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In Archaic’s “Sexual Perversion & Whitechapel Murders, LVP Med Article” thread, Archaic reprinted a February 09, 1889, Weekly Medical Review article by Dr. Edward Spitzka (http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?t=4529). In it, the doctor comments upon a supposed JTR inscription written on some shutters next to one of his victims.
I transcribed this newspaper article from The Salt Lake herald, October 12, 1888:
That Blood-Thirsty Fiend
LONDON, October 11. – The Pall Mall Gazette charges that the words: “I have murdered four and will murder sixteen more before I surrender myself to the police,” written by the supposed Whitechapel murderer upon the shutter of a house adjoining the one in the yard of which the body of one of his victims was found, were erased by the order of Sir Charles Warren, chief of police before the authorities had an opportunity to photograph them.
The Pall Mall Gazette was an English newspaper edited by William Stead (left in 1890) at the time of the Whitechapel murders. It was incorporated into the Evening Standard in 1923.
I found this on Casebook:
Dunkirk Observer Journal
New York, U.S.A.
29 October 1888
The Whitechapel Fiend Has Suspended Work
London, Oct. 28.
As it daily becomes evident that the Whitechapel murderer has gone out of business, the belief is spreading that he was not nearly as crazy as most of the theorists declared him to be, and circumstances are consequently stripped of half their interest by the conviction that the slayer was merely a plain, everyday brute, not unlike thousands of others that infest the locality in which the killing was done. It is pretty certain that, despite the declaration of war against prostitutes chalked upon a shutter and the bravado exhibited by Jack the Ripper in his recent letter, the monster has become frightened at the magnitude of the police arrangements for his detection and has suspended his horrible work for the present, if not for good.
…and this…
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
New York, USA
28 December 1897
CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE
AN INTERESTING STORY OF THE JACK THE RIPPER MURDER
A chat about circumstantial testimony in murder cases, apropos of the Luetgert case, brings to mind a remarkable instance of the fallibility of human testimony, as regards the identification of a human body, of more recent date than any instance quoted yesterday. It is part of the history of that remarkable series of atrocious murders committed in the Whitechapel district of London, in the autumn of 1888, by a man who is known indefinitely in criminal annals as Jack the Ripper. His fourth victim was a widow named Mary Ann Chapman. Her mutilated body was found at daylight in the yard of a house in Hanbury street. On the shutter of the adjoining dwelling there was found scribbled with chalk the following message from the mysterious assassin: "I have murdered four, and will murder sixteen more before I surrender myself to the police." Sir Charles Warren, who was in charge of the Scotland Yard detective force, caused the prophecy to be erased, and was subsequently severely criticized for having done so without securing a photographic reproduction of the murderer's handwriting. This murder was committed on September 8…
Does anyone have any more details about this?
Sincerely,
Mike
I transcribed this newspaper article from The Salt Lake herald, October 12, 1888:
That Blood-Thirsty Fiend
LONDON, October 11. – The Pall Mall Gazette charges that the words: “I have murdered four and will murder sixteen more before I surrender myself to the police,” written by the supposed Whitechapel murderer upon the shutter of a house adjoining the one in the yard of which the body of one of his victims was found, were erased by the order of Sir Charles Warren, chief of police before the authorities had an opportunity to photograph them.
The Pall Mall Gazette was an English newspaper edited by William Stead (left in 1890) at the time of the Whitechapel murders. It was incorporated into the Evening Standard in 1923.
I found this on Casebook:
Dunkirk Observer Journal
New York, U.S.A.
29 October 1888
The Whitechapel Fiend Has Suspended Work
London, Oct. 28.
As it daily becomes evident that the Whitechapel murderer has gone out of business, the belief is spreading that he was not nearly as crazy as most of the theorists declared him to be, and circumstances are consequently stripped of half their interest by the conviction that the slayer was merely a plain, everyday brute, not unlike thousands of others that infest the locality in which the killing was done. It is pretty certain that, despite the declaration of war against prostitutes chalked upon a shutter and the bravado exhibited by Jack the Ripper in his recent letter, the monster has become frightened at the magnitude of the police arrangements for his detection and has suspended his horrible work for the present, if not for good.
…and this…
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
New York, USA
28 December 1897
CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE
AN INTERESTING STORY OF THE JACK THE RIPPER MURDER
A chat about circumstantial testimony in murder cases, apropos of the Luetgert case, brings to mind a remarkable instance of the fallibility of human testimony, as regards the identification of a human body, of more recent date than any instance quoted yesterday. It is part of the history of that remarkable series of atrocious murders committed in the Whitechapel district of London, in the autumn of 1888, by a man who is known indefinitely in criminal annals as Jack the Ripper. His fourth victim was a widow named Mary Ann Chapman. Her mutilated body was found at daylight in the yard of a house in Hanbury street. On the shutter of the adjoining dwelling there was found scribbled with chalk the following message from the mysterious assassin: "I have murdered four, and will murder sixteen more before I surrender myself to the police." Sir Charles Warren, who was in charge of the Scotland Yard detective force, caused the prophecy to be erased, and was subsequently severely criticized for having done so without securing a photographic reproduction of the murderer's handwriting. This murder was committed on September 8…
Does anyone have any more details about this?
Sincerely,
Mike
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