Description Of The Ripper

Jack the Ripper
by
Jack T. Grain.

I have the dubious honor, not in the interest of dropping names, although I know his name, and also how he looks, as brainy as our police, they have him under lock and key and the most saddest woodcut images are pictures depicting the four winds scattered.
Here is his portrait and description:

Stature/Build: Medium.
Height/Length: 5 feet, 6 inches (Eng.).
Face: Round.
Eyes: gray-brown
Nose: small, but slightly bent.
Mouth: just.
Teeth: Healthy.
Beard: Great black mustache, with curled ends.
Hair: black.

I must say that after I studied this document, a "bad quarter of an hour" I've been through, and I absolutely would not be surprised if one fine day a servant of Lady Justice looked at me with the words entered in the name of the Queen, and me, until after adoption of the alibi, which only the magistrate the following day could happen at the expense of the empire with a furnished room and provided a rich dinner (what a divine piece of advertising: twenty-four hours later an innocent man convicted - to the public readership - in the evenings are quickly written short stories - overnight printing - which it issued during the day - in two hours time 50,000 copies are sold - mountains of gold - fame - a life of luxury to the last hour - statue in Trafalgar Square - Amen!)

But seriously, I'm not the only one to whom the description strikes, and even last week a young journalist, who was at the funeral of Kelly, the sixth victim, was arrested and detained for 24 hours, because the people and an over-eager agent believed him to be the notorious Jack the Ripper. The papers therefore rightly claim that the double murder has created a panic, making one the facts, the other the consequences, because the police in its efforts to catch the murderer promised to pay 1,200 pounds and related to reap the rewards, but arrests indiscriminately, and not to discuss whether there are reasonable grounds that exist to suspect the person. Besides the outset, the government, the Minister of the Interior at the top tried to ensure that Jack continued undisturbed, and that his discovery was impossible. Then, immediately after the first murder, it was insisted that a reward on the head of the guilty would be put, and when the Minister said that no terms could be found for doing so, the money was however gathered, from the exhibition of the rich and the poor in the East End of London. But even the gold that unlocks gates and other fortifications appeared powerless. Murder after murder occured - the second, third, fourth, all by the same hand, the same ghastly manner practiced, in Whitechapel rose horror at its best, amateur detectives crossed the streets, we held meetings, there were safety committee's appointed , men volunteered to dress as women to lure the monster. The poor working women, at night or early in the morning at her who were going to their workplaces, did not dare to venture unescorted in the streets in Whitechapel, and only the conviction that hostile demonstrations against the government are necessary, the murderer would find more opportunities to remain undetected brings fearful emotions. And the wretched, poor people in a pool of anxiety and fear, excitement and dismay moaned that the murderous monster would deliver, while everywhere petitions to the government were to request the revival of the old system according to which the Queen promises a full pardon to the sentinel who was not directly complicit - the minister sits with his hands in his lap and lets the petitioners deal with his secretary in bunches who sends away all of them who came down: that the old system and the sentinel of staff to safeguard it had proved unsustainable and it had therefore decided not to bring it back into operation.
But Charles Matthews, the minister, would soon be smashing his own windows. The Mitre Square and Berner Street murders again poured boiling oil into the blazing fire and still the papers, discussions, and parliamentary debates were filled with details of these horrid atrocities. When the killing of Mary Jane Kelly, who in broad daylight was not killed on the streets but in her own room and the terrible way in which she had been maimed and killed, even the minister had turned soft. A day after the murder, the maligned system restored honor and tremendous placards with the words "Murder - Free pardon" covered the walls in all parts of town. It seemed that the wish of the people was fulfilled, because in fact it was the government action at work, and the pardon covered only the sixth - and so far last, murder, and indirect accomplices of the five other horrors were not included therein. Is it surprising that Jack (the Ripper, I mean) after a decree in his fits of laughter, enjoys full freedom in practicing and the way he has brought the public's attention to a new work on December 10 ? Jack is above all a practical man - he does not play with the system and the Minister - his slogan is - I maintain! ordered in his manner, time and place. The first murder was on August 6, the second on September 7, the third on October 8, after an interlude till the end of October, the sixth on November 9 - on Lord Mayors day - to the seventh, heaven preserve us from the seventh, but Caveat consules! December 10 is upon us. Last time, I asked a doctor who had seen the mutilated bodies what he thought of the Ripper's skill as a surgeon, and he answered me: He is particularly convenient because in the cutting room we have 3 minutes, with all amenities, the finest tools and with the lifeless body, completely stripped, the operation is in hand, while the killer uses just ten minutes and under conditions of the most unfavorable nature: imperfect instruments - victim dressed, half living body - the street - the rush - the fear of discovery. Would you Doctor, I went on, give your account of the daring operations of the Ripper, ie, were the dissections made by the same method you employ? Not exactly, a skillful operator cuts, but carves not as the Ripper; the slices of the murderer are not competent, or if ye better grip, not neatly enough accomplished - although they prove that they are done by someone with the anatomy of the human body par excellence and who understands how to handle the knife. Ergo, a medical student or a vet, for example? I am in the middle. The first is possible, even probable - but you know friend: is that things which we believe leads to nothing, as long as you are not the killer.

