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Introduction
Victims Larry S. Barbee
Suspects
This is a brief review of the Jack the Ripper murders that
Witnesses
occurred in London more than a hundred years ago. Much
Ripper Letters
of the original evidence gathered at the time has been
Police Officials
lost, and many "facts" are actually opinions by the various
Official Documents
writers who have written about the case during the past
Press Reports
century. Many aspects of the case are therefore contested,
Victorian London
and so what follows is a summation of the case in general.
Message Boards
There are many books available to the student of crime
Ripper Media
who wishes to grapple with the many mysteries associated
Authors
with the case.
Dissertations
Timelines "Jack the Ripper" is the popular name given to a serial
Games & Diversions killer who killed a number of prostitutes in the East End of
Photo Archive London in 1888. The name originates from a letter written
Ripper Wiki by someone who claimed to be the killer published at the
Casebook Examiner time of the murders. The killings took place within a mile area and involved the districts of Whitechapel,
Ripper Podcast Spitalfields, Aldgate, and the City of London proper. He was also called the Whitechapel Murderer and
About the Casebook "Leather Apron."

Significance and Importance

Jack the Ripper has remained popular for a lot of reasons. He was not the first serial killer, but he was
probably the first to appear in a large metropolis at a time when the general populace had become
literate and the press was a force for social change. The Ripper also appeared when there were
tremendous political turmoil and both the liberals and social reformers, as well as the Irish Home rule
partisans tried to use the crimes for their own ends. Every day the activities of the Ripper were
chronicled in the newspapers as were the results of the inquiries and the actions taken by the police.
Even the feelings of the people living in the East End, and the editorials that attacked the various
establishments of Society appeared each day for both the people of London and the whole world to read.
It was the press coverage that made this series of murders a "new thing", something that the world had
never known before. The press was also partly responsible for creating many myths surrounding the
Ripper and ended up turning a sad killer of women into a "bogey man", who has now become one of the
most romantic figures in history. The rest of the responsibility lies with the Ripper. He may have been a
sexual serial killer of a type all too common in the 1990s, but he was also bent on terrifying a city and
making the whole world take notice of him by leaving his horribly mutilated victims in plain sight. Lastly,
the Ripper was never caught and it is the mysteries surrounding this killer that both add to the romance
of the story and creating an intellectual puzzle that people still want to solve.

The Victims

It is unclear just how many women the Ripper killed. It is generally accepted that he killed five, though
some have written that he murdered only four while others say seven or more. The public, press, and
even many junior police officers believed that the Ripper was responsible for nine slayings. The five that
are generally accepted as the work of the Ripper are:

Mary Ann (Polly) Nichols, murdered Friday, August 31, 1888.

Annie Chapman, murdered Saturday, September 8, 1888.
Elizabeth Stride, murdered Sunday, September 30, 1888.
Catharine Eddowes, also murdered that same date.
Mary Jane (Marie Jeanette) Kelly, murdered Friday, November 9, 1888.

Besides these five there are good reasons to believe that the first victim was really Martha Tabram who
Most Recent Posts: was murdered Tuesday, August 7, 1888, and there are important considerations for questioning whether
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 &
MJK3 camera positions - plan
Stride was a Ripper victim. As to the actual number of women that the Ripper killed, Philip Sugden wrote
view. (Warning - graphic in his excellent book, The Complete History of Jack the Ripper, "There is no simple answer. In a sentence:
images) - by richardh 3
minutes ago.
at least four, probably six, just possibly eight."
Other Mysteries: Bible John
(General Discussion) - by All five of these listed plus Tabram were prostitutes and were killed between early August and early
Herlock Sholmes 26 minutes
ago.
November 1888. All but Tabram and Kelly were killed outdoors and there is no evidence to suggest that
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 & any of them knew each other. They varied in both age and appearance. Most were drunk or thought to be
MJK3 camera positions - plan drunk at the time they were killed.
view. (Warning - graphic
 ( g g p
images) - by Simon Wood 53
minutes ago. Method of Operation
Mary Jane Kelly: Why is that
linen so odd? *Graphic
Warning* - by Scott Nelson 2 Surprisingly, a full understanding of the Ripper's modus operandi was not established until several years
hours ago.
ago. The Whitechapel murderer and his victim stood facing each other. When she lifted her skirts, the
Other Mysteries: Bible John
(General Discussion) - by victim's hands were occupied and was then defenseless. The Ripper seized the women by their throats
cobalt 2 hours ago. and strangled them until they were unconscious if not dead. The autopsies constantly revealed clear
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 &
MJK3 camera positions - plan
indications that the victims had been strangled. In the past some writers believed that the Ripper struck
view. (Warning - graphic from behind when the victims were bent forward, their skirts hiked up their backsides while waiting to
images) - by richardh 2 hours
ago.
engage in anal sex. This is a very awkward arrangement and the risk that they may scream or elude his
Other Mysteries: Bible John clutch's make this unacceptable. The Ripper then lowered his victims to the ground, their heads to his
(General Discussion) - by left. This has been proven by the position of the bodies in relation to walls and fences that show that
Herlock Sholmes 3 hours ago.
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 &
there was virtually no room for the murderer to attack the body from the left side. No bruising on the
MJK3 camera positions - plan back of the heads shows that he lowered the bodies to the ground rather than throwing or letting them
view. (Warning - graphic
images) - by Simon Wood 3
fall. Given the inclement weather and filth in the streets it is unacceptable that the prostitutes or their
hours ago. client would have attempted intercourse on the ground. He cut the throats when the women were on the
ground. Splatter stains show that the blood pooled beside or under the neck and head of the victim
Most Popular Threads:
rather than the front which is where the blood would flow if they had been standing up. In one case blood
Pub Talk: Irritations - (36
posts) was found on the fence some 14 inches or so from the ground and opposite the neck wound and this
Other Mysteries: Bible John shows that the blood spurted from the body while in the prone position on the ground. This method also
(General Discussion) - (27
posts)
prevented the killer from being unduly blood stained. By reaching over from the victim's right side to cut
Hutchinson, George: A closer the left side of her throat, the blood flow would have been directed away from him, which would have
look at George Hutchinson - reduced the amount of blood in which he would have been exposed. If the victim was already dead
(10 posts)
before their throats were cut, then the blood spilt would have not been very much. With the heart no
General Victim Discussion:
What Makes A Victim? - (5 longer beating the blood would not have been "pressurized," so only the blood in the immediate area of
posts)
the wound would have evacuated gently from the cuts. The Ripper then made his other mutilations, still
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 &
MJK3 camera positions - plan from the victim's right side, or possibly while straddling over the body at or near the feet. In several
view. (Warning - graphic cases the legs had been pushed up which would have shortened the distance between the abdomen and
images) - (4 posts)
the feet. No sign of intercourse was ever detected nor did the Ripper masturbate over the bodies. Usually
Mary Jane Kelly: Why is that
linen so odd? *Graphic he took a piece of the victim's viscera. The taking of a "trophy" is a common practice by modern sexual
Warning* - (3 posts)
serial killers. In the opinion of most of the surgeons who examined the bodies, most believed that the
killer had to have some degree of anatomical knowledge to do what he did. In one case he removed a
kidney from the front rather than from the side, and did not damage any of the surrounding organs while
doing so. In another case he removed the sexual organs with one clean stroke of the knife. Given the
time circumstances of the crimes (outside, often in near total darkness, keeping one eye out for the
approach of others, and under extremely tight time constraints), the Ripper almost certainly would have
had some experience in using his knife.

