Police Surveillance On A West End Home

Jekyll And Hyde.
A Remarkable Theory as to the Whitechapel Assassin.

THE POLICE HAVE A CLEW.
At Least They Are Watching a Man Who They Think Was Driven to Crime by the Influence of Stevenson's Remarkable Novel.

LONDON, Oct. 9. - I am informed by a gentleman who stands in close relations at Scotland Yard that several of the leading detectives have thrown over the clews and ideas heretofore taken up and are working on an entirely new and most remarkable theory. This theory is that the horribles crimes which have so disturbed the city and interested the entire world are the result of a case in real life of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Furthermore, the detectives believe that the existence of such a case is directly attributable to the excitement and morbid reflections caused by a mind dwelling upon the circumstances detailed in the story and play just named. Parallels are ingeniously drawn between the acts of the Whitechapel monster, who not only kills but mutilates his victims, and the frenzied brutality with which the Mr. Hyde of the fiction stamps upon the girl, whom he knocks down and injures in the deserted and echoing streets at midnight, as told in the first part of the book. Not only have the police been brought to this astounding position, through what they claim is direct evidence corroboratory of such a theory, but they are industriously working with a particular individual in view, and they believe that they are truly upon the right track. If it be so, London is promised for a not far distant future a sensation of such magnitude that the tragedies leading to it will sink almost into insignificance beside it. My informant tells me that a well known, prosperous resident of Grosvenor square is the man thus under police surveillance. He moves in the best of society and is completely removed from derogatory suspicion among those who are his daily associates. This man, however, as I am assured, has been tracked and traced, until it is absolutely established that he does lead a double life. This Dr. Jekyll lives for the eminently respectable world in which he moves. The other self, like Mr. Hyde, lives mysteriously, revoltingly. This latter self has been tracked to the Whitechapel district, and has been seen, in its form of a man, skulking stealthily about dark corners and alleys, or stalking moodily through deserted side streets. This duality of life and conduct established it remains, of course, to positively connect the subject with the deeds of which he is suspected, and this, at least, one leading detective has hopes of accomplishing. Of course there are some who scoff at the sensational theory, and allege that at the worst the Grosvenor square Dr. Jekyll visits Whitechapel in curiosity and perhaps with a desire to apprehend the murderer other than to commit a murder. But I send the information for what it is worth. The story is certainly interesting and striking, and not half so improbable as many of the absurd clews that the police have followed in these cases. Great secrecy is maintained by the police in the matter, and only very remote references to it have been published here.

Source: The Ogdensburg Journal, Ogdensburg, N.Y., Wednesday October 10, 1888