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WAS HE JACK THE RIPPER?
The latest New York World contains the following cable, dated London, 11th October:—
A great sensation has been caused here by the statement made to-day by a lodginghouse keeper in the Whitechapel district, who says that it was at her house that " Jack the Ripper " lived during the time he committed his sanguinary deeds in London. The woman came to Mr. Albert Backert, the chairman of the Vigilance Committee, and in the presence of several witnesses told her story and afterwards swore to it. She is said to be a respectable person, and the police say she has kept an orderly place. She says that during the period marked by the murders of the Ripper, a young man called at her house aud engaged a bedroom. He stated to her, in reply to her questions as to his business and bis ability to pay for the accommodation, that he had been to sea up to the time of his coming there ; that he did not work at all, but waa in receipt of an allowance from his father of £1 per week, and that his brother, who was a physician, gave him a further allowance of a trifle over this amount. The woman noticed when he took possession of the apartment that he had a great quantity of clothing of all 'kinds, including hunting breeches, revolvers, guns, and many other articles not often found in the outfit of a working-man. He asked for a door-key, which was given him, and she noticed that he went out and came in at unusual and irregular hours of the night.
He was in the habit of lying abed generally until the afternoon, and would rise about 6 o'clock and leave the house. She could not say at what time he returned, because she never chanced to see him when he entered the house. What first excited her suspicion that there was anything unusual about him was the bloody condition in which she often found the towels in his room. About this she finally spoke, remonstrating with him for soiling the articles in such a manner and asking what could have caused such a profusion of blood. This direct question he answered by saying that he was very fond of painting, and that he was in the habit of wiping his brushes on the towels, and thereby stained them so as to give the impression that it was blood.
Further than this, the woman states that she knows from her own knowledge that he sent several persons pieces of what appeared to be raw liver. One afternoon she happened in his room for the purposes of attending to, some of her household duties, and there she saw him with a newspaper spread out upon his table, and upon it a large piece of raw meat that she at a distance took to be fiver. She asked him what it was and where it came from, and he replied that it was a piece of frozen mutton that he had been given him by a friend who was employed on a boat that came from New Zealand bearing a cargo of this meat. Upon another occasion, somewhat later than this, she saw the man do up a piece of this meat in a small box, tie it securely, and address it to the chairman of the Vigilance Committee, and leave tho house with it under his arm. She never saw it or tho box afterwards.
Further than this, the woman affirms that she saw the man place small bits of flesh in envelopes, which he addressed to different news agencies and papers and also to prominent members of the police. With great apparent carelessness he left theee envelopes and their contents in the room when he vacated it, and the woman, discovering them when cleaning the apartmont after he had gone away, threw them into the dust -bin. On two occasions he brought home with him blood-stained aprons, which he gave her, and which she still has, and is ready to turn over to the police, believing now that they belonged to two" of his victims, for she is convinced her lodger was Jack the Ripper.
She says that he always seemed to have ample money, and spent it with a degree of lavishness not often met in that locality. On the morning of the Castle Alley murder, which was the last Jack has thus far committed, her lodger left, and has not yet returned. In addition to the envelopes that he left behind him, the woman found iv his closet a pair of "silent" shoes, several bags, and a long overcoat, all of which, she asserte, aro bloodstained in alnio*t every part. The woman gives as her reason for not speaking earlier the fact that she did not suspect the identity of the man until after lie had got beyond her reach, and then she feared to go to the police, but the secret has co weighed upon her mind that she could keep it no longer, and now she comes forward to warn others against her former suspicious lodger.
A follow-up report a few days later said that:
"The woman who furnished particulars about Jack the Kipper has since modified her statements, and little importance is now attached to them. "
And this about a week later:
The Mysterious Landlady of the Murderer.
The Police Sceptical.
[From our London Correspondent London, Oct. 17.
On Saturday morning last most of the London papers came out with a highly sensational story concerning "Jack the Ripper," which had, it was alleged, been communicated by a mysterious woman to Mr Albert Backert, Chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee. [The story has already appeared in these columns.]
This morning, a Star man, having nothing better to do than to amuse himself, went and had a talk with Mr Albert Backert. For so prolific a clue merchant he is a very young man. He has the staring eyes of the born poet, and the heavy under jaw of the born detective. He is
A TALENTED TALKER.
" Good morning, Mr Backert," said the Star man. " This is a most important and sensational revelation."
" Extraordinary," said Mr Backert.
" Of course you took the woman at once to the police ?"
"No. You see she did not want her name mentioned. Her husband, I think, had bugged her to come to me and reveal all."
" But surely the police " —
"If the police like to come to me— and I shall probably see some of them this afternoon—we can go together and try to find her. Of course, if I cannot find her I shall have to advertise for her and her husband to come forward."
