Modus Operandi
The 'Ripper' would confine his attacks on impoverished women, forced to rely on prostitution as a means of income. As such, it was easy to procure victims who were always in dire need of funds.

All the attacks occurred during the many dark evenings of 19th century London, and with the exception of his final known attack Mary Kelly, all occurred in the proximity of London's East End streets, performing his activities in the many darkened alleys and alcoves.

The 'Ripper`s' choice of weapon was a straight razor blade, strong enough to use as a stabbing/slashing implement, but flexible enough to use in the many dismemberment activities employed. This can also imply the use of some form of medicinal scalpel.

Motives
In an attempt to assign a motive to these terrible murders, one can only be given by listing some of the suspects that have been implicated into the 'Ripper' legend over the years. These theories range from the plausible to the outlandish. Nevertheless, they allow a scope of possibilities to be viewed, which previously never existed.

Dear Boss,
I keep on hearing the police have caught me but they wont fix me just yet. I have laughed when they look so clever and talk about being on the right track. That joke about Leather Apron gave me real fits. I am down on whores and I shant quit ripping them till I do get buckled. Grand work the last job was. I gave the lady no time to squeal. How can they catch me now. I love my work and want to start again. You will soon hear of me with my funny little games. I saved some of the proper red stuff in a ginger beer bottle over the last job to write with but it went thick like glue and I cant use it. Red ink is fit enough I hope ha. ha. The next job I do I shall clip the ladys ears off and send to the police officers just for jolly wouldn't you. Keep this letter back till I do a bit more work, then give it out straight. My knife's so nice and sharp I want to get to work right away if I get a chance. Good Luck.


Yours truly
Jack the Ripper

Jill the Ripper

James Maybrick

R. D'Onston Stephenson

Dr. Thomas Neil Cream

Severin Klosowski

Montague John Druitt

James Kenneth Stephen

James Kelly

Prince Albert Victor

Eight little whores, with no hope of heaven,
Gladstone may save one, then there'll be seven.
Seven little whores beggin for a shilling,
One stays in Henage Court, then there's a killing.
Six little whores, glad to be alive,
One sidles up to Jack, then there are five.
Four and whore rhyme aright,
So do three and me,
I'll set the town alight
Ere there are two.
Two little whores, shivering with fright,
Seek a cosy doorway in the middle of the night.
Jack's knife flashes, then there's but one,
And the last one's the ripest for Jack's idea of fun.

Mary Ann 'Polly' Nichols
Born Mary Ann Walker on August 26, 1845 in Shoe Lane off Fleet Street. She was christened in or some years before 1851. At the time of her death the East London Observer guessed her age at 30-35. At the inquest her father said "she was nearly 44 years of age, but it must be owned that she looked ten years younger."



Features
5'2" tall; brown eyes; dark complexion; brown hair turning grey; five front teeth missing (Rumbelow); two bottom-one top front (Fido), her teeth are slightly discoloured. She is described as having small, delicate features with high cheekbones and grey eyes. She has a small scar on her forehead from a childhood injury.

She is described by Emily Holland as "a very clean woman who always seemed to keep to herself." The doctor at the post mortem remarked on the cleanliness of her thighs. She is also an alcoholic.

History
Father: Edward Walker (Blacksmith, formerly a locksmith). He has gray hair and beard and, as a smithy, was probably powerfully built. At the time of Polly's death he is living at 16 Maidswood Rd., Camberwell.

Mother: Caroline.

Polly married William Nichols on January 16, 1864. She would have been about 22 years old. The marriage is performed by Charles Marshall, Vicar of Saint Brides Parrish Church and witnessed by Seth George Havelly and Sarah Good.

William Nichols is in the employ of Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co., Whitefriars Rd. and living at Cogburg Rd. off Old Kent Road at the time of his wife's death.

The couple have five children. Edward John, born 1866; Percy George, 1868; Alice Esther, 1870; Eliza Sarah, 1877 and Henry Alfred born in 1879. The oldest, 21 in 1888, is living with his grandfather (Polly's father) at the time of her death. He had left home in 1880 according to his father, on his own accord. The other children continued to live with Nichols.

William and Polly briefly lodged in Bouverie Street then moved in with her father at 131 Trafalgar Street for about ten years. They spend six years, (no dates) at No. 6 D block, Peabody Buildings, Stamford Street, Blackfriars Rd. There they are paying a rent of 5 shillings, 6 pence per week. If Peabody Buildings is their last address then they would have lived there from 1875-1881, with her father from 1865 to 1875.

Polly separated from Nichols for the final time in 1881. It was the last of many separations during 24 years of marriage.

In 1882, William found out that his wife was living as a prostitute and discontinued support payments to her. (Sugden: she is living with another man, probably Thomas Dew). Parrish authorities tried to collect maintenance money from him. He countered that she had deserted him leaving him with the children. He won his case after establishing that she was living as a common prostitute. At the time of her death, he had not seen his wife in three years.

Polly's father spread the story that the separation had come about due to William having an affair with the nurse who took care of Polly during her last confinement. William does not deny that he had an affair but states that it was not the cause of her leaving. "The woman left me four or five times, if not six." He claims that the affair took place after Polly left. There is obvious disharmony in the family as the eldest son would have nothing to due with his father at his mother's funeral.

After the separation, Polly begins a sad litany of moving from workhouse to workhouse.

4/24/82-1/18/83 -- Lambeth Workhouse

1/18/83-1/20/83 -- Lambeth Infirmary

1/20/83-3/24/83 -- Lambeth Workhouse

3/24/83-5/21/83 -- She is living with her father in Camberwell. He testifies at the inquest into her death that she was "a dissolute character and drunkard whom he knew would come to a bad end." He found her not a sober person but not in the habit of staying out late at night. Her drinking caused friction and they argued. He claims that he had not thrown her out but she left the next morning.

5/21/83-6/2/83 -- Lambeth Workhouse

6/2/83-10/26/87 -- She is said to have been living with a man named Thomas Dew, a blacksmith, with a shop in York Mews, 15 York St., Walworth. In June 1886 she had attended the funeral of her brother who had been burned to death by the explosion of a paraffin lamp. It was remarked by the family that she was respectably dressed.

10/25/87 -- She spends one day in St. Giles Workhouse, Endell Street.

10/26/87-12/2/87 -- Strand Workhouse, Edmonton

12/2/87-12/19/87 -- Lambeth Workhouse

On 12/2/87 It is said that she was caught "sleeping rough (in the open)" in Trafalgar Square. She was found to be destitute and with no means of sustenance and was sent on to Lambeth Workhouse.

12/19/87-12/29/87 -- Lambeth Workhouse

12/29/87-1/4/88 -- No record

1/4/88-4/16/88 -- Mitcham Workhouse, Holborn and Holborn Infirmary.

4/16/88-5/12/88 -- Lambeth Workhouse. It is in Lambeth Workhouse that she meets Mary Ann Monk who will eventually identify Polly's body for the police. Monk is described as a young woman with a "Haughty air and flushed face."

Polly has another friend in the Lambeth Workhouse, a Mrs. Scorer. She had been separated from her husband James Scorer, an assistant salesman in Spitalfields Market, for eleven years. He claimed that he knew Polly by sight but was unable to identify the body at the mortuary.

On 12 May she left Lambeth to take a position as a domestic servant in the home of Samuel and Sarah Cowdry. This was common practice at the time for Workhouses to find domestic employment for female inmates.

The Cowdry's live at "Ingleside", Rose Hill Rd, Wandsworth. Samuel (b. 1827)is the Clerk of Works in the Police Department. Sarah is one year younger than her husband. They are described as upright people. Both are religious and both are teetotalers.

Polly writes her father:

"I just right to say you will be glad to know that I am settled in my new place, and going all right up to now. My people went out yesterday and have not returned, so I am left in charge. It is a grand place inside, with trees and gardens back and front. All has been newly done up. They are teetotalers and religious so I ought to get on. They are very nice people, and I have not too much to do. I hope you are all right and the boy has work. So good bye for the present.

from yours truly,
Polly

Answer soon, please, and let me know how you are."

Walker replies to the letter but does not hear back.

She works for two months and then left while stealing clothing worth three pounds, ten shillings.

8/1/88-8/2/88 -- Grays Inn Temporary Workhouse

Last Addresses

Common lodging house at 18 Thrawl Street, Spitalfields. Thrawl Street is south of and parallel to Flower and Dean Street. There she shares a room with four women including Emily (or Ellen) Holland. The room is described as being surprisingly neat. The price of the room is 4d per night.

Emily Holland is 50 years old. In October 1888 she has two convictions in Thames Magistrate Court for being drunk and disorderly.

On 8/24/88 Polly moves to a lodging house known as the White House at 56 Flower and Dean Street. In this doss house men are allowed to share a bed with a woman.

Flower and Dean Street held lodging houses in which Nichols, Stride and Eddowes lived at one time or another. Most of these common lodging houses catered to prostitutes. Flower and Dean is described in 1883 as "perhaps the foulest and most dangerous street in the whole metropolis." It and Thrawl Street are part of the area if Spitalfields known as the "evil quarter mile."

Thursday, August 30 through Friday, August 31, 1888.

Heavy rains have ushered out one of the coldest and wettest summers on record. On the night of August 30, the rain was sharp and frequent and was accompanied by peals of thunder and flashes of lightning. the sky on that night was turned red by the occasion of two dock fires.

11:00 PM -- Polly is seen walking down Whitechapel Road, she is probably soliciting trade.

12:30 AM -- She is seen leaving the Frying Pan Public House at the corner of Brick Lane and Thrawl Street. She returns to the lodging house at 18 Thrawl Street.

1:20 or 1:40 AM -- She is told by the deputy to leave the kitchen of the lodging house because she could not produce her doss money. Polly, on leaving, asks him to save a bed for her. " Never Mind!" She says, "I'll soon get my doss money. See what a jolly bonnet I've got now." She indicates a little black bonnet which no one had seen before.

