Spanish Report Of The Murders

Weekly Letter From London

Two or three weeks ago the police received notice from John the cutter, as in Spain they call the infamous Jack the Ripper, that he intended to start again his prowess, but no one gave credit to the notice, for eighteen months had elapsed since the last murder took place, it was believed to be the possibility of a bad joke of some comical stupid genre. Indeed, eighteen months without there having been a murder has returned the neighborhood to a somewhat quiet and relaxed air, the surveillance that in a moment of true terror of the public held the police, specially enhanced for the Whitechapel district and even the legendary law enforcement officials (policemen). The silence in the streets of London is now interrupted by a noise more than well-known: that produced by the heels of the policemen who stroll along the sidewalks in front of the houses. Strangely, rare is the day, that everyone in your neighbourhood does not have to come and call late at night to inquire about the front door being left open, or if you have gone to bed without closing a window , which is usually caused by the carelessness of some individuals who return home after drinking in a public house (tavern) and are drunk from a few pints of beer, which can disrupt the head. Well, the terror of the public and the cries of the press state that the Whitechapel Police who wear rubber-soled shoes still make noise when walking and could not get to surprise the monster that had so often mocked their surveillance. And indeed, there was reason for alarm, because even though the class of women victims of Jack the Ripper belonged to the dregs of society, you can not leave unpunished the abominable crimes of that bloody tiger which has so far defied police surveillance. Since the month of December 1887, last Christmas week, have died in the neighborhood of Whitechapel, ten women of loose life, in circumstances shrouded in impenetrable mystery to this day, and five of them in the short period of eight weeks. Moreover, two of them in one night. Namely:
1. In December 1887, Mrs. Smith, 45, was found dead of a stab wound.
2. August 7, 1888, Mrs. Turner, 35, murdered. The body was found with thirty-nine stab wounds over the whole body.
3. Mrs. Nicholls, slaughtered and the corpse mutilated. He had almost severed the head from the trunk and split the abdomen.
4. September 7, 1888, Mrs. Chapman, murdered and mutilated, 47 years old, her throat cut, stab-stitched and without matrix, which was torn.
5. September 30, 1888, Elizabeth Stride, 44 years old, throat cut, no mutilation, no doubt for fear of being surprised and not having time to flee if they continued.
6. On the same day September 30, 1888, Mrs. Eddowes, 44 years, beheaded and the corpse mutilated. Appeared not only heartless, but without matrix and without a kidney. The face had several cross-cuts. A piece of the apron of the victim was a few steps away with signs of having been used to clean the hands of the murderer. Half of the kidney was sent by mail to the chairman of the vigilance committee.
7. November 9, 1888, Mary Jane Kelly, 24, was found murdered in her room and her body so horribly mutilated, which in addition to being slaughtered to the point of having completely severed the head from the trunk, had cut her chest and removed the entrails and placed them on the table in the room. The face was cut on both sides and the nose and ears were almost hanging and the flesh from the thigh separated to leave the bone exposed.
8. July 17, 1889, Alice McKenzie, murdered and mutilated.
9. September 10, 1889. Another woman whose body was found maimed in the street.
10. The unfortunate Frances Coles, 24, who was the last victim, killed on the night of February 13, 1891, between two and two and a quarter in the morning.

Source: Correspondencia De Espana, 22 February, 1891, No. 17