Alleged attack and mutilation on 30 August

[Chris Scott]

The alleged attack described below is a new one on me. Is this a fabricated story or a garbled account of the Nichols' murder? From the date of the article this attack allegedly took place on 30 August, the day before Nichols was killed. However, the nature of the mutilations and the mention of peritonitis also recall the attack on Emma Smith.
Any thoughts, guys?




Logansport Journal
1 September 1888

ACT OF A CRAZED FIEND
A Woman Horribly and Indecently Maltreated

London, Aug. 31.
The police were called to a house in Whitechapel last night on an alarm of murder. In a low tenement they found a woman in great suffering. On examination it was discovered that she had been horribly and indecently mutilated. She could not tell who had inflicted the wounds, except that it was a tall man with a black beard. The woman was conveyed to the hospital, and it is doubtful whether she can recover from her terrible injuries. If peritonitis sets in she can not survive. This is the third case of the kind which has come to the knowledge of the police. It is believed that these awful crimes are the work of one man and that he is a maniac.

[Uncle Jack]

Great find Chris. It does sound like a confusion between Emma Smith and Polly Nichols but the description of the attacker seems somewhat different. Maybe this is an attack we have not yet heard of.

[DVV]

Hi Chris and Adam

Great find Chris.

Ditto.

It does sound like a confusion between Emma Smith and Polly Nichols

It is, for sure.

Maybe this is an attack we have not yet heard of.

Impossible, imo. It would have been alluded to at the inquest and in police reports.

Amitiés,
David

[Uncle Jack]

Hi David,

Yes it does seem we have yet another "Fairy Fay" on our hands here. These reports are of great interest just to show how things in the press could get so mixed up and confused.

The best to you both.

[smezenen]

Too bad the article doesn’t give a name.

Edited to correct my atrocious spelling

[ChrisGeorge]

The alleged attack described below is a new one on me. Is this a fabricated story or a garbled account of the Nichols' murder? From the date of the article this attack allegedly took place on 30 August, the day before Nichols was killed. However, the nature of the mutilations and the mention of peritonitis also recall the attack on Emma Smith.
Any thoughts, guys?




Logansport Journal
1 September 1888

ACT OF A CRAZED FIEND
A Woman Horribly and Indecently Maltreated

London, Aug. 31.
The police were called to a house in Whitechapel last night on an alarm of murder. In a low tenement they found a woman in great suffering. On examination it was discovered that she had been horribly and indecently mutilated. She could not tell who had inflicted the wounds, except that it was a tall man with a black beard. The woman was conveyed to the hospital, and it is doubtful whether she can recover from her terrible injuries. If peritonitis sets in she can not survive. This is the third case of the kind which has come to the knowledge of the police. It is believed that these awful crimes are the work of one man and that he is a maniac.

Hi Chris

Yes, great find, and most curious. The article was filed August 31 and refers to "last night" but it could still have been referring to the early morning hours of August 31 and not August 30. Still, the seeming mixing up of the facts of the Nichols and Smith murders is strange. It is also noticeable though that there is no mention of a gang as there would have been with the Smith case, and that the man is said to have described a single attacker, "a tall man with a black beard." I wonder if by any chance this might actually be an attack on a woman in Whitechapel that has not received the attention it should and that because the woman did not die the case has somehow been disregarded?

Chris