Annie Chapman - Wife, Mother, Victim: The Life & Death of a Victim of Jack The Ripper

by Covell, Mike

  The New York Times, a newspaper published in New York, USA, featured the following, dated September 9th 1888,

  OLD WORLD NEWS BY CABLE. “Whitechapel Startled by a Fourth Murder” from our own correspondent. London, Sept. 8.– Not even during the riots and fog of February, 1886, have I seen London so thoroughly excited as it is to-night. The Whitechapel fiend murdered his fourth victim this morning and still continues undetected, unseen, and unknown. There is a panic in Whitechapel which will instantly extend to other districts should he change his locality, as the four murders are in everybody's mouth. The papers are full of them, and nothing else is talked of. The latest murder is exactly like its predecessor. The victim was a woman street walker of the lowest class. She had no money, having been refused lodgings shortly before because she lacked 8d. Her throat was cut so completely that everything but the spine was severed, and the body was ripped up, all the viscera being scattered about. The murder in all its details was inhuman to the last degree, and, like the others, could have been the work only of a bloodthirsty beast in human shape. It was committed in the most daring manner possible. The victim was found in the back yard of a house in Hanbury-street at 6 o'clock. At 5:15 the yard was empty. To get there the murderer must have led her through a passageway in the house full of sleeping people, and murdered her within a few yards of several people sleeping by open windows. To get away, covered with blood as he must have been, he had to go back through the passageway and into a street filled with early market people, Spitalfields being close by. Nevertheless, not a sound was heard and no trace of the murderer exists. All day long Whitechapel has been wild with excitement. The four murders have been committed within a gunshot of each other, but the detectives have no clue. The London police and detective force is probably the stupidest in the world. The man called “Leather Apron,” of whom I cabled you, is still at large. He is well known, but they have not been able to arrest him, and he will doubtless do another murder in a day or so. One clue discovered this morning by a reporter may develop into something. An hour and a half after the murder a man with bloody hands, torn shirt, and a wild look entered a public house half a mile from the scene of the murder. The police have a good description of him and are trying to trace it. The assassin, however, is as cunning as he is daring. Both in this and in the last murder he took but a few minutes to murder his victim in a spot which had been examined but a quarter of an hour before. Both the character of the deed and the cool cunning alike exhibit the qualities of a monomaniac. Such a series of murders has not been known in London for a hundred years. There is a bare possibility that it may turn out to be something like a case of Jekyll and Hyde, as Joseph Taylor, a perfectly reliable man, who saw the suspected person this morning in a shabby dress, swears that he has seen the same man coming out of a lodging house in Wilton-street very differently dressed. However that may be, the murders are certainly the most ghastly and mysterious known to English police history. What adds to the weird effect they exert on the London mind is the fact that they occur while everybody is talking about Mansfield's “Jekyll and Hyde” at the Lyceum.

  Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper, dated September 9th 1888, featured the following

  YESTERDAY'S WHITECHAPEL TRAGEDY. LATEST PARTICULARS. Down to an early hour this (Sunday) morning, the police had not succeeded in tracing the murderer of the woman Chapman, whose body was found shockingly mutilated under the circumstances reported in our seventh page. A number of supposed clues had been followed up during the day and night, but without any result. Some rings were found at a pawnbroker's which it was at first thought had belonged to the deceased, but shortly before midnight the police proved this to be unfounded. Mrs. Fiddymont, the wife of the landlord of the Prince Albert, Stewart-street, Spitalfields, states that she has no doubt but that she will be able to identify the man who was seen in that tavern early yesterday morning with marks of blood upon him. A post-mortem examination of the body of the murdered woman was made last night, and it is expected that the inquest will be opened on Monday. During yesterday afternoon the occupants of the house adjoining the scene of the murder charged an admission fee of one penny to people anxious to view the spot where the body was found. Several hundreds of people availed themselves of the opportunity. As the day advanced and the Jewish East-end crowds congregated around the scene of the murder, and its neighbourhood became more leavened with English working men, the excitement grew; and, unfortunately, owing to the rumours about the individual “Leather Apron,” took a rather nasty turn. Bodies of young roughs raised cries against the Jews, and many of the disreputable and jabbering women sided with them. This state of things caused several stand-up fights, thus putting a further and serious strain on the police, many of whom began to express their fears of rioting. Describing the scene in the district last night, a correspondent says :- The excitement in Hanbury-street and the surrounding neighbourhood still continues, and extra police have been employed to keep a course for the traffic of the evening, but in this they are very much hampered by noisy crowds of men and boys crying “Down with the Jews.” Sometimes there is a show of resistance, but the strong force of police on the spot are equal to the occasion, and promptly separate assailants. Just as our correspondent was writing a gang of young vagabonds marched down Hanbury-street shouting “Down with the Jews!” “It was a Jew who did it!” “No Englishman did it!” After these the police were prompt, and whenever there was a stand they quickly, and without ceremony, dispersed them. There have been many fights, but the police are equal to it, as men are held in reserve under cover, and when there is a row they rush out and soon establish order. As the night advances the disorderly mobs who openly express antipathy to the Jews increase, and a request has been forwarded to headquarters for extra men. This request has been promptly attended to, and men have been sent.