Source: De Groene Amsterdammer, Weekblad Voor Nederland, 9 December 1888, No. 598, Page 5

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Source: The National Police Gazette: New York, December 1, 1888, Page 16

Nah!
Few inches shorter,blue eyes and straight nose.
Only photo I have of him is partially obscured by beard,however an oblong face rather than round.No mo' at that time.Decades before the murders.
Left ear seems "cauliflowered". Indicates right handed bully in earlier years.Explains partial deafness.,,,Stride murder.
Confident he was born left handed.

THE LONDON HORRORS.
HELPLESSNESS OF THE POLICE.

SIR. C. WARREN'S RESIGNATION.
THE LATEST VICTIM.

"JACK, THE RIPPER."
THE GOVERNMENT AND A REWARD.

PORTRAIT OF THE SUPPOSED MURDERER.

LONDON, November 12.

Sir C. Warren's resignation was due to the attacks which have been made upon him by the newspapers in consequence of the helplessness of the police with regard to the recent murders. He had also been officially censured for writing an article in Murray's Magazine defending the department.
An open verdict has been returned at the inquest on the last victim of the Whitechapel murders.
The police and other people continue to receive letters signed "Jack, the Ripper," admitting the murders and threatening more shortly.
Mr. Matthews, Home Secretary, in reply to a question in the House of Commons, reiterated his refusal to offer a Government reward for the apprehension of the murderer.

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The above is a sketch of the supposed murderer, made from the descriptions supplied to the London police by witnesses who saw the man who was last seen in the company of the woman, Elizabeth Stride, shortly before her murdered body was found. The London Daily Telegraph, from which our woodcut is taken, says: - "Three men, William Marshall, James Brown, both labourers, and Police-constable Smith, have already stated before the coroner that a man and woman did stand in Fairclough-street, at the corner of Berner-street, for some time - that is, from a quarter to twelve o'clock, as stated by Marshall, to a quarter before one a.m., the hour mentioned by Brown. The policeman appears to have seen the same pair in Berner-street at half-past twelve. The evidence of another witness has yet to be taken, and this man seems to have had a better opportunity of observing the appearance of the stranger than any other individual, for it was at his shop that the grapes which other witnesses saw near the body were bought. This witness, Matthew Packer, has furnished information to the Scotland-yard authorities, and it was considered so important that he was examined in the presence of Sir Charles Warren himself. He has also identified the body of Elizabeth Stride as that of the woman who accompanied the man who came to his shop not long before midnight on Saturday. In accordance with the general description furnished to the police by Packer and others, a number of sketches were prepared, portraying men of different nationalities, ages, and ranks of life. These were submitted to Packer, who unhesitatingly selected the one here reproduced. Further, in order to remove all doubt, and, if possible, to obtain a still better visible guidance, Packer was shown a considerable collection of photographs, and from these, after careful inspection, he picked out one which corresponded in all important respects to the sketch. It was noticed that Packer, as also another important witness, at once rejected the faces of men of purely sensuous type, and that they thus threw aside the portraits of several noted American criminals. Both witnesses inclined to the belief that the man's age was not more than thirty, in which estimate they were supported by the police-constable, who guessed him to be twenty-eight. If the impressions of two men, whom, it may be supposed, have actually conversed with the alleged murderer, be correct, and their recollection of his features can be relied upon, then, in their opinion, at all events, the above sketch furnishes a reasonably accurate representation of his general appearance as described and adopted by them.

Source: The New Zealand Herald, Thursday November 15, 1888