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Found this report in the Middlesborough Daily Gazette 14th Sept 1889, shortly after the Pinchin Street torso was discovered. It seems Matthew Packer was attacked, but after which murder - Alice MacKenzie? Is there any corroboration for this report?
"It is now considered probable that more than one person knew of the crime from a significant circumstance. Mr Packer, whose declaration that he could identify the author of the Berner-street murder excited some amount of interest, has been attacked and injured. Shortly after the commission of the murder preceding the Pinchin-street discovery Packer again expressed an opinion that the criminal did not live “very far from Batty-street,” which is within three minutes’ walk of the railway arch. Not long after that Packer averred that while he was standing near his doorstep two men rushed upon him and knocked him down, with the remark, “Know where ‘Jack the Ripper’ lives, do you?” The unfortunate man was, as a result, admitted to the London Hospital, where he was detained for three weeks."
It seems to me that, rather than the two men knowing of the murder and trying to intimidate Packer into silence, as the paper seems to imply, they could simply have been outraged that he apparently knew where the murderer lived but hadn't turned him in.
"It is now considered probable that more than one person knew of the crime from a significant circumstance. Mr Packer, whose declaration that he could identify the author of the Berner-street murder excited some amount of interest, has been attacked and injured. Shortly after the commission of the murder preceding the Pinchin-street discovery Packer again expressed an opinion that the criminal did not live “very far from Batty-street,” which is within three minutes’ walk of the railway arch. Not long after that Packer averred that while he was standing near his doorstep two men rushed upon him and knocked him down, with the remark, “Know where ‘Jack the Ripper’ lives, do you?” The unfortunate man was, as a result, admitted to the London Hospital, where he was detained for three weeks."
It seems to me that, rather than the two men knowing of the murder and trying to intimidate Packer into silence, as the paper seems to imply, they could simply have been outraged that he apparently knew where the murderer lived but hadn't turned him in.
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