  Elsewhere in the same edition of the Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper, dated September 9th 1888, featured the following

  NOTES OF LATEST NEWS. THE EAST-END HORROR. It would be necessary to go back to the cold-blooded atrocities and remorseless cruelties of Bishop and Williams, in 1831, to find a parallel to the thrill of horror which went through the metropolis yesterday, when it became known that a fourth woman had been found murdered and shockingly mutilated in Whitechapel. Like the three previous victims, the poor creature, who is believed to be named Chapman, though passing as Annie Sievy, belonged to the unfortunate class; and her remains were found in a place open to the public, thus presenting marked similarity to the previous cases. The tragedy, however, is surrounded by circumstances of increasing terror on account of the fiendish barbarity displayed. Murder in any case is a terrible thing, but the details of the latest fearful crime at the East-end of London are ghastly enough to make the strongest shudder. There is no wonder that the whole neighbourhood is intensely excited, and that something very like a panic has seized the women of the district who are compelled to be abroad at night or in the early hours of the morning. Although nothing has been discovered to throw a light upon the startling succession of mysterious murders, it may be trusted that, now the police have been thoroughly roused, the monster, or monsters, will speedily be hunted down. The foul nature of the crimes seem to point to the acts of a madman, but the amount of cunning with which they have been perpetrated necessarily causes them to be regarded with unparalleled terror. ANOTHER MURDER IN WHITECHAPEL. A FOURTH VICTIM OF AN UNKNOWN ASSASSIN. FIENDISH MUTILATION OF A WOMAN'S BODY. A fourth murder, of a most brutal nature, has been committed in Whitechapel. At a spot only a very few hundred yards from where the mangled body of the poor woman Nicholls was found just a week ago, the body of another woman, mutilated and horribly disfigured, was found at half-past five yesterday morning. She was lying in the back yard of 29, Hanbury-street, Spitalfields, a house occupied by Mr. Richardson, a packing-case maker. As late as five o'clock yesterday morning it is said the woman was drinking in a public-house near at hand called the Three Bells. Near the body was discovered a rough piece of iron shaped
like a knife. The wounds upon the poor woman were more fearful than those found upon the body of the woman Nicholls, who was buried on Thursday. The throat was cut in a most horrible manner and the stomach terribly mutilated. The first discovery of the body was made by John Davis, living on the top floor of 29, Hanbury-street, in the yard of which the body was found. Mr. Davis was crossing the yard between five and six when he saw a horrible-looking mass lying in the corner, partly concealed by the steps. He instantly made for the station and notified the police, without touching the body. Meantime Mrs. Richardson, an old lady sleeping on the first floor front, was aroused by her grandson, Charles Cooksley, who looked out of one of the back windows and screamed that there was a dead body in the corner. Mrs. Richardson's description makes this murder even more horrible than any of its predecessors. The victim was lying on her back with her legs outstretched. Her throat was cut from ear to ear. Her clothes were pushed up above her waist and her legs bare. The abdomen was exposed, the woman having been ripped up from groin to breast-bone as before. Not only this, but the viscera had been pulled out and scattered in all directions, the heart and liver being placed behind her head, and the remainder along her side. No more horrible sight ever met a human eye, for she was covered with blood, and lying in a pool of it. Mr. and Mrs. Davis occupy the upper story of 29, Hanbury-street, the house consisting of two storeys. When Mr. Davis found the woman she was lying on her back close up to the flight of steps leading into the yard. The throat was cut open in a fearful manner - so deep, in fact, that the murderer, evidently thinking that he had severed the head from the body, tied a handkerchief round it so as to keep it on. It was also found that the body had been ripped open and disembowelled, the heart and abdominal viscera lying by the side. The fiendish work was completed by the murderer tying a portion of the entrails round the victim's neck. There was no blood on the clothes. Hanbury-street is a long street which runs from Baker's-row to Commercial-street. It consists partly of shops and partly of private houses. In the house in question, in the front room, on the ground floor, Mr. Harderman carries on the business of a seller of catsmeat. At the back of the premises are those of Mr. Richardson, who is a packing-case maker. The other occupants of the house are lodgers. One of the lodgers, named Robert Thompson, who is a carman, went out of the house at half-past three in the morning, but heard no noise. Two girls, who also live in the house, were talking in the passage until half-past 12 with young men, and