by Covell, Mike
Mr. S. Montagu, M.P. for the Whitechapel Division of the Tower Hamlets, has offered £100 as a reward for the capture of the Whitechapel murderer. A representative of the Central News, who patrolled the streets and alleys of Whitechapel during Monday night and the early hours of yesterday morning, writes:- The scare, which the disclosure of the fourth and most horrible of the murders occasioned in the district, has considerably subsided. People having become familiar with the details of the tragedy, and being calmed by the knowledge of the active measures adopted for their protection by the police, are returning to their normal condition of mind. This is plainly evidenced by the aspect which Whitechapel road presented on Monday night, and up to an early hour of the morning - a very different one from that of the corresponding period of the previous day. On Sunday night the pavements were almost deserted, but 24 hours later groups of men and women chatted, joked, and boisterously laughed upon the flagstones until long after St. Mary's clock struck one. In passing through the groups of people, the words most frequently heard in their conversation were “Leather Apron.” The term has become a byword of the pavement and gutter, and one oftener hears it accompanied by a laugh than whispered in a tone which would indicate any fear of the mysterious individual who is supposed to live under that nickname. Whilst a large number of persons, including many members of the police force, believe in the guilt of “Leather Apron,” the talk of the footways convinces the passer-by that a large number of other inhabitants of the East end are sceptical as to his personality. So it may be said with truth that the thoroughfares on Monday night presented their customary appearance. There was the usual percentage of gaudily dressed, loud, and vulgar women at the brightly lighted cross ways; and the still larger proportion of miserable, half fed, dejected creatures of the same sex upon whom hard life, unhealthy habits, and bad spirits have too plainly set their stamp. Soon after one o'clock the better dressed members of the motley company disappeared; but the poor wretches crawled about from lamp to lamp, or from one dark alley's mouth to another, until faint signs of dawn appeared. Off the main road - in such thoroughfares as Commercial street and Brick lane - there was little to attract attention. Constables passed silently by the knots of homeless vagabonds huddled in the recess of some big door way; other constables, whose plain clothes could not prevent their stalwart, well drilled figures from betraying their calling, paraded in couples, now and again emerging from some dimly lighted lane and passing their uniformed comrades with an air of profound ignorance. The streets referred to by the constables in the main thoroughfare, as “round at the back,” presented a dismal appearance, the dim yellow flames of the not too numerous public lamps only rendering the darkness of the night more gloomy. Such passages as Edward street, connecting Hanbury and Prince's streets, Flower and Dean street, between Brick lane and Commercial street, which, in daylight, only strike one as very unwholesome and dirty thoroughfares, appear unutterably forlorn and dismal in the darkness of the night. In almost any one of these dark and filthy passages a human being's life might be every night sacrificed were the blow dealt with the terrible suddenness and precision which evidently characterised the last two homicides; and a police force of double the strength of that now employed, and organised under the best possible conditions, might well be baffled in its efforts to capture the murderers. In the immediate neighbourhood of St. Mary's Church a wide entry presented a deep cavern of intense blackness, into which no lamp shone, and where such an occurrence as that of Saturday morning might easily take place unobserved. In a squalid thoroughfare between Hanbury street and Whitechapel road some houses have been pulled down, the space being now waste ground enclosed by wooden palings. This unilluminated spot is separated by a house or two from an alley which, at a point some yards from the street, turns at right angles apparently towards the unoccupied space mentioned. Into the mouth of this passage a slatternly woman, her face half hidden in a shawl, which formed her only headdress, thrust her head, and in a shrill and angry voice shrieked, “Tuppy!” The cry was answered by the appearance of an evil looking man, with a ragged black beard, who in reply to an impatient question “Where is she?” muttered in a surly tone, “Round there,” at the same time jerking his thumb backwards towards the alley. “Well, come `long 'ome, then. I ain't agoin' to wait for she,” replied the woman, who, with the dark man limping after, soon disappeared round the corner of the street. There was no subsequent indication of the presence of a third person. The light from the street was so dim that there was no possibility of recognising the features of the man and women, and certainly if either had borne traces of crime they would have attracted no attention. Such occurrences as the above are, the police say, quite