A Look Back at the Vicitms of Jack the Ripper

(A short sabbatical is in order - So, for the next few weeks, we'll take a look back at some older posts: This one is from 2012 about the Victims of Jack the Ripper.)

Whitechapel

Whitechapel

This Sunday marks the 126^th anniversary of the first of the ‘official’ murders attributed to an unidentified serial killer, given the monikers, "Leather Apron, "The Whitechapel Killer," and “Jack the Ripper.”  Almost a century and a quarter later, the five murders remain unsolved.  Many suspects have been identified, but no one has been undeniably determined to have been “Jack the Ripper.”

The “Official” Five

Nichols Body Discovered

Mary Ann Nichols

It was in the middle of the night on August 31, 1888, when 43-year-old Mary Ann (Polly) Nichols was found murdered in the Whitechapel district of London.  Nichols, a local prostitute, was found lying in front of a stable on Buck’s Row, with her skirts raised.  Her throat had been cut twice and her abdomen slashed deeply several times.  The coroner placed the time of death around 3 A.M.

Marker for Mary Ann Nichols

City of London Cemetery

Nichols’ body was held at the Whitechapel Mortuary until the following Thursday.  She was buried on September 6, 1888 at the City of London Cemetery in Ilford.  Nichols death was the first police officially attributed to “Jack the Ripper.”

Annie Chapman

Where Chapman was found

About 1:45 on the morning of Saturday, September 8, 1888, 47-year-old Annie Chapman found herself without money for lodging.  Worse for drink, she headed out into the streets to earn the necessary funds. Her body was discovered around 6 A.M. Her throat had been severed by two cuts, and her abdomen had been laid open.  It was later discovered that her uterus had been taken. 

Manor Park Cemetery

Annie Chapman was buried at Manor Park Cemetery on Friday, September 14, 1888. Her funeral was kept secret by her family in order to avoid crowds. Chapman’s grave no longer exists; it has since been buried over.  

Searching for suspects

Headlines of the Day

It was after Chapman’s death that the police realized the same person could have committed both her murder and that of Mary Ann Nichols.  The two crimes were so similar that the investigations were merged into one and officials began searching for one suspect.

Police News Headlines

After Chapman’s murder, the public, panicked by the thought that a murderer was loose on the East End, began observing curfews, careful to travel in groups.  The police began investigating any lead that came their way, many hoaxes dreamed up by those wanting to trick the local police.  But after three weeks without a murder, it seemed that maybe the worst was over…. 

Elizabeth Stride

Discovery of Stride

The night of September 29^th was wet and cold.  Forty-four-year-old Elizabeth Stride had been drinking with friends that Saturday evening, spending the money she’d earned earlier in the day, cleaning rooms.   Around 11 P.M. she was seen working the streets.  At 12:45 A.M. on September 30^th, Stride’s body was discovered. She was lying by a fence in the yard near the International Workers Educational Club.  Her throat had been gashed deeply, but it appeared the murderer had left quickly.

East London Cemetery

Grave of Elizabeth Stride

Elizabeth Stride was buried on Saturday, October 6, 1888 in the East London Cemetery at Plaistow.  The local parish provided for her short funeral and burial.

Catherine Eddowes

The police had just arrived on the scene of the Stride murder when yet another murder was occurring nearby. Forty-six-year-old Catherine Eddowes had spent her Saturday evening in a cell for drunks at the Bishopsgate police station. She was released at 1 A.M. when she was able to stand and walk out of the station unaided.  At 1:45 A.M. Eddowes mutilated body was found by a beat cop in the corner of Mitre Square.  Her throat had been cut, her face disfigured, her abdomen laid opened, and the intestines pulled out and laid over a shoulder. Her left kidney and most of her uterus had been taken.

Marker for Catherine Eddowes

City of London Cemetery

Catherine Eddowes was buried on Monday October 8, 1888 in the City of London Cemetery in an unmarked grave.  A plaque was placed by cemetery officials in 1996.

