Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-10-10
The Whitechapel Murders.

There is hardly any doubt amongst
alienists that the frightful murders, ac-
companied by mutilation, committed in
the heart of London, are the work of a
homicidal maniac, laboring perhaps un-
der the delusion that he is commanded
by some superior power to perpe-
trate these horrible crimes. DIR.
William A. Hammond, of New
York, says that cases of homicidal
insanity are very common, and that it
does not follow that the idea of the Lon
don police as to the murderer being a
repulsive, uncouth, brutal-looking fellow,
is true. He may move amongst the best
society, and be as mild hammered
man as ever scuttled ship" He may be
known amongst his acquaintance as re-
markable for his modesty, refinement
and humanity. The doctor thinks that
he may be actuated by some fanatical
religious idea, and thinks he is
doing religious service in rid
ding the world of the class of
women he is now making his VIC
TINS. But the mania will prob
ably grow upon him, and the thirst
for blood will perhaps urge him to seek
victims in the higher classes. 1t does
not follow because ne is insane on this
one point, he may not be perfectly
sane on all other points. Indeed
the fact that he has eluded all the
detective efforts of Scotland Yard shows
that his faculties are normal and acute
outside of his peculiar mania.
These Whitechapel murders are not
without parallels in their atrocity and
peculiarities elsewhere and at other
times. The books are full of them. The
case Of De Mallard, the Frenchman, is
noted one, and from the fact that the
victims were all women it is peculiarly
interesting. He used to advertise
for servant girls. When they
came he would lead them off to some
secluded spot and murder them. There
was no other object than mad thirst
for human blood. He is known to have
murdered six. women in this way, and is
supposed to have killed many more
whose bodies were never discovered.
Women have figured quite as promi-
nently as men in the annals of homicidal
mania. One Frenchwoman, between
1858 and 1857, murdered over twenty
people. She used poison in every instance,
and her victims included relatives, neigh
bors, physicians and nuns. She attend
ed number of her victims while they
were on their death-beds and gave every
evidence of being deeply affected. Per-
haps she was. OF course she
had no object except an insane
desire to see people die. Everybody will
remember the Bender family in Kansas,
some ten years ago. There was an OBJ.
iect of interest with them, however, in
their murders; but they killed their VIC
TINS SO Unfortunately that it is fair
to presume there was taint of homicidal
lunacy running through the family. But
few travellers who entered their hospita-
BILE inn and sat at their table, ever es-
capped death.
Shortly after the Napoleonic wars the
inhabitants of small town in Germany
were filed with horror at the frequency
OF murders in their quiet vicinage. At
short intervals they would be startled by
mysterious assassination, and found it
impossible to place their suspicion upon
anybody as the author. A man would
be travelling along the road in
an open country, and suddenly
a shot would be heard and the
man would fall dead, pierced through
the vitals with bullet. Nobody would
be in the vicinity but an old SOL
der with a wooden leg. He would possi-
bly, be basking on the bank of stream,
around which the highway wound, and
would in many instances be the first to