MORE MURDERS....
The East-end of London was yesterday again much excited by the discovery of two more revolting murders. About one o'clock in the morning, the body of a woman, with her throat cut, was found in a yard belonging to a work-men's club, in Berner-street, and an hour later another woman was found murdered in a corner of Mitre-square, Aldgate. In the latter case, the body was also mutilated, and as this was not the case with the woman found in Berner-street, it is supposed that the murderer was disturbed before completely his dreadful intentions, and that then he proceeded towards the City and committed the second crime. The body of the woman found in Berner-street has been identified as that of ELIZABETH STRIDE. It is reported that an arrest on suspicion was made last night in Southwark.
The painful impression created by the shocking Murders in the East-end has hardly had time to lose anything of its intensity, before the country is again startled by the announcement of two fresh revolting outrages in the same locality. For this time two victims have been required in a single night to slake what appears to be an absolutely demoniacal thirst for blood. It is not, of course, proved that the woman found dead in Berner-street on Sunday morning at one o'clock, and the woman found dead an mutilated in Mitre-square three-quarters of an hour later, were killed by one hand; or that the same human fiend was also responsible for the atrocities in Buck's-row, in Hanbury-street, and for that near the London Hospital. But everything tends to support the theory, and, looking at all the circumstances, it is the only credible hypothesis. The outrages have, in all cases, been perpetrated upon women, and women, so far as can be ascertained, of a particular class: and they have been effected in each instance with a swiftness, a dexterity, a noiselessness, and, we might almost say, a scientific skill, which are, surely, very rare accomplishments in the class from which murderers are commonly drawn. Yet, if we can assume (as it seems to us we must assume) and that these five atrocious crimes, or, at any rate, four of them, had a common origin, we are thunderstruck at the mixture of coolness, cunning, and almost superhuman audacity with which they were achieved. We must suppose that the assassin has the hardihood to emerge from his concealment to commit a fresh murder, within a short distance of the scenes of his former diabolical exploits, and to do this at the very time when an army of policemen, and, indeed, a whole population, are on the look out for him. But that is not all. We must believe that, having killed the poor woman found in Berner-street, and being disturbed in his ghastly business, he then walked out into the Whitechapel-road, found another victim, enticed her into Mitre-square, and then and there, without the loss of a needless second, went through his horrible task of mutilation and murder. In fact at the precise moment the police were gathering about the one place of slaughter, another and more horrible shambles was being provided for their inspection scarcely half a mile away. What comes out most strongly in connection with this series of horrors, is the marvellous celerity with which the murderer works. The exact time occupied over the Hanbury-street butchery was a matter of dispute; but in the Mitre-square case there can hardly be any doubt at all. At half-past one a constable patrolled the Square, and saw nothing; at a quarter to two he came upon the body. The murder, and the further outrages, which are partially described (so far as it is possible to describe them) elsewhere, must have been done during that brief interval. What is more, both of yesterday morning's crimes must have been committed within earshot of persons whose attention would have been attracted by the slightest sign of a scuffle or a struggle. There were two watchmen in the houses in Mitre-square, one of whom at least was known to have been awake and on the alert, and who affirms that he usually heard every passing footstep. But not the faintest sound reached him. Silently, swiftly, and remorselessly, the murderer performed operations which a practises surgeon, working with all the appliances about him, could have hardly have affected in the time; and then, as usual, disappeared, leaving not a shred of evidence behind by which he could be traced. Policemen were swarming upon the scene within a few minutes of the discovery, and, son after, a regular cordon was drawn round the neighbourhood; but, up to the present, there is no indication of any clue. The murder is as mysterious as those which have gone before it.