2:30 AM -- She meets Emily Holland, who was returning from watching the Shadwell Dry Dock fire, outside of a grocer's shop on the corner of Whitechapel Road and Osborn Street. Polly had come down Osborn Street. Holland describes her as "very drunk and staggered against the wall." Holland calls attention to the church clock striking 2:30. Polly tells Emily that she had had her doss money three times that day and had drunk it away. She says she will return to Flower and Dean Street where she could share a bed with a man after one more attempt to find trade. "I've had my doss money three times today and spent it." She says, "It won't be long before I'm back." The two women talk for seven or eight minutes. Polly leaves walking east down Whitechapel Road.

At the time, the services of a destitute prostitute like Polly Nichols could be had for 2 or 3 pence or a stale loaf of bread. 3 pence was the going rate as that was the price of a large glass of gin.

3:15 AM -- P.C. John Thain, 96J, passes down Buck's Row on his beat. He sees nothing unusual. At approximately the same time Sgt. Kerby passes down Bucks Row and reports the same.

3:40 or 3:45 AM -- Polly Nichols' body is discovered in Buck's Row by Charles Cross, a carman, on his way to work at Pickfords in the City Road., and Robert Paul who joins him at his request. "Come and look over here, there's a woman." Cross calls to Paul. Cross believes she is dead. Her hands and face are cold but the arms above the elbow and legs are still warm. Paul believes he feels a faint heartbeat. "I think she's breathing," he says "but it is little if she is."


P.C. Neil

Dr. Llewellyn
P.C. Neil is called by the two men and rushes over to the scene of the crime. Neil, in turn, calls for Dr. Llewellyn, who resides nearby. The two return a few minutes later (around 3:50 A.M.) and Dr. Llewellyn pronounces life to have been extinct "but a few minutes."

Bucks Row is ten minutes walk from Osborn Street. The only illumination is from a single gas lamp at the far end of the street.

Buck's Row:

Description by Leonard Matters in 1929

"...Buck's Row can not have changed much in character since its name was altered. It is a narrow, cobbled, mean street, having on one side the same houses-possibly tenanted by the same people -- which stood there in 1888. They are shabby, dirty little houses of two stories, and only a three foot pavement separates them from the road, which is no more than twenty feet from wall to wall.

On the opposite sides are the high walls of warehouses which at night would shadow the dirty street in a far deeper gloom than its own character would in broad day light suggests.

All Durward Street is not so drab and mean, for by some accident in the planning of the locality -- if ever it was planned -- quite two thirds of the thoroughfare is very wide and open.

The street lies east and west along the London and Northern Railway Line. It is approached from the west by Vallance Street, formerly Baker's Row. On the left are fine modern tall warehouses. I was interested to note that one of them belongs to Messrs. Kearly and Tongue, LTD. in front of whose premises in Mitre Square another murder was committed on September 30th. On the left side of the street is a small wall guarding the railway line, which lies at a depth of some twenty feet below ground level. Two narrow bridge roads lead across the railway to Whitechapel Road. The first was called Thomas Street in 1888, but now is Fullbourne Street. The other is Court Street. By either of these two lanes, no more that two hundred fifty yards long, the busy main artery of the Whitechapel area can be reached from the relatively secluded Buck's Row.

Going still further east, an abandoned London County Council School building breaks the wide and open Durward Street into narrow lanes or alleys. The left hand land retains the name of Durward Street 'late Buck's Row', and the other is Winthrop Street. Both are equally dirty and seemingly disreputable..."

Soon after the murder, to avoid continued notoriety, the name is changed from Buck's Row to Durward Street.


The discovery of the body.
Polly's body is found across from Essex Wharf (warehouse) and Brown and Eagle Wool Warehouse and Schneiders Cap Factory in a gateway entrance to an old stableyard between a board school (to the west) and terrace houses (cottages) belonging to better class tradesmen. She is almost underneath the window of Mrs. Green, a light sleeper, who lives in the first house next to the stable gates. Her house is called the 'New Cottage'. She is a widower with two sons and a daughter living with her. That night, one son goes to bed at 9:00 PM, the other follows at 9:45. Mrs. Green and her daughter shared a first floor room at the front of the house. They went to bed at appoximately 11:00 PM. She claims she slept undisturbed by any unusual sound until she was awakened by the police.

Opposite New Cottage lives Walter Purkiss, the manager of Essek Wharf with his wife, children and a servant. He and his wife went to bed at 11:00 and 11:15 respectively. Both claimed to have been awake at various times in the night and heard nothing.

Polly Nichols' body is identified by Lambeth Workhouse inmate Mary Ann Monk and the identification confirmed by William Nichols.

She was wearing: (overall impression -- shabby and stained)


Illustration from the Illustrated Police News
Black Straw bonnet trimmed with black velvet
Reddish brown ulster with seven large brass buttons bearing the pattern of a woman on horseback accompanied by a man.
Brown linsey frock (apparently new according to Sugden. Could this be a dress she stole from the Cowdrys?)
White flannel chest cloth
Black ribbed wool stockings
Two petticoats, one gray wool, one flannel. Both stenciled on bands "Lambeth Workhouse"
Brown stays (short)
Flannel drawers
Men's elastic (spring) sided boots with the uppers cut and steel tips on the heels
Possessions:

Comb
White pocket handkerchief
Broken piece of mirror (a prized possession in a lodging house)
Observations of Dr. Rees Ralph LLewellyn upon arrival at Bucks row at 4:00 AM on the morning of August 31st. After only a brief examination of the body he pronounced Polly Nichols dead. He noted that there was a wine glass and a half of blood in the gutter at her side but claimed that he had no doubt that she had been killed where she lay.

Inquest testimony as reported in The Times:


Mortuary photograph of Polly Nichols
"Five teeth were missing, and there was a slight laceration of the tongue. There was a bruise running along the lower part of the jaw on the right side of the face. That might have been caused by a blow from a fist or pressure from a thumb. There was a circular bruise on the left side of the face which also might have been inflicted by the pressure of the fingers. On the left side of the neck, about 1 in. below the jaw, there was an incision about 4 in. in length, and ran from a point immediately below the ear. On the same side, but an inch below, and commencing about 1 in. in front of it, was a circular incision, which terminated at a point about 3 in. below the right jaw. That incision completely severed all the tissues down to the vertebrae. The large vessels of the neck on both sides were severed. The incision was about 8 in. in length. the cuts must have been caused by a long-bladed knife, moderately sharp, and used with great violence. No blood was found on the breast, either of the body or the clothes. There were no injuries about the body until just about the lower part of the abdomen. Two or three inches from the left side was a wound running in a jagged manner. The wound was a very deep one, and the tissues were cut through. There were several incisions running across the abdomen. There were three or four similar cuts running downwards, on the right side, all of which had been caused by a knife which had been used violently and downwards. the injuries were form left to right and might have been done by a left handed person. All the injuries had been caused by the same instrument."

With all of her faults she seems to have been well liked by all who knew her. At the inquest her father says, "I don't think she had any enemies, she was too good for that."

Dr. Bond's Post Mortem on Mary Kelly

This post-mortem report was written by Dr. Thomas Bond after he examined the remains of Mary Jane Kelly. The report was lost until 1987, when it was returned anonymously to Scotland Yard.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Position of body

The body was lying naked in the middle of the bed, the shoulders flat, but the axis of the body inclined to the left side of the bed. The head was turned on the left cheek. The left arm was close to the body with the forearm flexed at a right angle & lying across the abdomen. the right arm was slightly abducted from the body & rested on the mattress, the elbow bent & the forearm supine with the fingers clenched. The legs were wide apart, the left thigh at right angles to the trunk & the right forming an obtuse angle with the pubes.

The whole of the surface of the abdomen & thighs was removed & the abdominal Cavity emptied of its viscera. The breasts were cut off, the arms mutilated by several jagged wounds & the face hacked beyond recognition of the features. The tissues of the neck were severed all round down to the bone.

The viscera were found in various parts viz: the uterus & Kidneys with one breast under the head, the other breast by the Rt foot, the Liver between the feet, the intestines by the right side & the s pleen by the left side of the body. The flaps removed from the abdomen and thighs were on a table.

The bed clothing at the right corner was saturated with blood, & on the floor beneath was a pool of blood covering about 2 feet square. The wall by the right side of the bed & in a line with the neck was marked by blood which had struck it in a number of spearate splashes.

Postmortem examination

The face was gashed in all directions the nose cheeks, eyebrows and ears being partly removed. The lips were blanched & cut by several incisions running obliquely down to the chin. There were also numerous cuts extending irregularly across all the features.

The neck was cut through the skin & other tissues right down to the vertebrae the 5th & 6th being deeply notched. The skin cuts in the front of the neck showed distinct ecchymosis.

The air passage was cut at the lower part of the larynx through the cricoid cartilage.

Both breasts were removed by more or less circular incisions, the muscles down to the ribs being attached to the breasts. The intercostals between the 4th, 5th & 6th ribs were cut through & the contents of the thorax visible through the openings.

The skin & tissues of the abdomen from the costal arch to the pubes were removed in three large flaps. The right thigh was denuded in front to the bone, the flap of skin, including the external organs of generation & part of the right buttock. The left thigh was stripped of skin, fascia & muscles as far as the knee.

The left calf showed a long gash through skin & tissues to the deep muscles & reaching from the knee to 5 ins above the ankle.

Both arms & forearms had extensive & jagged wounds.

The right thumb showed a small superficial incision about 1 in long, with extravasation of blood in the skin & there were several abrasions on the back of the hand moreover showing the same condition.

On opening the thorax it was found that the right lung was minimally adherent by old firm adhesions. The lower part of the lung was broken & torn away.