"But didn't you take the name and address of the woman who gave you this surprising information? "
"My sister has her name. You see, my sister had a long chat — quite a long chat — with her before I saw her, and she told my sister her name, but she did not want it made public because she might have to leave, and "
" But her address ? "
" She did not give her address. She only said SHE LIVED IN THE MODELS. You know, I can't see what motive she could have had to come to me unless it was the truth she told. It is extraordin "
" But it would be an unfortunate thing if through not taking her address such an important clue were lost. Why did you not take her to the police ?"
" I had not the time to spare just then. But, as I say, if the police like to come to me we can go together and try to find her. I can't see what motive she could have had to tell such an extraordi "
" No. Quite so. You have found a good many clues to the Whitechapel murderer, haven't you, Mr Backert ?"
" Yes. It was me who saw him in the Three Nuns, you know, and I gave a description of him from which a portrait was drawn, which was published in the papers, and the description tallied in every respect with one given by a woman who saw him. It is such an extraord " -
"It is, indeed. But what an odd thing that that woman never suspected anything
AT THE TIME
when the murders were being committed, and she had a blood-stained man in silent boots living in the house."
"Yes; wasn't it? But you see he always paid up all right, and then as to the blood stains she thought he may have got them when he was out shooting birds and things, through carrying the birds in hia pocket, as these sportsmen do. It is most extraor— '
"It is, indeed. But did he always lie in bed all day and go out all night ?"
" Yes. He always did that."
"When did he go shooting those birds ? "
" I didn't ask her all the details. Besides, she thought it was paint on his clothes. So one day she said to him, ' What a funny thing when you do so much painting that you only get red paint on your clothes.' "
"That was rather up against him. What did he say to that ? "
" I didn't ask her that."
"When did he do his painting ? "
"In the morning, I suppose, before he went out- You see, he had a lot of overcoats, a great many overcoats, so "
" Were they all bloodstained ? "
" Oh, yes ; all bloodstained. He had a lot of things, you see — hunting breeches and all sorts of things, and "
" He only had one room, did he ? "
" Yes, only one. You see, she had only one room to let, and he called and took it, and as he seemed a "
" Yes, quite so. But how odd that she didn't get suspicious of a young man living in one room with TWENTY BLOODSTAINED OVEBCOATS ? "
" Oh, not twenty."
" I thought you said twenty."
" Oh, no. A good many. A large number, but not twenty."
" How many ?"
" I did not ask her exactly how many." '
'But it was odd she did not think something was wrong. Did she suppose he always wiped his paint brushes on overcoats ?"
" I did not ask her that. But, you see. she never saw him do any painting, and besides, you know, she supposed he got the blood marks through carrying the birds he shot in his pocket, like these sportsmen do."
" She supposed he got the red paint on all his overcoats through carrying dead birds in his pockets ?"
" No. He got the red paint when he was painting through wiping his brush on his clothes. But I can't see how she should have come to tell me such an extrao "
"No, indeed. Unless it was true. I suppose you are very well known in Whitechapel?"
" Oh, yes. I was born there, and I know every court and alley. And, you see, when I go among the people, they'll tell me things they won't tell the police. That's how I've got
A GOOD MANY OF MY CLUES.
And they all know me. You see, when the Guards' petition was on I had he front of my house plastered over with posters, and that made me what they call popular, you know. Then I take up politics, and when there is an election or anything I'm seen on several platforms."
"And the Vigilance Committee ?"
" I took up that, and it all went to make a bit of notoriety. We held the meetings in a public-house. That has been the ruin of more than one Vigilance Committee. They get together and talk, and then by the time they ought to be out doing something, why they're that tight they want looking after themselves. It dwindled down, and I haven't called a meeting for a long time. But now there's something doing again I shall call a meeting, and
have it in a big room I've got at my house."
Here the Star man grew
MYSTERIOUS,
and said impressively, " Now, Mr Backert, 1 way tell you that I have no authority to make you any offer, but I have reasons for asking you a queßtion."
"What is it ? " asked the clueist.
" Supposing— now, just supposing— that the Scotland Yard people were to make you a fair offer to take up the murder mystery, should you feel justified in accepting it ? "
"I should. I would do anything possible. Of course, I have to earn my living."
" Perfectly. And supposing an independent organisation came forward and asked you to take on the job on their account, would you undertake it ? "
"I should not care what the organisation was. I would do what I could."
So, when Scotland Yard make the offer, or when the independent organisation is formed, the public will have the satisfaction of knowing that Mr Albert Backert is devoting all his time to the task of discovery. If a private individual can discover endless clues and twenty blood-stained overcoats in his spare time, what could not he do on the eight hours system at fair wages !
Is it necessary to say that Superintendent Arnold, at Leman street, has not at present heard from Mr Backert's visitor ? Neither do they expect to.