The Ripper Letters

It is commonly accepted by the experts on the case that none of the letters purported to have been
written by the Ripper were in fact written by him. A letter dated September 25 and received on the
twenty-seventh by the Central News agency was the first to be signed "Jack the Ripper". A postcard post
marked October 1 followed. Because it referred to a "double event" the police thought it might be from
the killer since it was posted the day after the Ripper killed two women. The post card also referred to
the letter and must have come from the same source as the letter had not been released to the public
yet. If the post card had been sent on September 30, the day of the "double event", instead of October
1, the likelihood that it was really written by the murderer would be significantly greater. The Whitechapel
Murderer may have written the letter/post card but there is no evidence to suppose that he did and the
police seem convinced that they were the work of a journalist. A recently discovered document states
that a journalist from the Central News agency, Tom Bulling, was the writer.

One other letter may have been written by the killer. In mid-October a small parcel was sent to George
Lusk, who was head of a vigilance committee in Whitechapel. Inside was half a human kidney and a
letter from someone claiming to be the killer, and that it was part of the kidney he removed from the
victim Eddowes. It is impossible to know for sure if the Ripper really did send it. Most of the arguments in
favor of it being from Jack have been based on inaccurate information and the myths rather than the
facts surrounding the case. However, Eddowes did suffer from Bright's disease and the description of the
kidney does match what a Bright's disease kidney would look like.

Evidence

In a time before forensic science and even finger printing, the only way to prove someone committed a
murder was to catch either him or her in the act, or get the suspect to confess. The Whitechapel Murders
unhappily fall into this period of time. One interesting feature of this case is that not one, but two police
forces carried out investigations. The Metropolitan Police, known as Scotland Yard, was responsible for
crimes committed in all the boroughs of London except the City of London proper. The single square mile
in the heart of London known as the City of London had their own police force. When Eddowes was killed,
it was in their territory and this brought them into the Ripper case. It is believed that the rank and file of
the two forces got along and worked well together, but there is evidence that the seniors in each force
did not. To what degree, if any, their failure to cooperate fully had on solving the case is not known. Most
sources do not fault either police force for failing to solve the Jack the Ripper mystery, rightly pointing
out that catching serial killers is still a hard task even by today's science and technology. Other than
autopsies and taking statements from everybody who might know something there was little else that
the Metropolitan police force did. The attitude of the people at the time was that the police were
incompetent and that the Commissioner, Sir Charles Warren, was only good for policing crowds and
keeping order rather than detective work. He was especially criticized for not offering a reward in the
hope that a confederate or accomplice would come forth and inform against the Ripper. In fact, Warren
had no objections for a reward being offered and it was his superior, Henry Matthews, the Home
Secretary who refused the sanction of a reward. The City of London Police seems to have done a better
job although they did not apprehend the killer either. City police officers made crime scene drawings,
took many photographs of the victim Eddowes, and even though she was not in their jurisdiction, they
took photographs of the Kelly victim. She is the only victim who was photographed at the crime scene.
One of the splits between the leadership of the two forces was over graffito found in Goulston Street on
the night of the "double event". A piece of Eddowes' apron, which the Ripper used to wipe off his knife,
was found by a constable near a doorway that had a chalked message over the door. This message, "The
Juwes are the men That Will not be blamed for nothing", may have been written by the Ripper and the
City police officers wanted to photograph it. Warren felt that leaving it until it was light enough to be
photographed might cause riots against the Jews living in Whitechapel whom the bigoted English
residents already believed were responsible for the murders. Warren did not even compromise by willing
to erase or cover up the word "Juwes" only. In the end the police never charged any suspect with the
murders committed by the Ripper which shows they did not have a sufficient amount of evidence that
would gain a verdict of guilty in criminal court.

Suspects

In 1894, Sir Melville Macnaghten, then Chief Constable, wrote a confidential report in which he names
the three top suspects. Although some information concerning the suspect he believed most likely to
have been the murderer had been available before the turn of the century, the name of that suspect was
not made public until 1959. Macnaghten's suspect was M.J. Druitt, a barrister turned teacher who
committed suicide in December 1888. Unfortunately for Macnaghten who wrote his memoranda from
memory, the details he ascribes to Druitt are wrong. According to the Chief Constable, Druitt was a
doctor, 41 years of age, and committed suicide immediately after the Kelly murder. In actuality Druitt was
31, not a doctor, and killed himself nearly a month after the last official murder. No other police officer
supported Macnaghten's allegations, and one in fact, stated that the theory was inadequate and that the
suicide was circumstantial evidence at best that the drowned doctor was the Ripper. While it is still
possible that he was the Ripper, correct information gathered about Druitt so far makes him seem an
unlikely candidate.

In 1903, Frederick Abberline, a retired crack detective who had been in charge of the Ripper investigation
at the ground level stated that he thought that multiple wife poisoner Severin Klosowski, alias George
Chapman, might be Jack the Ripper. As with Macnaghten, no other officer has concurred with his opinion
and modern criminal profiling science tends to reject Klosowski as a serious candidate.