The left lung was intact: it was adherent at the apex & there were a few adhesions over the side. In the substaces of the lung were several nodules of consolidation.

The Pericardium was open below & the Heart absent.

In the abdominal cavity was some partially digested food of fish & potatoes & similar food was found in the remains of the stomach attached to the intestines.

Annie Chapman aka Dark Annie, Annie Siffey, Sievey or Sivvey

Born: Eliza Anne Smith in September 1841.

Father: George Smith of Harrow Road. Described on the marriage certificate as a Private, 2nd Battalion of Lifeguards. At the time of his death he is listed as a servant.

Mother: Ruth Chapman of Market Street.

Annie's parents are married on February 22, 1842, 6 months after Annie was born. The marriage takes place in Paddington.

She has two brothers, one of whom is named Fontain Smith, born February 25, 1861. He is employed as a printer's warehouseman. He is a tall man with dark hair and a heavy brown mustache. One or two sisters. One lives with her mother in Brompton. They do not get along with Annie.

Description:


Annie Chapman (Illustrated Police News)

5' tall
45 years old at time of death
Pallid complexion
Blue eyes
Dark brown wavy hair
Excellent teeth (possibly two missing in lower jaw)
Strongly built (stout)
Thick nose
She is under nourished and suffering from a chronic disease of the lungs (tuberculosis) and brain tissue. It is said that she is dying. These could also be symptoms of syphilis.
Although she has a drinking problem she is not described as an alcoholic.

Her friend, Amelia Palmer describes her as "sober, steady going woman who seldom took any drink." She was, however, known to have a taste for rum.

Amelia Palmer is the wife of a dock laborer, Henry Palmer. He is an ex-soldier. She is a charwoman who works for local Jewish residents following an accident which left her husband unable to work. She is described as pale faced and dark haired. She has lived at the common lodging house at 30 Dorset Street for four years.

History:

Annie marries John Chapman, a coachman in the service of a gentleman in Clewer, near Windsor. John is a relative of Annie's mother. They are married on May 1, 1869. Annie is 28 at the time of her marriage.

Their residence on the marriage certificate is listed as 29 Montpelier Place, Brompton. This is also where her mother lived until her (mother's) death in 1893. In 1870 they move to 1 Brook Mews in Bayswater and then in 1873 to 17 South Bruton Mews, Berkeley Square. In 1881 they move to Windsor where John takes a job as a domestic coachman. He is in the employ of Josiah Weeks, a farm bailiff at St. Leonard's Mill Farm Cottage.

Mrs. Pearcer tells Timothy Donovan, deputy at Crossingham's lodging house that John Chapman had been a valet in the employ of a nobleman who lived in Bond Street but that he was fired because of his wife's dishonesty.

The couple have three children. Emily Ruth, born 1870, Annie Georgina, born 1873 and John, born in 1881. John is a cripple and sent to a home. Emily Ruth dies of meningitis at the age of twelve. Some reports have Annie Georgina traveling with a circus in France at the time of her mother's death.

Annie and John separate by mutual consent in 1884 or 1885. The reason is uncertain. A police report says it was because of her "drunken and immoral ways." She has been arrested several times in Windsor for drunkenness. Her husband was also a heavy drinker.

John Chapman semi-regularly paid his wife 10 shillings per week by Post Office order until his death on Christmas day in 1886. At the time of his death he is living at Grove Road, Windsor. He dies of cirrhosis of the liver and dropsy. Annie finds out about his death through her brother-in-law who lives in Oxford Street, Whitechapel. On telling Amelia Palmer about it she cried. Palmer says that even two years later she seemed downcast when speaking of her children and how "since the death of her husband she seemed to have given away all together."

Sometime during 1886 she is living with a sieve maker named John Sivvey (unknown whether this is a nickname or not) at the common lodging house at 30 Dorset Street, Spitalfileds. He leaves her soon after her husband's death. Probably when the money stopped coming. He moves to Notting Hill.

From May or June 1888, Annie is living consistently at the lodging house at 35 Dorset Street, Spitalfields. This lodging house is known as Crossingham's and caters to approximately 300 people. The deputy is Timothy Donovan.

This may be the Timothy Donovan aged 29 of Russell Court, St. George's in the East who died of Cirrhosis of the liver, Phthisis and exhaustion at London Hospital on November 1, 1888. It may also be the Timothy Donovan, aged 30, who appeared repeatedly in Thames Magistrate Court through 1887-88 on charges of assualt. This same Timothy Donovan is almost certainly the same one who was indicted for murdering his wife, Mary, in Stepney in 1904.

Dorset Street:

An infamous road in Spitalfields running east-west between Commercial Street and Chrispin Street. The Commercial Street (east) end faces Christ's Church burial grounds, the other end faces the Providence Road Night refuge and Convent on Chrispin Street. There are three public houses on Dorset Street. At the corner of Commercial is the Britannia, also known as the Ringer's after the husband and wife proprietors. The Horn of Plenty is at the corner of Chrispin and in the center is the Blue Coat Boy. Directly across the street from Crossingham's lodging house, about one third of the way down Dorset from Commercial, is the narrow brick archway entrance to Miller's Court. To the left of the entrance at number 27 in McCarthy's chandler shop. Dorset Street is known locally as "Dosset" street due to the number of common lodging houses located along it's length.

More recently, Annie has been having a relationship with Edward Stanley, a bricklayer's mate, known as the Pensioner. At the time of Annie's death he is living at 1 Osborne Street, Whitechapel. He claims to be a member of the military but later admits that he is not and is not drawing a pension from any military unit.


Annie Chapman selling cotton.
Stanley and Annie spend weekends together at Crossingham's. Stanley instructs Donovan to turn Annie away if she tries to enter with another man. He often pays for Annie's bed as well as that of Eliza Cooper. They spend Saturdays and Sundays together, parting between 1:00 and 3:00 AM on Sundays. Stanley says that he had known Annie in Windsor.

Annie didn't take to prostitution until after her husbands death. Prior to that she lived off the allowance he sent her and worked doing crochet work and selling flowers.

In mid to late August of 1888 she runs into her brother Fontain on Commercial Road. She says she is hard up but will not tell him where she is living. He gives her 2 shillings.




Saturday, September 1, 1888

Edward Stanley returns after having been away since August 6. He meets Annie at the corner of Brushfield Street.

Sometime close to this date, Annie has a fight with Eliza Cooper. The fight has several different tellings but all revolve around Edward Stanley.

An argument breaks out in the Britannia Public House between Eliza Cooper and Annie. Also present are Stanley and Harry the Hawker. Cooper is Annie's rival for the affections of Stanley. Cooper struck her, giving her a black eye and bruising her breast.

The cause is alternately given as:


Annie Chapman quarrelling with Eliza Cooper.
Chapman noticed Cooper palming a florin belonging to Harry, who was drunk, and replacing it with a penny. Chapman mentions this to Harry and otherwise calls attention to Cooper's deceit. Cooper says she struck Annie in the pub on September 2nd.

Amelia Palmer says that Annie told her the argument took place at the pub but the fisticuffs took place at the lodging house, later.

John Evans, night watchman at the lodging house says the fight broke out in the lodging house on September 6th. Cooper also says that the fight was not over Harry but over soap which Annie had borrowed for the Pensioner and not returned. In one version of the story, Annie is to have thrown a half penny at Cooper and slapped her in the face saying "Think yourself lucky I did not do more."

Donovan states that on August 30th he noticed she had a black eye. "Tim, this is lovely, aint it." She is to have said to him. Stanley noticed that she had a black eye on the evening of September 2nd and on the 3rd Annie showed her bruises to Amelia Palmer.

Donovan will tell the inquest into her death that she was not at the lodging house during the week prior to her death. So it appears from the bulk of the evidence that the fight took place in the last few days of August and probably in the lodging house.

Chapman says that she may have to go to the infirmary but there is no record of any woman being admitted to either Whitechapel or Spitalfields workhouse infirmaries. She may have picked up medication though.

Monday, September 3:

She meets Amelia Palmer in Dorset Street. "How did you get that?" asks Palmer, noticing the bruise on her right temple. By way of answer, Annie opened her dress. "Yes," Annie said "look at my chest." Annie complains of feeling unwell and says she may go see her sister. "If I can get a pair of boots from my sister," she says "I may go hop picking."

Tuesday, September 4:

Amelia Palmer again sees Annie near Spitalfields Church. Chapman again complains she is feeling ill and says she may go the casual ward for a day or two. She says she has had nothing to eat or drink all day. Palmer gives her 2d for tea and warns her not to spend it on rum.

Wednesday-Thursday, September 5-6:

Possibly she is in the casual ward although there are no records to support the assumption. However, following her death, Donovan finds a bottle of medicine in her room.

Friday, September 7, Saturday, September 8th:

5:00 PM: Amelia Palmer again sees Annie in Dorset Street. Chapman is sober and Palmer asks her if she is going to Stratford (believed to be the territory where Annie plied her trade). Annie says she is too ill to do anything. Farmer left but returned a few minutes later only to find Chapman not having moved. It's no use my giving way," Annie says "I must pull myself together and go out and get some money or I shall have no lodgings."

11:30 PM: Annie returns to the lodging house and asks permission to go into the kitchen.

12:10 AM: Frederick Stevens, also a lodger at Crossingham's says he drank a pint of beer with Annie who was already slightly the worse for drink. He states that she did not leave the lodging house until 1:00 AM.

12:12 AM: William Stevens (a printer), another lodger, enters the kitchen and sees Chapman. She says that she has been to Vauxhall to see her sister, that she went to get some money and that her family had given her 5 pence. (If this is so, she spent it on drink.) Stevens sees her take a broken box of pills from her pocket. The box breaks and she takes a torn piece of envelope from the mantelpiece and places the pills in it. Chapman leaves the kitchen. Stevens thinks she has gone to bed.

