Aus den Geheimakten des Welt-Detektivs No. 18

Museum Catalog Note This German-language pulp periodical, published May 21, 1907, serializes "Wie Jack, der Aufschlitzer, gefasst wurde" (How Jack the Ripper Was Caught). Chapter 5, "A Competition Between Two Detectives," depicts London Police Director Warren briefing the celebrated detective Holmes on a serial killer case. Thirty-seven women—prostitutes and women of loose morality from both poor and respectable families—have been murdered over three months in characteristic fashion: bodies found with slashed abdomens, internal organs removed, killed by expert knife work. The killer leaves no evidence, steals nothing, and vanishes without trace. Despite offering a thousand-pound reward, distributing whistles to potential victims, and deploying extensive police surveillance, authorities remain baffled. Detective Murphy arrives with news of a thirty-eighth murder involving a prominent person. Holmes agrees to investigate the seemingly impossible case.