The name of Macnaghten's second suspect was confirmed as Aaron Kosminiski in the early 1980s when a
researcher came upon Donald Swanson's personal copy of Robert Anderson's book of memoirs. Both
Swanson and Anderson were officers who participated in the Ripper investigation; indeed, they were the
ones given the responsibility of being in charge of the case. Anderson had written in his memoirs that
appeared for the first time in 1910 that the police knew who the Ripper was. According to Anderson the
Ripper was a Polish Jew who was put away in an insane asylum after the crimes, and then died soon
after. Swanson had made some notes in his copy of the book concerning Anderson's suspect, and wrote
that the suspect's name was Kosminski. At first it seemed that the case had been solved, but research
has found a number of problems with the theory. No other officer supports' Anderson's allegation, and
Swanson's notes seem to question his superior's claims rather than support them. Aaron Kosminski was a
real person and was placed in an insane asylum. His records show him to be a docile and harmless
lunatic that heard voices in his head and would only eat food from the gutter. The dates of his
incarceration are wrong, and he did not die soon after his committal but lived on until 1919. Some
researchers have tried to explain the problems by saying that the name Kosminski' was confused with
another insane Polish Jew, who really was dangerous.

The search continues. The third Macnaghten suspect, Michael Ostrog, has been investigated and there is
nothing to indicate that he was nothing more than a demented con man.

Dr. Francis Tumblety, the latest serious suspect, only became known to students of the Jack the Ripper
murders in 1993. A collector of crime memorabilia obtained a cache of letters belonging to a crime
journalist named G.R. Sims. Among the letters was one from John Littlechild, who had been in charge of
the Secret Department in Scotland Yard at the time of the murders. Dated 1913, Littlechild writes to
Sims: "I never heard of a Dr. D. (which many assume is a reference to Druitt as Macnaghten thought
Druitt was a doctor and Sims was a confident of the Chief Constable), in connection with the Whitechapel
Murders but amongst the suspects, and to my mind a very likely one, was a Dr. T . . . He was an
American quack named Tumblety . . . " A book by the collector who found the letter goes to great lengths
in trying to prove that Tumblety is the final solution for the mystery. Unfortunately, he fails to do so.
There is no doubt that Tumblety was a legitimate suspect and that when he fled to America, Scotland
Yard detectives came over to investigate him further. It is unlikely that Scotland Yard continued to view
him as a serious suspect. James Monro, who succeeded Warren and was in overall command of the
Secret department before becoming Commissioner, thought that the Alice McKenzie murder of July 1889
was the work of the Ripper. He stated in 1890 that he did not know who the Whitechapel murderer was
but that he was working on his own theory.
Ripper Research

At the time of the murders and for the next few years, a lot was written about the murders including
some tabloid type books. Most of it is worthless and only helped to set up many myths that have clouded
serious attempts to figure out what really happened that autumn in London. Other than memoirs of
officers who worked on the case, which is valuable, little else was written until after the first world war. In
1929 the first full length book in English about the Ripper, The Mystery of Jack the Ripper by Leonard
Matters, was published. Once more there was growing interest in the murders again in that the Ripper
was appearing in both nonfiction works and fictional formats such as Alfred Hitchcock's The Lodger. Cult-
like interest, the interest that has really never left, began in the 1950s. Dan Farson did a television show
about the Ripper and uncovered a version of the McNaghten memoranda. The first really good books
began to be published in the 1960s, such as Tom Cullen's Autumn of Terror and Robin Odell's Jack the
Ripper in Fact and Fiction. Interest in Jack the Ripper exploded in 1970 when a new theory was published
in which the grandson of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, was
accused of being the Ripper. Just like his nemesis in fiction, Sherlock Holmes, the 1970s saw Jack being
either paired with someone famous or identified as being someone famous. It was a decade that also
featured some entertaining but patently absurd conspiracy theories explaining who the Ripper really was.
Plots involving Freemasons, court physicians, and sinister figures from occult organizations, have been
paraded before the public as the final solution. In the midst of the madness some good came out. Donald
Rumbelow's The Complete Jack the Ripper was published, and police files still existing from the
investigations were made available to all and sundry. The 1980s saw a tide of books published to cash in
on the centennial of the Murders in Whitechapel, and lost evidence was returned anonymously to the
police and Swanson's notes on Anderson's suspect were found. The FBI's Behavioral Science Unit did a
criminal profile of the Ripper and aspects of the murders were discussed in various professional journals.
During the 1990s, two new books have appeared that are musts for people who are interested in the
Ripper murders. The Jack the Ripper A to Z by Paul Begg, Martin Fido, and Keith Skinner is indispensable
for doing research and Sugden's The Complete History of Jack the Ripper has replaced Rumbelow's
worthy tome as the authoritative source for information. An interesting phony diary supposedly written
by the Ripper was published and the authentic letter revealing the suspect Dr. Francis Tumblety has also
been released to the public.

The Future

In the past ten years more evidence has been recovered, new information garnered through the young
criminal sciences, and serious research conducted on the mystery of Jack the Ripper than at any other
time since the case was officially closed in 1892. After more than a hundred years the case is still
fascinating, and results are still being gotten through research. Nick Warren, a student of the crimes and
a practicing surgeon, studied the second Kelly crime scene photograph that was recently recovered, and
was able to establish that a hatchet was used by the Ripper to split one of his victim's legs! The likelihood
of the case ever being solved is open to debate. If the police solved it but for some reason kept the
Ripper's identity a secret, then I think that the odds are good that the answer will be rediscovered.
Unfortunately, I and I think most serious students on the subject, do not think that the police did solve
the case. Individual officers had strong opinions on who Jack the Ripper was, but not the Forces as a
whole. This makes the challenge much more difficult as today's researchers must find new evidence
rather than unearth that which has been lost. The evidence lost is considerable. Virtually all of the City of
London Police files were lost in the Blitz during the last world war. What remains of the Metropolitan
Police files are available to the public but the files are sparse. Some have claimed that the files were
purposefully destroyed to keep the Murderer's identity a secret. The truth is more pedestrian and
unromantic. Almost from the beginning items were removed for souvenirs. Often in those olden days
when they ran out of room, the clerks would go to the end of the shelve and simply dump out the old
files by the armful. When Abberline was interviewed in 1903, the journalist noted that the retired
Scotland yard Inspector was surrounded by official files. Once, upon the death of a retired officer, a trunk
full of files concerning his old cases was found in his possession. Modern day "Ripperologists" were not
above souvenir hunting themselves. A number of documents were taken in the late 1970s/early 1980s
and as a result the remaining material was put on microfilm. It seems perfectly possible that Jack the
Ripper's identity may one day be discovered; it may be one of the serious suspects mentioned in this
report, or one that the police dismissed too cavalierly all those years ago, or it may be someone
completely unknown at this time. The future may or may not reveal the Ripper's name.

