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I'm sure this must have been seen before, because the text of the Pall Mall Gazette is searchable up to 1900, but it was new to me.
This report from the Pall Mall Gazette of 19 May 1892 is based on a interview with the retiring chief superintendent of the City of London police, Alfred Foster, and touches briefly on the Ripper murders:
"And crime?" - "With the exception of Jack the Ripper's Mitre-square tragedy, and the Cannon-street and Arthur-street murders, we have had nothing out of the ordinary in that way. But that Mitre-square murder fairly puzzled me. I have been interviewed by eminent spiritualists and others on the subject, and have had great hopes at different times of lighting upon some clue, but have completely failed. In fact that crime is as great a mystery to-day as ever it was."
I thought the references to eminent spiritalists, and to the hopes of finding a clue to the murder at different times - and of course to the fact that it remained a mystery - were interesting.
Foster appears in a group photo on p. 232 of Scotland Yard Investigates. The sketch accompanying the article might almost have been based on that photo.
Sadly Foster enjoyed only five years of retirement.
This report from the Pall Mall Gazette of 19 May 1892 is based on a interview with the retiring chief superintendent of the City of London police, Alfred Foster, and touches briefly on the Ripper murders:
"And crime?" - "With the exception of Jack the Ripper's Mitre-square tragedy, and the Cannon-street and Arthur-street murders, we have had nothing out of the ordinary in that way. But that Mitre-square murder fairly puzzled me. I have been interviewed by eminent spiritualists and others on the subject, and have had great hopes at different times of lighting upon some clue, but have completely failed. In fact that crime is as great a mystery to-day as ever it was."
I thought the references to eminent spiritalists, and to the hopes of finding a clue to the murder at different times - and of course to the fact that it remained a mystery - were interesting.
Foster appears in a group photo on p. 232 of Scotland Yard Investigates. The sketch accompanying the article might almost have been based on that photo.
Sadly Foster enjoyed only five years of retirement.
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