It appears obvious that she did pick up medication at the casual ward. The lotion found in her room may have brought up there at this time. This would re-enforce Stevens' impression that she had gone to bed. She certainly shows every sign of intending to return to Crossingham's.

1:35 AM: Annie returns to the lodging house again. She is eating a baked potato. John Evans, an elderly man who is night watchman has been sent to collect her bed money. She goes upstairs to see Donovan in his office. "I haven't sufficient money for my bed," she tells him, "but don't let it. I shall not be long before I'm in." Donovan chastises her, "You can find money for your beer and you can't find money for your bed." Annie is not dismayed. She steps out of the office and stands in the doorway for two or three minutes. "Never mind, Tim." she states, "I'll soon be back." And to Evans she says, "I won't be long, Brummy (his nickname). See that Tim keeps the bed for me." Her regular bed in the lodging house is number 29. Evans sees her leave and enter Little Paternoster Row going in the direction of Brushfield Street and then turn towards Spitalfields Market.

(cont'd from page 3)


John Richardson at 29 Hanbury Street.

4:45 AM: Mr. John Richardson enters the backyard of 29 Hanbury St. on his way to work, and sits down on the steps to remove a piece of leather which was protruding from his boot. Although it was quite dark at the time, he was sitting no more than a yard away from where the head of Annie Chapman would have been had she already been killed. He later testified to have seen nothing of extraordinary nature.

5:30 AM: Elizabeth Long sees Chapman with a man, hard against the shutters of 29 Hanbury Street. they are talking. Long hears the man say "Will you?" and Annie replies "Yes." Long is certain of the time as she had heard the clock on the Black Eagle Brewery, Brick Lane, strike the half hour just as she had turned onto the street. The woman (Chapman) had her back towards Spitalfields Market and, thus, her face towards Long. The man had his back towards Long. She describes the man at the inquest.


Elizabeth Long's testimony.

Long: "...dark complexion, and was wearing a brown deerstalker hat. I think he was wearing a dark over coat but cannot be sure."
Baxter: "Was he a man or a boy?"
Long: "Oh he was a man over forty, as far as I can tell. He seemed a little taller than the deceased. He looked to me like a foreigner, as well as I could make out."
Baxter: "Was he a laborer or what?"
Long: "He looked what I should call shabby genteel."

A few moments after the Long sighting, Albert Cadoch, a young carpenter living at 27 Hanbury Street walks into his back yard probably to use the outhouse. Passing the five foot tall wooden fence which separates his yard from that of number 29, he hears voices quite close. The only word he can make out is a woman saying "No!" He then heard something falling against the fence.

Annie's Clothes and Possessions:


Long black figured coat that came down to her knees.
Black skirt
Brown bodice
Another bodice
2 petticoats
A large pocket worn under the skirt and tied about the waist with strings (empty when found)
Lace up boots
Red and white striped woolen stockings
Neckerchief, white with a wide red border (folded tri-corner and knotted at the front of her neck. she is wearing the scarf in this manner when she leaves Crossingham's)
Had three recently acquired brass rings on her middle finger (missing after the murder)
Scrap of muslin
One small tooth comb
One comb in a paper case
Scrap of envelope she had taken form the mantelpiece of the kitchen containing two pills. It bears the seal of the Sussex Regiment. It is postal stamped "London, 28,Aug., 1888" inscribed is a partial address consisting of the letter M, the number 2 as if the beginning of an address and an S.



Dr. George Bagster Phillips describes the body of Annie Chapman as he saw it at 6:30 AM in the back yard of the house at 29 Hanbury Street. This is inquest testimony.


Mortuary photograph of Annie Chapman.
"The left arm was placed across the left breast. The legs were drawn up, the feet resting on the ground, and the knees turned outwards. The face was swollen and turned on the right side. The tongue protruded between the front teeth, but not beyond the lips. The tongue was evidently much swollen. The front teeth were perfect as far as the first molar, top and bottom and very fine teeth they were. The body was terribly mutilated...the stiffness of the limbs was not marked, but was evidently commencing. He noticed that the throat was dissevered deeply.; that the incision through the skin were jagged and reached right round the neck...On the wooden paling between the yard in question and the next, smears of blood, corresponding to where the head of the deceased lay, were to be seen. These were about 14 inches from the ground, and immediately above the part where the blood from the neck lay.
He should say that the instrument used at the throat and abdomen was the same. It must have been a very sharp knife with a thin narrow blade, and must have been at least 6 in. to 8 in. in length, probably longer. He should say that the injuries could not have been inflicted by a bayonet or a sword bayonet. They could have been done by such an instrument as a medical man used for post-mortem purposes, but the ordinary surgical cases might not contain such an instrument. Those used by the slaughtermen, well ground down, might have caused them. He thought the knives used by those in the leather trade would not be long enough in the blade. There were indications of anatomical knowledge...he should say that the deceased had been dead at least two hours, and probably more, when he first saw her; but it was right to mention that it was a fairly cool morning, and that the body would be more apt to cool rapidly from its having lost a great quantity of blood. There was no evidence...of a struggle having taken place. He was positive the deceased entered the yard alive...

A handkerchief was round the throat of the deceased when he saw it early in the morning. He should say it was not tied on after the throat was cut."

Report following the post mortem examination:

"He noticed the same protrusion of the tongue. There was a bruise over the right temple. On the upper eyelid there was a bruise, and there were two distinct bruises, each the size of a man's thumb, on the forepart of the top of the chest. The stiffness of the limbs was now well marked. There was a bruise over the middle part of the bone of the right hand. There was an old scar on the left of the frontal bone. The stiffness was more noticeable on the left side, especially in the fingers, which were partly closed. There was an abrasion over the ring finger, with distinct markings of a ring or rings. The throat had been severed as before described. the incisions into the skin indicated that they had been made from the left side of the neck. There were two distinct clean cuts on the left side of the spine. They were parallel with each other and separated by about half an inch. The muscular structures appeared as though an attempt had made to separate the bones of the neck. There were various other mutilations to the body, but he was of the opinion that they occurred subsequent to the death of the woman, and to the large escape of blood from the division of the neck.

The deceased was far advanced in disease of the lungs and membranes of the brain, but they had nothing to do with the cause of death. The stomach contained little food, but there was not any sign of fluid. There was no appearance of the deceased having taken alcohol, but there were signs of great deprivation and he should say she had been badly fed. He was convinced she had not taken any strong alcohol for some hours before her death. The injuries were certainly not self-inflicted. The bruises on the face were evidently recent, especially about the chin and side of the jaw, but the bruises in front of the chest and temple were of longer standing - probably of days. He was of the opinion that the person who cut the deceased throat took hold of her by the chin, and then commenced the incision from left to right. He thought it was highly probable that a person could call out, but with regard to an idea that she might have been gagged he could only point to the swollen face and the protruding tongue, both of which were signs of suffocation.

The abdomen had been entirely laid open: the intestines, severed from their mesenteric attachments, had been lifted out of the body and placed on the shoulder of the corpse; whilst from the pelvis, the uterus and its appendages with the upper portion of the vagina and the posterior two thirds of the bladder, had been entirely removed. No trace of these parts could be found and the incisions were cleanly cut, avoiding the rectum, and dividing the vagina low enough to avoid injury to the cervix uteri. Obviously the work was that of an expert- of one, at least, who had such knowledge of anatomical or pathological examinations as to be enabled to secure the pelvic organs with one sweep of the knife, which must therefore must have at least 5 or 6 inches in length, probably more. The appearance of the cuts confirmed him in the opinion that the instrument, like the one which divided the neck, had been of a very sharp character. The mode in which the knife had been used seemed to indicate great anatomical knowledge.

He thought he himself could not have performed all the injuries he described, even without a struggle, under a quarter of an hour. If he had down it in a deliberate way such as would fall to the duties of a surgeon it probably would have taken him the best part of an hour."

29 Hanbury Street:

Just three or four hundred yards from Chapman's lodging house, 29 Hanbury Street is a largely wooden structure consisting of eight rooms. Seventeen people lived inside.


The backyard of 29 Hanbury Street.
There are two front doors, one leading into a shop and the other, on the left, into a passageway which goes through the building and opens into the back yard. The door to the back yard swings to the outside from right to left and, when open, covers a small recess of the yard. It is a self closing door. Baxter refers to it as a swinging door. The back yard is separated from the adjoining yards by a five foot high wooden fence. There are three stone steps leading down to yard level. Looking from the top of the steps there is a small wood shed to the left, Annie's feet pointed directly at it. To the right is the Privy. The yard itself is a patch work of stone, grass and dirt.

The ground floor of Number 29 was occupied by Mrs. Annie (Harriet) Hardyman and her 16 year old son. Both of them slept in the front room which doubled as a shop where they sold cat meat. The rear room was used as a kitchen.


Mrs. Amelia Richardson
The first floor front room belongs to Mrs. Amelia Richardson and her 14 year old grandson. She has lived here for 15 years. Her business is making packing cases, employing her son, John, who does not live on the premises. She also rents the cellar, which is used in manufacturing, and the yard. The first floor back room is shared by a Mr. Waker, a maker of tennis boots, and his retarded adult son.

The second floor front room contains a family consisting of a carman named Thompson who works at Goodson's in Brick Lane, his wife and adopted daughter. The back room is shared by two unmarried sisters named Copsey who work in a cigar factory.

The third floor attic front room is occupied by an elderly man, John Davis who is also a carman and his wife and three sons. the attic rear belongs to Sarah Cox, an elderly woman whom Mrs. Richardson keeps out of charity.

Elizabeth Stride aka Long Liz


Elizabeth Stride
Elizabeth Stride was born Elisabeth Gustafsdotter on November 27, 1843 on a farm called Stora Tumlehed in Torslanda parrish, north of Gothenburg, Sweden. She was baptized on December 5 of that year and confirmed in a church in Torslanda.