Related pages:
Introduction
Home: Introduction to the Case
Dissertations: So You Want to be a Ripperologist?
Dissertations: Whodunit? : Choosing a Ripper Suspect

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 home > victims

Introduction
Victims The Victims of Jack the Ripper
Suspects
Below is a list of victims believed to have been killed at
Witnesses
the hands of Jack the Ripper. Although many on the list
Ripper Letters
have been disregarded by most Ripperologists, they are
Police Officials
included here for you to formulate your own opinion on
Official Documents
their victim status.
Press Reports
Victorian London There are five victims that have historically been
Message Boards "generally accepted" as victims of Jack the Ripper. These
Ripper Media five are often refered to as the "canonical" victims. But
Authors there were many other grisly murders that came before
Dissertations and after these canonical five which some theorists over
Timelines the years have argued should be included as genuine
Games & Diversions victims of Jack the Ripper.
Photo Archive
Ripper Wiki
Casebook Examiner
Ripper Podcast Generally Accepted (Canonical) Victims
About the Casebook

Mary Ann Nichols Annie Chapman Elizabeth Stride

31 August 1888 8 Sept. 1888 30 Sept. 1888

Catherine
Mary Jane Kelly
Eddowes
9 November 1888
30 Sept. 1888

The graves of the canonical victims still exist, though some are in varying states of decay. Photographs are
available here.

Other Alleged Ripper Victims

"Fairy Fay"
Annie Millwood Ada Wilson
26 December
25 February 1888 28 March 1888
1887

Most Recent Posts:

Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 &
Emma Smith Martha Tabram Whitehall Mystery
MJK3 camera positions - plan
view. (Warning - graphic
3 April 1888 7 August 1888 3 October 1888
images) - by richardh 3
minutes ago.
Other Mysteries: Bible John
(General Discussion) - by
Herlock Sholmes 26 minutes
ago.
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 &
MJK3 camera positions - plan
view. (Warning - graphic
images) - by Simon Wood 53 Annie Farmer Rose Mylett
Elizabeth Jackson
minutes ago. 20 November 20 December
June 1889
1888 1888
Mary Jane Kelly: Why is that
linen so odd? *Graphic
Warning* - by Scott Nelson 2
hours ago.
Other Mysteries: Bible John
(General Discussion) - by
cobalt 2 hours ago.
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 &
MJK3 camera positions - plan
view. (Warning - graphic
Alice Mackenzie Pinchin St. Murder Frances Coles
images) - by richardh 2 hours
17 July 1889 10 Sept. 1889 13 February 1891
ago.
Other Mysteries: Bible John
(General Discussion) - by
Herlock Sholmes 3 hours ago.
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 &
MJK3 camera positions - plan
view. (Warning - graphic
images) - by Simon Wood 3
hours ago.
Carrie Brown
Most Popular Threads: 24 April 1891
Pub Talk: Irritations - (36
posts)
Other Mysteries: Bible John
(General Discussion) - (27
posts) A white asterisk (*) indicates an artist's rendition by Ian D. Marsden.
Hutchinson, George: A closer
look at George Hutchinson -
(10 posts)
General Victim Discussion: Related pages:
What Makes A Victim? - (5 Victims
posts)
Victims: Interactive Map of the Murder Locations
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 &
MJK3 camera positions - plan
view. (Warning - graphic
images) - (4 posts)
Mary Jane Kelly: Why is that
linen so odd? *Graphic
Warning* - (3 posts)

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 home > ripper letters

Introduction
Victims Ripper Letters
Suspects
During the Autumn of Terror hundreds of letters were sent
Witnesses
to the police and local press purporting to be written by
Ripper Letters
the Whitechapel fiend. Most of them were deemed to be
Police Officials
fakes written by either newspaper men trying to start a
Official Documents
story or fools trying to incite more terror. Many
Press Reports
Ripperologists believe them all to be hoaxes. Other
Victorian London
experts believe some (specifically the Dear Boss letter,
Message Boards
Saucy Jacky postcard, and From Hell letter) are genuine. A
Ripper Media
select few have been reproduced below.
Authors
Dissertations
Timelines
Games & Diversions
Photo Archive
Ripper Wiki
Casebook Examiner
Ripper Podcast 'Dear Boss' letter
About the Casebook
Received on September 27th, 1888 at the Central News Agency, this letter was originally believed to be
just another hoax. Three days later, the double murder of Stride and Eddowes made them reconsider,
especially once they learned a portion of the latter's earlobe was found cut off from the body, eerily
reminiscent of a promise made within the letter. The police deemed the "Dear Boss" letter important
enough to reproduce in newspapers and postbills of the time, hoping someone would recognize the
handwriting.

A postcard received at the Central News Agency on October 1st, making direct reference to both the
murders and the "Dear Boss" letter, is believed to have been written by the same hand. It is reproduced
below.

Whether or not the letter is a hoax, it is the first written reference which uses the name "Jack the
Ripper" in reference to the Whitechapel murderer.

First page of "Dear Boss" letter. Second page of "Dear Boss" letter.

(larger image) (larger image)

Click to see larger images

Most Recent Posts:

Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 &
MJK3 camera positions - plan
view. (Warning - graphic
images) - by richardh 3
minutes ago.
Other Mysteries: Bible John
(General Discussion) - by
Herlock Sholmes 26 minutes
ago.
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 &
MJK3 camera positions - plan
view. (Warning - graphic
images) - by Simon Wood 53
The "Dear Boss" envelope.
minutes ago.
Mary Jane Kelly: Why is that
linen so odd? *Graphic
Warning* - by Scott Nelson 2 The original envelope in which the "Dear Boss" letter was sent. All photos courtesy S.P. Evans / M.E.P.O.
hours ago.
Other Mysteries: Bible John
(General Discussion) - by
cobalt 2 hours ago. (Transcription)
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 &
MJK3 camera positions - plan Dear Boss,
view. (Warning - graphic
images) - by richardh 2 hours
I keep on hearing the police have caught me but they wont fix me just yet. I have laughed when they
ago. look so clever and talk about being on the right track. That joke about Leather Apron gave me real fits. I
Other Mysteries: Bible John am down on whores and I shant quit ripping them till I do get buckled. Grand work the last job was. I
(General Discussion) - by
Herlock Sholmes 3 hours ago. gave the lady no time to squeal. How can they catch me now. I love my work and want to start again.
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 & You will soon hear of me with my funny little games. I saved some of the proper red stuff in a ginger beer
MJK3 camera positions - plan
view. (Warning - graphic
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
images) - by Simon Wood 3 hope ha. ha. The next job I do I shall clip the ladys ears off and send to the police officers just for jolly
hours ago.
wouldn't you. Keep this letter back till I do a bit more work, then give it out straight. My knife's so nice
Most Popular Threads:
and sharp I want to get to work right away if I get a chance. Good Luck.
Pub Talk: Irritations - (36
posts) Yours truly
Other Mysteries: Bible John Jack the Ripper
(General Discussion) - (27
posts)
Hutchinson, George: A closer
Dont mind me giving the trade name
look at George Hutchinson -
(10 posts) PS Wasnt good enough to post this before I got all the red ink off my hands curse it No luck yet. They say
General Victim Discussion: I'm a doctor now. ha ha
What Makes A Victim? - (5
posts)
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 &
MJK3 camera positions - plan The "Saucy Jacky" Postcard
view. (Warning - graphic
images) - (4 posts)
This letter was received on October 1st, 1888 at the Central News Agency. The handwriting is similar to
Mary Jane Kelly: Why is that
linen so odd? *Graphic that of the "Dear Boss" letter, and makes direct reference to both this letter and the murders of the
Warning* - (3 posts)
previous night. Those who believe it to be genuine argue that the removal of Eddowes's ear (it was not
taken away, nor mailed to the police) and the fact that the postcard mentions the double-event before it
was described by the press both testify to its authenticity. Others believe a hoaxer could have gleaned
details of both the previous letter and the murders in an early morning paper of October 1st.

Both the front and back of the postcard are reproduced below.

Front-side of postcard.

The "Saucy Jacky"

postcard.

Photos courtesy S.P. Evans / M.E.P.O.

(Transcription)

I was not codding dear old Boss when I gave you the tip, you'll hear about Saucy Jacky's work tomorrow
double event this time number one squealed a bit couldn't finish straight off. ha not the time to get ears
for police. thanks for keeping last letter back till I got to work again.

Jack the Ripper

'From Hell' letter

On October 16th George Lusk, the president of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, received a three-
inch-square cardboard box in his mail. Inside was half a human kidney preserved in wine, along with the
following letter. Medical reports carried out by Dr. Openshaw found the kidney to be very similar to the
one removed from Catherine Eddowes, though his findings were inconclusive either way. The letter read
as follows:
 The "From Hell" letter.

Click to see larger image

Photo courtesy S.P. Evans / M.E.P.O.

(Transcription)

From hell.
Mr Lusk,
Sor
I send you half the Kidne I took from one woman and prasarved it for you tother piece I fried and ate it
was very nise. I may send you the bloody knif that took it out if you only wate a whil longer

signed
Catch me when you can Mishter Lusk

6 October 1888 -- this letter was received by a local paper and is believed to have been intended for
either Israel Schwartz or Joseph Lawende, both of whom believe to have witnessed the Ripper and gave
descriptions of the man they saw to the police. Few researchers believe this letter to be real.

{Transcription)

You though your-self very clever I reckon when you informed the police. But you made a mistake if you
though I dident see you. Now I known you know me and I see your little game, and I mean to finish you
and send your ears to your wife if you show this to the police or help them if you do I will finish you. It no
use your trying to get out of my way. Because I have you when you dont expect it and I keep my word as
you soon see and rip you up. Yours truly Jack the Ripper.

PS You see I know your address

No Date Available -- Catharine Eddowes was found murdered near the Minories on 30 September. '1st
and 2nd inst.' means the first and second of the month (October). Few researchers give this letter any
credence.

(Transcription)

Beware I shall be at work on the 1st and 2nd inst. in the Minories at 12 midnight and I give the
authorities a good chance but there is never a policeman near when I am at work. Yours Jack the Ripper.

No Date Available -- Prince William Street was only yards from the main road between Aigburth and the
office of the Cotton Exchange. Few researchers give this letter much credence.

(Transcription)

What fools the police are. I even give them the name of the street where I am living. Prince William
Street.

29 October 1888 -- this letter was sent to Dr. Openshaw, who

performed the medical examination on the portion of kidney received
by George Lusk in conjunction with the From Hell letter. Few
researchers give this letter any credence.

(Transcription)

Old boss you was rite it was the left kidny i was goin to hoperate agin
close to you ospitle just as i was going to dror mi nife along of er
bloomin throte them cusses of coppers spoilt the game but i guess i
wil be on the jobn soon and will send you another bit of innerds

Jack the Ripper

O have you seen the devle with his mikerscope and scalpul a-lookin at
a kidney with a slide cocked up. Dr. Thomas Horrocks Openshaw,
circa 1902.

The original envelope of the Openshaw letter.

Close-up of postmark, indicating

The Openshaw letter. "London.E".

Images courtesy Stewart P. Evans

Dated September 17th, 1888, this letter was only recently discovered by Peter McClelland in a sealed
report envelope in the British Public Record Office in 1988. Its authenticity is hotly debated, many
believing it to be a recent hoax placed surreptitiously in the records. It was first published in Paul
Feldman's Jack the Ripper: The Final Chapter.

(Transcription)

17th Sept 1888

Dear Boss

So now they say I am a Yid when will they lern Dear old Boss! You an me know the truth dont we. Lusk
can look forever hell never find me but I am rite under his nose all the time. I watch them looking for me
an it gives me fits ha ha I love my work an I shant stop until I get buckled and even then watch out for
your old pal Jacky.

Catch me if you Can

Jack the Ripper
Sorry about the blood still messy from the last one. What a pretty necklace I gave her.

Goulston Street Graffito

On September 30, 1888, PC Alfred Long, 254A, found a blood stained apron piece in an archway at
Wentworth Model Dwellings, Goulston Street, (c.2:55am) and then a chalked message on the black brick
fascia edging of the open doorway which led to the staircase and basement door of #108-119. DC Daniel
Halse, City, arrived back at Goulston Street sometime after 3:00am. PC Long returned at c.5:00am. The
writing was sponged out at c.5:30am.

