London has been horrified by another murder of exceptional atrocity.
On the morning of Saturday, between 5.30 and 6 o'clock, the body of a woman, since identified as that of Mrs. Annie Chapman, an " unfortunate " of a low class, was found in the back-yard of 29 Hanbury Street, Spitalfields. Her throat had been cut so that the head was almost separated from the trunk, and she had been disembowelled. This is the third murder of the same kind perpetrated within a few weeks in the same section of Whitechapel, the victims all belonging to the same class, and the crimes all marked by circumstances of atrocity we do not venture to describe. In spite of unusual efforts by the police, and of the readiest aid from the excited community, which is ready to lynch the murderer, no clue to the assassin has yet been discovered, and it is quite possible that until the next atrocity—for this criminal will not rest—none will be. He acted, it seems certain, in daylight ; but no one saw him after the murder, nor can any one be found who met at that time a man who must have been covered with blood. Popular suspicion fastened on a Jew named Piser, nicknamed " Leather Apron," but his inno- cence seems established ; but even if the right man were caught, evidence would be nearly unattainable. Murder for murder's sake is protected by its very atrocity. The Home Secretary, the police, and society are all blamed, as usual; but all seem innocent, there being absolutely nothing to guide inquiry except that the miscreant or lunatic must have known Whitechapel well, and carried a long knife.
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