Saturday 27th Oct 1888
Good evening and welcome to Whitechapel on Saturday 27th October 1888. It's the 4th weekend since the killer last struck. But the night of the "double event" is become a fading memory. The final inquest completed on Tuesday and little else going on. It has been a few days since we last looked in on Whitechapel, and the leaves' colours suggest we really are seeing Autumn now. A week ago in Bradford, Maria Coroner was charged with hoaxing several "Jack the Ripper letters" claiming he would strike there. "She was bound over for six months in £20, being told that if she again transgressed she would go to gaol."
Short of murder in Whitechapel, The Star is keen to pick up any scraps from anywhere to keep the public in mind of murder. "Another double murder and mutilation from Hungary. On Thursday night a man and his wife at Magyar Szakos, were murdered." The couple were "in their own house, their bodies being frightfully mutilated." And yesterday the Star also reported this: "The bodies of two young girls, aged 17 and 19, have been found in the forest of Leskau, Moravia, murdered and mutilated. The elder sister was shot through the temple and her two breasts were cut off. The younger was shot in the breast and neck. A wooden stave pierced the lower part of the body, running into the ground. They were the daughters of a gamekeeper. A merchant's eldest son has disappeared. He is suspected of having committed the crime out of jealousy."
Other snippets of news from earlier in the week were of a more tame nature, recording a few minor incidents such as: On Wednesday "a man who in the company of a woman in Whitechapel Rd, half intoxicated, refused to give any account of himself and was detained at Leman st station. The police attach no importance whatever to the arrest." Another arrest as follows: "A middle-aged man was arrested early this morning at a lodging-house near Bow Church in connection with the East-end murders. His first visit to the lodging-house was yesterday morning, when he went there and asked to be allowed to wash. He had on a white overalls, which he took off and offered to sell for 3d. He washed a stain out of his waistcoat & dried it. When he came back at night he was in different clothes. These things seemed so extraordinary that the police were called and an hour after the man had gone to bed he was arrested. He was lying on the bed fully dressed. Although he had never slept at the lodging-house before, he told the police he had stayed there for 13 nights." No name given.
A letter to the paper in the week notes that other "morning papers are too prosy and long-winded". The Star succeeds because... "These poor people want bright, short paragraphs to enable them to understand how they are being swindled by the Tories." The main story rumbling on at the moment is the ongoing attack on Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, Sir Charles Warren. Warren has been attacked from all sides for his perceived repeated failings and inability to capture the Whitechapel killer. The beleaguered man has attempted to address his critics in an article published a the November issue of Murray's Magazine. The Star says it is "complete vindication of everything that has been said in these columns about his management of the force." The paper has accused Warren of failing to put forward a rewards, failing to use bloodhounds, failing to deploy enough police. In fact, Whitechapel is filled with police (the papers said this made other areas vulnerable) and bloodhound tests didn't work. Following searches, there are very few other practical steps the police can take in apprehending the Whitechapel killer. Yet despite this the star now demands "A PUBLIC PETITION for the removal of the Chief Commissioner" following Warren's article. Warren supposedly "threatens violent measures against popular gatherings should lie for signature at all working men's clubs."
That's all for tonight. Join us on Tuesday when we'll be introduced to a couple of new people in Whitechapel. Very important...