At the time of her death she was 45 years old. She had a pale complexion, light gray eyes and had curly dark brown hair. All the teeth in her lower left jaw were missing and she stood five foot five inches tall.

She was described by Elizabeth Tanner as a very quiet woman who sometimes stayed out late at night and did cleaning for Jews. She says that Stride spoke without any trace of an accent. Mrs. Ann Miller, a bed maker at the lodging house says that Stride would work when she could find work and that a "better hearted, more good natured cleaner woman never lived."

On a Certificate of Change notice filed in Sweden at the time that Liz moved to London it is stated that she could read tolerably well but had little understanding of the Bible or catechism.

Lodgers described her as a quiet woman who would do a "good turn for anyone." However she had frequently appeared before the Thames Magistrate Court on charges of being drunk and disorderly, sometimes with obscene language.

Thomas Bates, watchman at the lodging house at 32 Flower and Dean Street is quoted as saying "Lor' bless you, when she could get no work she had to do the best she could for her living, but a neater, cleaner woman never lived."

She made money by sewing and charring, received money from Michael Kidney and was an occasional prostitute.

History:

Her father was Gustaf Ericsson and her mother Beatta Carlsdotter. On October 14, 1860 she moved to the parrish of Carl Johan in Gothenburg. While there she worked as a domestic for Lars Frederick Olofsson, a workman with 4 children.

February 2nd of 1862 finds her moving to Cathedral parrish in Gothenburg.

In March 1865 she is registered by police as a prostitute and on April 21 of that year she gives birth to a stillborn baby girl.

According to the official ledger wherein she is entry number 97, she is living in Philgaten in Ostra Haga, a suburb of Gothenburg in October 1865.

During October and November she is treated at the special hospital Kurhuset for venereal disease. The October 17 entry states that she is treated for a venereal chancre. She is reported as healthy in the November 3, 7, 10, 14 entries and after the last entry she is told she will no longer have to report to the police.

On February 7th of 1866 she applies to move to the Swedish parrish in London, England. She enters the London register as an unmarried woman on July 10, 1866.

According to testimony by Charles Preston, who lived at the same lodging house, she came to London in the service of a "foreign gentleman."

Michael Kidney, with whom she lived on and off prior to her death, says she told him that she worked for a family in Hyde Park and that she "came to see the country." He also believes that she had family in London.

July 10, 1886 -- she is registered as an unmarried woman at the Swedish Church in Prince's Square, St. George in the East.

On March 7, 1869 she marries John Thomas Stride at the parrish church, St. Giles in the Fields. The Service is conducted by Rev. Will Powell and witnessed by Daniel H. Wyatt and N. Taylor. Stride gives her address as 67 Gower Street.

John Thomas Stride is a carpenter, living at 21 Munster Street, Regent Park. He is the son of William Stride, a shipwright. John Thomas was born in 1821 at the Sick Asylum, Bromley. He died at age 63 on October 24, 1884 at the Poplar Union Workhouse.

John Thomas Stride has a nephew, born 1858, who at the time of the murders is a member of the Metropolitan Police Force. Walter Frederick Stride identified Liz's body from mortuary photographs. He retires from the police force in 1902.

Soon after the marriage John and Liz are living in East India Dock road in Poplar. They keep a coffee shop at Chrisp Street, Poplar and in 1870 in Upper North Street, Poplar. They move themselves and the business to 178 Poplar High Street and remain there until the business is taken over by John Dale in 1875.

In 1878 the Princess Alice, a saloon steam ship collides with the steamer Bywell Castle in the Thames. There is a loss of 600-700 lives. Liz will claim that her husband and children were killed in this disaster and that her palate was injured by being kicked in the mouth while climbing the mast to escape. No cooberative evidence exists for this statement and we know that her husband actually died in 1884. The post mortem report on her specifically states that there was no damage to either her hard or soft palate. This story may have been told by her to elicit sympathy when asking for financial aid from the Swedish Church.

On December 28, 1881 through January 4, 1882 she is treated at the Whitechapel Infirmary for bronchitis. From the Infirmary she moves directly into the Whitechapel Workhouse.

From 1882 onwards she lodges on and off at the common lodging house at 32 Flower and Dean Street. As her husband is still alive at this time it is reasonable to assume that the marriage has irrevocably fallen apart.

On October 24, 1884, John Thomas Stride dies of heart disease.

In 1885 she is living with Michael Kidney. They live together for three years although she often leaves him for periods of time to go off on the town. All told they are apart for 5 months.

Michael Kidney is a waterside laborer. He is born in 1852 and is 7 years younger than Liz. they live at 35 Devonshire Street, moving to 36 Devonshire five months prior to her murder. At the time of the murder Kidney is living at 33 Dorset Street. In June 1889 Kidney is treated for syphilis in the Whitechapel Infirmary and again in September for Lumbago and dyspepsia.

Their relationship is best described as stormy. He says that she was frequently absent when she was drinking and he even tried, unsuccessfully, to padlock her in (see list of possession at time of death).

On May 20 and again on the 23rd of 1886 She receives alms from the Swedish Church. Sven Olsson, Clerk of the Church remembers her as "very poor." She gives her address as Devonshire Street off Commercial Street.

On March 21, 1887 she is registered as an inmate at the Poplar Workhouse.

In April of 1887 she charges Kidney with assault but then fails to appear at Thames Magistrate Court.

In July of 1888 Kidney is sent down for three days charges with being drunk and disorderly and using obscene language.

On September 15 and 20 of 1888 she again receives financial assistance from the Swedish Church.

Charles Preston, a barber, had lived at 32 Flower and Dean Street for 18 months says that Liz Stride had been arrested one Saturday night for being drunk and disorderly at the Queen's Head Public House on Commercial Street. She was released on bail the following day. During the 20 months prior to her death she appeared 8 times before the Magistrate on similar charges.

On Tuesday, September 25, 1888, Michael Kidney sees her for the last time. He expects her to be home when he arrives from work but she is not. Kidney is unconcerned as she has done this often. "It was drink that made her go away," he said. "She always returned without me going after her. I think she liked me better than any other man."

Wednesday, September 26 finds her at the lodging house at 32 Flower and Dean Street. She had not been there in the last three months. She tells Catherine Lane that she had words with the man she was living with. Her being at the lodging house is confirmed by none other than Dr. Thomas Barnardo, a doctor who had taken to street preaching and then opened a famous home for destitute boys.

Dr. Barnardo had visited the lodging house to get opinions on his scheme 'by which children at all events could be saved at least from the contamination of the common lodging houses and the street.' On entering the kitchen at 32 Flower and Dean he found the women and girls there "...thoroughly frightened." They were discussing the murders. One woman, probably drunk cried bitterly "We're all up to no good, no one cares what becomes of us! Perhaps some of us will be killed next!"

On viewing the body, Barnardo will recognize Liz instantly as one of the women in the kitchen.

Thursday-Friday, September 27-28. Liz continues to lodge at 32 Flower and Dean. According to Elizabeth Tanner, the lodging house deputy, she arrived at the house after a quarrel with Kidney. Kidney will deny this.

Saturday-Sunday, September 29-30, 1888. The weather this evening is showery and windy. Elizabeth spends the afternoon cleaning two rooms at the lodging house. For her services she is paid 6d by Elizabeth Tanner.

September 30th, 1888

6:30 PM: Tanner sees her again at the Queen's Head Public House. They drank together and then walked back to the lodging house.

7:00-8:00 PM: She is seen leaving the lodging house by Charles Preston and Catherine Lane. She gives Lane a large piece of green velvet and asks her to hold it for her until she returns. She ask Preston to borrow his clothes brush but he has mislaid it. She then leaves passing by Thomas Bates, watchman at the lodging house who says she looked quite cheerful. Lane will later state that "I know the deceased had 6d when she left, she showed it to me, stating that the deputy had given it to her."

11:00 PM: Two laborers, J. Best of 82 Lower Chapham Street and John Gardner of 11 Chapham Street were going into the Bricklayer's Arms Public House on Settles street, north of Commercial and almost opposite Berner Street. As they went in Stride was leaving with a short man with a dark mustache and sandy eyelashes. The man was wearing a billycock hat, mourning suit and coat. Best says "They had been served in the public house and went out when me and my friends came in. It was raining very fast and they did not appear willing to go out. He was hugging and kissing her, and as he seemed a respectably dressed man, we were rather astonished at the way he was going on at the woman." Stride and her man stood in the doorway for some time hugging and kissing. The workmen tried to get the man to come in for a drink but he refused. They then called to Stride. "That's Leather Apron getting 'round you." The man and Stride moved off towards Commercial Road and Berner Street. "He and the woman went off like a shot soon after eleven."

11:45 PM: William Marshall, a laborer, sees her on Berner Street. He is standing in the doorway of 64 Berner Street on the west side of the street between Fairclough and Boyd Streets. He notices her talking to a man in a short black cutaway coat and sailor's hat outside number 63. They are kissing and carrying on. He hears the man say "You would say anything but your prayers."

12:00 AM: Matthew Packer claims to sell Stride and a man grapes. This is a very dubious piece of evidence. See Sugden's The Complete History of Jack the Ripper for the pros and cons of this story.


Elizabeth Stride entering Dutfield's Yard
12:35 AM: Police Constable William Smith sees Stride with a young man on Berner Street opposite the International Worker's Club.The man is described as 28 years old, dark coat and hard deerstalker hat. He is carrying a parcel approximately 6 inches high and 18 inches in length. the package is wrapped in newspaper.