it is believed that they were the last occupants of the house to retire to rest. It seems that the crime was committed soon after five. At that hour the woman and the man, who in all probability was her murderer, were seen drinking together in the Bells, Brick-lane. But though the murder was committed at this late hour, the murderer - acting, as in the other case, silently and stealthily - managed to make his escape. On the wall near where the body was found there was, according to one reporter, subsequently discovered written in chalk :- “FIVE: 15 MORE, AND THEN I GIVE MYSELF UP.” On the place being subsequently visited by our representative this was not to be seen. THE BODY IDENTIFIED. The woman's name, the police found, is Annie Sievy, and her age is about 45. She is five feet high, has fair brown wavy hair, blue eyes, and, like Mary Ann Nicholls, has two teeth missing. One peculiarity of her features is a large, flat kind of nose. Her clothing was old and dirty, and nothing was found in her pockets except part of an envelope bearing the seal of the Sussex regiment. For the last nine months she had been sleeping at a lodging-house, 35, Dorset-street, Spitalfields, and she was there as recently as two o'clock yesterday morning eating some potatoes. She had not, however, the money to pay for her bed, and at two o'clock she left with the remark to the keeper of the place, “I'll soon be back again; I'll soon get the money for my doss,” almost the very words Mary Ann Nicholls used to the companion she met in Whitechapel-road, at half-past two on the morning of her death. A companion identified her soon after she had been taken to the mortuary as “Dark Annie,” and as she came from the mortuary gate, bitterly crying, said between her tears, “I knowed her; I kissed her poor cold face.” The large flat kind of nose of the deceased is so striking a peculiarity that the police hope to be able to fully trace the movements of the deceased by means of it. The clothing of the dead woman, like that of most of her class who ply their trade in this quarter of London, was old and dirty. In the dress of the dead woman two farthings were found, so brightly polished as to lead to the belief that they were intended to be passed as half-sovereigns, and it is probable that they were given to her by the murderer as an inducement for her to accompany him. THE DEAD WOMAN'S CAREER. Late yesterday, after the deceased had been formally identified as Annie Sievy, a witness came forward and stated that her real name was Annie Chapman. She came from Windsor, and had friends residing at Vauxhall. She had been married, her husband being an army pensioner, who had allowed her 10s. a week, but he died a twelvemonth ago; and, the pension ceasing, she became one of the hideous women infesting Whitechapel. She lived for a time with a man named Sievy, and took his name. According to another authority she used to live with a sieve maker in Dorset-street, and was known to her acquaintance as “Annie Sievy,” a nickname derived from her paramour's trade. SUPPOSED CLUE TO THE MURDERER. Mrs. Fiddymont, wife of the proprietor of the Prince Albert public-house, better known as the “Clean House,” at the corner of Brushfield and Stewart streets, half a mile from the scene of the murder, states that at seven o'clock yesterday morning she was standing in the bar talking with another woman, a friend, in the first compartment. Suddenly came into the middle compartment a man whose rough appearance frightened her. He had a brown stiff hat, a dark coat and no waistcoat. He came in with his hat down over his eyes, and with his face partly concealed, asked for half a pint of four' ale. She drew the ale, and meanwhile looked at him through the mirror at the back of the bar. As soon as he saw the woman in the other compartment watching him he turned his back, and got the partition between himself and her. The thing that struck Mrs. Fiddymont particularly was the fact that there were blood spots on the back of his right hand. This, taken in connection with his appearance, caused her uneasiness. She also noticed that his shirt was torn. As soon as he had drunk the ale, which he swallowed at a gulp, he went out. Her friend went out also to watch the man. Her friend is Mrs. Mary Chappell, who lives at 28 Stewart-street, nearby. Her story corroborates Mrs. Fiddymont's. When the man came in the expression of his eyes caught her attention, his look was so startling and terrifying. It frightened Mrs. Fiddymont so that she requested her to stay. He wore a light blue check shirt, which was torn badly, into rags in fact, on the right shoulder. There was a narrow streak of blood under his right ear, parallel with the edge of his shirt. There was also dried blood between the fingers of his hand. When he went out she slipped out of the other door, and watched him as he went towards Bishopsgate-street. She called Joseph Taylor's attention to him, and Joseph Taylor followed him. Joseph Taylor is a builder at 22, Stewart-street. He states that as soon as his attention was attracted to the man he followed him. He walked rapidly, and came alongside him, but did not speak