Jack the Ripper - 125 Years Later - A Look Back at the Final Murder

Whitechapel

Lord Mayor's Day

It had been a chilly night in Whitechapel but the day promised to be fair and full of fun. After all, it was November 9^th the day of the annual Lord Mayor’s celebrations. But the day would not bode well for some.

Thomas Bowyer

Window to Kelly's Room

Just before 11 a.m., Thomas Bowyer knocked on the door of 13 Miller’s Court, the flat where Mary Jane Kelly lived. He had been sent to pick up the rent money she was six weeks behind on. When there was no answer, Bowyer peered in a window - and discovered Kelly’s mutilated corpse lying on her bed. She would be the final victim of England’s notorious Jack the Ripper.

Mine Explosion

Limerick, Ireland

Mary Jane Kelly or Marie Jeanette, as she was sometimes called, was born in Limerick, Ireland in the early 1860s of well-to-do people, or so she said. Nothing is really known of her family or upbringing. She married a coal miner named Davies around 1879 but he died in a mine explosion a couple of years later.

Joseph Barnett

Kelly claimed to have lived with family until she began working as a prostitute in the early 1880s. She told of being taken to France to live as a courtesan but said she did not like the country and returned to England. She lived with several men in the East End before moving in with Joseph Barnett in 1887.

Billingsgate Fish Market

Barnett worked at Billingsgate Fish Market for a time, but when he lost his job, Kelly began to turn tricks again. After an argument about another prostitute staying with them, Barnett moved out of the room they shared in Miller’s Court on October 30^th, just ten days before her body would be discovered there.

Mary Jane Kelly

Mary Jane was a quiet woman when she was sober. She could sometimes be heard singing Irish ballads, but when she was drunk she could become quarrelsome, even violent. 

George Hutchinson

On the night of November 8^th, Kelly was seen taking a man into her room around midnight. Then about 2 a.m. local laborer George Hutchinson met her coming down the street. She asked him for a loan of sixpence. He refused, telling her that he was broke. Hutchinson watched as she approached another man, one he described as being of “Jewish appearance.”  He followed them to Kelly’s room and stood watch until almost 3:00 a.m.

Kelly and a Stranger

Three days after Kelly’s murder, Hutchinson provided police with a very detailed description of the man he had seen her with – down to the color of his eyelashes – although it had been a dark winter night.

Abberline

The police were divided on whether Hutchinson could be the Ripper. Inspector Fredrick Abberline questioned him and felt he was telling the truth.

Anderson

Assistant Commissioner Robert Anderson believed that Hutchinson knew too much about what had happened and considered him a suspect. Many believed Hutchinson had made up his story and description just to get attention, and possibly be paid for his story by the press.

Two women living in the house reported hearing a faint cry of “Murder” around 4 a.m., but being that they were in Whitechapel, neither investigated it.

13 Miller's Court

Police finally broke into her room at 1:30 p.m. and discovered the true extent of the mutilations. The abdominal cavity had been emptied, the breasts sliced off, and the face hacked up beyond recognition. Blood was everywhere. The remains of a fire that had melted solder on a pot still smoldered in the fireplace.

Mary Jane Kelly

Mary Jane’s body was taken to a mortuary in Shoreditch where Dr. Thomas Bond and Dr. George Bagster Phillips examined it. The time of death was said to have occurred between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m. Phillips said that the mutilations took about two hours to perform. 

Barnett identified her by recognizing “the ear and the eyes.”

Shoreditch Town Hall

An inquest was held on November 12 at Shoreditch Town Hall and lasted one day. 

Dr. Bond

Phillips stated that she was killed by a slash to the throat and was cut up afterwards. According to Dr. Bond the murder was not committed by someone with any medical skills, “In each case the mutilation was inflicted by a person who had no scientific nor anatomical knowledge. In my opinion he does not even possess the technical knowledge of a butcher or horse slaughterer or a person accustomed to cut up dead animals.”

Mary Jane Kelly was buried on November 19, 1888 at St Patrick’s Roman Catholic Cemetery in public grave number 66, row 66, plot 10. Joseph Barnett and her landlord John McCarthy attended the funeral. In the 1950s, Mary Jane Kelly’s grave was reclaimed. A plain marker was put in the vicinity of the grave in the 1990s.

Suspects

This ended the murder spree of Jack the Ripper. It has been 125 years since that terrible autumn of 1888. Although many suspects have been identified,  no one has ever been undeniably determined to be Jack the Ripper, Britain’s most notorious serial killer.

~ 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

125 Years Later – A Look Back at The Ripper’s ‘First’ Victim

Tomorrow marks the 125^th anniversary of the first canonical victim of “Jack the Ripper,” the name given to an unidentified serial killer during the savage murders that took place during the autumn of 1888.