Kelly's Room

The last murder officially attributed to Jack the Ripper occurred sometime during the early morning hours of November 9, 1888.  Twenty-five-year-old Mary Jane Kelly had gone out about 11 P.M. on Thursday, November 8^th.  She returned to her room in Miller Court around 11:45 with a man.  She was heard singing in her room around 1 A.M. and was reportedly seen taking another man to her room sometime after 2 A.M.  A neighbor reported hearing the cry of “Murder” about 4 A.M. and someone leave the room close to 6 A.M.

Mary Jane Kelly

It was almost 11 A.M. Friday morning when a man sent to collect Kelly’s rent, looked through her window and saw what was left of her mutilated body on the bed.  Police determined that she had been killed by a slash to the throat before the mutilations were performed.  It was reported that her heart was missing.  Kelly’s body was the most maimed and disfigured of the five.

St Patrick's Catholic Cemetery

Marker for Mary Jane Kelly

Mary Jane Kelly was buried on Tuesday, November 19, 1888 at St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Cemetery in Leytonstone.  No family attended her funeral.  During the 1950’s, the cemetery reclaimed Kelly’s grave.  A small plaque was placed in the cemetery in the 1990’s.

Others

Murder Location for Emma Smith

Other murders might have been committed by Jack the Ripper, beginning with 45 year old Emma Elizabeth Smith on April 3, 1888 in Whitechapel.  She was attacked, sexually assaulted, and died the next day of peritonitis at London Hospital.   Her killing was the first recorded of the “Whitechapel Murders.”

Surgery Implements

Although the M.O. (modus operandi) does not follow the Ripper’s later actions, it could be that he had yet to settle on a technique.  It is considered more likely that the media made the connection for added interest to the Ripper murders during the autumn attacks.

Martha Tabram

The other murder, prior to the “Autumn of Terror”, involved 39-year-old Martha Tabram.  She was murdered August 7, 1888 in Whitechapel.  She died from 39 brutal stab wounds.  Police thought that the closeness of the date to the five attributed murders, along with the savagery of the attack, a lack of motive, and the location warranted it to be considered as a Ripper murder. 

Discovering Another Body

It is worth noting that both women fit the victim profile; dark hair, single, heavy drinker, prostitute.  No one was ever arrested in either murder.  The other “Whitechapel Murders” included Rose Mylett, Alice McKenzie, Frances Coles, and a woman who was never identified.

The Murders

Location of 1888 Murders

The “Whitechapel Murders” occurred from April 3, 1888 to February 13, 1891. A total of eleven women, all prostitutes in the Whitechapel area, were brutal murdered. Five were attributed to Jack the Ripper, the others were considered to likely be Ripper victims.

Suspects

Police questioned over 2,000 people during and after the murders. Of those, over 300 people were investigated; eighty were taken in and detained.  Although scrutinized, most were not believed to be seriously involved. Some were considered but had alibis, and a few have remained top suspects for well over 100 years.  But no one was ever charged with any of the murders.   

 

After 126 years, it is doubtful that the identity of Jack the Ripper will ever be known.  It appears the murders of this serial killer will remain part of a historical whodunit for all time.

~ Joy

125 Years Later - A Look Back at The Ripper’s Second Victim, Annie Chapman

Annie Chapman

She was known as “Dark Annie” because of her dark brown hair, but Annie Chapman was just another of Whitechapel’s “fallen women,” until the autumn of 1888 when that could end up costing you your life.

Annie Chapman was born in Paddington, England in September 1841 to George Smith and Ruth Chapman. (Her parents married six months later.)  Annie married a relative of her mother’s, John Chapman, on May 1^st, 1869 in Knightsbridge.

Annie and John Chapman

John worked as a domestic coachman in order to support Annie and their two girls. By 1881, he was working as a farm bailiff, a type of supervisor who oversaw several tenant farms, collecting rents and making sure the farms were taken care of for the actual landowner. It was during this time that the Chapman’s had their only son, who was a cripple.

By 1885 Annie had tired of married life and took to the streets in London, selling crochet work, matches, and flowers. John Chapman provided Annie with a small allowance to help her get by, but she began making up the difference with casual prostitution.

