Sunday 30th Oct 1888 - The Aftermath of the Double Event
Read the events of the previous night and early Sunday morning here.
9.00am
Good morning from Whitechapl on Sunday 30th September 1888. Word has quickly spread of two dastardly murders in the night.
The first murder took place on Berner Street. A man attacked Liz Stride in the gateway of Dutfield Yd, and slit her throat. Right now, Sergeant Stephen White is interviewing Matthew Packer at his shop at 44 Berner St in case he saw anything. However, the man seems of little use. Sgt White ask him, "When did you close up shop?" Packer replies, "Half past twelve, in consequence of the rain it was no good for me to keep open." Sgt White asks him, "Did you see a man or woman go into Dutfield's Yard or stand about the street when you closed up shop?" Packer replies, "I saw no one standing about neither did I see anyone go up the yard." And he adds ... "I never saw anything suspicious or heard the slightest noise. And knew nothing of the murder until I heard of it this morning." Sgt White then interviews Mrs Packer but she's equally unhelpful in providing any account of what happened. Next, the sergeant moves on to interview Harry Douglas, and Sarah Harrison, residing also at 44 Berner St. But upon questioning, they knew nothing of the murder either. House to house enquiries will continue this morning.
7.00pm
Good evening from Whitechaple on Sunday 30th September 1888. All the town is talking of the murder of two girls in the night. One man who believes he may be able to help the police is Israel Schwartz who has arrived at Leman St Police station. Speaking through a friend acting as interpreter, Schwartz's statement apparently said that at "the gateway where the murder was committed, he saw a man stop and speak to a woman. He tried to pull her into the street, he turned her round & threw her down and the woman screamed 3 times, but not very loudly." He describes the first man calling something out which through translation and assumption, is decided to be the name "Lipski" and a second man start to move off, prompting Schwartz to run away. The statement notes that "Schwartz cannot say whether the two men were together or known to each other."
7.15pm
Having written everything down, the Jewish man is then taken to the mortuary to see if he recognises the woman. The officer writes, "Upon being taken to the mortuary Schwartz identified the body as that of the woman he had seen." Clearly his testimony is important and the police ask for a description of the first man who carried out the attack. "30; 5ft 5in; hair, dark; small brown moustache, full face, broad shouldered; dark jacket & trousers, black cap with peak." It is curious that this woman wasn't mutilated and nor is this the typical description of the man seen with victims.
But the papers are supposing they are connected and today's Lloyd's weekly printed at noon already had this to say:
"In the yard in Berner St, it is thought that the murderer may have been disturbed, as there was no further injury to the body. In the second, about three-quarters of an hour later, many of the horrors of the recent Whitechapel murders have been repeated. When they came to the body there is agreement that the sight was the most shocking any of the spectators had ever witnessed. The poor woman's throat had been savagely cut, and there was a large wound on the face, cutting into the nose. Her legs were apart and the clothes thrown right up, revealing the mutilated abdomen. Parts of the entrails had been torn out. Dr. Gordon Brown taking a pencil sketch. This he most kindly showed to the representative of Lloyd's."
Here is a drawing by City Surveyor Frederick Foster, exactly as her saw the body lying in the square. Later at the mortuary Frederick Foster is made this drawing showing the victim's hideous injuries. The newspaper continues; "Besides the fearful wound on the face the tops of both of the thighs were cut across. The intestines, torn from the body, were twisted into the gaping wound on the right side of the murdered woman's neck. Circumstances under which the crime was committed make it more mysterious than ever. The place was not neglected by police. The scene of the latest tragedy being not many hundred yards, from Hanbury-street, where Annie Chapman fell a victim. Mitre-square is, however, in the City; and the excitement will no doubt be more intense on that account. The persons living near expressing the greatest astonishment that the place should have been selected for such a crime. The wife of a caretaker on Friday noticed the lamp in the north-west corner was so dull that she could scarcely see her way. This must have thrown the pavement into darkness, and in some way contributed to the selection of the spot by the murderer." Today at Mitre Square "the orders to deny admission to the scene of the murder were absolute. The murder must have been in the dark, and with extraordinary rapidity, as the policeman patrolled 10 minutes before. The murderer, blood-stained, got clear off; and police remain without a clue to the startling, horrible Whitechapel mysteries."
Leaflets today
In another small update from the same paper, it adds; "LATEST PARTICULARS. NO CLUE." And their journalists have been asking. "On making inquiries at Shoreditch station, at 11 o'clock, we were informed that police were still without the slightest clue. There is a growing belief that the two crimes were committed by one man. The two bodies were found within a distance of each other which can be easily walked in ten minutes. Last night a correspondent furnished us with another strange story of an incident occurring early on Thursday morning. In the morning a woman was sitting sleeping on some steps in one of the houses in Dorset-street was awoke by a man. He asked her whether she had any bed to go to, or any money to pay for a lodging. She replied that she had not.He said he had money, and then gave her what she thought was two half-sovereigns. She went with him down a passage. He seized her by the throat and tried to strangle her.A scuffle ensued between them, in which she screamed and got away. The next morning she found that what he gave her was two farthings machined round the edge like gold coins. He had a dark moustache and a frieze blue overcoat." Did the killer fail yet again before embarking upon last night?
Another interesting article is about the "great indignation at the East-end over the shabby treatment of witnesses." Witnesses have been "fetched up in the middle of the night by police, obliged to lose a day's work the next day. Cadosh came up from Enfield, and was paid 3s. for his three days' attendance. His loss was 1l. 8s. 9d. John Davis, who discovered the body, lost two days, and was paid 2s., Other witnesses told the same story."
Hundreds of leaflets are being distributed from today in the hope of a breakthrough. Come back tomorrow as we revisit Whitechapel to find that madness and fear has completely gripped the area.