#OTD Wednesday, 13 November 1888, gossip began to spread in the neighbourhood of Bartholomew Street and Laurel Road
#Highfields #Leicester. A man answering the published description of the person wanted for the latest
#Whitechapel #murder was sighted in the area. The rumour spread to other parts of the town, where it was declared more in jest than in earnest that
#JacktheRipper had arrived in the town and taken up temporary quarters there. However, concern grew in the outskirts of the borough, especially among women and children.
It is believed that in the afternoon and evening, a stranger with a black curly moustache, carrying a black bag and displaying other distinguishing features of the mysterious Ripper, visited the Highfields Hotel and made a remark that, in conjunction with his imagined resemblance to the supposed
#London murderer, led to the idea that he was this person. The news spread quickly that Jack the Ripper was about, and a crowd soon assembled.
The man, at first entered into the humour of the situation, but found it ultimately necessary to beat a retreat. He arranged to take lodgings in Bartholomew Street for the night, but on returning between eight and nine o'clock, an extensive mob had assembled, and the police were called. As the stranger left in their company, the crowd followed, and finding the joke was being carried further than expected, made his way to the
#police station, where he was given temporary shelter and protection.
However, this was not the first time Jack the Ripper appeared in Leicester. On Friday 12 October 1888, the borough police in Leicester received the following -
‘Look out for blood on Saturday night. Blood, blood, and entrails.
Signed
Jack the Ripper’
The note was addressed to - Duns Esquire, Head Constable, Town Hall, Leicester, and bore the Leicester postmark and the date October 11th. The note was written in red ink, and there were several blots at the foot of the paper. Either a knife or a sword bayonet was drawn at the bottom of the note, with an even rougher representation of a coffin. The writing was described as like a female.
The other note was a postcard written dated Leicester October 11th, 1888.,
‘Dear old boss,
I have come to Leicester and am going to do five here. I hope you'll have a good look out. Am in hurry.
Yours ect
Jack the Ripper.’
The postcard had the top torn off evidently to obliterate the name of the firm from which it was obtained. However, sufficient remained to enable the police to trace where it came from. The police concluded the threats were a hoax, and they filed the case as such.