The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-09-05
LONDON'S MURDER MYSTERY
The Bloody Fiend of Whitechapel Still
Eludes the Grasp of the Policeman.
Mr.. Gladstone Again Criticises the Cruel
Treatment of Irish Political Prisoners
by the Authorities-Cabls Notes.
THE wHIrEcHAPEL FIEND.
A AIMING Murderer Who Manages to Eiude
English Detectives.

A Canning Murderer Who Manages to Elude
English Detectives.
LONDON, Sept. 4.-Whitechapel has q murder
mystery which transcends anything known in
the annals Of the horrible. It is Poe's Murder
of the Rue Morsue" and 1.-The Mystery of Marie
Roget rolled into one real story. 1t is nothing
less than q midnight murderer whose step is
noiseless. whose strike is deadly, and whose
cunning is so great that he leaves no trace what
ever of his work and no clew to his identity.
he has just slaughtered his third victim. and all
the women in WhiIechapel are terrified, while
the s~tupidest detectives in the civilized world
stand aghsst and say they have no clew. When
the murder of Mary Ann Nichols, who was cut
into ribbons last Friday night, was investigated,
it became evident that the murder was the work
Of the same hand that committed the two pre-
ceding ones. ALI three were moneyless women
Of the lowest class. All were killed in the
street between. / and 3 o'clock in the
morning, and all are mutilated in the Same
fendish and peculiar way. The coincidence was
so great as to strike even the detectives, and
they arc now looking for the one man whom
they believe to be guilty of all three crimes.
This man is called Leather Apron" and no.
body knows him by any other name. He is q
character halfway between Dickens's ''Quilp"
and Poe's baboon. He is short. stunted and
thick set. He has small, wicked black eyes,
and is half crazy. He is always hanging about
the deep shadows that fill the intricate network
of courts, passages and alley ways in White
chapel. He does not walk, but always moves on
a sharp or queer run, aud never makes
any noise with his feet. In addition to the three
women whom he is believed to have murdered,
he has scared q hundred more or them nearly to
death. Every strset-walker in Whitechapel has
her own story TO tell of him. He lives by rob-
bling them late at night, and has kicked, cuffed,
or knocked down two score OF them In the last
two years. His usual lodging place is a four
penny lodging-house In q poverty-stricken
thieves alley, off Brick lane. He has left there
now, however, and nobody knows where he is.
He is suspected of having done the three muir
ders from the fact that he has frequently drawn
a knife on women accompanied by the same
threats which have been carried out on the dead
women. The story of Mrs. Colwell, who heard
the screams Of the woman as she was being muir
dered, is to the effect that she was clearly
running away from somebody who was murder
ing her, and yet she could hear no other foot
steps. The blood stains on the sidewalk indi-
Gated the same thine-that the murderer, who
ever he was, was noiseless in his pursuit, and
this quality points directly to Leather Apron"
He is a slipper-maker by trade, and gets his
nickname from the fact that be always wears a
leather apron and is never seen without it. One
peculiar feature about the case is that mono Of
the police or detectives appear to know him, he
are now cleaning Information concerning him
from woman ha has aaSatIed.