(Computer generated text... sorry)
WAS HE JACK THE RIPPER?
The latest New York World contains the following cable, dated London, 11th October:—
A great sensation has been caused here by the statement made to-day by a lodginghouse keeper in the Whitechapel district, who says that it was at her house that " Jack the Ripper " lived during the time he committed his sanguinary deeds in London. The woman came to Mr. Albert Backert, the chairman of the Vigilance Committee, and in the presence of several witnesses told her story and afterwards swore to it. She is said to be a respectable person, and the police say she has kept an orderly place. She says that during the period marked by the murders of the Ripper, a young man called at her house aud engaged a bedroom. He stated to her, in reply to her questions as to his business and bis ability to pay for the accommodation, that he had been to sea up to the time of his coming there ; that he did not work at all, but waa in receipt of an allowance from his father of £1 per week, and that his brother, who was a physician, gave him a further allowance of a trifle over this amount. The woman noticed when he took possession of the apartment that he had a great quantity of clothing of all 'kinds, including hunting breeches, revolvers, guns, and many other articles not often found in the outfit of a working-man. He asked for a door-key, which was given him, and she noticed that he went out and came in at unusual and irregular hours of the night.
He was in the habit of lying abed generally until the afternoon, and would rise about 6 o'clock and leave the house. She could not say at what time he returned, because she never chanced to see him when he entered the house. What first excited her suspicion that there was anything unusual about him was the bloody condition in which she often found the towels in his room. About this she finally spoke, remonstrating with him for soiling the articles in such a manner and asking what could have caused such a profusion of blood. This direct question he answered by saying that he was very fond of painting, and that he was in the habit of wiping his brushes on the towels, and thereby stained them so as to give the impression that it was blood.
Further than this, the woman states that she knows from her own knowledge that he sent several persons pieces of what appeared to be raw liver. One afternoon she happened in his room for the purposes of attending to, some of her household duties, and there she saw him with a newspaper spread out upon his table, and upon it a large piece of raw meat that she at a distance took to be fiver. She asked him what it was and where it came from, and he replied that it was a piece of frozen mutton that he had been given him by a friend who was employed on a boat that came from New Zealand bearing a cargo of this meat. Upon another occasion, somewhat later than this, she saw the man do up a piece of this meat in a small box, tie it securely, and address it to the chairman of the Vigilance Committee, and leave tho house with it under his arm. She never saw it or tho box afterwards.
Further than this, the woman affirms that she saw the man place small bits of flesh in envelopes, which he addressed to different news agencies and papers and also to prominent members of the police. With great apparent carelessness he left theee envelopes and their contents in the room when he vacated it, and the woman, discovering them when cleaning the apartmont after he had gone away, threw them into the dust -bin. On two occasions he brought home with him blood-stained aprons, which he gave her, and which she still has, and is ready to turn over to the police, believing now that they belonged to two" of his victims, for she is convinced her lodger was Jack the Ripper.
She says that he always seemed to have ample money, and spent it with a degree of lavishness not often met in that locality. On the morning of the Castle Alley murder, which was the last Jack has thus far committed, her lodger left, and has not yet returned. In addition to the envelopes that he left behind him, the woman found iv his closet a pair of "silent" shoes, several bags, and a long overcoat, all of which, she asserte, aro bloodstained in alnio*t every part. The woman gives as her reason for not speaking earlier the fact that she did not suspect the identity of the man until after lie had got beyond her reach, and then she feared to go to the police, but the secret has co weighed upon her mind that she could keep it no longer, and now she comes forward to warn others against her former suspicious lodger.
A follow-up report a few days later said that:
"The woman who furnished particulars about Jack the Kipper has since modified her statements, and little importance is now attached to them. "
And this about a week later:
The Mysterious Landlady of the Murderer.
The Police Sceptical.
[From our London Correspondent London, Oct. 17.
On Saturday morning last most of the London papers came out with a highly sensational story concerning "Jack the Ripper," which had, it was alleged, been communicated by a mysterious woman to Mr Albert Backert, Chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee. [The story has already appeared in these columns.]
This morning, a Star man, having nothing better to do than to amuse himself, went and had a talk with Mr Albert Backert. For so prolific a clue merchant he is a very young man. He has the staring eyes of the born poet, and the heavy under jaw of the born detective. He is
A TALENTED TALKER.
" Good morning, Mr Backert," said the Star man. " This is a most important and sensational revelation."
" Extraordinary," said Mr Backert.
" Of course you took the woman at once to the police ?"
"No. You see she did not want her name mentioned. Her husband, I think, had bugged her to come to me and reveal all."
" But surely the police " —
"If the police like to come to me— and I shall probably see some of them this afternoon—we can go together and try to find her. Of course, if I cannot find her I shall have to advertise for her and her husband to come forward."
