Spitalfields Vigilance Committee

THE WHITECHAPEL TERROR.
SOME SINGULAR INCIDENTS.

LONDON, Nov. 26. - Scares in connection with the Whitechapel murders continue and increase daily. A lady travelling in a suburban train on Saturday was frightened into fits by a man carrying a black bag who attempted to enter the compartment she occupied while the train was in motion, and nothing can convince her that she was not confronted by "Jack the Ripper." In North London on Saturday night a lady's hair was severed from her head while she slept and a note was found on her pillow reading "This is just to show that I am about." This lady, too, believes that she was visited by the Whitechapel fiend and none other.

A YOUNG IMITATOR OF THE MYSTERIOUS MONSTER.
-SIR CHARLES WARREN'S SUCCESSOR.

LONDON, Nov. 29. - A boy named Husband, aged 11 years, the first to give notice of the discovery of the body of a boy named Zarle, who was found dying in the streets of Havant, on Tuesday morning, with his throat cut from ear to ear, has been arrested for the murder. The crime was undoubtedly committed in imitation of "Jack the Ripper," chronicles of whose butcheries have incited depraved youth in many parts of the kingdom to emulation of his deeds, and the police throughout the country are thus confronted with a new problem. The Spitalfields Vigilance Committee, organized to aid the constabulary in detecting the Whitechapel murderer, and preventing further crimes, has secured the approval of the police to their appointment of ten men each night to watch the courts and alleys of the East End, and otherwise act conjointly with the Metropolitan force. Each man will carry a dark lantern, a whistle and a night stick, and be invested with all requisite authority. Col. Jas. Monro, who has been appointed Chief Commissioner of Metropolitan Police to succeed General Sir Charles Warren, served 25 years in Bengal, whence he returned to England in 1884 to replace Mr. Howard Vincent, at present member of Parliament for the central district of Sheffield, as director of criminal investigations. He was subsequently appointed assistant commissioner of Metropolitan Police, but resigned recently owing to his inability to endure the harshness of Gen. Warren, and accepted a position in the Home Office. His appointment, which the Queen has sanctioned, is a personal triumph and universally approved.

Source: Montreal Weekly Witness, Wednesday December 5, 1888, Page 1