Throughout the first thirty to forty years of the 20th century many of those who had been involved in the case of the Whitechapel murders, one way or another, began dying off, and the newspapers were quick to connect their names to the infamous case.
A surprising number of those people were said to have actually met Jack the Ripper, despite the fact their being no proof that this had ever happened!
As far as the men from the press were concerned – even fifty or more years later – just being alive at the time was sufficient verification for having met the East End murderer.
One such case was reported by The Evening News in its edition of Saturday the 4th of July, 1936:-
THE EAST END ATTORNEY-GENERAL
Mr. George Hay Young, the lawyer whose work in police court cases in the East End gained him the name of “The Attorney-General of the East End,” has died at Croydon, it is announced today.
Mr. Young, who was 79, had been ill for some time.
He retired from practice in 1934, after 55 years of police court work.
HE KNEW THE PEOPLE OF THE EAST END
Nobody knew the East End and its populace better than Mr. Young. When he retired Mr. Barrington Ward, K.C., magistrate at the Thames Police Court, said:-
“Mr. Young has practised with the greatest ability and to the pleasure and admiration of every magistrate who has sat in this court since 1880.”
HIS TWIN BROTHER
Sons of a solicitor, Mr. Young and his twin brother frequently opposed each other in court.
When he first went to Thames Police Court the sitting on a Monday used to be called “Hospital Parade,” as there were so many assaults during the weekend.
EAST END BEHAVIOUR IMPROVED
At the time of his retirement, Mr. Young said that the behaviour of East Enders had improved immensely.
THE NIGHT HE MET JACK THE RIPPER
He declared that his most exciting adventure was when he was accosted in the street during a dense fog by a man who was afterwards suspected of being “Jack the Ripper.”
“A tall, sinister-looking man came up to me suddenly and asked in low nervous tones to be directed to Stepney,” Mr., Young said.
“An hour or two later, the dead and mutilated body of a woman was discovered in an alley-way a few yards from where I had met the stranger.
“Jack the Ripper” had committed another murder.
I was so convinced that the man I met in the fog was the slayer that I told the police of my encounter and gave them a description of the man.”