usual, and they neither have, nor wish to have, authority to question any individual whose conduct may attract attention without exciting suspicion. The St. Jude's Vigilance Association has only been in existence about four weeks. It is largely composed of working men, assisted by some of the members belonging to Toynbee Hall, its operations being confined to that neighbourhood. A member of the Committee stated yesterday that rows are constantly occurring in the district, and that the police force is too small to deal with the disturbers of the peace. The night after the murder in Buck's row, a man and woman disturbed Wentworth street for more than half an hour. Two members of the Committee were present, but no policeman could be found. Another brawl took place yesterday in the same thoroughfare, and one of the Committee, who became aware of it, looked for a constable for twenty minutes before one was found. At the Lambeth Police court yesterday, John Brennan, 39, labourer, was charged before Mr. Biron with acting in a disorderly manner, and causing a crowd to assemble at Southampton street, Camberwell. On Monday afternoon the prisoner entered the White Hart public house, Southampton street. His coat was torn up the back, and he had a very rough and strange appearance. He began talking about the murder at the East end, and added that they had not yet caught “Leather Apron,” who was a pal of his. He proceeded to say that he had the knife. A regular scare followed this, the customers ran out of the place into the street, and in a short time a crowd gathered. The landlady, feeling alarmed at what she heard, locked herself in the bar parlour, leaving the prisoner in possession of the place. In the meantime the story spread, and two women, seeing Police Constable Pillow, told him, and begged him to enter the house. He found a crowd assembled, and managed to get the prisoner out of the house, but as he refused to go away, took him into custody. The prisoner, who treated the whole matter evidently as a good joke, was ordered by Mr. Biron to enter into bail to keep the peace.
The Times, a London based newspaper, featured the following, dated September 12th 1888, THE WHITECHAPEL MURDER. The latest reports as to the search for the murderer are not of a hopeful character. On Monday evening it was stated that John Pizer, the man who was detained on suspicion of being concerned in causing the death of the woman Annie Chapman, was still in custody at the Leman-street Police-station. Last night it was decided to release him. Many reports of a startling character have been circulated respecting the acts of violence committed by a man wearing a leather apron. No doubt many of the accounts of assaults committed on women in this district have been greatly exaggerated, yet so many versions have been related that the police give credit to at least a portion of them. They have, therefore, been keeping a sharp lookout for “leather apron,” but nothing has been heard of his whereabouts. The friends of Pizer stoutly denied that he was known by that name; but on the other hand Sergeant Thicke, who has an intimate knowledge of the neighbourhood in which the murder was committed, affirms that he knew Pizer well by sight, and always knew him by the nickname spoken of. Sergeant Thicke also knew that he was in the habit of wearing a leather apron after the news of the murder was circulated. A half-Spaniard and half-Bulgarian, who gave the name of Emanuel Delbast Violenia, waited on the police with respect to this inquiry. He stated that he, his wife, and two children tramped from Manchester to London with the view of being able to emigrate to Australia, and
took up their abode in one of the lodging-houses in Hanbury-street. Early last Saturday morning, walking alone along Hanbury-street, he noticed a man and woman quarrelling in a very excited manner. Violenia distinctly heard the man threaten to kill the woman by sticking a knife into her. They passed on, and Violenia went to his lodging. After the murder he communicated what he had seen to the police. At 1 o'clock yesterday afternoon Sergeant Thicke, assisted by Inspector Canaby, placed about a dozen men, the greater portion of whom were Jews, in the yard of the Leman-street Police-station. Pizer was then brought out and allowed to place himself where he thought proper among the assembled men. He is a man of short stature, with black whiskers and shaven chin. Violenia, who had been accommodated in one of the lower rooms of the station-house, was then brought up into the yard. Having keenly scrutinized all the faces before him, he at once, without any hesitation or doubt whatever, went up to Pizer and identified him as the man whom he heard threaten a woman on the night of the murder. Pizer, who has not been allowed to have communication with any of his friends, was then taken back to the station-house. It was then decided, with the approval of Detective-Inspector Abberline, that Violenia should be taken to the Whitechapel mortuary to see whether he could identify the deceased woman as the one he had seen in Pizer's company early on Saturday morning. The result is not announced, but it is believed that he was unable to identify