East London Observer

Saturday, 20 October 1888. 
 

THE WHITECHAPEL HORRORS.
Another Series of Atrocities.
Is the Murderer a Cannibal?
Shocking Revelations.

Three weeks have now passed since Elizabeth Stride was murdered in Berner-street, and Kate Eddowes was butchered and mutilated in Mitre-square, by - so far as circumstantial evidence can prove it - the same ruthless hand which had previously dispatched, and mutilated Emma Smith, Martha Tabram, Mary Ann Nicholls and Annie Chapman, and yet to all appearances the police are as far off the scent of the murderer as when the discovery of the Buck's Row victim first set them seriously to work. That so many murders should have been committed with impunity; that very nearly a year should have elapsed since the first "unfortunate" fell a victim to the destroyer's hand; and that the murderer should still remain undiscovered, is a condition of things - taking into consideration the vastly increased efficiency of the police force - absolutely without a parallel in this country. Williams, the Welsh lawyer's clerk, who, about a century ago, went about stabbing indiscriminately at women in the public streets, was speedily caught; John Williams, better known as "the Marr murderer" of Ratcliff, was caught within a comparatively short time after the commission of his fifth crime, and even Burke, of Edinburgh, only managed to dispatch his third victim before the law had its iron hand round his throat. Indeed, to find anything like a parallel to the present atrocities and the present circumstances, it is necessary to go to Texas in the early days of primitive civilisation, when two white women and several negresses of loose character were found with their throats cut, while the question as to who was their murderer was as much a mystery then, as it remains to the present day. One curious feature of the Texas atrocities, was that the murders were invariably found to be committed when the moon was full, from which fact it was generally believed that the murderer was a lunatic.

The history of the week has been little more than a repetition of previous weeks - a series of false alarms, false arrests, fruitless theories, and useless house to house visitations on the part of the police. The only startling event worth chronicling is the following: From inquiries made at Mile End, we are enabled to give particulars, on the most reliable authority, concerning the receipt of certain letters and a parcel at the house of a member of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee. A letter, delivered shortly after five o'clock on Tuesday evening, was accompanied by a cardboard box containing what appeared to be a portion of a kidney. The letter was in the following terms: "From Hell. - Mr. Lusk. - Sir, - I send you half the kidney I took from one woman. Prasarved it for you. Tother piece I fried and ate; it was very nice. I may send you the bloody knife that took it out, if you only wate whil longer - (Signed.) CATCH ME WHEN YOU CAN, MR. LUSK." The receiver was at first disposed to think that a hoax had been perpetrated, but eventually decided to take the opinion of the Vigilance Committee. Mr. F. S. Reed, who is assistant to Dr. Wiles, on Thursday examined the contents of the box in the presence of several members of the committee, and declared the substance to be the half of a human kidney, which had been divided longitudinally; but in order to remove any reason for doubt, he conveyed it to Dr. Openshaw, who is Pathological Curator of the London Hospital Museum. The doctor examined it, and pronounced it to be a portion of a human kidney - a "ginny" kidney - that is to say, one that had belonged to a person who had drunk heavily. He was further of the opinion that it was the organ of a woman of about 45 years of age, and that it had been taken from the body within the last three weeks. It will be within public recollection that the left kidney was missing from the woman Eddowes, who was murdered and mutilated in Mitre-square. On Thursday, two members of the committee took the parcel to Scotland Yard, but the police authorities there referred them to the detectives at Leman-street. At the latter place the officer who is directing inquiries took down the statement of the receiver. The box and its contents were left in the care of the police pending further investigation.