continued, until late in December, when they came to an end.]