her. Subsequently, cross-examination so discredited Violenia's evidence that it was wholly distrusted by the police, and Pizer was set at liberty. An important discovery, however, which throws considerable light upon the movements of the murderer immediately after the committal of the crime, was made yesterday afternoon. In the back yard of the house 25, Hanbury-street, the next house but one to the scene of the murder, a little girl noticed peculiar marks on the wall and on the ground. She communicated the discovery to Detective-Inspector Chandler, who had just called at the house in order to make a plan of the back premises of the three houses for the use of the Coroner at the inquest, which will be resumed to-day. The whole of the yard was then carefully examined, with the result that a bloody trail was found distinctly marked for a distance of five or six feet in the direction of the back door of the house. Further investigation left no doubt that the trail was that of the murderer, who, it was evident, after finishing his work had passed through or over the dividing fence between Nos. 29 and 27, and thence into the garden of No. 25. On the wall of the last house there was found a curious mark, between a smear and a sprinkle, which had probably been made by the murderer, who, alarmed by the blood-soaked state of his coat, took off that garment and knocked it against the wall. Abutting on the end of the yard of No. 25 are the works of Mr. Bailey, a packing-case maker. In the yard of this establishment, in an out-of-the-way corner, the police yesterday afternoon found some crumpled paper almost saturated with blood. It was evident that the murderer had found the paper in the yard of 25 and had wiped his hands with it, afterwards throwing it over the wall into Bailey's premises. The house No. 25, like most of the dwellings in the street, is let out in tenements direct from the owner, who does not live on the premises, and has no direct representative therein. The back and front doors are therefore always left either on the latch or wide open, the tenant of each room looking after the safety of his own particular premises. The general appearance of the bloody trail and other circumstances seem to show that the murderer intended to make his way as rapidly as possible into the street through the house next door but one, being frightened by some noise or light in No. 29 from retreating by the way by which he came. A number of tradesmen in the neighbourhood in which the murder was committed have organized a vigilance committee, and yesterday morning the following notice was published: -" Finding that, in spite of murders being committed in our midst our police force is inadequate to discover the author or authors of the late atrocities, we the undersigned have formed ourselves into a committee and intend offering a substantial reward to anyone, citizens or otherwise, who shall give such information as will be the means of bringing the murderer or murderers to justice." The names of a large number of tradesmen are appended to the notices. Mr. S. Montagu, M.P., has offered a reward of £100 for the capture of the authors of the outrage. The police have received some hundreds of letters from all parts of the country offering suggestions of various kinds for the discovery of the person or persons concerned in the death of the poor woman. It is almost needless to say that none of the communications help in any way to elucidate the mystery. A number of persons have also written offering their services, for certain pecuniary considerations, as “special detectives,” and give glowing accounts, notwithstanding their previous inexperience in these matters, of their fitness to undertake the office they seek. Last evening Timothy Donovan, the deputy of the lodging-house in Dorset-street, at which the woman Chapman formerly lived, made a statement to a representative of a news agency. He says he knows “Leather Apron” well. Some months ago he ejected him from the lodging-house, and that was for offering violence to a woman who was staying there. Donovan is surprised that the police have not called on him to go to Leman-street Police-station, as he would have no difficulty in deciding whether the prisoner there is “Leather Apron.” Yesterday morning two police-constables visited Donovan and showed him two rings, one a half-worn out “engaged” ring, the other appearing to be a wedding ring, which they stated had been discovered at a pawnbroker's. Donovan did not think they were the rings he had seen Mrs. Chapman wearing. The policemen then left, and Donovan heard no more of the incident. Both Donovan and a former watcher at the lodging-house named West say that when they last saw “Leather Apron” he was wearing a kind of deerstalker hat, double peaked. West describes him as a man not more than 5ft. 4in. in height. Mrs. Fiddyman, the landlady of the house into which it was stated a blood-stained and wild-looking man entered shortly after the hour at which the murder was probably committed on Saturday morning, has been taken to Leman-street Station, and on seeing Pizer she expressed herself as quite certain that he was not the man who came into her house on the occasion spoken of.
