Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1892-01-18
jack THE SLASHER. .
The Bloody Work Of a New York
LunatiC and His Razor.
TO EXTERMINATE THE GERMANS
Was His Aim in Life, Though He Did Not
Confne His Murderous Operations to
People of That Nationality-COmes
of Good Family.

New YORK, January 17.-"Jack the
SlaSher," that mysterious individual
who since December 90 has roamed
about the lower section Of the city at
night, cutting the throats of drunken
men with his ready razor, has been cap
tured.
The prisoner is Henry &. Dowd, an
EngliShman, born in Liverpool, who
came TO this country when boy. Dowd
was arrested between two and three
o'clock this morning. He has been con-
fronted by John Clark, Of Elizabeth, n.
j., whose throat was cut on the ninth
instant, and positively identified by him
as his aSsailant.
Dowd then confessed, admitting also
that he murdered John Carson, the Bal
timore lawyer, who was found on the
street last Thursday morning with his
throat cut from ear to ear. Then he
retracted this and doggedly refused to
talk. The prisoner is now in cell at
police headquarters.
The attention of the police was called
to the operations of the slasher when
John Hefiin had MS throat cut on De-
cember 29th. Then followed the cases
of Louis Lawson, John Clark, George
Williams and Edward Christensen. All
of these were under like circumstances.
Then came the Carson murder last week.
Inspector Byrnes was thoroughly arous-
ed
Twenty of his most experienced de-
tectives were put on TO watch the down.
town section. Policeman MaSterSon
was standing in plain clothing on the
corner OF New Chambers and Roosevelt
streets shortly after o'clock this morn
Ing, when he saw a strange man ap-
proach him from the opposite side OF
the street. In q few minutes the po-
liceman saw a drunken man approach
ing. The man he was watching saw
the drunken man at the same time and
walked toward him.
Near James street the policeman saw
the stranger raise his arm, grab the
drunken man by the neck and In a
moment after saw the drunken man
sink TO the sidewalk without a word.
The stranger darted away, with the
policeman in hot pursuit. The latter
was Joined by other officers and the tel'
low was run down. In the mans mana
was razor covered with blood. The
wounded man, whose name is William
Miller, was in a semi-COnscious condl-
tion.
In Byrnes' private room the man con-
fessed To some of his crimes. He said
the impulse to kill under certain cir
cumstances was uncomfortable. He
said he wanted to kill all the Germans.
A German had once ravished his mother
in her Brooklyn home. The face of the
ravlsher still haunted him, and where
ever he saw man who looked like the
one he was pursuing he tried to Kill
him.
'Why did you kill Carson?" asked In
spector Byrnes. "He was not Ger
man"
Il could not help It," was the reply.
Then said he, quickly: "Oh, did not
do 1t at all"
The prisoner comes Of good family.
His mothers sister married Samuel
n. Hoyt, brother of the late Jesse
Hoyt, the millionaire who will was
stubbornly contested by his daughter,
Mary Irene Hoyt.
About fifteen years ago Dowd was
placed in FlatbuSh Asylum for the In
sane, but he escaped. These facts were
obtained from the prisoners brother,
John J. Dowd, who is @ crank suffering
from religious mania. He was also put
under arrest