Cattle Malming in England.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue 244, 13 November 1903, Page 4

Cattle Malming in England.

RENEWAL OF THE ESSEX ATROCITIES., Writing under date Sept. 2b, our London correspondent e&id "It may not perhaps be due to tke peculiarities of the weather, but whatever may be the cause, the fact undoubtedly is that tho most extraordinary outbreak of eccentric crime Jias taken place in England during the current month. Murders of peculiar atrocity are recorded whole-, s.-tlo daily, but what has excited the most sensation, and, indeed, apprehension, has Ueen a nurolfbr of most inhuman mutilations of horses, cattle and sheep at Great Wyrley, Essex. " The unhappy victims were all eviscerated by means of some very sharp curved instrument at the end of a long stick or pole. Not the slightest reason or motive tan be even suspected for these infamous outrages, nor has any clue yet been obtained of the perpetrator. A young man named Edalji, of very good standing and position, has tifcen arrested on suspicion, and is now under remand, but further atrocities ol a like character have occurred Since his arrest. " The most serious feature of the affair, and one .which has occasioned such widespread disKjjuiet, is the receipt of an anonymous threat that the same shocking mutilation wilKbfe inflicted on twenty young girls in the country, and already one girl has been chased by a man who had been somewhat under vague suspicion, and who pursued her with what she described as " something shining" in his hand. But, fortunately, she was rescued in time. Naturally, a veritiabje reign of terror has been established in the neighbourhood, and not only women and • children, but even men, are afraid to venture out of aty£rl .ttork alone or unarmed. " The anonymous threats allege that several men are concerned in the crimes, but it is strongly suspected by the police that the whole is • the work of a homicidal lunatic, whose identity has not yet been even guessed, but who enacts the murderer's part of "Mr Hyde" to some"Dr. Jekyll," who is probaftiiy well known and respected, and his identity with whom no one would dream of ining. It is a sinister coincidence that quite recently similar mutilations of animals in equally mysterious circumstances have been perpetrated in tiie County of Sussex. Whether this be due merely to the imitative tendency so often noticed in such cases, or whether there be really a wave of atrocity mania setting in throughout the country, no one as yet can tell, and speculation seems lidle." (The young man Edalji, referred to in our correspondent's letter, was on Oct. 24, found guilty of maiming| a horse at Great Wyrley, and sentenced to seven yews' imprisonment, with hard labour.—Truth.