Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-07-18
wHITECHAPEL's FIEND.
Secrecy and Efficacy of "Jack the Rip
per's" Bloody Work.

4 THOUSANDS In TINS great city are quakinS WIN
| fear. The murderous knife Of "Jack the Rip
per- is back again and the horrible murder
yesterday morning enables him to cut another
| notch in the handle Of his terrible knife. The
| details of the crime leave no doubt that he was
| the murderer of Alice Mackenzie, known to
| some as Kelly. An examination Of the body
developed the unusual feature that Jack had
| not done the work with the dull knife hereto
fore used, as the slashes were clean. The
clothes were drawn over the head after the
knife had been driven into the neck. A cut
four inches long, running toward the groin,
had not severed the abdominal wall On both
sides of this cut and along the lateral line
below the breast bone there were twenty
scratches.
The woman had evidently been taken un-
awares, as she was strongly built and weighed
40 pounds. She could not have uttered a cry
without being heard by the police. Jack
adopted his old plan, except that in this case
the right hand had been placed over the mouth
and the left hand drove the knife into the neck
instead. The murder threw Whitechapel into
condition of fearful excitement, and Castle
alley crowded all day. People from all
quarters tocked to the scene and stories of the
crime were on every tongue. The woman was
identified by John Mccormick, a porter. He
said he Med with her for SIX. years. She was
forty years old and was from Peterboro Her
lived In a furnished room in Whitechapel She
did charing work and never got her living on
the street.
ADDICTED TO DRINK
Sometimes she drank too much. He left the
house at O'Clock yesterday afternoon, they
had tiff. He gave her shilling and advised
her not to spend it in drink. He was told she
returned to the house at 10 o'clock last night
and took a blind boy named Geo. Dixon for
walk. Mccormick knew no more of the woman
and boy. They went to the Cambridge music
hall and there met man and asked him to
treat them. She then went home, but left
again after saying she was to meet a man at
the Cambridge music hall. Whether or not she
met him is not known, for the blind boy has no
means to identify him except by his voice.
Nothing could more clearly indicate the cum
ming of the murderer than the selection of the
locality. The alley is hundred yards long
and Is dark and encountered by a mass of
wagons and barrows, which formerly were
stored In yard in which excavations were
going on. few feet above, at the bottom. is
a network of streets, courts and alleys, On
the left side are small factories and workshops
and on the right is high board fence, shutting
off the back yards of a row of small houses
facing on Newcastle street.
DIFFICULT TO CAPTURE HIM.
Newcastle street runs parallel with Castle
alley, and Just below the scene of the murder
they are connected by a narrow court. If ap-
preached, therefore, from Whitechapel road
the murderer could escape down Castle alley
into Old Castle street, and through this to
Wentworth street and thence to Commercial
street or the lane. If approached from Old
Castle street he could escape through Castle
alley court into Whitechapel road. If hemmed
in on both sides he could still escape through
the connecting court to Newcastle street. and
thence to Whitechapel road or Wentworth
street.
There was further cunning and evidence of
intimate knowledge of the locality in the fact
that he was just on the boundary line of two
police districts. Whitechapel road is patrolled
by cOnstables from Leman street station and
no street constables come from the road down
the alley because that is in the district belong
ing to another division. He must have known
that an officer could come toward him only
from the bottom of the alley and his intimate
knowledge of the locality and the police rules
made his escape as easy as ever. When il is
remembered that in all the eight murders COM
United he has never once been seen by any,
body the fear of him in Whitechapel can be un-
derstood, and that there is a superstition in
some of the slums that he is invisible does not
seem surprising.
THE POLICE AT SEA.
The police are absolutely without clue In
spector Reed so stated this evening" Jacobs,
the only person in the vicinity of Old Castle
street, was simply on an errand and was re-
leased directly. Three other men were ar
rested on suspicion during the early morning
and forenoon, but were almost Immediately re-
leased upon establishing their identity and
their whereabouts at the hour of the murder.
A search of the lodging houses, which followed
close upon the discovery, revealed nothing.
Nobody had come in gone out within an
hour who could in any way be connected with
the tragedy. The only nope was the examina-
ton of barmen and barmaids along White
chapel road with reference to the presence in
their places of the woman Mackenzie prior to
the murder.
There Is possibility, judging from the pre-
vious cases, that the murderer took her into
one of these and got her stupidity drunk be-
fore attempting her death. This investiga-
tion appears to be the only chance of finding
clue, but 1t does not appear to have been
made. The attempt to surround the scene with
a Gordon of constables amounted to nothing as
the murderer had passed out into Whitechapel
road. Consequently the police stand as before,
not knowing which way to turn. No doubt
they have done and are doing all in their
power.
DETECTIVES EMPLOYED.
Chief Commissioner NUNS and Colonel Mon
sail were on the spot as soon after the murder
as the telegraph and horses could bring them.
All the detective strength of the metropolitan
force had been conferred in Whitechapel, and
the best brains of Scotland Yard not only are
but have been at work on the murderers. Up
to a month ago two constables were nightly
on the watch in the alley, it being likely spot
for the murderer to select Up to two weeks
ago there was also a night watchman stationed
in the alley by man who owned number of
the barrows stored there. The withdrawal of all
these left the place free. There is nothing more
for the police to work on at present than there
was at the last murder on August 9. The MUIR
derer Is clearly a maniac. but cool that he
makes no mistakes and leaves no traces, and
furthermore. it is evidently without that sense
of fear which leads to detection in nine cases
out of ten
ELECTRICAL EXPERTS AT WAR.