to him. The man was rather thin, about 5ft. 8in. high, and apparently between 40 and 50 years of age. He had a shabby genteel look, pepper and salt trowsers which fitted badly, and dark coat. When Taylor came alongside him the man glanced at him, and Taylor's description of the look was, “His eyes were as wild as a hawk's.” Taylor is a reliable man, well known throughout the neighbourhood. The man walked, he says, holding his coat together at the top. He had a nervous and frightened way about him. He wore a ginger-coloured moustache and had short sandy hair. Taylor ceased to follow him, but watched him as far as “Dirty Dick's,” in Halfmoon-street, where he became lost to view. THEORY OF THE TRAGEDY. One correspondent says :- It was evident at a glance that the murder had been done where the body lay. The enormous quantity of blood and the splash on the fence, coupled with the total absence of stains elsewhere, made this clear. It was also clear that the man had decoyed the poor woman into the yard, and murdered
her as she lay where she was found. The passage through the house by which the yard was reached is 25ft. long and 3ft. wide. Its floor is bare, and nobody can pass along it without making some noise. The murderer and his victim failed to awaken anybody, however, though people were sleeping only a few feet away. Both front and back door are open all night, and there was no difficulty in reaching the yard. There was a story that a bloody knife had been found in the yard, but this was not true. The only unusual thing about the yard except the dead woman was the fact that the rusty padlock on the door of the shed had been broken. Not a sound seems to have been made by the woman when attacked. Mrs. Bell, an old lady who lives next door, sleeps by an open window, not 20ft. from the spot, and is certain that no noise was made, as she sleeps very lightly. The probability is that the woman by five o'clock was stupidly drunk, as she was well on when Donovan, the deputy, last saw her. In this case she could have been easily kept silent until she was unable from loss of blood to speak. IMPORTANT STATEMENTS. The man Davis, who discovered the body, was interviewed. He is a carman, employed by Mr. Wisdom, a fruiterer and greengrocer in Leadenhall-market. His story is that shortly before six a.m. he had occasion to go into the back, and as soon as he opened the door he saw the woman's body lying on the ground. The face was deluged with blood to such an extent that he did not notice the wound in the throat. Her petticoats were turned up, and the lower portion of her body was quite visible. Davis, who is an old and somewhat feeble-looking man, says he only stayed to notice that her bowels were protruding, and that then he dashed straight away to the police-station - about a couple of hundred yards from the scene of the murder - and there gave information to the police. He did not even wait to rouse any of the other inmates of the house, who only became acquainted with the fact that the ghastly tragedy had been committed after the arrival of the police. Mrs. Elizabeth Bell, of 31, Hanbury-street, stated :- “I have been living here some time, and I wish I had never come. Such a terrible sight is enough to shock any woman with the hardest heart. The house is open all night next door, and this poor creature was taken into the yard, and butchered, no doubt, by the same man who committed the others. We were all roused at six o'clock this morning by Adam Osborne calling out, `For God's sake get up; here's a woman murdered.' We all got up and huddled on our clothes, and ongoing into the yard saw the poor creature lying by the steps in the next yard, with her clothes torn and her body gashed in a dreadful manner. The people in the house next door were all asleep, I believe, and knew nothing of the matter until the police came and roused them up. I cannot be sure if anybody in the house knew of the murder, or took part in it, but I believe not. The passage is open all night, and anyone can get in, and no doubt that is what happened. All the other tenants of the house gave the same opinion, and those in the house of Mr. Richardson, at 29, where the murder occurred, state that they heard no cries of”Murder" or “Help,” nor anything unusual during the night. Mr. E. Waldron, the proprietor of the Three Bells, standing on the corner of Spitalfields market, and which opens early for the convenience of those who bring their goods from the country, was sought out, and one of his assistants was able to state :- “A woman did call in here about five o'clock. She was very poorly dressed, having no bodice to her skirt. She was middle-aged. She just had something to drink, when a man called for her. He just popped his head in the door and retired immediately afterwards. He had on a little skull cap, and was, as far as I could see, without a coat. But he gave me no opportunity of seeing him. I think, however, I should know the face again, and I think I would also know the woman. The description of the woman corresponds to a certain extent, especially with regard to age, hair, and clothing, with that of the victim of to-day.” James