Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1888-10-13 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

FUNERAL OF CATHERINE EDDOWES.  The funeral of Catherine Eddowos, the victim of the Mitretequare murder, took place on Monday afternoon. The body was removed from the City mortuary in Golden-lane at a quarter past 1 o'clock for interment in the City of London cemetery at Ilford. There were dense crowds in the vicinity of Golden-lane, and at the junction of Osborn and Commercial streets the people were en numerous that a large force of police had to direct the traffic. The body was conveyed in an open hearse, a wreath being planed on either side of the coffin. Following the remains were two mourning coaches, and in the rear of these wis a large waggon crowded with women, the majority of whom were attired in a style not at all befitting the occasion.  which may throw a new lignt on trio vVnitecfiapl murders, and, perhaps, afford seme assistance in tracing the murderer. In various German criminal codes of the 17th and 18th centuries, as also in statutes of a more recent date, punishments are prescribed for the mutilation of female corpses, with the object of making from the uterus and other organs the so-called Diebslichter or Schlafalichter, respectively "thieves' candles"or "soporific candles." According to an old superstition, still rife in various parts of Germany, the light from such candles will throw those upon whom it falls into the deepest slumbers, and they may, consequently,become a valuable instrument to the thieving profession. Hence their name. In regard to these Schlafeichter, quite a literature, might be cited. They are referred to by Ave Lallement in his "Das Deutsche Gaunerthurn," published at Leipsic in 1858; by Loffler,in "Die MangelhafteJustiz;" by Thiele, and numerms others. They also played an important par in the trials of robber bands at Odenwald and in Westphalia, in the years 1812 and 1841 respectively. The Schlaptichter were heard of, too, at the trial of the notorious German robber, Theodor Unger, surnamed "the handsome Charley," who was executed at Magdeburg, in 1810. It was on that occasion discovered that a regular manufactory had been established by gangs of thieves, for the production of such candles. That this superstition has survived amongst German thieves to the present day WAR proved by a case tried at Biala, in Galicia, as recently as 1875. In this the body of a woman had been found mutilated in precisely the same way as were the victims of the Whitechapel murderer. At that trial, as at one which took place subsequently at Zeszow, which is also in Galicia, and in which the accused were a certain Ritter and his wife, the prevalence amongst thieves of the superstition was alluded to by the Public Prosecutor. In the Ritter case, however, the court preferred harping on another alleged superstition of a ritual character amongst the Jews of Galicia, which, however, was shewn to be a pure invention of the Judenhetzer. Dr. Bloch, who for 10 years was a Rabbi in Galicia, and has made the superstitions of that province his special study, affirms that the "thieves' candle " superstition still exists amongst robbers of every confession, and, as he believes, also of every nationality. He considers, however, that it prevails most amongst German thieves. Amongst other German laws where the crime in question is dealt with, the Code Theresiana, chap.