12:40 AM (approximately): Quoting Home Office File:

"Israel Schwartz of 22 Helen Street, Backchurch Lane, stated that at this hour, turning into Berner Street from Commercial Road, and having gotten as far as the gateway where the murder was committed, he saw a man stop and speak to a woman, who was standing in the gateway. He tried to pull the woman into the street, but he turned her round and threw her down on the footway and the woman screamed three times, but not very loudly. On crossing to the opposite side of the street, he saw a second man lighting his pipe. The man who threw the woman down called out, apparently to the man on the opposite side of the road, "Lipski", and then Schwartz walked away, but finding that he was followed by the second man, he ran as far as the railway arch, but the man did not follow so far.

Schwartz cannot say whether the two men were together or known to each other. Upon being taken to the mortuary Schwartz identified the body as that of the woman he had seen."

Later in the deposition:

"It will be observed that allowing for differences of opinion between PC Smith and Schwartz as to the apparent age and height of the man each saw with the woman whose body they both identified, there are serious differences in the description of the dress...so at least it is rendered doubtful that they are describing the same man.

If Schwartz is to be believed, and the police report of his statement casts no doubt upon it, it follows that if they are describing different men that the man Schwartz saw is the more probable of the two to be the murderer..."

Schwartz describes the man as about 30 years old, 5' 5" tall with a fresh complexion, dark hair and small brown mustache. He is dressed in an overcoat and an old black felt hat with a wide brim.

At the same time, James Brown says he sees Stride with a man as he was going home with his supper down Fairclough Street. She was leaning against the wall talking to a stoutish man about 5' 7" tall in a long black coat that reached to his heels. He has his arm against the wall. Stride is saying "No, not tonight, some other night."


Diemschutz discovering Stride's body.
1:00 AM: Louis Diemschutz, a salesman of jewelry, entered Dutfield's Yard driving his cart and pony. Immediately at the entrace, his pony shied and refused to proceed -- Diemschutz suspected something was in the way but could not see since the yard was utterly pitch black. He probed forward with his whip and came into contact with a body, whom he initially believed to be either drunk or asleep.

He entered the Workingman's Club to get some help in rousing the woman, and upon returning to the yard with Isaac Kozebrodsky and Morris Eagle, the three discover that she was dead, her throat cut.

It was believed that Diemschutz's arrival frightened the Ripper, causing him to flee before he performed the mutilations. Diemschutz himself stated that he believed the Ripper was still in the yard when he had entered, due to the warm temperature of the body and the continuingly odd behavior of his pony.

Berner Street (Henriques Street today):

Slopes south off Commercial Road to a point two blocks further south than Boyd Street. It terminates at the London, Tilbury and Southend railway. It is crossed by Fairclough Street at its midpoint. It is a residential street at the northern end of St. Georges in the East parrish abutting on Whitechapel. It runs north-south off Commercial Road as far as Ellen Street. Beyond Ellen Street lay the Swedish Church.

To the east is Batty Street. It is on Batty Street that the Lipski murder takes place in 1887. This is a notorious crime in which Isreal Lipski forcibly poisoned a pretty young girl named Miriam Angel who lived below him. Following the murder he swallowed acid. This murder set off a wave of antisemitism and the name 'Lipski' became a antisemetic slur throughout the east end.

Dutfield's Yard:


Berner Street and the entrance to Dutfield's Yard.
On the left of Berner Street, directly opposite the new London School Board building (and below the cartwheel in the photograph) is Dutfield's yard. Four houses north of Fairclough, to the left of the International Worker's Educational Club, is a pair of wooden gates which provide access to the yard. The left gate was fitted with a wicker gate to be used when the gate's proper were closed. Lettered in white paint on the gates is "W. Hindley, Sack Manufacturer" and "A. Dutfield, Van and Cart Builder". Dutfield had actually moved his business to Pinchin Street prior to the murder. The cart making business was located next to an unused stable on the west side if the yard. Also on the west side is the sack manufacturer. On the north side, on your right as you enter the gates, is the Worker's Club. On the south side are three artisan's dwellings converted from older buildings. On the left of the entrance are terraced cottages occupied by cigarette makers and tailors.

For a distance of 18' from the street to the side door of the Worker's Club you walk between the blind walls of buildings. It is impenetrably dark.

International Worker's Educational Club:

A two story wooden building, barn like. The club was spacious with a capacity of over two hundred people and contained a stage. Here amateurs performed, mostly in the Russian language, plays by well-known Russian revolutionists. On Saturday and Sunday evenings there would be an international gathering of Russian, Jewish, British, French, Italian, Czech, and Polish radicals. Members thought of the club as the "cradle of Liberty' for the worker's manumission.
At the time of her death Elizabeth Stride was wearing:


Long black cloth jacket, fur trimmed around the bottom with a red rose and white maiden hair fern pinned to it. (She was not wearing the flowers when she left the lodging house.)
Black skirt
Black crepe bonnet
Checked neck scarf knotted on left side
Dark brown velveteen bodice
2 light serge petticoats
1 white chemise
White stockings
Spring sided boots
2 handkerchiefs (one, the larger, is noticed at the post-mortem to have fruit stains on it.)
A thimble
A piece of wool wound around a card

In the pocket in her underskirt:


A key (as of a padlock)
A small piece of lead pencil
Six large and one small button
A comb
A broken piece of comb
A metal spoon
A hook (as from a dress)
A piece of muslin
One or two small pieces of paper

She is found clutching a packet of Cachous in her hand. Cachous is a pill used by smokers to sweeten their breath.

Post-mortem

Dr. George Baxter Phillips, who also handled the Chapman and Kelly murders, performed the post mortem on Stride. He was also present at the scene and, after examining the body, asserts the deceased had not eaten any grapes. His report is as follows:


Mortuary photograph of Elizabeth Stride
"The body was lying on the near side, with the face turned toward the wall, the head up the yard and the feet toward the street. The left arm was extended and there was a packet of cachous in the left hand.

The right arm was over the belly, the back of the hand and wrist had on it clotted blood. The legs were drawn up with the feet close to the wall. The body and face were warm and the hand cold. The legs were quite warm.

Deceased had a silk handkerchief round her neck, and it appeared to be slightly torn. I have since ascertained it was cut. This corresponded with the right angle of the jaw. The throat was deeply gashed and there was an abrasion of the skin about one and a half inches in diameter, apparently stained with blood, under her right arm.

At three o'clock p.m. on Monday at St. George's Mortuary, Dr. Blackwell and I made a post mortem examination. Rigor mortis was still thoroughly marked. There was mud on the left side of the face and it was matted in the head.;

The Body was fairly nourished. Over both shoulders, especially the right, and under the collarbone and in front of the chest there was a bluish discoloration, which I have watched and have seen on two occasions since.

There was a clear-cut incision on the neck. It was six inches in length and commenced two and a half inches in a straight line below the angle of the jaw, one half inch in over an undivided muscle, and then becoming deeper, dividing the sheath. The cut was very clean and deviated a little downwards. The arteries and other vessels contained in the sheath were all cut through.

The cut through the tissues on the right side was more superficial, and tailed off to about two inches below the right angle of the jaw. The deep vessels on that side were uninjured. From this is was evident that the hemorrhage was caused through the partial severance of the left cartoid artery.

Decomposition had commenced in the skin. Dark brown spots were on the anterior surface of the left chin. There was a deformity in the bones of the right leg, which was not straight, but bowed forwards. There was no recent external injury save to the neck.


Riots in Berner Street
The body being washed more thoroughly I could see some healing sores. The lobe of the left ear was torn as if from the removal or wearing through of an earring, but it was thoroughly healed. On removing the scalp there was no sign of extravasation of blood.

The heart was small, the left ventricle firmly contracted, and the right slightly so. There was no clot in the pulmonary artery, but the right ventricle was full of dark clot. The left was firmly contracted as to be absolutely empty.

The stomach was large and the mucous membrane only congested. It contained partly digested food, apparently consisting of cheese, potato, and farinaceous powder. All the teeth on the lower left jaw were absent."

The day after the murder, a citizen mob formed outside of Berner Street protesting the continuation of the murders and the seemingly slipshod work of the police to catch the Ripper. From here on in, the Ripper is public enemy number one, and Home Office begins to consider offering awards for his capture and arrest.

Mary Jane Kelly A.K.A.. Marie Jeanette Kelly, Mary Ann Kelly, Ginger


Contemporary illustration of Mary Kelly outside 13 Miller's Court.
Mary Jane Kelly was approximately 25 years old at the time of her death which would place her birth around 1863. She was 5' 7" tall and stout. She had blonde hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion. "Said to have been possessed of considerable personal attractions." (McNaughten)

She was last seen wearing a linsey frock and a red shawl pulled around her shoulders. She was bare headed. Detective Constable Walter Dew claimed to know Kelly well by sight and says that she was attractive and paraded around, usually in the company of two or three friends. He says she always wore a spotlessly clean white apron.

Maria Harvey, a friend, says that she was "much superior to that of most persons in her position in life."

It is also said that she spoke fluent Welsh.

Joseph Barnett says that he "always found her of sober habits."

Landlord John McCarthy says "When in liquor she was very noisy; otherwise she was a very quiet woman."

Caroline Maxwell says that she "was not a notorious character."

Catherine Pickett claims "She was a good, quiet, pleasant girl, and was well liked by all of us."

History:

Almost everything that is known about Mary Jane Kelly comes from Joseph Barnett, who lived with her just prior to the murder. He, of course, had all this information from Kelly herself. Some is conflicting and it may be suspected that some, or perhaps much of it, is embellished.

She was born in Limerick, Ireland but we do not know if that refers to the county or the town. As a young child she moved with her family to Wales.

Her father was John Kelly who worked in an iron works in either Carnarvonshire or Carmarthenshire. Mary Jane claims to have 6 or 7 brothers and one sister. She says that one brother, Henry, whose nickname is Johnto is a member of the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards. As a member of this battalion he would have been stationed in Dublin, Ireland. She also claims to Lizzie Albrook that she had a relative on the London stage.

