Double Event From Spanish Papers

From Everywhere
The crimes in London

The recent printing of horror produced in London by the four murders in the brief space of a month had been committed in that part of the great metropolis, when at any moment the news was expected that the author or authors of such atrocities had been discovered, being reassured again, the horror that has occured in the neighborhood of Whitechapel, monitored these days by a veritable army of policemen, had been perpetrated in the brief space of an hour and in separate places a kilometer and a half apart. Two new crimes, committed against simiar victims and for other reasons, the murders of the unfortunates Nichols and Annie Chapman. To understand the panic, because no other name can be given, which has gripped the residents of Whitechapel, enough to know the details of the recent murders. On Saturday, between twelve-thirty and one in the morning, a man who was driving his cart into the courtyard of a house in Berner Street, saw near the sidewalk a bundle in the soil. He approached, and full of horror noticed that it was a woman lying in a pool of blood. He immediately made the authorities aware, and they formed a cordon of policemen in a fairly large radius. The corpse was still warm, and according to doctors who came to the scene of the crime, thought that it had been committed moments earlier. The murderer, if he is the same one as Annie Chapman and Nichols, had not had time to maul his victim, who appeared with her throat cut, but not further than the neck wound, which had nearly taken the head off the trunk. It was then one in the morning. While doctors had not completed their examination of the corpse, the police had just begun their research, having earlier secured the outputs of the neighboring streets, when there arose a feeling of intense fear from the crowd, because at this time in the crowded street the news spread that in Mitre Square, about a thousand feet away, another woman had been murdered. This time the criminal had been unable to complete his work. The second victim had mutilations similar to those of the body of Annie Chapman. It is not possible to explain the confusion that the fever to find the murderer came to staff and onlookers. What certainly seems incredible is the statement of the policemen responsible for monitoring this site, who claim to have passed one and a half without seeing anything, and that upon returning at two and a quarter, he stumbled upon the corpse. At any rate, the murderer in the mystery continues, preparing to fulfill the promise made that fateful few days ago, in which appeared written on the wall of a house in Whitechapel: five more women, and then I give myself up. The local residents have offered ten thousand pounds to put the police on the track of the criminal. Several meetings were agreed to ask the cooperation of the Interior Minister, Mr. Mathews, the head of Home Security, and certainly can be assured that if he is not taken soon on a resolution that somehow satisfies the general public and calm the alarm, we will soon have news of other murders. The organization of the police has to change radically. Today it is an army commanded by military veterans, who have proved their value in the field of battle, but who are not familiar with or just know the muddy bottom, the centers of vice and crime in the big city. Hence the lack of intelligent direction is evident in the work of the policemen and it's probable that this is a natural consequence of the inability of the leaders. Now it can not claim a lack of numbers. In Mitre Square, the service is organized so that every twelve minutes an agent walks through the site where the last victim appeared mutilated. And yet there is not the slightest indication of the place where the murderer is hiding. If this is the case, as seems practical in surgical operations, more reason to find him soon, because that fact will attend only one out of every thousand people. Today we can say that the great mass of capital has been in search of the criminal, and this makes us hope that the capture of the horrible monster that has sown terror among the inhabitants of Whitechapel, will return some calm to the minds and satisfy the opinion, rightly outraged by these heinous crimes.

Source: La Republica, 9 October, 1888, No. 1468