Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-11-13
THE wHITECHAPEL CRIMES.
What q Local Detective Thinks Of the
Crimes and Their Perpetrator.

Speaking of the Whitechapel murders in
London, Private Detective Flinders said to q
STAR reporter that no more mysterious crimes
had ever been committed in the world. What
made them so mysterious was that there was
no apparent motive. The victims were in
mates Of houses in the Whitechapel district and
certainly the motive was not robbery, for there
could hardly have been anything to steal. The
murders, he thought, were committed by some
person who is a crank on anatomy or possibly
a religious crank who thinks by committing
these murders he ia going to reform the resi-
dents of Whitechapel The murders were
surely not in his opinion, committed from spite,
because If they were the bodies Of the victims
would not have been SO horribly mutilated.
In his opinion the murderer is q man who is
in all probability, is a fellow who Is well ac-
quainted with and well-liked by all the fe-
males and with whom any Of them will 60.
When one Of these crimes is committed il
always looks as If Jack the Ripper met
his victim and went with her to some court
or dark place, and then did the CHASTITY work.
There is a surprising feature about the crimes,
Mr.. Flinders said. The perpetrator Of them
in his butchery certainly gets his clothes very
bloody, and the question arises how does he
manage to escape in such condition. He must
have a room in that portion Of the city where
he can 60 in a few minutes undiscovered This
confirms the theory that he is certainly well
acquainted in the neighborhood in which the
crimes have been committed. Being wholly
unable to find a motive for the crimes the
officers are at a loss to tell what class of per-
sons to suspect. Consequently the villain can
not be captured Many theories Of the MUIR
ders and how to capture the murderer have
been advanced. Inspector Byrnes, it is
stated, proposes to send one or two
OF his officers to London, and he thinks
they will be able to catch Jack the Ripper.
Mr.. Flinders thinks that they may be able to
do so, but there are serious doubts about it.
Every stranger who is seen about the White
chapel district is suspected of being detec-
tive, and while he is probably watching some
innocent person Jack is watching him. 1t has
been stated in the papers that the work is pro-
badly that of some of the officers who were
recently relieved from duty on the London
police force who are working against their
successors, but this the detective thought is
hardly true. If there any ill-feeling on
their part, and they wanted to get even by
committing crime, they would set about to
blow up a bank or some large building,
would, perhaps have several daring robberies
committed. They would never resort to muir
der. IF should start out to investigate
the murders" said the detective, Il would
watch the museums of anatomy, spot the fire.
quent visitors who seemed particularly anxious
to study those portions of the human body
which have been carried from the victims, and
then keep an eye on him. / would also have
the bookstores closely watched for some person
not physician who might purchase medical
works. would work the case on that theory,
and think it would prove successful. But then
the officers in London will probably have
better chances Of obtaining a clue in future
murders, as Jack has promised to kill twenty
one persons"