Interview With Sadler's Mother

THE WHITECHAPEL TRAGEDY.
INTERVIEW WITH SADLER'S MOTHER.

A PRIVATE INQUIRY AT THE DOCKS.
REMARKABLE CONDUCT OF A FOREIGN SAILOR.

Mrs. Sadler, the mother of the prisoner, 76 years old, and possessed of considerable intelligence, which shows no decline in spite of her advanced age, is living at Walworth, and yesterday she told a representative of the Daily Telegraph her life's history. She is now the occupant of a single room on the top floor, and gets a living by her needle and acting as a nurse to a little child left to her care. She is the widow of James Meal Sadler, who was a solicitor's head clerk in Chancery practice at Lincoln's-inn-fields; but he died of consumption when he was only 27, leaving her with her eldest child, Thomas James - the accused - then less than three years old. There had been a second child that died in infancy of congestion of the lungs. At the time of the death of Mr. Sadler they were living in Stepney, where the prisoner was born, and his father was buried in Stepney churchyard. His second Christian name, Meal, was the surname of his father - Captain Meal, a man who was part owner of several vessels at Yarmouth. The wife of the captain, the prisoner's grandmother, was on three separate occasions confined in a Norfolk lunatic asylum, and she was insane until her death. On one day, Mrs. Sadler states, she threatened to "do" for her own mother. The surviving parent of the prisoner says that she was "a mother and father" to her only boy; and during a part of his childhood she lived in Jubilee-street, a long thoroughfare which connects the Mile-end and Commercial roads. Until the lad was nine years of age she taught him to read words of one, three, and four syllables; but he did not learn to write until he was admitted to the Primrose School, in which he remained for five or six years. At fifteen he went as under-clerk to the London Docks, and there he grew discontented with a career on land, and resolved at last to ship in one of the vessels which he had seen constantly coming and going. "I bitterly regret the day that he sailed," says Mrs. Sadler, sen. Sadler, in the intervals of his voyages, was employed as a common labourer in the tea warehouses, and at this period he lodged with his mother in Kingsland and the East-end, regularly sending her half his pay when at sea, and handing her money when on shore, "exactly," declares his mother, "as if he had been a husband." It was not until he was a man of about 38 that he married, and then he changed. His mother used to see him at intervals of a few weeks, and she did so all last year, and during, she believes, 1888. It was about six weeks before Christmas, 1890, that she last saw him for a few hours. Once he told her that he had returned after a voyage to Johnson-street, Commercial-road, where he had left his wife, and found that she had quitted the premises a day or two after he had sailed, as he was informed. However, he discovered that she had gone back to the country town where he had met her. Latterly, Mrs. Sadler knew that her son had not been living with his wife. Sadler belonged to a Druids' lodge at Rotherhithe. As to his temperament, his mother acknowledges that Sadler "when drunk behaved like a madman," and it was for very little cause that he acted so. She was never threatened by him, because she "humoured him and got out of his way. Sometimes," she said, "I used to think that it was all owing to his grandmother's condition of mind." The prisoner has not yet written to his mother, who derived her knowledge of his position from the newspapers, and she says, "It would kill me if I went to see him now."

WATCHING THE VESSELS IN THE DOCK.

The Daily News of this morning contains the following: - We are able to place before our readers some important facts bearing upon the series of murders in Whitechapel which ended with the butchery of a woman in Pinchin-street on September 10th, 1889. Some twelve months previously, when only three or four of the tragedies had occurred, the attention of a gentleman engaged at the Customs House was attracted to the theory, held very generally at the time, that the perpetrator of the crimes was one of the crew of a vessel trading between London and some foreign port and he resolved to see whether it would not be possible to submit the theory to practical test. He accordingly engaged in a series of laborious researches, which ultimately yielded a result to which great importance attaches. In the first place, this gentleman carefully scrutinised the shipping returns of the previous ten months, with a view to see whether any particular vessel was in the London docks on each of the several dates of the Whitechapel murders - that is to say, during the Christmas week of 1887, and on August 7th, August 31st, and September 7th, of 1888. This initial research yielded a result which afforded a good groundwork for further investigation. A particular vessel, of small tonnage, trading between London and a near Continental port, had been lying in one of the upper docks on the occasion of each of the murders. While the Customs official was in the midst of his investigations other crimes took place; but they in no way served to disturb the calculations that were in hand, for the vessel to which attention had been directed was in a lower dock on each occasion. The next phase of the inquiry was concerned with the crew; and here, as will readily be imagined, considerable difficulty was experienced in making any headway. Ultimately, however, the situation underwent a change, and though at first it seemed that the theory on which the investigations were grounded must be abandoned as hopeless, further inquiry proved that the theory had only acquired additional strength.