John McCarthy, landlord at Miller's Court, states that she received a letter from her mother in Ireland. Barnett says that she never corresponded with her family.

John McCarthy was born in Dieppe and is married with four children. He owns a chandler's shop at 27 Dorset Street on one side of the entrance to Miller's Court. He is described as a gentlemanly looking fellow.

Joseph Barnett and Mrs. Carthy, a woman with whom she lived at one time, say that she came from a family that was "fairly well off" (Barnett) and "well to do people" (Carthy). Mrs. Carthy also states that Kelly was "an excellent scholar and an artist of no mean degree."

Mrs. Carthy is the landlady from Breezer's Hill, Ratcliffe Highway. Barnett refers to her house as "a bad house."

c. 1879: At the age of 16 she marries a collier named Davies. He is killed in an explosion two or three years later. There is a suggestion that there might have been a child in this marriage.

Kelly moves to Cardiff and lives with a cousin and works as a prostitute. The Cardiff police have no record of her. She says she was ill and spent the best part of the time in an infirmary.

She arrives in London in 1884.

She may have stayed with the nuns at the Providence Row Convent on Chrisp Street. According to one tradition she scrubbed floors and charred here and was eventually placed into domestic service in a shop in Cleveland Street.

According to Joseph Barnett, on arriving in London, Kelly went to work in a high class brothel in the West End. She says that during this time she frequently rode in a carriage and accompanied one gentleman to Paris, which she didn't like and she returned.

On November 10, one day after the murder, Mrs. Elizabeth Pheonix of 57 Bow Common Lane, Burdett Road, Bow, went to the Leman Street Police Station and said that a woman matching the description of Kelly used to live in her brother-in-law's house in Breezer's Hill, off Pennington Street.

Mrs. Pheonix says that "She was Welsh and that her parents, who had discarded her, still lived in Cardiff, from which place she came. But on occasions she declared that she was Irish." She added that Mary Jane was very abusive and quarrelsome when she was drunk but "one of the most decent and nice girls you could meet when sober."

A Press Association reporter who looked into the Breezer's Hill District wrote:

"It would appear that on her arrival in London she made the acquaintance of a French woman residing in the neighborhood of Knightsbridge, who, she informed her friends, led her to pursue the degraded life which had now culminated in her untimely end. She made no secret of the fact that while she was with this woman she would drive about in a carriage and made several journeys to the French capital, and, in fact, led a life which is described as that "of a lady." By some means, however, at present, not exactly clear, she suddenly drifted into the East End. Here fortune failed her and a career that stands out in bold and sad contrast to her earlier experience was commenced. Her experiences with the East End appears to have begun with a woman (according to press reports a Mrs. Buki) who resided in one of the thoroughfares off Ratcliffe Highway, known as St. George's Street. This person appears to have received Kelly direct from the West End home, for she had not been there very long when, it is stated, both women went to the French lady's residence and demanded the box which contained numerous dresses of a costly description.

Kelly at last indulged in intoxicants, it is stated, to an extant which made her unwelcome. From St. George's Street she went to lodge with a Mrs. Carthy at Breezer's Hill (off Pennington Street). This place she left about 18 months or two years ago and from that time on appears to have left Ratcliffe all together.

Mrs. Carthy said that Kelly had left her house and gone to live with a man who was in the building trade and who Mrs. Carthy believed would have married Kelly."

c. 1886: Kelly leaves Carthy's house to live with a man in the building trades. Barnett says she lived with a man named Morganstone opposite or in the vicinity of Stepney Gasworks. She had then taken up with a man named Joseph Fleming and lived somewhere near Bethnal Green. Fleming was a stone mason or mason's plasterer. He used to visit Kelly and seemed quite fond of her. A neighbor at Miller's Court, Julia Van Turney says that Kelly was fond of a man other than Barnett and whose name was also Joe. She thought he was a costermonger and sometimes visited and gave money to Kelly.

By 1886 she is living in Colley's lodging house in Thrawl Street, Spitalfields and it is here that she meets Joe Barnett.

Joseph Barnett is London born of Irish heritage. He is a riverside laborer and market porter who is licensed to work at Billingsgate Fish Market. He comes from a family of three sisters and one brother who is named Daniel. Barnett was born in 1858 and dies in 1926.

Julia Van Turney says that Joe Barnett is of good character and was kind to Mary Jane, giving her money on occasion.

Barnett and Kelly are remembered as a friendly and pleasant couple who give little trouble unless they are drunk. She may be the Mary Jane Kelly who was fined 2/6 by the Thames Magistrate Court on September 19, 1888 for being drunk and disorderly.

Good Friday, April 8, 1887: Joseph Barnett meets Mary Jane Kelly for the first time in Commercial Street. He takes her for a drink and arranges to meet her the following day. At their second meeting they arrange to live together.

They take lodging at in George Street, off Commercial. Later they move to Paternoster Court off Dorset Street. They are evicted for not paying rent and for being drunk. Next they move to Brick Lane.

In February or March of 1888 they move from Brick Lane to Miller's Court off Dorset Street. Here they occupy a single room which is designated 13 Miller's Court.

Miller's Court:


Contemporary Sketch of Miller's Court.
Opposite Crossingham's lodging house oat 35 Dorset Street, where Annie Chapman lived, and between numbers 26 and 27 Dorset Street is a three foot wide opening that was the entrance to Miller's Court. It is the first archway on the right of Dorset Street coming from Commercial Street. There were six houses in the court, each whitewashed up to the first floor windows. The rooms were let by John McCarthy, who owned a chandler's shop at 27 Dorset Street.

Number 13 Miller's Court was the back parlor of 26 Dorset Street. Partitioned off from the rest of the building, it was entered from a door at the end of the arched passageway. It was the first door on the right in Miller's Court and anyone entering or leaving the court would have to pass it.

The room was approximately 12 feet square. Opposite the door was a fireplace. On the left of the door and at right angles to it were two windows, one of which was close enough to the door as to be able to reach through it and unbolt the door. To the right of the door was a bedside table so close that the door would hit it when opened. Next to the table was a bed with the head against the door wall, its side against the right wall. The room contained two tables and a chair and a cheap print entitled "The Fisherman's widow" hanging over the fireplace. Opposite the fireplace was a small cupboard which contained cheap crockery, empty ginger beer bottles and a little stale bread.


Contemporary photograph of the window at 13 Miller's Court.
The key to the door was missing. The window closest it was broken and stuffed with rags and you could reach the spring lock of the door through the window. A man's pilot coat hung over the window in place of a curtain. The window, according to Julia Van Turney, was broken several weeks before the murder by Kelly when she was drunk.

Also found in the room by the police was remnants of clothes in the grate of the fireplace. They had been burned in a fire so hot that it melted the spout off a nearby kettle. Mrs. Harvey believes the clothes are hers as she had left a hat, jacket, two men's shirts, a boy's shirt and a child's petticoat in Kelly's room. The pilot coat hanging over the window was also hers.

Kelly had taken the room under her own name and paid 4/6 per week rent. At the time of her death she was 30 shillings behind in rent.

August or early September, 1888: Barnett loses his job and Mary Jane returns to the streets. Barnett decides to leave her.

October 30, between 5 and 6 PM: Elizabeth Prater, who lives above Kelly reports that Barnett and Kelly have an argument and Barnett leaves her. He goes to live at Buller's boarding house at 24-25 New Street, Bishopsgate.

Barnett states at the inquest that he left her because she was allowing other prostitutes to stay in the room. "She would never have gone wrong again," he tells a newspaper, "and I shouldn't have left her if it had not been for the prostitutes stopping at the house. She only let them (stay there) because she was good hearted and did not like to refuse them shelter on cold bitter nights." He adds, "We lived comfortably until Marie allowed a prostitute named Julia to sleep in the same room; I objected: and as Mrs. Harvey afterwards came and stayed there, I left and took lodgings elsewhere."

Maria Harvey stayed with Kelly on the nights of November 5 and 6. She moved to new lodgings at 3 New Court, another alley of Dorset Street.

Wednesday, November 7: Mary Jane buys a half penny candle from McCarthy's shop. She is later seen in Miller's Court by Thomas Bowyer, a pensioned soldier whose nickname is "Indian Harry." He is employed by McCarthy and lives at 37 Dorset Street.

Bowyer states that on Wednesday night he saw a man speaking to Kelly who closely resembled the description of the man Matthew Packer claims to have seen with Elizabeth Stride. His appearance was smart and attention was drawn to him by his very white cuffs and rather long, white collar which came down over the front of his long black coat. He did not carry a bag.

Thursday-Friday, November 8-9: Almost every day after the split, Barnett would visit Mary Jane. On Friday the ninth he stops between 7:30 and 7:45 PM. He says she is in the company of another woman who lives in Miller's Court. This may have been Lizzie Albrook who lived at 2 Miller's Court.

Albrook says "About the last thing she said to me was 'Whatever you do don't you do wrong and turn out as I did.' She had often spoken to me in this way and warned me against going on the street as she had done. She told me, too, that she was heartily sick of the life she was leading and wished she had money enough to go back to Ireland where her people lived. I do not believe she would have gone out as she did if she had not been obliged to do so to keep herself from starvation."

Maria Harvey also says that she was woman that Barnett saw with Mary Jane and that she left at 6:55 PM.

8:00 PM: Barnett leaves and goes back to Buller's boarding house where he played whist until 12:30 AM and then went to bed.

8:00 PM: Julia Van Turney, who lives at 1 Miller's Court goes to bed.

There are no confirmed sightings of Mary Jane Kelly between 8:00 PM and 11:45 PM. there is an unconfirmed story that she is drinking with a woman named Elizabeth Foster at the Britannia Public House.

