St. Paul daily globe., 1889-01-07
HISTORICAL MURDERS.
Renwick Williams, Who Terrorized Lon
don Hundred Years Ago.
WILLIAMS TERRIBLE CRIME.
He Causes Panic by Cutting the
Threats Of Two Whole Families
for Robbery.
PHILADELPHIA Press,

To say that history repeats itself is to
be a little too trite for notice, but when
the minor events of history, those CO.
medicines and catastrophes that meant
a great deal at the time, and have been
well nigh forgotten ever since, take to
reproducing themselves with startling
accuracy, it is worth one while to turn
back page OF two and compare. For
several weeks cablegrams have been
sent to the Press concerning a series OF
understanding, shameful, purpose
less murders-that have alarmed and
mystified all London, and have created
in Whitechapel second reign OF terror.
Seven wretched women have been
killed with extraordinary brutality,
their throats severed, their bodies hor-
ribly mutilated, and the unknown
murderer, the &steriOus Leather
Apron" or Jack the Ripper
is still at large, lurking in vile
dens and viler alleys until some
fresh victim strays across his path.
Reading of these things, and ponder
ing over the panic they have caused. it
is with curious catch in our breath
ago Renwick Williams stole at midnight
through the gloomy London courts, cut
ting and stabbing every lonely woman
in his way. Like Jack the Ripper"
he was known only by a sobriquet-the
Monster, and wild tales were told of
his strength and swiftnesS, his cruelty
and insane rage for blood. Sometimes
he carried great buncheS of fresh, lovely
flowers, offering them to each poor girl
he met, and taking advantage OF her
momentary surprise and pleasure to
stab her in the face with his long two
edged knife. Sometimes he knelt
crOuching behind walls only to spring
like tiger on his prey, infict one Jagged
wound, and vanish in the darkness.
FEAR THE MONSTER"
So great was the terror inspired that
working woman hesitated to return to
their homes after nightfall, and the
wives of humble artisans dared not
venture forth to make their humble
purchases, while we find Lord Mimic
writing to his family in Scotland that
the recent severe laws passed against
the street-walkers had not proved half
so efficaciouS in clearing the London
slums as the deadly fear these poor
creatures entertained of meeting Will
Jams on his rounds. Yet it must be
confessed that, by the side of Jack the
Ripper" the 'MonSter" dWindleS into
The savage impulse is, indeed, alike
in both instances; but while slack, the
Ripper" murders his victims with ter
rible and sickening ferocity, the "Mon-
ste1" contented himself with infiicting
wounds which, though serious, were
never fatal, and when at last he was ap-
pretended and brought to justice, the
charges against him seem absurdly tri-
vial in comparison with the universal
dread he had excited. Rumor, in his
case, had added her threefold horrors to
every deed of violence, and there is an
almost ludicrous contrast between the
mysterious being who terrorized a
whole city and the vulgar miScreant
who expiated his crimes with six years
in NeWgate and was never heard OF
after.
The same, absolute, unreasoning PAN
lie shook London to its center when the
more famous John Williams committed
his series of midnight murders-mur-
ders that were pronounced by Southey
to be nothing less than national mis-
fortune: that aroused Coleridge to a
sense of peculiar horror, and that have
been immortalized by De Quincy in
the subtlest of English satires. as we'll
as in narrative of painful minuteness
and power. The horrible, stealthy cum
ming of the assassin, the deliberate,
malevolence with which he destroyed
sleeping in the cradle; the rapidity with
which one CHASTITY crime followed
another; the impenetrable mystery that
Shrouded all-these things struck terror
to every heart, and awoke at the same
time furious passion for revenge.
1t was in keeping with the whole
character of the man that he should
have selected an old acquaintance for
his first victim; that he should have
gone forth, on his dreadful errand
dressed with care and even elegance;
that he should have arranged his plans
with an adroitness that left no loophole
for accident OF inadvertency, and have
carried them out with deadly precision
that cut off all possibility of escape.
A FAMILY ANNIHILATED.
The family annihilated by this prince
of murderers consisted of shopkeeper
named MaIr, his young wife, an infant
eight months old and a Devonshire lad
of fourteen. There was also a female
servant who on the night in question
had been sent out at late hour to buy
provisions for the household. On her
return she found her master and mis-
tress lying dead in the shop, their
Threats cut, their heads horribly crushed
by some heavy instrument. The boy
child, it is said. of singular beauty
had been killed in the same shocking
manner, while down stairs, in the same
little kitchen, the baby lay murdered i'll
its cradle.
What wonder that this last piece of
wanton and useless butchery kindled in
every breast mingled horror and
wrath that boded no good to the assas-
sin when his hour of reckoning should
arrive. What wonder that mothers
trembled and that fathers swore deep
curses in their hearts, when they re-
membered that the man wio had
wrought this desolation was still atlarge,
his tiger instincts whetted with blood,
his cruel hand raised to carry fresh
terror into peaceful homes! And while
London waited breathless for some new
development second blow was struck,
more the ingenuity and daring of the
midnight murderer baffied all pur-
suit, and left the secret Of his
identity as great mystery as ever.
This time the victims were more care
fully selected. and the stolen booty bet
ter worth the crime. Forcing his way
into the house of a respectable and
wealthy tavern-keeper, Williams killed
the old man, his wife and a middle-aged
woman, their servant, cut all their
throats after his invariable habit, and
then. deeming the coast clear, proceeded
leisurely to ransack the premises.
A young journeyman, however, who
slept on the floor above, was awakened
by the scuffle. and creeping softly down
stairs beheld the bodies bleeding on the
floor, and the stranger busy at his work.
Sick with fright, he remembered that
his masters little grandchild was in the
doomed house, and hastily retreating to
his room he twisted his bedclothes into