P.C. Long´s Version - "The Juwes are the men That Will not be
Blamed for nothing"

PC Long's original spelling, as seen in the above image, used "Jewes," which was corrected to "Juwes," on
the scene by DC Halse. This correction was noted in PC Long's notebook and during the Eddowes Inquest.

DC Halse's version

D.C. Halse´s Version - "The Juwes are not the men That Will be Blamed for
nothing"

In the above images, the text of the transcriptions has been maintained, but the "layout" is not indicitive
to how it might have been actually written on the wall at Goulston Street.

Typically, the City Police accepted DC Halse's version, while the Metroplitan Police accepted PC Long's
version - each backing their own man. And, because of the numerous discussions concerning the word,
"Juwes," and what it is supposed to mean, it is interesting to note that there are actually many spellings
of "Juwes" to be found within the official records (HO 144/221/A49301C f164, 195, 197; Eddowes
Inquest Records):

Jewes, Jeuwes, Juwes, Jeuws, Juewes, Juews.

A lexicon search on the variations will invariably produce the same result - "Jews," with only reference to
the group, at large, and not to any person or persons, in particular.

No Date Available -- one of the many verses allegedly sent to police. (It is likely, however, that this
letter was a later hoax by Donald McCormick).

(Transcription)

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.

Related pages:
Graffito
Dissertations: A Curious Find in Goulston Street
Dissertations: A Piece of Apron, Some Chalk Graffiti and a Lost Hour
Dissertations: Jacob the Ripper?
Dissertations: Off the Wall
Dissertations: Stephen White, Amos Simpson and Eddowes' Shawl
Dissertations: The Goulston Street Graffito Debate
 Official Documents: Warren's Report to the Home Secretary - 6 November 1888
Press Reports: City Press - 17 October 1888
Press Reports: Daily News - 13 October 1888
Press Reports: Echo - 13 October 1888
Press Reports: Evening News - 17 October 1888
Press Reports: Evening News - 8 October 1888
Press Reports: Illustrated Police News - 20 October 1888
Press Reports: Morning Advertiser - 12 October 1888
Press Reports: Pall Mall Gazette - 08 October 1888
Press Reports: Pall Mall Gazette - 1 December 1888
Press Reports: Pall Mall Gazette - 6 December 1888
Press Reports: Times [London] - 12 October 1888
Press Reports: Times [London] - 15 October 1888
Victorian London: Goulston Street
Ripper Letters
Home: Jack the Ripper: The Dear Boss Letter
Dissertations: An Inspiration From Hell
Dissertations: Another Look at the Lusk Kidney
Dissertations: Dear Boss: Hoax as Popular Communal Narrative in the Case...
Dissertations: Thomas Bulling and the Myth of the London Journalist
Message Boards: Letters and Communications
Press Reports: 22 January 1889
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 Press Reports: St. James Gazette - 10 November 1888
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Ripper Media: Dear Boss... Three letters attributed to Jack the Ripper
Ripper Media: Jack the Ripper: Letters From Hell
Ripper Media: Three Letters From Hell
Witnesses: Emily Marsh

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 home > victorian london > maps of whitechapel, 1888-1894

Introduction
Victims Maps of Whitechapel, 1888-1894
Suspects
Courtesy of Casebook Productions
Witnesses
Below you will find three different maps of Whitechapel. The first two are ordinance maps - the first from 1888,
Ripper Letters
the second from 1894. The third map is Charles Booth's 1889 map of London poverty. Booth color-coded various
Police Officials
sections of London according to the level of poverty of each particular section. It is telling that many of the
Official Documents
Whitechapel murders occurred in the areas marked in darker (i.e. poorer) colours.
Press Reports
Victorian London These maps are of very high quality and may take a while to load on slower connections. Please be patient.
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1888 Ordinance Survey Map of Whitechapel Area

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Charles Booth’s Map of London Poverty, 1889

Related pages:
Maps
Official Documents: 1894 Ordinance Map of Whitechapel Division
Ripper Media: Jack the Ripper: Whitechapel Map 1888
Victorian London: Map of the Modern East End
Victorian London: Whitechapel: Then and Now

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 home > press reports > illustrated police news > illustrated police news - 30 june 1883

Introduction
Victims Illustrated Police News
Suspects
30 June 1883
Witnesses
THE ATTEMPTED MURDER OF A NEWLY MARRIED WIFE - Police-Inspector Poule of the G Division,
Ripper Letters
reported to Mr Barstow, the magistrate at Clerkenwell Police-Court on Saturday, that the woman Sarah
Police Officials
Ann Kelly, alleged to have been stabbed in the neck by her husband, James Kelly, at 21, Cottage-Lane,
Official Documents
St. Luke's, was in a dying state, almost all hopes having been given up of her recovery. Mr. Barstow,
Press Reports
accompanied by the inspector and the chief clerk, at once drove to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, in order
Victorian London
that the injured woman's depositions might be taken down in writing. When the prisoner, James Kelly,
Message Boards
(who has only been married to his wife for a fortnight), was charged with attempted murder on Friday,
Ripper Media
evidence was given by his mother-in-law that in consequence of a quarrel with his wife he stabbed her
Authors
under the left ear with a pocket-knife, inflicting a deep wound. The woman has since died, and the
Dissertations
prisoner stands remanded until Friday.
Timelines
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Ripper Wiki
Casebook Examiner At the Clerkenwell Police-court, on Friday, James Kelly, twenty three, an upholsterer, of 21, Cottage Lane,
Ripper Podcast St. Luke's, was charged with attempting to murder his wife, Sarah Ann Kelly, by stabbing her in the neck,
About the Casebook at the above address, on the previous night. Police-Inspector Maynard said that the prosecutrix was lying
at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and was too much injured to attend. Mrs. Sarah Brider, mother-in-law to
the prisoner, said that Kelly had only been married to his wife a little over a fortnight. She lived in the
same home with them. On Thursday night they were all in the parlour, and the prisoner accused his wife
with keeping the company of girls of loose character at Islington. There had for a day or two previously
been a slight quarrel between them. She said in reply, "I won't live with you any longer. You are unkind
and cruel." The prisoner said, "You won't leave me; I'll stop you from going," and added that he would
"knock her down." Nothing further was said at the moment, but after the lapse of a few minutes he
asked her to forgive him, and sat by her side on a couch. She said she could not forgive him, and witness
saw him put his arm around her neck and drag her head down to the floor. He then ran out of the room,
and his wife fell down on the carpet in a swoon, bleeding very much at the neck. A doctor was sent for
and she was taken to the hospital. Dr. Raynor said that on the prisoner's wife being admitted to the
hospital she was in an unconscious state. She had a puncture wound below the left ear nearly three-
inches deep. Her life was very much in danger. The prisoner was taken into custody by the police on
returning into the rom. A pocket-knife was found on the floor with the blade broken sharp off from the
handle. Mr. Barstow remanded the prisoner.