Wiltshire and Alfred Henry Gunthorpe, two milkmen, in the employ of the Dairy Supply company, Museum-street, Bloomsbury, were driving in separate carts through Hanbury-street early yesterday morning. Wiltshire passed that thoroughfare at 20 minutes to six. He says, “There was no bother then, and no sign that a murder had been committed. There were people about, but I did not notice anyone in particular.” Alfred Henry Gunthorpe passed through part of Hanbury-street into Brick-lane, shortly after, and he saw nothing of a suspicious character. John Thimbleby, coppersmith in Hanbury's brewery, went to the Commercial-street-station at one o'clock yesterday to say that at six o'clock that morning a man attracted his particular attention before he heard of the murder. He was hurrying from Hanbury-street, below where the murder took place, into Brick-lane. He was walking, almost running, and had a peculiar gait, his knees not bending when he walked. (This is a peculiarity of “Leather Apron's” gait). He was dressed in a dark stiff hat and cutaway coat, reaching to his knees. His face was clean shaven, and he seemed about 30 years old. Thimbleby says he can identify him. A representative went to the Bell, in Brick-lane, where, as gossip goes, “Dark Annie” was seen with the man supposed to be her murderer. The barmaid said she opened the place at five o'clock, as is customary on a Saturday morning, as Spitalfields market is in the near vicinity. She was too busy almost to notice whom she served. She might have served the woman; indeed she had been told by those who knew her that she had, but she had no recollection of it, and certainly could not say whether the unfortunate creature was accompanied by a man. Davis, the lodger, who discovered the body, immediately communicated with the police at Commercial-street station, and Inspector Chandler and several constables arrived on the scene in a short time, when they found the woman in the condition described. An excited crowd gathered in front of Mrs. Richardson's house, and also around the mortuary in Old Montagu-street, to which place the body was quickly removed. Several persons who were lodging in the house, and who were seen in the vicinity when the body was found, were taken to the Commercial-street station and closely examined, especially the women last with the deceased. Timothy Donovan, deputy at the lodging-house, 35, Dorset-street, interviewed by a reporter, said the woman came to the place at between half-past one and a quarter to two yesterday morning the worse for drink - in fact, she was “very drunk.” She went downstairs to the common kitchen, and when the deputy sent down and asked for the money for her bed, she said she had not sufficient. She came upstairs and said, “Jim, I've been in the infirmary. I'm going out. I shan't be long.” John Edwards, the watchman, went out after her and saw her go in the direction of Brushfield. Before she went to the lodging-house on Friday night she had not been seen there since the Sunday before. Last Saturday afternoon she came to the lodging-house with a man about 5ft. 6in., with a dark moustache and short beard, and dressed in the clothes of a labouring man. “He was not `Leather Apron,' ” the deputy said. “Do you know him?” asked the reporter. “Yes, I ought to.” was the answer; “I chucked him down the stairs; he tried to murder a woman here.” Coming back to the new horror, Donovan said the man who came to the place with the woman Sievy on Saturday had come with her to the lodging-house every Saturday for the last six weeks. He used to stop with her at the lodging-house till Monday evening. The woman had spoken about him, and said he was a pensioner. Frederick Stevens, a young man, lodging at 35, Dorset-street, stated that deceased did not leave the place until one o'clock. He had drunk a pint of beer with her at half-past 12. She was not very well, having been in the casual ward of the Whitechapel infirmary from Wednesday night till Friday morning. Her injuries were due to a quarrel on Monday with another woman, who kicked her in the breast, making a painful wound. Frederick Simpson, staying at the same lodging-house, said he had known the woman well for two years. She mentioned the fact that she had a son - a little boy - in a school at Windsor, and a daughter 14 years old travelling with some performing troupe in France. She has relatives at Vauxhall, where she went that night, “to get some money,” as she told the other lodgers at “Dorset-chambers.” “They gave me 5d.,” she said. On visiting the house next door to the tragedy, 27, our representative saw Mr. Albert Cadosen, a carpenter, who resides there and works in Shoe-lane, Fleet-street. He says: I was not very well in the night and I went o
