Recognized The Man

EAST-END ATROCITIES.

SUSPECTED MURDERER TRACKED.
EXPECTED CONFESSION.

There are indications in official circles that at no period during the search for the miscreant has there been so much chance of an arrest as at the present moment. From more than one source the police authorities have received information tending to show that the criminal is a foreigner, who was known as having lived within a radius of a few hundred yards from the scene of the Berner-street tragedy. The very place where he lodges is asserted to be within official cognisance. If the man be the real culprit, he lived some time ago with a woman, by whom he has been accused. Her statements are, it is stated, now being inquired into. In the meantime the suspected assassin is "shadowed." Incriminating evidence of a certain character has already been obtained, and, should implicit credence be placed in the woman already referred to, whose name will not transpire under any circumstances until after his guilt is prima facie established, a confession of the crimes may be looked for at any moment. The accused is himself aware, it is believed, of the suspicions entertained against him.

PACKER RECOGNISES THE MAN.

An Echo reporter called this afternoon upon Mr. Packer, the Berner-street fruiterer, where the murderer bought the grapes for Elizabeth Stride. It now appears that the man was known by Mr. Packer, who positively asserted, "I had seen him in this district several times before, and if you ask me where he lives I can tell you within a little. He lodges not a great way from the house where Lipski, who was hanged for poisoning a woman, lived."
"How many times have you seen him? was asked Mr. Packer.
"About twenty; and I have not seen him since the murder."

THE BLOOD-STAINED SHIRT.

The laundress at 22, Batty-street, where a German left a blood-stained shirt, is Mrs. Kuer, also a German. The man, who was arrested, as already stated, and liberated, explained the blood-stains by the fact that he was with a friend who was cutting his corn, when the knife slipped and inflicted a wound, when the injured man stanched the but by using the sleeves of his companion's shirt. There were, however, extensive stains upon the front of it as well, and this the man asserts was done by the blood spurting on to it. Mrs. Kuer denies that she gave information to the police, who were told of the circumstance by a neighbour. Mrs. Kuer says the man had occasionally called with a shirt to be washed. She feels certain she says that the man is entirely innocent of any such offence as was at first suggested by the police. Inspector Reid, Inspector Helson, and other detective officers are pursuing their investigation.
A man was arrested and taken to Commercial-street Police-station last night, but was released shortly after.

DANGEROUS LUNATIC ARRESTED.

The Press Association says: - Much importance is attached by the police to the arrest made at King-street Police-station yesterday morning. As published this morning, the man entered the station about nine o'clock, and complained of having lost a black bag. While the officials were taking note of the case he commenced to talk about the women murdered in Whitechapel, and offered to cut off the sergeant's head, and spoke in a rambling nonsensical manner. In answer to what his business was, he said he studied some years for the medical profession, but gave it up for engineering, and that he had been staying for some nights in coffee-houses. His talk became of such a rambling character that Dr. Bond, the Divisional Surgeon, was sent for, who examined him, and pronounced him to be a very dangerous lunatic of a homicidal nature. The man is described as favouring the description of the party seen with women at the East-end on different occasions. He was dressed in a serge suit, with a hard felt hat, and is of very strong build. Although he gave his age as 67, he looks much younger. Before his removal to Bow-street photographs of his person were taken. He was also asked to write his name, and it is stated the writing is somewhat similar to that of letters received by the police and others. The detectives have the matter in hand, and they are tracing the man's antecedents and his recent movements.

LUDWIG'S SINGULAR CONDUCT.

The Press Association says that some strange statements have been made with reference to a German named Ludwig, residing in the Leman-street district, who has already been in custody on suspicion of being concerned in the murders, and who was released after an exhaustive inquiry. It has, it is said, been reported to the authorities that this man has again been seen flourishing a knife and acting in a suspicious manner in the neighbourhood. The police are keeping him under surveillance at present, as there are some doubts as to his state of mind. It should be mentioned, however, that while the man was previously in custody a doctor declined to pronounce him insane.

THE BATTY-STREET CLUE.
A MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR.
PRECAUTIONS OF THE POLICE.

The startling story published first in The Echo of Monday, with reference to the finding of a blood-stained shirt and the disappearance of a man from a certain house in the East-end, proves to be, from investigations carried out by a Press Association reporter yesterday, to be not altogether devoid of foundation; though on Monday afternoon the truth of the statement was given an unqualified denial by the detective officers immediately after its publication, and this presumably because they were anxious to avoid a premature disclosure of facts of which they had been for some time cognisant. The police have taken exceptional precautions to prevent a disclosure, and while repeated arrests have taken place, with no other result than that of discharging the prisoner for the time being in custody, they have devoted special attention to one particular spot, in the hope that a few days would suffice to set at rest the public anxiety as to further deeds of murder in the district.

ITS PROXIMITY TO BERNER-STREET.

A reporter yesterday elicited the fact that from the very morning of the Berner-street and Mitre-square murders the police have had in their possession a shirt saturated with blood. Though they say nothing, they are evidently convinced that it was left in a house in Batty-street by the assassin after he had finished his work. Having regard to the position of this particular house, its close proximity to the yard in Berner-street where the crime was committed, and to the many intricate passages and alleys adjacent, the police theory has in all probability a basis of fact. From an examination of the surroundings (says the reporter) I should say that in the whole of Whitechapel there is no quarter in which a criminal would be more likely to evade police detection, or observation of any kind, than he would be in this locality. At the inquest on Mrs. Stride, one of the witnesses deposed to having seen a man and woman standing at the junction of Fairclough and Berner streets early on the morning of the murder. Assuming that the man now sought was the murderer, he would have gained instant access to the house in Batty-street by rapidly crossing over from the yard and traversing a passage, the entrance of which is almost immediately opposite to the spot where the victim was subsequently discovered. The statement has been made that the landlady of the lodging-house, 22, Batty-street - the house in which the shirt was left - was at an early hour disturbed by the movements of her lodger, who changed some of his apparel and went away - first, however, instructing her to wash the cast-off shirt by the time he returned.

THE LANDLADY'S RETICENCE.

But in relation to this latter theory, the question is (says the Press Association) how far the result of the inquiries is affected by a recent arrest. Although, for reasons known to themselves, the police during Saturday, Sunday, and Monday answered negatively all questions as to whether any person had been arrested, or was then in their charge, there is no doubt that a man was taken into custody on suspicion of being the missing lodger from No. 22, Batty-street, and that he was afterwards set at liberty. The German lodging-house keeper could clear up the point as to the existence of any other lodger supposed to be absent from her house under the suspicious circumstances referred to, but she is not accessible, and it is easy of understanding that the police should endeavour to prevent her making any statement. From our own inquiries in various directions yesterday afternoon, a further development is very likely to take place.

Source: The Echo, Wednesday October 17, 1888, Page 3