We do not wonder that these unparalleled events have created wide-spread consternation; but we may hope that they will not lead to one of those panics which are always mischievous, and, in a case like this, may be peculiarly dangerous. The only thing to be done is for the public to assist the authorities by preserving their composure, and declining to be led into a frenzy of fear or an epidemic of unfounded suspicion. Otherwise, it is likely enough that, while nothing will be accomplished towards facilitating the capture of the real criminal, innocent people may be placed in peril by the action of an ignorant and infuriated mob. Those who it in their power to influence public opinion would do well to exercise discretion in giving their own hastily-formed deductions to the world, and, still more, in denouncing, on the faith of evidence which a little examination would show to be altogether worthless, particular individuals who may be as guiltless as themselves. Nor need we make these incidents worse by drawing baseless and exaggerated inferences from them. Terrible as they are, they do not show either that society is rotten to the core, or that human life is less safe in the centre of London than it is in the wilds of Texas. We are not all liable to be hacked to pieces in the streets, or murdered in our beds, because some diabolical maniac can decoy the outcasts of the pavement into dark corners and kill them there. Still less is there any justification for the senseless attacks that have been made on the police. Because they have not yet been able to lay their hands upon this fiendish criminal, it does not at all follow that Scotland-yard is utterly incapable and corrupt. Th unprecedented difficulties which the police have had to encounter in their search for this wretch ought not to be forgotten. He has, so far, left them nothing to go upon. There is not a weapon, not a button, not a fragment of clothing, not a footprint, to help them. The slayer of these poor women has been seen by no one. His sanguinary work is done almost in a moment and he vanishes without leaving a trace. At present it is said that every spot in this quarter of the town is visited by the police patrols once in twelve minutes; but, short as are these "beats," it is clear that they allow margin sufficient for the commission of the most revolting crimes. A policeman cannot be everywhere at once; and if the instant he turns his back it is possible for a woman to be killed and cut to pieces on the spot from which the echoes of his footsteps have hardly died away, it must be admitted that both prevention and detection present difficulties of no ordinary character.
At the same time, we trust that these difficulties will not prove insurmountable. If calling into play every resource known to science and civilisation, if patience, energy, and lavish expenditure can accomplish it, the task of catching the Whitechapel murderer must be accomplished. It is impossible to reconcile ourselves to the alternative that this wholesale assassin is to go unpunished, much less that he is to be permitted to continue his atrocities. The numbers of the Metropolitan Police force are none too large, but it is clear that, considerable as the contingent which has been drafted to the Whitechapel district, it stands in need of further reinforcement. The "beats," short as they are, must be still further reduced, and the constables throughout the whole locality must be in touch with one another every few minutes. The last two murders have, at any rate, served to narrow and concentrate the scope of the detective activity. It was probable before, and it is now nearly certain, that the person so eagerly sought for is a resident in a particular quarter of the East-end, or, at any rate, an habitué there. He must have a haunt somewhere near the western portion of the Whitechapel-road, from which he issues before the commission of one of his crimes, and to which he retires swiftly after the deed is done. The murders, it must be recollected, have been peculiarly local in their character. A square of one mile, at the outside, would include the whole five we have mentioned, and the sites of the last four cluster even more closely together in a circle, the centre of which may be placed somewhere near Whitechapel Church. Considering the rapidity with which the police cordon was drawn round the suspected region yesterday morning, it can hardly be doubted that the murderer must have secreted himself in some place of refuge within a few minutes of the revelation of his night's handiwork. It seems pretty clear that he lives in a particular and well-defined district, which, though densely inhabited, and frequented by a shifting and miscellaneous population, is not too large to be permeated through and through by the agents of the law. Nor is this all. It is, as we have already said, evident that the assassin, whether he is the sordid scoundrel he is represented in Dr. WYNNE BAXTER'S fanciful theory, or whether he is the homicidal madman painted by the popular imagination, is a person of singular skill and dexterity in the use of the knife. The silence, the speed, and the unerring certainty of hi operations speak for themselves. He is no novice in the dissection of the human or the animal body. Finally, it is established that he seeks the subjects of his monstrous frenzy in the women of one class, and that he mutilates them when dead in one way. Here are some indications which, to medical and police experts, are not without value. Such as they are, at any rate, they must be followed up this a pertinacity which we refuse to believe will fail of success in the end. Cunning as the murderer is, with perhaps the incalculable cunning of mania, he is, after all, only one man against thousands. There never was a case which demanded more energy, more untiring activity, and more fertility of resource on the part of the police authorities, and we find it difficult to believe that they will not prove themselves equal to the call.