11:00 PM: It is said she is in the Britannia drinking with a young man with a dark mustache who appears respectable and well dressed. It is said she is very drunk.

11:45 PM: Mary Ann Cox, a 31 year old widower and prostitute, who lives at 5 Miller's Court (last house on the left) enters Dorset Street from Commercial Street. Cox is returning home to warm herself as the night had turned cold. She sees Kelly ahead of her, walking with a stout man. The man was aged around 35 or 36 and was about 5' 5" tall. He was shabbily dressed in a long overcoat and a billycock hat. He had a blotchy face and small side whiskers and a carrotty mustache. The man is carrying a pail of beer.

Mrs. Cox follows them into Miller's Court. they are standing outside Kelly's room as Mrs. Cox passed and said "Goodnight." Somewhat incoherently, Kelly replied "Goodnight, I am going to sing." A few minutes later Mrs. Cox hears Kelly singing "A Violet from Mother's Grave" (see below). Cox goes out again at midnight and hears Kelly singing the same song.


You may listen to "A Violet from Mother's Grave" in RealAudio format [398 Kb] (voice and instrumental), or you may view the sheet music and listen to a much smaller midi version (instrumental only). RealAudio version courtesy Frogg Moody and the production staff of Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper.

Somewhere in this time period, Mary Jane takes a meal of fish and potatoes.

12:30 AM: Catherine Picket, a flower seller who lives near Kelly, is disturbed by Kelly's singing. Picket's husband stops her from going down stairs to complain. "You leave the poor woman alone." he says.

1:00 AM: It is beginning to rain. Again, Mary Ann Cox returns home to warm herself. At that time Kelly is still singing or has begun to sing again. There was light coming from Kelly's room. Shortly after one, Cox goes out again.

Elizabeth Prater, the wife of William Prater, a boot finisher who had left her 5 years before, is standing at the entrance to Miller's Court waiting for a man. Prater lives in room number 20 of 26 Dorset Street. This is directly above Kelly. She stands there about a half hour and then goes into to McCarthy's to chat. She hears no singing and sees no one go in or out of the court. After a few minutes she goes back to her room, places two chairs in front of her door and goes to sleep without undressing. She is very drunk.

2:00 AM: George Hutchinson, a resident of the Victoria Home on Commercial Street has just returned to the area from Romford. He is walking on Commercial Street and passes a man at the corner of Thrawl Street but pays no attention to him. At Flower and Dean Street he meets Kelly who asks him for money. "Mr. Hutchinson, can you lend me sixpence?" "I can't," say Hutchinson, "I spent all my money going down to Romford." "Good morning," Kelly replies, "I must go and find some money." She then walks in the direction of Thrawl Street.

She meets the man Hutchinson had passed earlier. The man puts his hand on Kelly's should and says something at which Kelly and the man laugh. Hutchinson hears Kelly say "All right." and the man say "You will be all right for what I have told you." The man then puts his right hand on Kelly's shoulder and they begin to walk towards Dorset Street. Hutchinson notices that the man has a small parcel in his left hand.

While standing under a street light on outside the Queens Head Public House Hutchinson gets a good look at the man with Mary Jane Kelly. He has a dark complexion, a heavy dark mustache, turned up at the corners, dark eyes and bushy eyebrows. He is, according to Hutchinson, "Jewish looking." The man is wearing a soft felt hat pulled down over his eyes, a long dark coat trimmed in astrakhan, a white collar with a black necktie fixed with a horseshoe pin. He wears dark spats over light button over boots. A massive gold chain is in his waistcoat with a large seal with a red stone hanging from it. He carries kid gloves in his right hand and a small package in his left. He is 5' 6" or 5' 7" tall and about 35 or 36 years old.

Kelly and the man cross Commercial Street and turn down Dorset. Hutchinson follows them. Kelly and the man stop outside Miller's Court and talk for about 3 minutes. Kelly is heard to say "All right, my dear. Come along. You will be comfortable." The man puts his arm around Kelly who kisses him. "I've lost my handkerchief." she says. At this he hands her a red handkerchief. The couple then heads down Miller's Court. Hutchinson waits until the clock strikes 3:00 AM. leaving as the clock strikes the hour.

3:00 AM: Mrs. Cox returns home yet again. It is raining hard. There is no sound or light coming from Kelly's room. Cox does not go back out but does not go to sleep. Throughout the night she occasionally hears men going in and out of the court. She told the inquest "I heard someone go out at a quarter to six. I do not know what house he went out of (as) I heard no door shut."

4:00 AM: Elizabeth Prater is awakened by her pet kitten "Diddles" walking on her neck. She hears a faint cry of "Oh, murder!" but, as the cry of murder is common in the district, she pays no attention to it. Sarah Lewis, who is staying with friends in Miller's Court, also hears the cry.

8:30 AM: Caroline Maxwell, a witness at the inquest and acquaintance of Kelly's, claims to have seen the deceased at around 8:30 AM, several hours after the time given by Phillips as time of death. She described her clothing and appearance in depth, and adamantly stated that she was not mistaken about the date, although she admitted she did not know Kelly very well.

10:00 AM: Maurice Lewis, a tailor who resided in Dorset Street, told newspapers he had seen Kelly and Barnett in the Horn of Plenty public house on the night of the murder, but more importantly, that he saw her about 10:00 AM the next day. Like Maxwell, this time is several hours from the time of death, and because of this discrepancy, he was not called to the inquest and virtually ignored by police.


Bowyer and McCarthy discover the body of Mary Jane Kelly.
10:45 AM: John McCarthy, owner of "McCarthy's Rents," as Miller's Court was known, sends Thomas Bowyer to collect past due rent money from Mary Kelly. After Bowyer receives no response from knocking (and because the door was locked) he pushes aside the curtain and peers inside, seeing the body. He informs McCarthy, who, after seeing the mutilated remains of Kelly for himself, ran to Commercial Road Police Station, where he spoke with Inspector Walter Beck, who returned to the Court with McCarthy.

Several hours later, after waiting fruitlessly for the arrival of the bloodhounds "Barnaby" and "Burgho," McCarthy smashes in the door with an axe handle under orders from Superintendent Arnold.

When police enter the room they find Mary Jane Kelly's clothes neatly folded on a chair and she is wearing a chemise. Her boots are in front of the fireplace.

Post-mortem

Dr. Thomas Bond, a distinguished police surgeon from A Division was called in on the Mary Kelly murder. His report is as follows:


Mary Kelly as she was found in her bed at 13 Miller's Court.
"The body was lying naked in the middle of the bed, the shoulders flat but the axis of the body inclined to the left side of the bed. The head was turned on the left cheek. The left arm was close to the body with the forearm flexed at a right angle and lying across the abdomen.

The right arm was slightly abducted from the body and rested on the mattress. The elbow was bent, the forearm supine with the fingers clenched. The legs were wide apart, the left thigh at right angles to the trunk and the right forming an obtuse angle with the pubes.

The whole of the surface of the abdomen and thighs was removed and the abdominal cavity emptied of its viscera. The breasts were cut off, the arms mutilated by several jagged wounds and the face hacked beyond recognition of the features. The tissues of the neck were severed all round down to the bone.

The viscera were found in various parts viz: the uterus and kidneys with one breast under the head, the other breast by the right foot, the liver between the feet, the intestines by the right side and the spleen by the left side of the body. The flaps removed from the abdomen and thighs were on a table.

The bed clothing at the right corner was saturated with blood, and on the floor beneath was a pool of blood covering about two feet square. The wall by the right side of the bed and in a line with the neck was marked by blood which had struck it in a number of separate splashes.

The face was gashed in all directions, the nose, cheeks, eyebrows, and ears being partly removed. The lips were blanched and cut by several incisions running obliquely down to the chin. There were also numerous cuts extending irregularly across all the features.

The neck was cut through the skin and other tissues right down to the vertebrae, the fifth and sixth being deeply notched. The skin cuts in the front of the neck showed distinct ecchymosis. The air passage was cut at the lower part of the larynx through the cricoid cartilage.

Both breasts were more or less removed by circular incisions, the muscle down to the ribs being attached to the breasts. The intercostals between the fourth, fifth, and sixth ribs were cut through and the contents of the thorax visible through the openings.


Mary Kelly as she was found in her bed at 13 Miller's Court.
The skin and tissues of the abdomen from the costal arch to the pubes were removed in three large flaps. The right thigh was denuded in front to the bone, the flap of skin, including the external organs of generation, and part of the right buttock. The left thigh was stripped of skin fascia, and muscles as far as the knee.

The left calf showed a long gash through skin and tissues to the deep muscles and reaching from the knee to five inches above the ankle. Both arms and forearms had extensive jagged wounds.

The right thumb showed a small superficial incision about one inch long, with extravasation of blood in the skin, and there were several abrasions on the back of the hand moreover showing the same condition.

On opening the thorax it was found that the right lung was minimally adherent by old firm adhesions. The lower part of the lung was broken and torn away. The left lung was intact. It was adherent at the apex and there were a few adhesions over the side. In the substances of the lung there were several nodules of consolidation.

The pericardium was open below and the heart absent. In the abdominal cavity there was some partly digested food of fish and potatoes, and similar food was found in the remains of the stomach attached to the intestines."

Dr. George Bagster Phillips was also present at the scene, and gave the following testimony at the inquest:

"The mutilated remains of a female were lying two-thirds over towards the edge of the bedstead nearest the door. She had only her chemise on, or some underlinen garment. I am sure that the body had been removed subsequent to the injury which caused her death from that side of the bedstead that was nearest the wooden partition, because of the large quantity of blood under the bedstead and the saturated condition of the sheet and the palliasse at the corner nearest the partition.

The blood was produced by the severance of the cartoid artery, which was the cause of death. The injury was inflicted while the deceased was lying at the right side of the bedstead."