In 1888, the Whitechapel District in the East End of London was overcrowded and poverty-stricken. Crime was increasing, and alcohol dependency was rife. At the time, the Metropolitan Police Service believed there to be around 1,200 women in the area trying to scrape a living through sex work. Times were hard, and the underclass was struggling. And on Tuesday, 3rd April, things took an even darker turn.
45-year-old Emma Elizabeth Smith was violently attacked at the junction of Osborn Street and Brick Lane. Despite the severity of her injuries, Emma returned to her lodging house, where the deputy keeper, Mary Russell, was on duty. After seeing Emma, Mary took her straight to London Hospital, where she was admitted but sadly died the following day from peritonitis caused by sexual trauma. Before dying, Emma managed to say that there was more than one attacker; they were never found. Detective Constable Walter Dew, with the H Division Whitechapel, believed that Emma was the first victim of the enigma that would later become known as Jack the Ripper.
On Thursday, the 7th of August 1888, just before 5 am, the body of sex worker Martha Tabram was found at George Yard Buildings. She has been stabbed an astonishing 39 times, a frenzied attack on her neck, torso and genitals. Martha’s murder was not connected to the murder of Emma Elizabeth Smith, but there is some speculation as to whether it was connected to the later murders.
The First Canonical Victim
On Friday, 31st of August, Mary Ann Nichols was discovered at 3.45 am in Buck’s Roe (now known as Durward Street). She had been brutally stabbed; her throat slit twice left to right, and her abdomen mutilated. Initially, local media believed it to be the work of a gang, and they suggested connections to the two previous murders. The Star newspaper was the first publication to put forward the idea that the murders were the work of just one person, a suggestion that was soon picked up by other newspapers. With rumours of a serial killer in Whitechapel, Detective Inspectors Frederick Abberline, Henry Moore and Walter Andrews were temporarily transferred from Scotland Yard.
Suspicions fell at this time to a man called John Pizer. On Saturday, the 1st of September 1888, the Sunderland Daily Echo printed:
‘The women in a position similar to that of the deceased allege that there is a man who goes by the name of "Leather Apron" who has more than once attacked unfortunate and defenceless women. His dodge is, it is asserted, to get them into some house on the pretence of offering them money. He then takes whatever little they have and "half kills" them in addition.’
The Second Canonical Victim
At 6 am on Saturday 8th of September 1888, the body of Annie Chapman was discovered in the backyard of 29 Hanbury Street, Spitalfields. As with Mary Ann Nichols, Annie’s throat had been cut left to right. She had also been disembowelled and her intestines thrown over each shoulder. Pathologist George Phillips examined Annie’s body and discovered part of the uterus, cut out with a single movement of the knife. This led him to believe that the unknown killer may have surgical skills. This suggestion was dismissed by other experts, with some even accusing mortality staff of stealing body parts to sell as specimens.
On the 10th of September 1888, John Pizer was arrested; however, he had an alibi for the murders of both Mary Nichols and Annie Chapman and was released without charge.
At Annie Chapman's inquest, Elizabeth Long testified that she saw a person talking to Annie at 5.30 am in the same area where her body would later be found. Elizabeth described a man over 40 with a dark complexion and a ‘shabby-genteel’ appearance, wearing an overcoat and a deer stalker hat. Around the same time, Albert Cadosch heard voices in the yard, then the sound of something (or someone) falling against the fence.
The Third Canonical Victim
At 1 am on Sunday, 30th of September 1888, sex worker Elizabeth Stride was discovered with her throat slit (left to right) inside the gateway of 40 Berner Street (now known as Henriques Street). Elizabeth had only been murdered minutes beforehand, and, unlike other victims, her body hadn’t been mutilated – possibly because the killer had been disturbed. Of course, there is the possibility that this murder was a standalone committed by a different individual.
The Fourth Canonical Victim
Just 45 minutes later, after finding Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes’s body was discovered by PC Edward Watkins at the Southwest Corner of Mitre Square. This time, the body had been mutilated. Catherine’s throat had been slashed left to right, and her face and abdomen had been viciously attacked. Her intestines had been placed over her right shoulder. Her left kidney had been removed, along with the majority of her uterus.
At 3 am, part of Catherine’s apron, stained with blood, was found in the doorway of the passageway leading to 108-119 Goulston Street. A message had been written on the wall in chalk:
‘The Juwes are the men that will not be blamed for nothing.’
Some sources say it was:
‘The Juwes are not the men who will be blamed for nothing’.