ut into the back yard about 25 minutes past five. It was just getting daylight, and as I passed to the back of the yard I heard a sound as of two people up in the corner of the next yard. On coming back I heard some words which I did not catch, but I heard a woman say “No.” Then I heard a kind of scuffle going on, and someone seemed to fall heavily on to the ground against the wooden partition which divided the yard, at the spot where the body was afterwards found. As I thought it was some of the people belonging to the house, I passed into my own room, and took no further notice. ATTEMPT TO LYNCH TWO MEN. Two men passing through Brick-lane yesterday morning were denounced by the crowd as the murderers, and were attacked. They called upon the police for protection, and were taken to Bethnal-green and there treated as prisoners. As, however, they made clear statements of their movements, which could not be gainsaid, they were allowed to go. This gave rise to an excited rumour of two arrests. WHAT SCOTLAND YARD SAYS. The police at Scotland-yard, on being sought out, declared that the statement that a leather apron was found by the side of the murdered woman was an error. The body was found in the yard weltering in blood. The injuries were of too horrible a character to admit of particular description. Colonel Mounsell, chief constable of the district, visited the locality of the murder early in the forenoon, and subsequently inspected the body of the victim in the presence of the local police-officers and the divisional surgeon. The only foundation for the story of the leather apron is that an apron of this character was hanging on a nail in the passage leading to the yard. The landlady of the house has two sons, who are employed as cabinet-makers, and use heavy leathern aprons in the exercise of their trade. The Scotland-yard authorities state that the circumstances in connection with the murder justify the police in believing that it has been committed by the same person or persons who murdered Mary Ann Nicholls. The matter, however, is surrounded with mystery, and the police have had but little time to make inquiries. The police at Commercial-street station are in charge of the inquiry, but a large body of detectives are scouring the district. THE FOUR TRAGEDIES. The first of the four recent murders in Whitechapel was that of a woman unidentified, who was found killed by having a stick or iron instrument thrust into her body. This crime passed off very quietly. It was put down as a drunken freak of some of the nameless ruffians who swarm about Whitechapel. The second was in Osborne-street. The scene was near the first murder; a woman was found stabbed in 36 places, lying outside George's-buildings. The impression made by this affair soon died away. The crime was a horrible one, but not a witness was called at the inquest who could throw a light on the matter. The excitement died from sheer lack of fact to support any theory. The third was the Buck's-row murder, which in a week has been followed by the latest barbarity in Hanbury-street. WHY NOT TRY BLOODHOUNDS? “A Whitechapel Workman” writes :- Why do the police not employ bloodhounds to trace the murderer? He could not commit such a crime without being covered with the blood of his victim, and this would help the dogs to trace him. Bloodhounds were used to trace out Fish, the murderer, some years ago with success: but that, of course, was before our police force was presided over by Sir Charles Warren. ANOTHER WOMAN STABBED. At five minutes after eleven o'clock yesterday morning a most exciting incident took place. A man suddenly attacked a woman in Spitalfields-market while she was passing through. After felling her to the ground with a blow, he began kicking her, and pulled out a knife. Some women who had collected, having the terrible tragedy that brought them there still fresh in their minds, on seeing the knife, raised such piercing screams of “Murder!” so that they reached the enormous crowds in Hanbury-street. There was at once a rush for Commercial-street, where the markets are situate, as it was declared by some that there was another murder, and by others that the murderer had been arrested. Seeing the immense crowd swarming around him, the man who was the cause of the alarm made more furious efforts to reach the woman, from whom he had been separated by some persons, who interfered on her behalf. He, however, threw these on one side, fell upon the woman, knife in hand, and inflicted various stabs on her head, cut her forehead, neck, and fingers before he was again pulled off. When he was again pulled off the woman lay motionless - the immense crowd took up the cry of “Murder!” and the people who were on the streets raised cries of “Lynch him!” At this juncture the police arrived, arrested the man, and after a while had the woman conveyed on a stretcher to the station in Commercial-street, where she was examined by the divisional surgeon. She was found to be suffering from several wounds, but none of them were considered dangerous. She was subsequently removed to the London hospital, where she was detained as an in-patient. Her assailant is described as a blind man, who sells laces in the streets, and whom she led about from place to place. The blind man is said to have an ungovernable temper, and he was seen, whilst the woman was leading him along, to stab her several times in the neck. Blood flowed quickly, and it was at first thought that another terrible murder had been committed. The affair occurred midway between Buck's-row and Hanbury-street.