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Illustrated Police News
11 May 1889
DALSTON
A Reminiscence of Jack the Ripper
Margaret Lavin, thirty four, with no home, was charged on remand with being drunk and disorderly in Ferntower Road, Islington. The prisoner is an extraordinary character, and has been frequently in the hands of the police. On such occasions she has broken out in loud denunciations of Jack the Ripper. She had been in the workhouse as an insane person, but was discharged after some weeks. She now told the magistrate that she was the last person who saw the murderer on October 4th prior to the death of Janet Kelly. He sprang upon her (prisoner) in Goldsmith Row, and the shock she had then received had been the cause of all her trouble since. The night she was found drunk she had tried to get into the casual ward, but had failed. Mr. Bros asked what the woman's parish was, and the constable replied, "Whitechapel." The prisoner remarked that she should not want the casual ward long, "Her turn would come next." Mr. Bros said she had been shown leniency on previous occasions, and she would now have to go to gaol for seven days.
11 May 1889
DALSTON
A Reminiscence of Jack the Ripper
Margaret Lavin, thirty four, with no home, was charged on remand with being drunk and disorderly in Ferntower Road, Islington. The prisoner is an extraordinary character, and has been frequently in the hands of the police. On such occasions she has broken out in loud denunciations of Jack the Ripper. She had been in the workhouse as an insane person, but was discharged after some weeks. She now told the magistrate that she was the last person who saw the murderer on October 4th prior to the death of Janet Kelly. He sprang upon her (prisoner) in Goldsmith Row, and the shock she had then received had been the cause of all her trouble since. The night she was found drunk she had tried to get into the casual ward, but had failed. Mr. Bros asked what the woman's parish was, and the constable replied, "Whitechapel." The prisoner remarked that she should not want the casual ward long, "Her turn would come next." Mr. Bros said she had been shown leniency on previous occasions, and she would now have to go to gaol for seven days.