Related pages:
James Kelly
Message Boards: James Kelly
Press Reports: John Blunts Monthly - 16 December 1929
Press Reports: Morning Advertiser - 20 October 1888
Press Reports: Times - 2 August 1883
Ripper Media: Jack the Ripper: A Suspect Guide - James Kelly
Ripper Media: Jimmy Kelly's Year of Ripper Murders
Ripper Media: Prisoner 1167: The Madman Who Was Jack the Ripper
Suspects: James Kelly

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 home > press reports > illustrated police news > illustrated police news - 8 september 1888

Introduction
Victims Illustrated Police News
Suspects
8 September, 1888
Witnesses
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Victorian London
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About the Casebook

THE MURDER IN WHITECHAPEL.

(SUBJECT OF ILLUSTRATION)

AT a quarter to four on Friday morning Police-constable Neil was on his beat in Buck's-row, Thomas-
street, Whitechapel, when his attention was attracted to the body of a woman lying on the pavement
close to the door of the stable-yard in connection with Essex Wharf. Buck's-row, like many other miser
thoroughfares in this and similar neighbourhoods, is not overburdened with gas lamps, and in the dim
light the constable at first thought that the woman had fallen down in a drunken stupor and was sleeping
off the effects of a night's debauch. With the aid of the light from his bullseye lantern Neil at once
perceived that the woman had been the victim of some horrible outrage. Her livid face was stained with
blood and her throat cut from ear to ear. The constable at once alarmed the people living in the house
next to the stable-yard, occupied by a carter named Green and his family, and also knocked up Mr. Walter
Perkins, the resident manager of the Essex Wharf, on the opposite side of the road, which is very narrow
at this point. Neither Mr. Perkins nor any of the Green family, although the latter were sleeping within a
few yards of where the body was discovered, had heard any sound of a struggle. Dr. Llewellyn, who lives
only a short distance away in Whitechapel-road, was at once sent for an promptly arrived on the scene.
He found the body lying on its back across the gateway, and the briefest possible examination was
sufficient to prove that life was extinct. Death had not long ensured, because the extremities were still
warm. With the assistance of Police-sergeant Kirby and Police-constable Thane, the body was removed to
the Whitechapel-road mortuary, and it was not until the unfortunate woman's clothes were removed that
the horrible nature of the attack which had been made upon her transpired. It was then discovered that
in addition to the gash in her throat, which had nearly severed the head from the body, the lower part of
the abdomen had been ripped up, and the bowels were protruding. The abdominal wall, the whole length
of the body, had been cut open, and on either side were two incised wounds almost as severe as the
centre one. This reached from the lower part of the abdomen to the breast-bone. The instrument with
Most Recent Posts: which the wounds were inflicted must have been not only of the sharpness of a razor, but used with
Other Mysteries: Bible John considerable ferocity. The murdered woman is about forty-five years of age, and 5ft. 2in. in height. She
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bonnet trimmed with black velvet. The mark "Lambeth Workhouse--P.R." was found stamped on the
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Herlock Sholmes 31 minutes
ago.
photograph of the body has been taken, and this will be circulated amongst the workhouse officials.
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view. (Warning - graphic
images) - by Simon Wood 58
minutes ago. On Saturday Mr. Wynne E. Baxter, the coroner for South-East Middlesex, opened an inquiry at the
Mary Jane Kelly: Why is that
linen so odd? *Graphic
Working Lads' Institute, Whitechapel-road. Inspector Helston, who has the case in hand, attended, with
Warning* - by Scott Nelson 2 other officers, on behalf of the Criminal Investigation Department. Edward Walker was the first witness
hours ago.
called. He said: I live at 15, Maldwell-street, Albany-road, Camberwell, and have no occupation. I was a
Other Mysteries: Bible John
(General Discussion) - by smith when I was at work, but I am not now. I have seen the body in the mortuary, and to the best of
cobalt 2 hours ago. my belief it is my daughter, but I have not seen her for three years. I recognise her by her general
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 &
MJK3 camera positions - plan
appearance and by a little mark she had on her forehead when a child. She also has either one or two
view. (Warning - graphic teeth out, the same as teh woman I have just seen. My daughter's name was Mary Ann Nicholls, and she
images) - by richardh 2 hours
ago. had been married twenty-two years. Her husband's name was Williams Nicholls, and he is alive. He is a
Other Mysteries: Bible John machinist. They have been living apart for some length of time, about seven or eight years. I last heard
(General Discussion) - by of her before Easter. She was forty-two years of age.--The Coroner: How did you see her? Witness: She
Herlock Sholmes 3 hours ago.
wrote to me.--The Coroner: Is this letter in her handwriting? Witness: Yes, that is her writing.
Most Popular Threads:
Pub Talk: Irritations - (36 The letter, which was dated April 17th, 1888, was read by the coroner, and referred to a place which the
posts) deceased had gone to at Wandsworth.
Other Mysteries: Bible John
(General Discussion) - (27
posts)
The Coroner: When did you last see her alive? Witness: Two years ago last June.--The Coroner: Was she
Hutchinson, George: A closer then in a good situation? Witness: I don't know. I was not on speaking terms with her. She had been
look at George Hutchinson - living with me three or four years previously, but thought she could better herself, so I let her go.--The
(10 posts)
General Victim Discussion:
Coroner: What did she doo after she left you? Witness: I don't know.--The Coroner: This letter seems to
What Makes A Victim? - (5 suggest that she was in a decent situation. Witness: She had only just gone there.--The Coroner: Was
posts)
she a sober woman? Witness: Well, at time she drank, and that was why we did not agree.--The Coroner:
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 &
MJK3 camera positions - plan Was she fast? Witness: No; I never heard anything of that sort. She used to go with some young women
view. (Warning - graphic and men that she new, but I never heard of anything improper.--The Coroner: Have you any idea of what
images) - (4 posts)
Mary Jane Kelly: Why is that
she has been doing lately? Witness: I have not the slightest idea.--The Coroner: She must have drank
linen so odd? *Graphic heavily for you to turn her out of doors? Witness: I never turned her out. She had no need to be like this
Warning* - (3 posts)
while I had a home for her.--The Coroner: How is it that she and her husband were not living together?
Witness: When she was confined her husband took on with the young woman who came to nurse her,
and they parted, he living with the nurse, by whom he has another family.--The Coroner: Have you any
reasonable doubt that this is your daughter.--Witness: No, I have not. I know nothing about her
acquaintances, or what she had been doing for a living. I had no idea she was over here in this part of
the town. She has had five children, the eldest being twenty-one years old and the youngest eight or
nine years. One of them lives with me, and the other four are with their father. The Coroner: Has she
ever lived with anybody since she left her husband?--Witness: I believe she was once stopping with a
man in York-street, Walworth. His name was Drew, and he was a smith by trade. He is living there now, I
believe. The parish of Lambeth summoned her husband for the keep of the children, but the summons
was dismissed, as it was proved that she was then living with another man. I don't know who that man
was.--The Coroner: Was she ever in the workhouse? Witness: Yes, sir; Lambeth Workhouse, in April last,
and went from there to a situation in Wandsworth.--By the Jury: The husband resides at Coburg-road,
Old Kent-road. I don't know if he knows of her death.--Coroner: Is there anything you know of likely to
throw any light upon this affair? Witness: No; I don't think she had any enemies, she was too good for
that.