"SOMETIMES RESORTED TO THE TACTICS OF A STOWAWAY."

What had happened was this. A murder had occurred when the vessel in question was several days' journey from England but the new weight that was subsequently given to these researches was derived, firstly, from the discovery that, at the time of the tragedy, a companion vessel to the one that was at sea - that is to say, a vessel engaged in the same trade, and hailing from the same port - was in one of our docks; and, secondly, from the discovery that one of her crew was a man who had formerly served on the other vessel. From that moment, of course, this particular man - who, it may be remarked, was not of English nationality - became the object of special inquiries on the part of the gentleman who was pursuing this line of search. He opened up communications with the responsible persons connected with the two vessels, and presently learnt this significant fact - that the sailor in question, although in the first place engaged by the commander in the ordinary way, had, on subsequent occasions, thrust himself forward as one of the crew on various pretexts, and had on the last voyage resorted to the tactics of a stowaway, having secreted himself in the hold and remained in hiding until the vessel had proceeded some miles on her voyage. Further investigations were now set on foot with a view to see whether it would have been possible for a man to pass between the vessel and the scenes of the murders without attracting the attention of the police and other officials at the docks; and the conclusion arrived at was that he could undoubtedly have done so. The gentleman who had interested himself in this matter afterwards put himself into communication with the British representative at the port to which the vessels belonged, with the result that certain particulars as to the antecedents of the sailor were gleaned. Another murder having taken place under similar conditions so far as the movements of the two vessels were concerned, the matter was brought to the notice of the Home Office, with the result that the authorities at Scotland-yard were instructed to take action. No arrest was, however, made, the man to whom special attention had been directed never returning, so far as could be ascertained, to the port of London. The opinion is entertained in an influential quarter that in some way or other the intelligence was conveyed abroad that the police were watching the vessels coming from the particular port in question, and that the man was thus put upon his guard. It will be understood (adds the Daily News) that we give these facts for what they may be worth, without drawing any inference from them. It may well be that they point to nothing more than a series of mere coincidences.

Source: The Echo, Friday February 20, 1891, Page 2

THE WHITECHAPEL MURDER.

SADLER'S WIFE'S EXTRAORDINARY STORY.
STORY OF THEIR LIFE IN THE EAST END.

There is not any intention, it would appear, to charge Sadler with complicity in previous murders; but the investigations now being made require reference to the whole of the facts which have come to the knowledge of the police. Sadler is at present at Holloway, and has not yet communicated with his wife. He is reported to have said that this charge would lead to a separation between them. Mrs. Sadler has been interviewed by a reporter of the Daily Telegraph in the country town in Kent in which she has been living for rather more than two years. She is a pleasant-faced, comely, and hardworking woman, considerably younger than her husband, of whom she spoke freely; but naturally she did not wish to prejudice Sadler's interests, only she said she felt that the truth must be told. Mrs. Sadler now resides with her aged mother, and earns what she can by doing mangling to support herself and two children at home - Daisy, aged 11, and another little girl six years old. The third child living, Ruth, a girl of 14, is in service. Two boys made up the family of the accused, but both are dead.

POLICEMAN, TRAM CONDUCTOR, GREENGROCER.

Mrs. Sadler's story, told, as nearly as possible in her own words, is as follows: - She has lived in Kent for twenty years, and fifteen years ago she met the man Sadler, who was her senior. She married him, and they settled in London at Walworth, in the neighbourhood where there now lives the aged mother of Sadler. His father died when his son was less than three years old, and he was in a respectable position as a lawyer. Sadler seems to have taken to the sea in very early life, and in the intervals of his voyages to have worked ashore conscientiously and punctually. It is a fact that when abroad he served in the Hong Kong police, as he told his wife of it. From Walworth the couple moved to Whitechapel, and for a while Sadler was employed at a factory in Buck's-row, a place since rendered notorious by the murder of the woman Nicholls, on August 31, 1888. Then later the Sadler's went to Poplar - this was thirteen years ago - and for six or seven months the prisoner was engaged as a tram conductor on the line between Poplar and Commercial-road. Subsequently he and his wife kept a greengrocer's shop in Lower Kensington, and thence they returned to Walworth for a couple of years, and at this time Sadler was working at the tea warehouses in Cutler-street. He used to come home late at night, and he insisted upon their removal once more to the East-end. Bethnal-green was chosen.