"But didn't you take the name and address of the woman who gave you this surprising information? "
"My sister has her name. You see, my sister had a long chat — quite a long chat — with her before I saw her, and she told my sister her name, but she did not want it made public because she might have to leave, and "
" But her address ? "
" She did not give her address. She only said SHE LIVED IN THE MODELS. You know, I can't see what motive she could have had to come to me unless it was the truth she told. It is extraordin "
" But it would be an unfortunate thing if through not taking her address such an important clue were lost. Why did you not take her to the police ?"
" I had not the time to spare just then. But, as I say, if the police like to come to me we can go together and try to find her. I can't see what motive she could have had to tell such an extraordi "
" No. Quite so. You have found a good many clues to the Whitechapel murderer, haven't you, Mr Backert ?"
" Yes. It was me who saw him in the Three Nuns, you know, and I gave a description of him from which a portrait was drawn, which was published in the papers, and the description tallied in every respect with one given by a woman who saw him. It is such an extraord " -
"It is, indeed. But what an odd thing that that woman never suspected anything
AT THE TIME
when the murders were being committed, and she had a blood-stained man in silent boots living in the house."
"Yes; wasn't it? But you see he always paid up all right, and then as to the blood stains she thought he may have got them when he was out shooting birds and things, through carrying the birds in hia pocket, as these sportsmen do. It is most extraor— '
"It is, indeed. But did he always lie in bed all day and go out all night ?"
" Yes. He always did that."
"When did he go shooting those birds ? "
" I didn't ask her all the details. Besides, she thought it was paint on his clothes. So one day she said to him, ' What a funny thing when you do so much painting that you only get red paint on your clothes.' "
"That was rather up against him. What did he say to that ? "
" I didn't ask her that."
"When did he do his painting ? "
"In the morning, I suppose, before he went out- You see, he had a lot of overcoats, a great many overcoats, so "
" Were they all bloodstained ? "
" Oh, yes ; all bloodstained. He had a lot of things, you see — hunting breeches and all sorts of things, and "
" He only had one room, did he ? "
" Yes, only one. You see, she had only one room to let, and he called and took it, and as he seemed a "
" Yes, quite so. But how odd that she didn't get suspicious of a young man living in one room with TWENTY BLOODSTAINED OVEBCOATS ? "
" Oh, not twenty."
" I thought you said twenty."
" Oh, no. A good many. A large number, but not twenty."
" How many ?"
" I did not ask her exactly how many." '
'But it was odd she did not think something was wrong. Did she suppose he always wiped his paint brushes on overcoats ?"
" I did not ask her that. But, you see. she never saw him do any painting, and besides, you know, she supposed he got the blood marks through carrying the birds he shot in his pocket, like these sportsmen do."
" She supposed he got the red paint on all his overcoats through carrying dead birds in his pockets ?"
" No. He got the red paint when he was painting through wiping his brush on his clothes. But I can't see how she should have come to tell me such an extrao "
"No, indeed. Unless it was true. I suppose you are very well known in Whitechapel?"
" Oh, yes. I was born there, and I know every court and alley. And, you see, when I go among the people, they'll tell me things they won't tell the police. That's how I've got
A GOOD MANY OF MY CLUES.
And they all know me. You see, when the Guards' petition was on I had he front of my house plastered over with posters, and that made me what they call popular, you know. Then I take up politics, and when there is an election or anything I'm seen on several platforms."
"And the Vigilance Committee ?"
" I took up that, and it all went to make a bit of notoriety. We held the meetings in a public-house. That has been the ruin of more than one Vigilance Committee. They get together and talk, and then by the time they ought to be out doing something, why they're that tight they want looking after themselves. It dwindled down, and I haven't called a meeting for a long time. But now there's something doing again I shall call a meeting, and
have it in a big room I've got at my house."
Here the Star man grew
MYSTERIOUS,
and said impressively, " Now, Mr Backert, 1 way tell you that I have no authority to make you any offer, but I have reasons for asking you a queßtion."
"What is it ? " asked the clueist.
" Supposing— now, just supposing— that the Scotland Yard people were to make you a fair offer to take up the murder mystery, should you feel justified in accepting it ? "
"I should. I would do anything possible. Of course, I have to earn my living."
" Perfectly. And supposing an independent organisation came forward and asked you to take on the job on their account, would you undertake it ? "
"I should not care what the organisation was. I would do what I could."
So, when Scotland Yard make the offer, or when the independent organisation is formed, the public will have the satisfaction of knowing that Mr Albert Backert is devoting all his time to the task of discovery. If a private individual can discover endless clues and twenty blood-stained overcoats in his spare time, what could not he do on the eight hours system at fair wages !
Is it necessary to say that Superintendent Arnold, at Leman street, has not at present heard from Mr Backert's visitor ? Neither do they expect to.
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