Charingham's Lodging

Annie moved in with Jack Sivvey, a sieve maker, in 1886 and called herself Mrs. Sivvey. The arrangement was short-lived and Annie was soon on her own again, this time without the assistance of her husband John, who had died on Christmas Day 1886.

Over the next couple of years, Annie lived in several lodging and workhouses, eventuallybecoming a regular at the Crossingham’s Lodging House.

It was on Saturday, September 1, 1888 that Annie fought with another lodger, Eliza Cooper over a bar of soap. It appeared that Annie got the raw end of the deal and was sporting bruises and complaining of feeling ill on Monday the 3^rd.  On September 4^th her friend, Amelia Palmer noticed that Annie had not been drinking because of her pain. Palmer told Annie to go to the casual ward and get treated for her injuries.

Amelia Palmer

Annie was back at Crossingham’s Lodging House on Friday, September 5^th and spent the afternoon sitting in the kitchen because she felt unwell. She left later in the day and met with her sister who gave her some money. Annie then ran into Amelia Palmer, and again complained of feeling ill.

Later in the evening Annie went to the hospital for some medicine and stopped along the

way to spend her money on beer. She then returned to sit in the lodging house kitchen to eat a late supper. Around 2 a.m.  John Evans, the lodging house night watchman turned her out for not having money enough for a bed.

Dark Annie said that she would earn her bed money and return soon, but many thought she was deep in her cups when she headed towards Spitalfields.

The next four hours of Annie’s life remain a mystery, but at 5:50 a.m. her body was discovered in the fenced backyard at 29 Hanbury Street. Unfortunately, sometime during the night Annie had made the acquaintance of Jack the Ripper.

29 Hanbury Street

Backyard of No. 29

Annie’s body was discovered a little before 6 a.m. by John Davis, a carman who lived at Number 29. The body was lying parallel with the fence, the head turned toward the house and the clothing pulled up around her waist. The abdomen had been ripped open and the throat cut so severely the head was nearly decapitated.

Davis reported the murder to the Commercial Street Police Station. Inspector Joseph Chandler was quickly on site clearing the Hanbury Street yard of spectators and sightseers.

Dr. Phillips Examines Chapman's Body

Dr. George Philips, the divisional police surgeon arrived by 6:30 a.m. According to Phillips testimony at the inquest, "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...

Annie Chapman

Annie Chapman's Death Certificate

“The throat was dissevered deeply; that the incisions 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."

Phillips ordered Chapman’s body to be taken to the Whitechapel Workhouse Infirmary for a post mortem examination. Workers at the morgue were told not to touch the body, but preceded to strip and wash it (just as they had Mary Ann Nichols) before a thorough examination could be performed.

Coroner Wynne Baxter

Chapman Inquest

On September 10th an inquest into the death of Annie Chapman was held at the WorkingLad’s Institute in Whitechapel.  Coroner Wynne E. Baxter conducted the inquest, just as he had for Polly Nichols (the first confirmed Ripper victim) ten days before.

Dr. Phillips reported during the inquest that Chapman was in poor health due an advanced case of tuberculosis, but he concluded that she had been sober for several hours before her death. Her swollen face and protruding tongue indicted strangulation, and he believed that she had died some time before 4:30 a.m.

Phillips told the inquest that the abdomen had been cut open and the intestines severed from the body and placed above the shoulder. The uterus and the upper portion of the vagina had been completely removed.

When asked about the surgical skill of the murderer Phillips said, “'the work was that of anexpert- or 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'.

Conflicting reports and testimonies were given by several witnesses as to the type of man Annie was seen with, what was reportedly said, and what time she was last seen alive. In the end, a verdict of willful murder against a person or persons unknown was entered.

The Ripper had claimed his second victim.

Manor Park Cemetery

Annie Chapman was buried on Friday, September 14^th at Manor Park Cemetery. Annie’s family met the hearse at the cemetery, thereby keeping the funeral secret until after her burial. Her name, date of death and age were inscribed upon her elm coffin.

Annie Chapman’s grave no longer exists. It has since been reused and buried over.

~ Joy