At 5 am, Commissioner Warren arrived at the scene and demanded the writing be cleaned off the wall; he reasoned that the message could cause antisemitic riots.
Little progress was being made by the police on the murders. There weren’t many witnesses, and not many of the descriptions matched when they did interview them.
On the 27th of September 1888, the Central News Agency received a letter from someone claiming to be the killer. It was signed ‘Jack the Ripper’ (link to dear boss letter).
On the 1st of October, a postcard was received, and it was signed ‘Jack the Ripper’.
On Tuesday 2nd of October 1888, the torso of an unidentified woman was found in the basement of New Scotland Yard (now known as the Norman Shaw Buildings). This was linked to the other murders by the media, but this has since been primarily dismissed as unlikely.
On the same day the torso was discovered, psychic Robert James Lees offered his services to the police. He claimed that he was troubled by the vision of the murders, but they dismissed him as ‘a fool and a lunatic’. There were stories that Lees later led police to a suspect who was a physician, but that is a story for a later article.
George Lusk had been elected as the chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee on the 10th of September 1888. Soon after, he started to believe that someone was watching his house.
On the 16th of October 1888, he received a letter. The handwriting differed from the previous letters, and this one also arrived with a package. The box contained half a human kidney that had been preserved in alcohol; the author of the letter claimed that it was part of Catherine Eddowes’s kidney and that he had consumed the other half.
The Fifth and Final Canonical Victim
Mary Jane Kelly was a sex worker who was discovered Friday, the 9th of November, in the room she rented at 13 Miller’s Court. Mary’s body was found at 10.45 pm, and it had been savagely destroyed. Her throat had been cut left to right, her abdomen cut open, and her intestines scattered around the room. Her face was nearly unrecognisable, her breasts had been removed, and some of the muscle had been removed from her thighs. Mary Jane was the only victim found inside. Her clothes had been folded neatly on her chair; this could indicate that she had been murdered by someone she knew, a client she had invited inside or that she had been killed in her sleep.
Police surgeon Thomas Bond wrote to the head of the London CID, Robert Anderson, saying that the murders of the canonical five were ‘no doubt committed by the same hand’.
On Thursday, 20th of November, the body of sex worker Rose Mylett was found in Clarke’s Yard, off Poplar High Street. She had been strangled. Robert Anderson believed it to have been a self-inflicted drunken accident, with Thomas Bond and the coroner, Wayne Boucher, agreeing. Despite this, the jury returned with a verdict of ‘wilful murder’.
The following year, on the 17th of July, the body of Alice McKenzie was found in Castle Alley. Her throat had been slit, and her abdomen stabbed. Thomas Bond and Commissioner James Monro believed Alice to be a victim of Jack the Ripper, whereas Anderson and Inspector Abberline disagreed. James Monro may have known more than he let on about the case. During the investigations, the Home Secretary Henry Matthews wrote to his private secretary.
‘Stimulate the police about the Whitechapel Murders. Monro might be willing to give a hint to the CID people if necessary.’
This will be looked further into in the articles to follow.
Coroner Baxter concluded ‘There is great similarity between this and the other class of cases, which have happened in this neighbourhood, and if the same person has not committed this crime, it is clearly an imitation of the other cases’.
On Tuesday, 10th September 1889, another torso was discovered under a railway arch on Pinchin Street, and the abdomen had been mutilated. The rest of the woman’s body was never found, and to this day, she has never been identified.
Frances Cole was the last recorded murder, and she was found on Friday the 13th of February 1891. She was discovered under a railway arch in Swallow Gardens by PC Ernest Thompson but died before she could receive medical attention. Frances’ throat had been cut. This was the last entry in the ‘Whitechapel Murders’ file.
We all know that Jack the Ripper was never caught for possibly many reasons. The police didn’t have enough manpower and were limited by the times; techniques such as fingerprinting and DNA testing were years away, and the importance of not contaminating a crime scene was largely ignored. There was also the problem of the media, specifically the ‘penny dreadfuls’. Often, they published misinformation with the intention of shocking the public. This led to panic, vigilantes and false witnesses. H Division received over 300 letters from people claiming to be ‘Jack the Ripper’, which took up much time which could have been spent elsewhere. And, of course, the whole situation may have been a cover-up.
And that is the timeline of the murders. The articles to follow this will discuss those involved, the victims, the police and the many theories around the horrific murders. Thanks for reading; take care, and I will see you soon!
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