Was geschah heute vor 132 Jahren am 09. November 1888?

[Lestrade]

Wir lesen heute auf jacktheripper.de:

"Was geschah heute vor 132 Jahren am 09. November 1888 ?

Mary Kelly wird im Miller's Court #13, 26 Dorset Street ermordet."

Das letzte Opfer der Kanonischen 5, Mary Jane Kelly, fiel Jack the Ripper in die Hände. Die Mordserie riss in ihrem Tempo ab. Irgendetwas muss mit dem mutmaßlichen Täter geschehen sein. Kam ihm die Polizei nach dem Mord an Kelly auf die Schliche, so, wie es Detective Inspector Henry Cox beschrieb? 

Thomson's Weekly News on 1 December 1906

"We had many people under observation while the murders were being perpetrated, but it was not until the discovery of the body of Mary Kelly had been made that we seemed to get upon the trail. Certain investigations made by several of our cleverest detectives made it apparent to us that a man living in the East End of London was not unlikely to have been connected with the crimes".

Walthamstow and Leyton Guardian (UK)
Saturday, 10 August 1889

THE WHITECHAPEL MURDER.

"The police have just had a severe disappointment, says a London correspondent, in connection with their search for the Whitechapel murderer. They received information of a man exactly answering the description of the person they are looking for. He was a lunatic, and learnt the butchering trade in his father's shop, had become a medical student on his father's death, had absented himself from home frequently at nights without giving any explanation of where he had been, and had written an extraordinary series of letters to the rector of his parish, which parish was in direct communication by a straight line of tram-rails with the very circle within which all the diabolical crimes have been perpetrated. Those letters indicated clearly that the writer was a lewd-minded lunatic, such as the murderer must be, and there occurred in them such ominous and coincidental expressions as threats to "rip up" both his mother and the rector. In fact, every conceivable circumstance about him exactly fitted in with a rational theory of the crimes with him as the chief actor in them, until one discovery upset the entire superstructure. He was at liberty during the whole of the murders except the last of all, when he was safe under lock and key in a private asylum. Until that false link in the chain was found the police certainly regarded the clues as the best they have had all along. Of course, there yet remains the contingency that this latest murder was the work of a fresh assassin, and Dr. Phillips inclines to that opinion from the nature of the mutilations".

London Evening News And Post, 13. September 1889:

"The second man is now being watched. He is a resident of the East End, and has been for years. For a long time he has been acting in the most suspicious fashion. He has a business, to which he scarcely ever personally attends. He goes about drinking, and is to be met at all hours of the night in the streets all over the neighborhood. He enters his house at hours when his wife and family have long been at rest. No member of his family dare question him as to his ramblings. He knocks about among the lowest class of women at unearthly hours, although, according to general report, their very appearance is hateful in his sight. His hatred has been produced by physical suffering, for which, like most men of his class, he holds himself perfectly irresponsible. His habits are such as to give one the notion that he is not altogether in a fit position to be allowed to roam at will. Whether he has anything to do with any crime, it is, of course, impossible to say, but he is kept in view".

Rochester Democrat And Chronicle, 16. September 1889:

"The London Police has a theory that Jack the Ripper is a crazy jewish butcher."

North Eastern Daily Gazette, 18. September 1889:

"A Detective's Views: We are watching now three men, besides the usual night-birds of Whitechapel. One man created some stir during the last murders under circumstances which I need not say anything about. He is a curious sort of fellow; in business, but not doing much to keep it going. His wife and daughter see to it, and he is out at all hours of the night. He says he is a member of the vigilance committee, but I can't answer as to that. No, I won't tell you his name, even if you do want to find out if he is a member or not. This man is out at all hours of the night, and he lets himself in some quietly that his wife does not know what time he really arrives home. She generally finds him in the shop when she comes down the morning. He is being watched, but we can't arrest him only on the suspicious we have. We must wait further developments."

Sunday Chronicle, October 15, 1905:

"A well-known Scotland Yard detective" said: "We found our man. He was engaged in a large way of business in the City of London, was married, had a family, and was general respected. For some time he had been known as eccentric, and various escapades had caused his friends a good deal of anxiety... his description agreed with that of a man seen in Dorset Street, Whitechapel, on the night when Mary Jane Kelly was cut to pieces, and at that time he was near to actual arrest by a policeman. His family knew of the circumstances, knew that he was not only a madman, but a man possessed of considerable surgical knowledge, and with their full consent and the knowledge of the police he was put away in an asylum".

Erzählen uns diese Zeitungsartikel etwas über den mutmaßlichen Ripper? Oder sollten wir deren Bedeutung weniger ernst nehmen?

Lestrade.