On 13th November 1888 the newspapers were reporting the fact that an important witness had come forward who saw Mary Kelly in the company of a man on the morning she was murdered.
According to the Daily News the man had given a full and accurate description to the police and:-
It may be said that notwithstanding examination and re-examination by the police, the man's story cannot be shaken, and so circumstantial and straightforward were his assertions that the police believe they have at length been placed in possession of facts which will open up a new line of investigation, and probably enable them to track the criminal.
The article continued:-
This man states that on the morning of the 9th instant he saw the deceased woman, Mary Janet Kelly, in Commercial-street, Spitalfields (the vicinity of where the murder was committed), in company with a man of respectable appearance. The man was about 5 feet 6 inches in height, and 34 or 35 years of age, with dark complexion and dark moustache curled up at the ends. He was wearing a long dark coat trimmed with astrakhan, a white collar with black necktie, in which was affixed a horseshoe pin. He wore a pair of dark gaiters with light buttons, over button boots, and displayed from his waistcoat a massive gold chain. The highly respectable appearance of this individual was in such great contrast to that of the woman that few people could have failed to remark them at that hour of the morning
The witness being referred to in the article was George Hutchinson and today his description is treated with a great deal of caution. We discuss him in a lot more detail in our Face of Jack the Ripper article.
But in its article on the 13th November the Daily News opined that this description was:-
Much fuller in detail than that hitherto in the possession of the police, and the importance they attach to this man's story may be imagined when it is mentioned that it was forwarded to the headquarters of the H Division as soon as completed by a special detective. Detectives Abberline, Nairn, and Moore were present when this message arrived, and an investigation was immediately set on foot.
As the police began following up this important clue Mrs McCarthy, the wife of John McCarthy, Mary Kelly's landlord received a postcard with a Folkstone postmark. It was one of the many Jack the Ripper letters that were being sent at this time and was signed "Jack Sheridan, the Ripper."
The badly spelled missive with, according to the Daily News "equally bad calligraphy", was written in black ink and read:-
"Don't be alarmed. I am going to do another; but this time it will be a mother and daughter."
The letter was handed straight to the police and it was noted that the handwriting bore no resemblance to the Jack the Ripper letter.
Dorset Street, the scene of the murder of Mary kelly, was still drawing the curious and the concerned and the Daily News reported in its November 13th issue that the visitors "were not confined to the poorer classes, for besides two officials of the Royal Irish Constabulary and two or three members of Parliament, a prominent Post Office official inspected the scene of the murder."
It was also noted that several people had seen the commercial opportunities afforded by the crimes as "...several men were hawking a publication which professed to be "A Complete History of the Whitechapel Horrors,"
However it appears that public appetite for reports of the murders was becoming greatly reduced because, as the Daily News told its readers "the demand for it could not by any means be considered great...."
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