Official report by inspector M. Sheridan
CONFIDENTIAL

4^th of August, in the Year of Our Lord 1887

Preliminary:
The Yard had received various complaints from citizens of good standing concerning a wild man with red, glowing eyes. A statement by a girl-of-pleasure named 'Peggy' provided a lead to an address in the White Chapel district. I, Inspector Mycroft Sheridan, was charged with the investigation.

Upon arriving at the supplied address (21, St. Mark street), I carefully examined the surroundings. Of immediate note was that the front door of the derilect building would pose no hindrance to any would-be attackers. After having taken the scene and possible escape routes into account, I proceeded to enter the premises.

The body of a thin young female, approx. 4 ft. 10 in height, dark-red, curly hair, was lying in the kitchen. The terrified expression on the face and the lack of any wounds or other signs of a cause of death might indicate the woman died of fright. Judging by the state of the food she had been cooking, she had died approximately 10-12 hours before my arrival.

At this moment I assembled a team of street officers to take care of the body and keep the order. I proceeded with my investigation in search of a possible escape route. Despite the heavy traffic in the area, I managed to locate two imprints. These imprints seem to vaguely resemble a pair of strange horseshoes.

As no further clues were forthcoming, I left sgt. Kevin Mcbride in charge of the scene and proceeded to the Yard to order my notes. Later in the evening, at my residence, I was visited by mr. Kingsford and his sister-in-law, the widow Kingsford-Rumsby. They had heard disturbing tales concerning a wild man (which was described to them as 'a devil') with red glowing eyes in Hyde park, near the bend of the pond.

This story was further substantiated by the nanny of my niece. My niece had had a most unpleasant experience in the exact same area. I resolved to forge the iron when it's hot, and so let out my guests and set forth to Hyde park.

After a diligent scrutiny of the area near the pond in Hyde park, I had uncovered similar imprints to the ones described earlier. There were once again two imprints near eachother. Further exploration led to the discovery of another set of imprints, roughly 10 yards further. A painstaking investigation of the intermediate terrain did not result in any additional prints, so I continued with the assumption that whatever had made the first set of imprints had arrived at the location of the second imprints without touching the ground in between.

Captain, at this point it becomes clear that whatever made those imprints is neither man nor beast. This is the reason I have marked this report classified.

Given the assumption, I was able to more quickly locate the next pair of imprints. This also lend credit to the hypothesis that the creature moved around by jumping. I was able to follow its tracks towards the London Zoo. Upon enquiry, the guard explained that at night the animals had become restless of late. The racket would be started by the chimpansees, which caused a cascade reaction. According to the guard these disturbances did not occur in a regular pattern.

In front of the chimpansee cage, there were again imprints. Given my previous estimates of its capabilities, it seemed probable that the creature had entered the chimpansee resort -- which could explain the sudden nightly restlessness of the animals. I therefore proceeded to enter the resort and conduct a search.

This is where it gets weird, Captain. I think it is best that the exact circumstances are not disclosed, but that a general statement is made that "Scotland Yard has looked into the matter and has taken several measures to deal with the situation".

While following the tracks, I was suddenly attacked from behind. I managed to throw off my assaillant, and found to my surprise mr. Kingsford and his sister-in-law in the cage, attacking my assaillant. Needless to say, this awoke the chimpansees and we found ourselves in a battle of noise as well as a physical one.

That woman can throw a punch Captain! She smacked the creature right to the other side of the cage! I was glad she was on my side.

We were able to inflict considerable damage upon our assaillant, a strange creature matching the description concerning the 'devil man'. Each time a wound was inflicted, the creature's response seemed normal (i.e. slump, lose strength), but it was as if the creature was reinvigorated by the cacaphony. We were able to remove the creature from the chimpansees resort, and found it much more susceptible to our blows from that point on.

mrs. Kingsford-Rumsby actually threw the beast out the cage Captain! And he weighed more than a bag of peanuts, I can tell you that.

With the assistance of mr. Kingsford I was able to defeat the beast. I began to foresee problems with the resolution of this case, so I decided to put the carcass of the creature in a large sack, added several stones to increase the weight and sank it of into the Thames.

This concludes the events pertaining to this case.

Inspector Mycroft Sheridan.

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