Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in Folkestone & Dover by Martin Easdown & Linda Sage

Author:Martin Easdown & Linda Sage
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783408252
Publisher: Wharncliffe
Published: 2013-05-29T16:00:00+00:00

The force of imagination under something like panic never had a better illustration than in the case of the detention of a young man at Elham Union. As soon as the Guardians separated, those who represented rural parts, carried the news to their homes that a man was in the Union who might turn out to be the Whitechapel Murderer. They were questioned, cross-examined, re-examined, and every word on the subject readily listened to, and they simply gave an account of what had transpired at the Union. At Lyminge in the afternoon, it was confidently stated that ‘Jack the Ripper’ had been caught with the terrible instrument in his possession, and all traces of his recent bloodthirsty exploits found upon his person, whilst one individual, the possessor of a highly strung imagination, averred that the reward for his detention was on its way from London, and would equally be divided between the two gentlemen responsible for his detention. At Lympne, at Postling, and wherever the news travelled, reports of all kinds spread like wildfire, and one party expressed a determination to walk to the Union, if by chance they might get a sight of such a distinguished character. At Elham, as in other places, extreme gratification was expressed amongst the ladies, one formidable damsel remarking that she now ‘could now walk about of a night time without having the creeps come over her’. Children were heard with gleeful satisfaction shouting ‘we’ve caught Jack the Ripper.’ The thought naturally suggests itself that if in these rural parts rumours of such an exaggerated character could arise out of simple circumstance – namely, the detention of a man for a few days to elucidate certain mysterious appearances – what trouble the police of London must have had in enquiring into the hundreds of reported suspicious cases which they daily receive from all parts of the country. Enquiry soon elicited that this man, who in the contradictory accounts he gave of himself, is responsible for the unenviable notoriety he has gained – was free from any association with the crime, and the joy with which the report that the Whitechapel murderer had been caught, will be succeeded by the credulous people who believed the rumour with that disappointment arising from the contradiction of news ‘too good to be true’.

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