Beverley and East Riding Telegraph. — 1896-04-11 (Beverley, Humberside, England)

TRAGEDY IN WHITECHAPEL. BURGLARY AND DOUBLE MURDER.  CHASE ON THE HOUSE-TOPS  A double murder of an exceptionally brutal character was committed on Saturday afternoon in Whitechapel, London. The mene of the tragedy was No. 31, Turner-street, which connects Commercial-road with IVlritechapel-road. The victims were Mr. John Goodman Levy, a retired Jewish umbrella-ease manufacturer, aged 74, and Annie Gale, his servant, a married woman, aged 35 years, who had kept house for Mr. Levy since his wife's death nine months ago. Mr. Levy, who is locally reported to havebeen possessed of considerable wealth, had lived in the house for 20 years, and retired from business shortly before his wife's death. He is described as a kindly old man, of frugal habits and very devout, and is said to have founded a fund last October for the purpose of assisting the Jewish poor of the neighbourhood in the winter. Shortly after 1 o'clock a tradesman who served Mr. Levy called at the house as usual and knocked at the front door. Ile received no answer, and after waiting for nearly a quarter of an hour called a police-constable to the house. The policeman forced open the front door. He entered the hall of the house, but quickly returned to the street, and, stating that Ire thought burglars were on the premises, secured the assistance of two passers-by. The three at once went into the house, and two, armed with the fire-irons from the front room, guarded the front and back doors. The policemarl then commenced to search the house. He opened the door of the lavatory, which is situated in the basement, and there, doubled up 'on the floor, was the body of Mr. Levy, the throat cut and the top of the skull smashed in. On the first floor there was every indication of a burglary having been committed. In the front room the blinds were drawn and boxes and drawers had been forced open, the contents being strewn about the floor. The back room had been treated in a similar mariner. The policeman then mounted to the second floor, wide!' contains two bedrooms. In the first room he found the body of the servant (Annie Gale), lying by the side of the bed. Her throat was cut, and there were several gashes, which had evidentiv been inflicted by a knife, on her head. The top of the skull was completely battered in. By the side of the corpse was found a blood-stained coal hammer with the handle broken, and a piece of iron. The mom had been ransacked, but an iron safe, which Fite I on a pedestal close to the bed, was untouched. The policeman then observed a hole in the ceiling above the safe. It was some 31t. in diameter. The policeman, armed with his truncheon, climbed through this hole into the space between the ceiling and the roof, and then through another hole on to the roof. Amid a scene of tremendous excitement a man was seen to rise front behind the chininey stack. One of the men and the constable at once turned towards him, but before any attempt could be made to secure him he rushed past them across the elates and jumped from the glitter of the roof into the street below, knocking down a little girl. The man was secured and taken into the house by the police, and was subsequently conveyed to the London Hospital. He was at the time unconscious, and on being examined by the house surgeon (Mr. A. Smith) was fonnd to have sustained a fractured arm, a broken leg, and other injuries. The little girl who was injured by the man's fall was also r taken to the hospital, but after having been I examined was sent home.