Jack the Ripper

Jack the Ripper is Britain’s most notorious serial killer. Although many suspects have been identified, no one has ever been undeniably determined to be "The Ripper." But that has never stopped “Ripperologists” from attempting to solve this very ‘cold case.’

Mary Ann (Polly) Nichols

It was around 3 a.m. on August 31^st, 1888 when Mary Ann (Polly) Nichols, a local drunk and prostitute, was searching for one more trick to turn so she could pay for her lodging that night. Polly was a good-looking woman and she didn’t have long to wait – but she got more than she ever bargained for.

At 3:40 a.m. Charles Cross, a cart driver on his way to work, noticed a bundle of rags lying across the street. When he walked over to them he discovered that the pile of rags was a woman, who appeared to be dead. Cross stopped another man, Robert Paul, who was passing by on his way to work.

Body of  Polly Nichols

When both men knelt by the body, Paul thought he could still feel a faint pulse. They went in search of a constable for assistance and after finding one both proceeded on to work.

Just moments after Cross and Paul had left, Constable John Neil discovered the body and sounded the alarm. It was only after shining his lantern on the woman did he discover she was dead. The victim’s throat had been cut so deeply that the head was almost severed from the body.

The woman’s skirt had been raised almost to her stomach, her abdomen had been ripped open and she had been disemboweled. According to surgeon Dr. Henry Llewellyn, who was called to the scene, the woman was killed by a swift slash to the throat. The body was later identified as 43-year-old Mary Ann (Polly) Nichols of Spitalfields.

Polly had been born to London locksmith Edward Walker and his wife Caroline on August 26, 1845. Polly married William Nichols in 1864 and was the mother of five children. Around 1880, Polly and William separated. Police reports indicate that it had to do with her drinking.

Women in Workhouse

After her final separation from William, Polly moved into a workhouse since she was unable to support herself. She lived in several workhouses during the next 8 years, most notable at Lambeth.

Conditions in the workhouse were hard although the food was considered to be adequate. The inmates were required to work for their food and lodging, doing such chores as chopping firewood, cleaning the wards, and caring for the sick.

Wandsworth House

In May of 1888, Polly left Lambeth to take a position as a domestic servant in Wandsworth, southwest of London. She was able to hold the position for two months before her drinking caused problems. Polly left her employment, taking with her clothing she had stolen worth just over 3 pounds. At the time of her death, she was living at a common lodging house at 18 Thrawl Street in Spitalfields, Whitechapel.

Polly Nichols was last seen alive on Friday, August 31^st at about 2:30 in the morning at the corner of Whitechapel Road and Osborn Street by her friend, Ellen (Nelly) Holland. Polly had indicated to Holland that she was trying to earn enough money to buy a four pence bed for the night. Polly had told Nelly that she had already earned enough money to have purchased her bed three times over, but instead she kept spending it on drink.

Discovering The Body

Polly's Death Certificate

It was around 3:40 a.m. when Polly’s body was discovered by the workers, lying in front of a stable gate on Buck’s Row in White Chapel, just 1/8^th of a mile away from the Royal London Hospital. Polly’s body was later identified by her husband, William Nichols and her friend, Nelly Holland. No one in the vicinity of the murder had reported seeing or hearing anything unusual.

John (Jack) Pizer

Newspaper Story 

When Polly’s murder occurred, the Metropolitan Police were already dealing with two similar
 murders that had taken place earlier in the year. The police had reason to believe John (Jack) Pizer, a Jewish boot maker who went by the nickname of ‘Leather Apron’’ was a good suspect. Pizer was known to have a vicious temper and enjoyed harassing prostitutes. He would be the first of many suspects the Metropolitan Police would investigate as the Whitechapel Murderer.

Polly in Her Coffin

Cemetery Plaque

Mary Ann (Polly) Nichols was buried in a polished elm coffin on Thursday, September 6, 1888 at the City of London Cemetery. Her husband, son, and father were in attendance. In 1996, cemetery officials marked Polly’s grave with a plaque.

Morgue Photo of Polly

On Saturday, September 1^st an inquest into the murder of Polly Nichols was held at the Working Lad’s Institute in Whitechapel.  According to the inquest testimony of Dr. Llewellyn, the neck “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 8in. in length. The cuts must have been caused by a long-bladed knife, moderately sharp, and used with great violence… 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 from left to right and might have been done by a left-handed person. All the injuries had been caused by the same instrument.”

Jack the Ripper?

The inquest lasted for four Saturdays before the jury heard all of the evidence. After a short consultation they returned the verdict of “willful murder by some person or persons unknown.”

So began the three month murderous reign of terror on Whitechapel’s prostitutes by a killer who would come to be known as Jack the Ripper.  No one suspected then that this would become one of the most perplexing cold cases of all times…

~ Joy