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Jack the Ripper stalks London... In a London newspaper...
Jack the Ripper stalks London... In a London newspaper...
Item # 712238
November 22, 1888
THE TIMES, London, England, November 22, 1888
* Jack the Ripper attacks again ?
* Whitechapel, London - Annie Farmer hoax ?
* Best title to be had (very rare as such)
"Jack the Ripper" reports were common in the latter half of 1888, capturing the interest of people on both sides of the Atlantic as evidenced by the reports in many newspapers in the United States. It was the international "sensation" of the era, and a case which was never conclusively solved. Not surprisingly, issues of the respected "Times" newspaper from London are the most sought after, being the primary source for Jack the Ripper reports.
Page 5 has a nearly half column article headed "Murderous Outrage In Whitechapel" which is a great & detailed report on the attack of a prostitute by the name of Annie Farmer. Portions include: "Considerable excitement was caused throughout the East end yesterday morning by a report that another woman had been brutally murdered & mutilated in a common lodging house in George Street, Spitafields...an attempt had been made to murder a woman of the class to which the other unfortunate creatures belonged, but cutting her throat, & the excitement in the neighbourhood for some time was intense. Whether the woman's assailant is the man wanted for the seven recent murders committed in the district of Whitechapel is, or course, not known, although his description tallies somewhat with that given by one of the witnesses at the last inquest..." with much more.
Complete in 16 pages, very nice, clean condition.
Note: Annie Farmer was one of the nine "other alleged Ripper victims" beyond the "canonical five" for whom conclusive evidence was found to link their deaths to Jack the Ripper. The other nine were presumed murdered by Jack the Ripper but a sufficient amount of evidence was lacking to make the connection conclusive.
Annie Farmer was a forty-year-old wife of a City Road tradesman, Annie Farmer left her husband and slowly reverted back to a life as an unfortunate in the streets of Spitalfields. She went by a variety of nicknames; 'Flossie', 'Tilly', 'Dark Sarah' and 'Laughing Liz'.
On the morning of November 21, 1888 (the day after Mary Kelly's burial), Farmer picked up a man of "shabby genteel" in a suit at 7:30 AM and returned with him to Satchell's Lodging House, 19 George Street, Spitalfields. He paid for a bed for both of them.
Two hours later, Annie screamed loudly, and only moments later the man flew out of the doss-house along George Street and into Thrawl Street. As he passed two cokemen he exclaimed, "What a -- cow!" He then disappeared.
Annie seemed quite distraught, and claimed she was attacked by Jack the Ripper, as her throat was lightly cut and bleeding. The crowds of George Street once again thought the Ripper had struck and gone free, and it wouldn't be long before panic overtook reason.
The police, however, were skeptical of her claims, as her injury was quite superficial and done with a blunt blade, quite unlike the Ripper's deep wounds with a sharp weapon. And once it was discovered that she was hiding coins in her mouth, it was concluded she had attempted to steal from the man and, once discovered, lightly brushed her own throat with a blunt knife and screamed "Murder!" at her client, accusing him of being Jack the Ripper. The man, understandably frightened due to the very salient possibility of lynching, left as quick as possible.
The police called off the investigation and stopped searching for the man, believing he would turn himself in in order to clear his name. This never happened, and Farmer never recanted her original story.
Category: Post-Civil War
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