WHITECHAPEL HORRORS.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 223, 17 November 1888, Page 3

WHITECHAPEL HORRORS.

AN ARREST MADE. London, Nov 14. The police have arrested a person in connection with the latest murder. The man w*b observed larking near the scene of the murder. FULL DETAILS BY MAIL. In the ear y hours of Sunday morning two more feprrible murders were c mmitted in the East-cud of London, the victim in both cases belonging to the same unfortunate class. No doubt seems to be entertained by the police that these terrible crimes were the work of the um« fiendish hands which committed the outrages which have already made Whitechapel so painfully notorious. The scenes of the two murders just brought to light are within a quarter of an hour's walk of each Other, the earlier discovered crime having been committed in a yard in Berner-street, a * thoroughfare out of Commercial-road, while the second outrage was perpetrated within the City boundary, in Mitre Square, Aidgate. In neither case can robbery have been the motive, nor can the deed be eet down as the outcome of an ordinary street brawl. Beth have unquestionably been murders deliberately planned, and carried out by the hand of some one who has been no novice to the work ; and again it must be added that no reliable clue has yet been obtained. Berner-street is a narrow, badly lighted, but tolerably respectable street, turning out of the Commercial road, a short distance on the right-hand side going from Aldqfcte. Il is a street mainly consisting of email Douses, but which bad lately been brightened and embellished by one of the fine new buildings of the London School Board. Just opposite this is an ‘ International and Education Club,’ domiciled in a private house standing at the corner cf the gateway leading into a yard in which are small maunfacturing premises and four small houses occupied by Jewish families. The yard gates are usually closed at night, a wicket affording admission to the lodgers and ethers residing in the house?. The club was on Saturday evening winding np the Jewish holidays by a lecture on ' Judaism and Socialism.' A discussion followed which carried on the proceedings to about half past 12, and then followed a general jollification, accompanied as the neighbours say, by a noise that would effectually have prevented any cries for help being heaid by those around. The mirth however was brought to a sudden and dreadful stop. The steward of the club, who lives in one of the small houses in the yard, and had been out with some sort of a market cart, returned home just before 1 (Sunday morning). He turned into the gateway, when he observed tome object lying in his way under the wail of the club. Unable to see clearly what it was, he struck a match and found it was a woman. He thought at first she was drunk, and went Into the club. Some of the members went out with him and struck another light, and were horrified to find the woman’s head nearly aervered from the body and blood streaming down the gutter. The police were summoned, and the poor creature was borne to the St. George’s dead bouse. The corpse was still warm, and in the opinion of the medicil experts, who were promptly summoned to the place, the deed of blood must have been done not many minutes before. The probability seems to be that the murderer was interrupted by the arrival of the cart, and that he made his escape unobserved, under the shelter of the darkness, which was almost total a 1 the spot.

The efforts of the police to trace the murderer have been without result as yet. Ths body has been indentified as that of a w man natped Elizabe‘h Slide, who has been living in a common lodging-house iu Flower and Dear •street, and has been in the habit of frequenting this neighborhood, where it appears .he was familiarly known as Long Lizzie. She has a sister living somewhere in Hoti. vrn, and her husband, from whom she has Leen separated some years, is said to be living at Bath. The body when fr aud was quite warm. In one hand was clutched a box of sweets, and at her breast were pinned two dahlias ; she W-s respectably dressed for her class, and appears to be about 35 years of age The woman’s movements have been traced up to a certain point. She left her lodgings in Flower and Dean-street between six and seven o'clock on Saturday evening, saying that she was not going to meet any one iu particular. From that hdur there is nothing certainly known about her up to the time at which her body was found, lifeless indeed, but not otherwise mutilated than by the gash in the throat, which had severed the jugular vein and must have caused instantaneous death. At the precise moment that the police were gathering about the place < f slaughter in Berner street, another and more horrible shambles wore being provided for their inspection scarcely half a mile away. Shortly before two o’clock Police-Constable Watkius was going round his beat, when turning his lantern upon the darkest corner of Mitresquare, Aidgate, he saw the body of a woman apparently lifeless, in a pool of blood. He at once blew his whistle, and several persons being attracted to the spot, he despatched messengers for medical and police aid. There was immediately organised a ‘ scouting ’ brigade, to detect and arrest any suspicious looking character, but no one was taken into custody. In the meantime, an examination of the was made. The sight was a most shock ing one. The woman’s throat bad been cut from the left side, the knife severing the main artery and other parts of the neck. Blood bad flowed freely, both from the neck and body, on the pavement. Apparently, the weapon had been thrust into the upper part of the abdomen and drawn completely down, ripping open the body, and, in addition, both thighs had been cut across. The intestines had been torn from the body, and some of them lodged on the right side of the neck. The woman was laying on her back, her clothes being thrown up on to her ches’. Both hands were outstreched by her side. Near where she was lying two or three buttons were picked up, and a small cardboard box containing two pawntickets. The supposition is that her pockets were hastily turned out, either for robbery or to evade suspicion as to the motive cf the crime. A man named John Kelly identified the woman as one with whom he had lived. Kelly, who wae considerably affected, spoke quite unreservedly, and gave a full statement as to his own movements and those cf the ill-fated woman, as to whose identity he was qu-te positive. The last meal she had with him was a breakfa-t which had been obtained by the pledging of his boots for 2s 6J, He was then asked if he knew the murdered woman’s name, and if he could explain the meaning of the initials ‘T. C. ’on her arm. He rep'ied that Thomas Conway was the name of her husband, but he could not state whether Conway was dead or alive, or how long, in the latter case, she had been living away from him. He further stated that he and the murdered woman were 1 both Londoner?,’ and tbgt the latter was bora at Bermondsey. They had just returned '.from bopping at a