The East-end of London was yesterday again much excited by the discovery of two more revolting murders. About one o'clock in the morning, the body of a woman, with her throat cut, was found in a yard belonging to a work-men's club, in Berner-street, and an hour later another woman was found murdered in a corner of Mitre-square, Aldgate. In the latter case, the body was also mutilated, and as this was not the case with the woman found in Berner-street, it is supposed that the murderer was disturbed before completely his dreadful intentions, and that then he proceeded towards the City and committed the second crime. The body of the woman found in Berner-street has been identified as that of ELIZABETH STRIDE. It is reported that an arrest on suspicion was made last night in Southwark.
The painful impression created by the shocking Murders in the East-end has hardly had time to lose anything of its intensity, before the country is again startled by the announcement of two fresh revolting outrages in the same locality. For this time two victims have been required in a single night to slake what appears to be an absolutely demoniacal thirst for blood. It is not, of course, proved that the woman found dead in Berner-street on Sunday morning at one o'clock, and the woman found dead an mutilated in Mitre-square three-quarters of an hour later, were killed by one hand; or that the same human fiend was also responsible for the atrocities in Buck's-row, in Hanbury-street, and for that near the London Hospital. But everything tends to support the theory, and, looking at all the circumstances, it is the only credible hypothesis. The outrages have, in all cases, been perpetrated upon women, and women, so far as can be ascertained, of a particular class: and they have been effected in each instance with a swiftness, a dexterity, a noiselessness, and, we might almost say, a scientific skill, which are, surely, very rare accomplishments in the class from which murderers are commonly drawn. Yet, if we can assume (as it seems to us we must assume) and that these five atrocious crimes, or, at any rate, four of them, had a common origin, we are thunderstruck at the mixture of coolness, cunning, and almost superhuman audacity with which they were achieved. We must suppose that the assassin has the hardihood to emerge from his concealment to commit a fresh murder, within a short distance of the scenes of his former diabolical exploits, and to do this at the very time when an army of policemen, and, indeed, a whole population, are on the look out for him. But that is not all. We must believe that, having killed the poor woman found in Berner-street, and being disturbed in his ghastly business, he then walked out into the Whitechapel-road, found another victim, enticed her into Mitre-square, and then and there, without the loss of a needless second, went through his horrible task of mutilation and murder. In fact at the precise moment the police were gathering about the one place of slaughter, another and more horrible shambles was being provided for their inspection scarcely half a mile away. What comes out most strongly in connection with this series of horrors, is the marvellous celerity with which the murderer works. The exact time occupied over the Hanbury-street butchery was a matter of dispute; but in the Mitre-square case there can hardly be any doubt at all. At half-past one a constable patrolled the Square, and saw nothing; at a quarter to two he came upon the body. The murder, and the further outrages, which are partially described (so far as it is possible to describe them) elsewhere, must have been done during that brief interval. What is more, both of yesterday morning's crimes must have been committed within earshot of persons whose attention would have been attracted by the slightest sign of a scuffle or a struggle. There were two watchmen in the houses in Mitre-square, one of whom at least was known to have been awake and on the alert, and who affirms that he usually heard every passing footstep. But not the faintest sound reached him. Silently, swiftly, and remorselessly, the murderer performed operations which a practises surgeon, working with all the appliances about him, could have hardly have affected in the time; and then, as usual, disappeared, leaving not a shred of evidence behind by which he could be traced. Policemen were swarming upon the scene within a few minutes of the discovery, and, son after, a regular cordon was drawn round the neighbourhood; but, up to the present, there is no indication of any clue. The murder is as mysterious as those which have gone before it.
