Well Known Surgeon Suspected

The following newspaper reports are a very exciting find for me, as the first one reports that the idea of Jack the Ripper being a well-known surgeon was formed as early as 1889 and the second article reports that another physician who spent some time in London after the last Whitechapel murder confirmed the Dr. Howard report, in which Howard names a well-known physician as having been Jack the Ripper.

LONDON'S MURDER MYSTERY.

A Rumor That A Well-Known and Eccentric Surgeon Is Suspected.

LONDON, Sept. 12. - The inquest yesterday in the case of the woman whose headless body was discovered in the Whitechapel district Tuesday morning was conducted with closed doors, and extraordinary precautions were taken to prevent the medical testimony in the case being made public. The rumor is afloat, but cannot be traced to an authoritative source, that one of the doctors has pointed out that the surgical work of the fiend who committed the murder bears a remarkable resemblance in certain features to peculiarities which have frequently been noted by the professsion in the work of a well-known London surgeon, a man of the highest standing in his profession, but exceedingly eccentric. The police maintain a discreet silence, and refuse to either deny or to verify the rumor. They appear to be active, however, and their conduct indicates that they have a clue of some sort.

Source: The Quincy Daily Whig, September 13, 1889, Page 5

THE "RIPPER" STORY TRUE.

A Kansas Physician Who Studied in London Confirms the Howard Report.

LEAVENWORTH, Kas., May 1. - Dr. D. Russell Phillips, a leading young physician of this city, who spent some years in Europe studying after his graduation from a New York medical college, was much interested in the San Francisco story as to the identity of "Jack the Ripper." Monday he confirmed the story as told by Dr. Howard. He said that he was in London just after the last Whitechapel murder, taking a special course, and it was then common gossip among the medical students that "Jack the Ripper" had been found to be a West End physician and the wretch had been incarcerated in an asylum under an assumed name. The fact that the story was never made public in London or America, he holds, showed that the murderous doctor was a man of influence.

Source: The Quincy Daily Journal, May 1, 1895, Page 4