place about two miles from Coxfieatb, in Kent. He and • Kate ’ had, he said, gone through many hardships together, but while the was with him he 1 would not let her do anything bad.’ The police have made one discoeery, which they are of opinion affords a clue to the direction in whigb the murderer made h's escape. Ou Monday afternoon a portion of an apron was found in Goldstein street, and when the body of the woman found in Mitrekquare was searched, it was discovered that she was wearing the upper portion of the ip on to which the piece found belonged, ft is therefore concluded that the murderer made his tray into Whitechapel. Again, early this morning a police constable was poMing on his beat In the Whitechapel-road,

when pe came upon a black-Lain’, led knife, keen m a razor, and pointed like a carvingknife The blade wu tea inches long, about the length of weapon assumed to have been used by the Hau bury -street murderer. The Lord Mayor, acting upon the advice of the Commissioner of City Police has, in the name of the Corporation of London, offered a reward of £5OO for the detection of the Whitechapel murderer, the last crime having been committed within the jurisdiction of the City. The Home Secretary, having had forwarded to him a oneque [or £3OO, for the purpose of ft reward being offered, baa returned the cheque) with the intimat-'on that such a course would not be attended with any useful result* Mr Matthew'* deoisfou has been

received with almost universal disgus*, while the prompt action of the Lord Mayor in off ring a, reward for ths apprehension of the Mitre squ .re murderer has been received with general satisfaction. The eum offered by his lordship, together with £4OO which two newspapers offered to supply, the £lOO offered by Mr Montagu, M.P., and £2OO collected by the Vigilance Committee, make an aggregate sum of £1,200. It ia probable that the reward will be increased to £2009, as the Lord Mayor has been urged to open a subscription lid, and some members of the Stock Exchange seem disposed to take the matter up. Colonel Sir Alfred Kirby, J.P., the officer commanding the Tower Hamlets Battalion Royal Engineers, has offered, on behalf of his officers, a reward of £lOO, to be paid to any one who will give information that would lead to the discovery and c nviction of the perpetrator of the recent murders committed in the disirict in which his regiment is situated.

The statement made by the coroner in the closing hours of the inquest on the body of Annie Chapman one of the most recent of the Whitechapel victims, has (writes a London correspondent) created tremendous excitement, not only in London, but throughout the country, and has raised what seemed to be a series of commonplace, purposeless outrages to the position of the most startling sensation of the century. Briefly speaking, Dr Wynne Baxter stated that there was every reason to believe that the murders which have thrown the East End of London into a state of panic have been committed for the purpose of obtaining specimens of certain portions of the anatomy of the female frame, and that, furthermore, they must have been the work not of a lunatic or a common man, but of either a medical student or a surgeon. The victims must have been seized and he’d by the throat _iii such -a manner as to produce immediate insensibility, the fatal gashes given in a manner which would cause instantaneous death, and the body cut open in. a way that showed that the man who did the deed knew exactly where to find the organ he wanted. In the significant words of the coroner, “ There are no meaningless cuts. The organ has ’been taken by one who knew where to find it, what difficulties he would have to contend against, and how he should use his knife so as to abstract the organ without injury to it. No unskilled pet son could have known where to find it, or could have recognised it when it was found.” It is understood that what relates to the body of Annie Chapman, applies also to those of the three previous victims. The coroner then proceeded to say that a few months ago an American gentleman called at one of the leading London pathological museums, and offered £‘2oa-piece for anatomical specimens, as he wished to issue a comp ete specimen with each copy of a medical work u hich he intended to publish. At the first place he applied to he was told his request could not be complied with, but it was ascertained that he had made a similar application at other museums. The inference, therefore, is that, finding he could not obtain what he wanted, this American induced some needy surgeon or medical student to get the specimens for him, shutting his eyes or asking no questions as to where or how they were procured, or else that some impecunious person with surgical skill and knowledge, hearing that there was a market for these organs, undertook to supply them on his own account, and that he committed the murders in order to get them. Since the days when Burke and Hare murdered 14 persons for the sake of selling their bodies to surgeons for anatomical purposes, the BritislfcfHiblic has received no such horrible sensation as that caused by the disclosures of the Whitechapel inquest.