"DO YOU MEAN TO SAY YOU DIDN'T KNOW ME?"

Mrs. Sadler's recollection of the dates of the various changes of address is not quite clear, but she is certain that in August, 1888, they were living in a street off the Commercial-road; but about August 5th her husband left her, and she, being unable to pay the heavy rents demanded, and feeling that she could get on better in Kent, where she was known, resolved to come back to the country town in which she has since dwelt. "I never saw him," she says "until seven months afterwards. I have it clear in my mind that it was seven months; and yet I feel sure that it was in the month of June, 1889, when he wrote to me, and I met him by appointment in Fenchurch-street. It was a Saturday night. I did not ask him what he was doing, but I took it as a matter of course. On the Sunday he had work to do, and he asked me to meet him after it was done - about four o'clock, and he added, "If you don't see me, wait until six." I went to the place and waited, and for an hour I watched a man who, whenever I looked at him, turned his back and shrugged his shoulders. In fact, he disguised himself in such a way that I could not recognise him, until he said to me, "Well, how much longer are going to stand there?" I said to him, "Well, if you could see me, how much longer were you going to keep me waiting?" It was not until he spoke to me that I knew him to be my husband. I don't know why he did it. He asked me, "Do you mean to say you didn't know me?" I replied that I did not, although I had seen him several times during that hour. I was with him that night from five o'clock until past eleven, and we went to two coffee-shops for a bed; but I had been crying, and the people thought we should quarrel, so they would not let us have one. He blamed me for being the cause, and I told him I had not complained to him of his treatment of me, and added, "I will tell you what we will do. You go your way and I will go mine. I will never live with you any more."

INCIDENT IN AN EEL-SHOP.

"Then I took to my heels and I ran up Backchurch-lane by the side of Whitechapel Church, and we were met by a policeman. Sadler caught me, and said, "Now, Sally, what do you mean? You are not afraid of me?" I told him I could do for myself. Whilst we were talking we met the policeman again. We went to a stewed eel shop, and whilst there a woman came in and said to my husband, "Halloa, Tom; how are you?" I walked away to show that there was no connection, and his face crimsoned, but he said, "I am all right." The woman then said to him, "That party you were with the other night has gone to Manchester." I never opened my mouth, but the woman said, with an oath, "Who are you looking at?" That night I slept with some friends, and returned home on the Monday. During the evening my husband had said to me, "I can take you up a place and show you where such and such a person was murdered." I said, "Oh, no! It does not interest me at all." He continued, "Don't you think he must have been artful? I wonder where the bobby must have been to let such a thing occur so near a shop." It made me shudder. I don't know where the place was. Isn't there a broker's shop at the corner? I did not see my husband again after that night until Dec. 23 last, when he came to this house unexpectedly. He sailed on Christmas Eve. He sent me an advance note for his wages, but I got very little from him as a rule, and not enough to keep me and my children. When he came I was surprised to find he had grown a beard, which altered his appearance. He used to wear a sandy moustache only. I do not know what voyages he took, and have not seen his discharges. I was in ignorance of his whereabouts. The first that I heard of his present position was when I read the account in the paper this morning."

THE FUNERAL OF THE DECEASED.

It has been arranged by Mr. E. Harvey, the secretary of the Common-Lodging-house Mission, that the funeral of Frances Cole shall take place at three o'clock next Monday afternoon, either at Manor-park or Tower Hamlets Cemetery. The police authorities are anxious that the body should remain at the mortuary as long as possible, in order that complete examinations may be made; but, unless objection is made from Scotland-yard, the burial will take place on the day mentioned.

POLICE AND MRS. SADLER'S STATEMENT.