We do not wonder that these unparalleled events have created wide-spread consternation; but we may hope that they will not lead to one of those panics which are always mischievous, and, in a case like this, may be peculiarly dangerous. The only thing to be done is for the public to assist the authorities by preserving their composure, and declining to be led into a frenzy of fear or an epidemic of unfounded suspicion. Otherwise, it is likely enough that, while nothing will be accomplished towards facilitating the capture of the real criminal, innocent people may be placed in peril by the action of an ignorant and infuriated mob. Those who it in their power to influence public opinion would do well to exercise discretion in giving their own hastily-formed deductions to the world, and, still more, in denouncing, on the faith of evidence which a little examination would show to be altogether worthless, particular individuals who may be as guiltless as themselves. Nor need we make these incidents worse by drawing baseless and exaggerated inferences from them. Terrible as they are, they do not show either that society is rotten to the core, or that human life is less safe in the centre of London than it is in the wilds of Texas. We are not all liable to be hacked to pieces in the streets, or murdered in our beds, because some diabolical maniac can decoy the outcasts of the pavement into dark corners and kill them there. Still less is there any justification for the senseless attacks that have been made on the police. Because they have not yet been able to lay their hands upon this fiendish criminal, it does not at all follow that Scotland-yard is utterly incapable and corrupt. Th unprecedented difficulties which the police have had to encounter in their search for this wretch ought not to be forgotten. He has, so far, left them nothing to go upon. There is not a weapon, not a button, not a fragment of clothing, not a footprint, to help them. The slayer of these poor women has been seen by no one. His sanguinary work is done almost in a moment and he vanishes without leaving a trace. At present it is said that every spot in this quarter of the town is visited by the police patrols once in twelve minutes; but, short as are these "beats," it is clear that they allow margin sufficient for the commission of the most revolting crimes. A policeman cannot be everywhere at once; and if the instant he turns his back it is possible for a woman to be killed and cut to pieces on the spot from which the echoes of his footsteps have hardly died away, it must be admitted that both prevention and detection present difficulties of no ordinary character.At the same time, we trust that these difficulties will not prove insurmountable. If calling into play every resource known to science and civilisation, if patience, energy, and lavish expenditure can accomplish it, the task of catching the Whitechapel murderer must be accomplished. It is impossible to reconcile ourselves to the alternative that this wholesale assassin is to go unpunished, much less that he is to be permitted to continue his atrocities. The numbers of the Metropolitan Police force are none too large, but it is clear that, considerable as the contingent which has been drafted to the Whitechapel district, it stands in need of further reinforcement. The "beats," short as they are, must be still further reduced, and the constables throughout the whole locality must be in touch with one another every few minutes. The last two murders have, at any rate, served to narrow and concentrate the scope of the detective activity. It was probable before, and it is now nearly certain, that the person so eagerly sought for is a resident in a particular quarter of the East-end, or, at any rate, an habitué there. He must have a haunt somewhere near the western portion of the Whitechapel-road, from which he issues before the commission of one of his crimes, and to which he retires swiftly after the deed is done. The murders, it must be recollected, have been peculiarly local in their character. A square of one mile, at the outside, would include the whole five we have mentioned, and the sites of the last four cluster even more closely together in a circle, the centre of which may be placed somewhere near Whitechapel Church. Considering the rapidity with which the police cordon was drawn round the suspected region yesterday morning, it can hardly be doubted that the murderer must have secreted himself in some place of refuge within a few minutes of the revelation of his night's handiwork. It seems pretty clear that he lives in a particular and well-defined district, which, though densely inhabited, and frequented by a shifting and miscellaneous population, is not too large to be permeated through and through by the agents of the law. Nor is this all. It is, as we have already said, evident that the assassin, whether he is the sordid scoundrel he is represented in Dr. WYNNE BAXTER'S fanciful theory, or whether he is the homicidal madman painted by the popular imagination, is a person of singular skill and dexterity in the use of the knife. The silence, the speed, and the unerring certainty of hi operations speak for themselves. He is no novice in the dissection of the human or the animal body. Finally, it is established that he seeks the subjects of his monstrous frenzy in the women of one class, and that he mutilates them when dead in one way. Here are some indications which, to medical and police experts, are not without value. Such as they are, at any rate, they must be followed up this a pertinacity which we refuse to believe will fail of success in the end. Cunning as the murderer is, with perhaps the incalculable cunning of mania, he is, after all, only one man against thousands. There never was a case which demanded more energy, more untiring activity, and more fertility of resource on the part of the police authorities, and we find it difficult to believe that they will not prove themselves equal to the call.
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