Tweet
Back in 2006 AP posted the followubg:
This extract is taken from ‘Leaves of a Life: being the reminiscences of Montagu Williams’ published in London and New York in 1890.
What caught my attention is how the name of the official informant is blanked out, as is the reference to an investigation and murder.
The passage below I typed up today and thought I'd post:
Bristol Mercury
24 December 1892
From an obituary article about Montagu Williams.
He (Williams) also took some credit to himself for having helped to stay Jack the Ripper's hand. An unknown visitor revealed to Mr Williams a theory of the murders which struck him "as being remarkably ingenious and worthy of the closest attention." Mr Williams did not publish the theory. "Nothing," he wrote in "Later Leaves," "has occurred to prove it fallacious during the many months that have elapsed since the last of this terrible series of crimes. As I have said, I cannot take the reader into my confidence in this matter, as possibly, in doing so, I might be hampering the future course of justice. One statement, however, I may make, and, inasmuch as it is calculated to allay public fears, I do so with great pleasure. The cessation of the East End murders dates from the time when certain action was taken as a result of the promulgation of these ideas," Mr Williams held that the police force, in its ability to detect crime, has detoriated considerably. Since "Later Leaves" was published a woman was murdered in Whitechapel, for which crime, it may be remembered, a man named Sadler was arrested, but afterwards acquitted.
This extract is taken from ‘Leaves of a Life: being the reminiscences of Montagu Williams’ published in London and New York in 1890.
What caught my attention is how the name of the official informant is blanked out, as is the reference to an investigation and murder.
The passage below I typed up today and thought I'd post:
Bristol Mercury
24 December 1892
From an obituary article about Montagu Williams.
He (Williams) also took some credit to himself for having helped to stay Jack the Ripper's hand. An unknown visitor revealed to Mr Williams a theory of the murders which struck him "as being remarkably ingenious and worthy of the closest attention." Mr Williams did not publish the theory. "Nothing," he wrote in "Later Leaves," "has occurred to prove it fallacious during the many months that have elapsed since the last of this terrible series of crimes. As I have said, I cannot take the reader into my confidence in this matter, as possibly, in doing so, I might be hampering the future course of justice. One statement, however, I may make, and, inasmuch as it is calculated to allay public fears, I do so with great pleasure. The cessation of the East End murders dates from the time when certain action was taken as a result of the promulgation of these ideas," Mr Williams held that the police force, in its ability to detect crime, has detoriated considerably. Since "Later Leaves" was published a woman was murdered in Whitechapel, for which crime, it may be remembered, a man named Sadler was arrested, but afterwards acquitted.
Comment