Despite the impression created yesterday amongst certain of the police authorities that there were no new developments contemplated in the Whitechapel mystery, the statement taken from Mrs. Sadler as to the places in which she and her husband resided from a considerable period in Bethnal-green and Whitechapel is regarded as of great importance. Mrs. Sadler and her husband were, as stated, residing in a street at Whitechapel - a very short distance from Berner-street, where one of the notable crimes was committed - and Chief Inspector Swanson and Inspector H. Moore have, it is believed, given directions that the most minute inquiries are to be instituted in this locality. Mrs. Sadler has been asked if she could identify the woman who, in a stewed-eel shop, met her husband with the remark, "Hullo! Tom! is that you?"
Though the police do not seriously attach any importance whatever to the suggested connection of the Hampstead murders with those in Whitechapel, the question naturally arises, was that woman in the eel-shop Mrs. Piercey, who, it is incidentally mentioned, was at that period a visitor to the East-end. The inquiries of the police today will be of a most exhaustive character, and the evidence likely to be taken will be such that there is little hope at present that the case will be completed at the adjourned inquest tomorrow, before Mr. Wynne E. Baxter.
The police are still sifting the testimony respecting Sadler's career, and have made inquiries at the tea warehouse of the Dock's Company in Cutler-street, where the man was employed as a general labourer. Though Mr. Champ, the superintendent at the tea warehouse, has, in response to a visit paid him by the detective officers, spoken as to Sadler's movements while in the company's service, he considers it his duty, as the case is sub judice, not to relate anything of the man's record for any other purpose than the demands of justice. Sadler, it appears, had been an occasional labourer at the tea warehouse until about two years ago. Somewhere about that period he was ill, and a truss was supplied him at the recommendation of the Dock authorities. "Sadler's career here," remarked Mr. Champ, "was quite of an ordinary character, and not in the least interesting."

Source: The Echo, Thursday February 19, 1891

THE WHITECHAPEL MURDER.

SADLER'S WIFE'S EXTRAORDINARY STORY.
STORY OF THEIR LIFE IN THE EAST END.

There is not any intention, it would appear, to charge Sadler with complicity in previous murders; but the investigations now being made require reference to the whole of the facts which have come to the knowledge of the police. Sadler is at present at Holloway, and has not yet communicated with his wife. He is reported to have said that this charge would lead to a separation between them. Mrs. Sadler has been interviewed by a reporter of the Daily Telegraph in the country town in Kent in which she has been living for rather more than two years. She is a pleasant-faced, comely, and hardworking woman, considerably younger than her husband, of whom she spoke freely; but naturally she did not wish to prejudice Sadler's interests, only she said she felt that the truth must be told. Mrs. Sadler now resides with her aged mother, and earns what she can by doing mangling to support herself and two children at home - Daisy, aged 11, and another little girl six years old. The third child living, Ruth, a girl of 14, is in service. Two boys made up the family of the accused, but both are dead.

POLICEMAN, TRAM CONDUCTOR, GREENGROCER.

Mrs. Sadler's story, told, as nearly as possible in her own words, is as follows: - She has lived in Kent for twenty years, and fifteen years ago she met the man Sadler, who was her senior. She married him, and they settled in London at Walworth, in the neighbourhood where there now lives the aged mother of Sadler. His father died when his son was less than three years old, and he was in a respectable position as a lawyer. Sadler seems to have taken to the sea in very early life, and in the intervals of his voyages to have worked ashore conscientiously and punctually. It is a fact that when abroad he served in the Hong Kong police, as he told his wife of it. From Walworth the couple moved to Whitechapel, and for a while Sadler was employed at a factory in Buck's-row, a place since rendered notorious by the murder of the woman Nicholls, on August 31, 1888. Then later the Sadler's went to Poplar - this was thirteen years ago - and for six or seven months the prisoner was engaged as a tram conductor on the line between Poplar and Commercial-road. Subsequently he and his wife kept a greengrocer's shop in Lower Kensington, and thence they returned to Walworth for a couple of years, and at this time Sadler was working at the tea warehouses in Cutler-street. He used to come home late at night, and he insisted upon their removal once more to the East-end. Bethnal-green was chosen.

"DO YOU MEAN TO SAY YOU DIDN'T KNOW ME?"

Mrs. Sadler's recollection of the dates of the various changes of address is not quite clear, but she is certain that in August, 1888, they were living in a street off the Commercial-road; but about August 5th her husband left her, and she, being unable to pay the heavy rents demanded, and feeling that she could get on better in Kent, where she was known, resolved to come back to the country town in which she has since dwelt. "I never saw him," she says "until seven months afterwards. I have it clear in my mind that it was seven months; and yet I feel sure that it was in the month of June, 1889, when he wrote to me, and I met him by appointment in Fenchurch-street. It was a Saturday night. I did not ask him what he was doing, but I took it as a matter of course. On the Sunday he had work to do, and he asked me to meet him after it was done - about four o'clock, and he added, "If you don't see me, wait until six." I went to the place and waited, and for an hour I watched a man who, whenever I looked at him, turned his back and shrugged his shoulders. In fact, he disguised himself in such a way that I could not recognise him, until he said to me, "Well, how much longer are going to stand there?" I said to him, "Well, if you could see me, how much longer were you going to keep me waiting?" It was not until he spoke to me that I knew him to be my husband. I don't know why he did it. He asked me, "Do you mean to say you didn't know me?" I replied that I did not, although I had seen him several times during that hour. I was with him that night from five o'clock until past eleven, and we went to two coffee-shops for a bed; but I had been crying, and the people thought we should quarrel, so they would not let us have one. He blamed me for being the cause, and I told him I had not complained to him of his treatment of me, and added, "I will tell you what we will do. You go your way and I will go mine. I will never live with you any more."

