 |
| New York Journal, March 18, 1898. |
When the news of London’s 1888 Whitechapel Murders, attributed to “Jack the Ripper,” crossed the Atlantic, Americans were instantly fascinated. The vision of a dark, elusive killer, mutilating women without motive, was morbidly titillating, and the name Jack the Ripper fired the popular imagination. In the nascent age of yellow journalism, no one was more fascinated by Jack the Ripper than newspaper reporters who began seeing Ripper-like murders everywhere they looked.
Sensational
murder reporting had been a staple of American newspapers since the 1830s, and
multiple murderers (serial killers) were active in America throughout the 19th-century.
But the fear of deranged killers roaming the streets and killing at random was
something new. Journalists instinctively saw the value of linking unsolved
murders to a single individual and comparing him to Jack the Ripper. They invariably
attributed groups of unsolved murders to some local version of Jack.
The Humboldt Herald commented on this trend in 1889:
Since Jack the Ripper emerged into public notice at Whitechapel, London, this country has sprung upon it Jack the Choker, Jack the Kisser, Jack the Strangler, and Jack the Window-breaker. Now, if Jack the Hanger, would come along and hang the whole outfit, himself included, a long-suffering public would clap its hands and cry “Bravo!”
The name
that caught on in America was Jack the Strangler, as a rash of unsolved
strangulation cases spread throughout the country. In 1894, three strangulation
deaths in Denver, Colorado, were attributed to Jack the Strangler; San
Francisco’s Jack the Strangler also murdered three. Jack the Strangler murders
were reported in cities throughout America, including Sebolia, Arizona,
Nebraska City, Nebraska, Evansville, Indiana, Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and
Skagway, Alaska.
When
Denver reported a fourth strangulation in 1898, the New York Journal postulated
that ten women in cities across the country had been murdered by the same Jack
the Strangler. The first was Minnie Weldt, strangled in New York City in
November 1894. The Strangler then went to Buffalo, New York, and murdered Josie
Bennet that June. From there, to Cincinnati, where he strangled Mary Eckhart in
July. In September, he arrived in Denver, and over the next three months,
strangled Lena Tupper, Mary Contassolt, and Kiku Oyama. He took a year off,
then surfaced in San Francisco, and between December 1895 and March 1896, he
murdered Jessie Williams, Marie McDermott, and Bertha Paradis. After another
hiatus, he returned to Denver and killed Julia Voght in October 1898.
This scenario is highly unlikely, but the first name on the list, Minnie Weldt, was linked to a series of New York City murders that would later be attributed to New York’s own Jack the Strangler. The New York press seldom used the name Jack the Strangler, but as the cases began to pile up, with similar circumstances and locations, it was hard to ignore the possibility of a single killer. The papers came up with many Strangler theories, but were never able to identify him.
Between 1894
and 1900, eight women living in New York’s Tenderloin district centered around
2nd Avenue were strangled in their homes. Most were already known to
the police as women of low moral character. Not one of these cases was ever
solved:
 |
| New York Journal, August 24, 1900. |
May 6,
1894 – Minnie Weldt, a 22-year-old washerwoman, with many male visitors, was
found strangled with a handkerchief in her home at 224 E. 61st
Street.
May 31,
1896 – Mamie Cuningham, a girl of 13, was beaten and strangled with a towel in
her home at 315 E. 67th Street.
August 3,
1896 – Annie Bock, a 23-year-old “social outcast,” was beaten, strangled, and
slashed in her home at 207 E 23rd Street.
September
2, 1896 – Hannah Altman, aka “Dutch Annie,” a friend of Annie Bock, was
strangled with a stocking in her home at 202 E. 29th Street.
November
9, 1896 – Pauline Bennett, 24, was robbed and strangled in the
rooms she was using for “immoral purposes” at
April 22,
1897 – “Diamond Flossie” Murphy, an opium addict, was strangled with a rope and
robbed of $1,500 in jewelry
March 15,
1898 – Maggie Crowley, a 35-year-old woman with a drinking problem, was
strangled and dragged to the courtyard outside her home at 27 Monroe Street
August
20, 1900 – Katy Scharn, a 24-year-old factory worker, who frequented a “cheap
concert hall,” was strangled and beaten with a hammer at her home at 674 2nd
Avenue.
In coming
weeks, Murder by Gaslight will take a closer look at these cases and try to
determine if they all could have been victims of one single Jack the Strangler.
Sources:
“Another Victim,” The Akron Beacon Journal, November 13, 1894.
“Darkness Sheds Light on Death,” New York journal and advertiser., April 24, 1897.
“Did He Strangle in Other Cities?,” New York journal and advertiser., May 15, 1897.
“Evidence That One "Jack the Strangler" Killed Kate Scharn and at Least 2 Others.,” New York Journal and Advertiser, August 23, 1900.
“Four Deaths Traceable to Hand of Strangler,” EVANSVILLE COURIER., November 15, 1901.
'Frisco Has a Jack the Strangler,” WATERTOWN DAILY TIMES., March 10, 1896.
“Has Denver a "Jack the Strangler"?,” The New York Times, November 14, 1894.
“His Mark,” The Cincinnati Enquirer, February 19, 1892.
Humboldt Herald, March 15, 1889.
“Is Still a Mystery,” Sun-Journal, August 24, 1900.
“Jack the Strangler,” The Lincoln Daily Sun, July 13, 1892.
“Jack the Strangler,” The Cleveland Leader, October 30, 1894.
“Jack the Strangler,” Green Bay Press-Gazette, November 13, 1894.
“Jack the Strangler,” New York Herald, March 28, 1896.
“Jack the Strangler Seizes Young Girls,” DETROIT TO DAY, November 25, 1902.
“Lincoln Price,” New York Journal and Advertiser, August 24, 1900.
“May be the Strangler Who Has Cruelly Murdered So Many Hapless Women,” New York Journal, March 16, 1898.
“Murderer of Four Women,” Akron daily Democrat., November 14, 1901.
“New Clews,” New York Journal and Advertiser, August 23, 1900.
“New York's Women Murder Mysteries of the Past,” New York Journal and Advertiser, August 20, 1900.
“Police Mystified by Murders,” EVANSVILLE JOURNAL-NEWS, November 15, 1901.
“Slain by Jack the Strangler,” The San Francisco Examiner, November 14, 1894.
“Strangler Gets Another Victim.,” New York Journal and Advertiser, October 9, 1898.
“Strangler Mark on Dead Woman's Neck,” New York evening journal., March 15, 1898.
“Stranglers of Women,” New York Herald, June 7, 1896.
“Strangler's Sign on a Child's Body,” New York journal and advertiser., June 17, 1897.
“The Denver Mystery,” The San Francisco Examiner, November 19, 1894.
“Victims of a Mysterious Strangler,” New York Journal, March 18, 1898.
.jpg)
