The Arizona sentinel., 1889-01-05
THE BOMBAY FIEND.7
Diabolical Work of a Native of
 India ln 1858.
An Assassin Who Manifested a Liking for the Right Ears of Englishmel- The Many Wild TheorieS Ad-
 vanced-Caught at Last.

The Many Wild Theories Ad-
 vanced-Caught at Last.
 The series of crimes committed by the so-called 'Whitechapel Fiend" in adistrict of London, is a plagiarism on the work of the Bombay Fiend." " The only difference is that one killed only men, and Englishmen at that, and the other kills only women, and women of doubtful regulations. It was in 1858 that the Bombay fiend pursued his bloody work, and during his career 1 was a resident of that city and saw most of his victims after death. As all were English, and all of them army or civil officers, and as the last mutter- ings of the mutiny had not yet been stamped out, the British Government took care to suppress the particulars of this fiend's work as much as pOssi- ble While a thousand men were quietly searching for him the press was forbidden to give him any notorie- ty, as it was believed the criminal was a native, and to particularize would be to make a hero of him and induce others to follow in his bloody footsteps.
 The first murder occurred in March, 1858, and the victim was an English Captain of infantry. He was leaving a club house at ten o'clock at night, and to reach the street he had to pass between two stores by an alleyway seven or eight feet wide and twenty feet long. This way was lighted by a single lamp.
 People were coming and going every two or three minutes, and it was a public thoroughfare in which woman would have felt perfectly safe from vio- fence. Five minutes after the Captain left the club house an alarm was raised that he had been murdered. A score of us rushed out to find him dead in the alleyway. He had been stabbed to the heart, and his right ear had been cut off. The body had not been de- spoiled, and the general verdict was that it was a case of revenge. There was a great stir over this, the first of the series, and many natives were ar rested on suspicion. The British were carrying things with high hand then, and some of the parties arrested were tortured to extort confession. It was given out that one had confessed and been executed, but this statement was only to affect the native population. Not one of the suspects had word to say to help clear up the mystery.
 On the eleventh night after the Cap tain's murder aLieutenant of dragons was found dead at the front door of the bungalow of friend on whom he was about to call It was only twenty feet from the gate to the steps, and the path leading up was of sand. It was only just after dark, with many people moving about, and yet no one had been alarmed. The officer had not been dead five minutes when found. As in the other case, he had been stabbed to the heart and the right ear cut off and carried away. This satisfied every body that an assassin was abroad, and the excitement was intense. It was the policy of the Government to sup press the facts as far as possible, but they soon became known to every European in the city, and every man was on his guard from that time on. Those who had been in India longest reasoned that these murders were the ,I- of r.. At that date, and even for ten years later, religious fanatics were to be found in every community. They made VOWS to do this or that for the glory for one of them to abandon his work. I have met natives who had vowed never to walk in straight line; others who had vowed to sleep stand ing; others who kept one eye shut, one arm raised, or had vowed not to speak. If the assassin had vowed to take the lives of certain number of English men he was more to be dreaded than a band of robbers. Nothing but his capt. ure would prevent him from fulfilling that VOW, and the fact of his commit ting two murders in prominent places and leaving no clew to his identity proved that he was crafty fellow.
 There was the usual cry against the police force, but one who stopped to consider for a moment realized how helpless the officers were. A dozen . arrests were made and threats, prom ises and torture used to secure a point CT, but the poor fellows knew nothing and, therefore, had nothing to give up. On the evening of the fifteenth day after the second murder a third oc- cured. An artillery Captain, who had been through all the mutiny, and who had only that day boasted that he could take care of himself under all circum- stances, had called at the bungalow of his brother, who was in the civil serv- ice, Not finding him at home the Cap