INCIDENT IN AN EEL-SHOP.

"Then I took to my heels and I ran up Backchurch-lane by the side of Whitechapel Church, and we were met by a policeman. Sadler caught me, and said, "Now, Sally, what do you mean? You are not afraid of me?" I told him I could do for myself. Whilst we were talking we met the policeman again. We went to a stewed eel shop, and whilst there a woman came in and said to my husband, "Halloa, Tom; how are you?" I walked away to show that there was no connection, and his face crimsoned, but he said, "I am all right." The woman then said to him, "That party you were with the other night has gone to Manchester." I never opened my mouth, but the woman said, with an oath, "Who are you looking at?" That night I slept with some friends, and returned home on the Monday. During the evening my husband had said to me, "I can take you up a place and show you where such and such a person was murdered." I said, "Oh, no! It does not interest me at all." He continued, "Don't you think he must have been artful? I wonder where the bobby must have been to let such a thing occur so near a shop." It made me shudder. I don't know where the place was. Isn't there a broker's shop at the corner? I did not see my husband again after that night until Dec. 23 last, when he came to this house unexpectedly. He sailed on Christmas Eve. He sent me an advance note for his wages, but I got very little from him as a rule, and not enough to keep me and my children. When he came I was surprised to find he had grown a beard, which altered his appearance. He used to wear a sandy moustache only. I do not know what voyages he took, and have not seen his discharges. I was in ignorance of his whereabouts. The first that I heard of his present position was when I read the account in the paper this morning."

THE FUNERAL OF THE DECEASED.

It has been arranged by Mr. E. Harvey, the secretary of the Common-Lodging-house Mission, that the funeral of Frances Cole shall take place at three o'clock next Monday afternoon, either at Manor-park or Tower Hamlets Cemetery. The police authorities are anxious that the body should remain at the mortuary as long as possible, in order that complete examinations may be made; but, unless objection is made from Scotland-yard, the burial will take place on the day mentioned.

POLICE AND MRS. SADLER'S STATEMENT.

Despite the impression created yesterday amongst certain of the police authorities that there were no new developments contemplated in the Whitechapel mystery, the statement taken from Mrs. Sadler as to the places in which she and her husband resided from a considerable period in Bethnal-green and Whitechapel is regarded as of great importance. Mrs. Sadler and her husband were, as stated, residing in a street at Whitechapel - a very short distance from Berner-street, where one of the notable crimes was committed - and Chief Inspector Swanson and Inspector H. Moore have, it is believed, given directions that the most minute inquiries are to be instituted in this locality. Mrs. Sadler has been asked if she could identify the woman who, in a stewed-eel shop, met her husband with the remark, "Hullo! Tom! is that you?"
Though the police do not seriously attach any importance whatever to the suggested connection of the Hampstead murders with those in Whitechapel, the question naturally arises, was that woman in the eel-shop Mrs. Piercey, who, it is incidentally mentioned, was at that period a visitor to the East-end. The inquiries of the police today will be of a most exhaustive character, and the evidence likely to be taken will be such that there is little hope at present that the case will be completed at the adjourned inquest tomorrow, before Mr. Wynne E. Baxter.
The police are still sifting the testimony respecting Sadler's career, and have made inquiries at the tea warehouse of the Dock's Company in Cutler-street, where the man was employed as a general labourer. Though Mr. Champ, the superintendent at the tea warehouse, has, in response to a visit paid him by the detective officers, spoken as to Sadler's movements while in the company's service, he considers it his duty, as the case is sub judice, not to relate anything of the man's record for any other purpose than the demands of justice. Sadler, it appears, had been an occasional labourer at the tea warehouse until about two years ago. Somewhere about that period he was ill, and a truss was supplied him at the recommendation of the Dock authorities. "Sadler's career here," remarked Mr. Champ, "was quite of an ordinary character, and not in the least interesting."

Source: The Echo, Thursday February 19, 1891