John Neil, police-constable 97 J, said: On Friday morning I was preceeding down Buck's-row,
Whitechapel, going towards Brady-street. There was not a soul about. I had been round there half an
hour previously, and I saw no one then. I was on teh right hand side of the street when I noticed a figure
lying in the street. It was dark at the time, though there was a street lamp shining at the end of the row.
I went across and found deceased lying outside a gateway, her head towards the east. The gateway was
closed. It was about nine or ten feet high, and led to some stables. There were houses from teh gateway
eastward, and the School Board school occupies the westward. On the opposite side of the road is Essex
Wharf. Deceased was lying lengthways along the street, her left hand touching the gate. I examined the
body by the aid of my lantern, and noticed blood oozing from a wound in the throat. She was lying on her
back, with her clothes disarranged. I felt her arm, which was quite warm, from the joints upwards. Her
eyes were wide open. Her bonnet was off and lying at her side, close to the left hand. I heard a constable
passing Brady-street, so I called him. I did not whistle. I said to him, "Run at once for Dr. Llewellyn," and
seeing another constable in Baker's-row, I sent him for the ambulance. The doctor arrived in a very short
time. I had, in the meantime, rung the bell at Essex Whard, and asked if any disturbance had been
heard. The reply was "No." Sergeant Kirby came after and he knocked. The doctor looked at the woman
and then said, "Move the woman to the mortuary. She is dead, and I will make a further examination of
her." We then placed her on the ambulance, and moved her there. Inspector Spratley came to the
mortuary, and while taking a description of the deceased turned up her clothes, and found that she was
disembowelled. This had not been noticed by any of them before. On the body was found a piece of comb
and a bit of looking-glass. No money was found, but an unmarked white handkerchief was found in her
pocket.

The Coroner: Did you notice any blood where she was found? Witness: There was a pool of blood just
where her neck was lying. The blood was then running from the wound in her neck.--The Coroner: Did
you hear any noise that night? Witness: No; I heard nothing. The farthest I had been that night was just
through the Whitechapel-road and up Baker's-row. I was never far away from the spot.--The Coroner:
Whitechapel-road is busy in the early morning, I believe. Could anybody have escaped that way?
Witness: Oh, yes, sir. I saw a number of women in the main road going home. At that time anyone could
have got away.--The Coroner: Someone searched the ground, I believe? Witness: Yes; I examined it
while the doctor was being sent for.--Inspector Spratley: I examined the road, sir, in daylight.--A Juryman
(to witness): Did you see a trap in the road at all? Witness: No.
A Juryman: Knowing that the body was warm, did it not strike you that it might just have been laid
there, and that the woman was killed elsewhere?" Witness: I examined the road, but did not see the
mark of wheels. The first to arrive on the scene after I had discovered the body were two men who
worked at a slaughter-house opposite. They said they knew nothing of the affair, and that they had not
heard any screams. I had previously seen the men at work. That would be about a quarter-past three, or
half an hour before I found the body.

Henry Llewellyn, surgeon, said: On Friday morning I was called to Buck's-row at about four o'clock. The
constable told me what I was wanted for. On reaching Buck's-row I found the deceased woman lying flat
on her back in the pathway, her legs extended. I found she was dead, and that she had severe injuries to
her throat. Her hands and wrists were cold, but the body and lower extremities were warm. I examined
her chest and felt the heart. It was dark at the time. I believe she had not been dead more than half an
hour. I am quite certain that the injuries to her neck were not self-inflicted. There was very little blood
round the neck. There were no marks of any struggle or of blood, as if the body had been dragged. I told
the police to take her to the mortuary, and I would make another examination. About an hour later I was
sent for by the inspector to see the injuries he had discovered on the body. I went, and saw that the
abdomen was cut very extensively. I have this morning made a post-mortem examination of the body. I
found it to be that of a female about forty or forty-five years. Five of the teeth are missing, and there is a
slight laceration of the tongue. On the right side of the face there is a bruise running along the lower part
of the jaw. It might have been caused by a blow with the fist or pressure by the thumb. On the left side
of the face there was a circular bruise, which also might have been done by the pressure of the fingers.
On the left side of the neck, about an inch below the jaw, there was an incision about four inches long
and running from a point immediately below the ear. An inch below on the same side and commencing
about an inch in front of it was a circular incision terminating at a point three inches below the right jaw.
This incision completely severs all the tissues down to the vertabrae. The large vessels of the neck on
both sides were severed. The incision is about eight inches long. These cuts must have been caused with
a long-bladed knife, moderately sharp, and used with great violence. No blood at all was found on the
breast, either of the body or clothes. There were no injuries about the body till just about the lower part
of the abdomen. Two or three inches from the left side was a wound running in a jagged manner. It was a
very deep wound, and the tissues were cut through. There were several incisions running across the
abdomen. On the right side there were also three or four similar cuts running downwards. All these had
been caused by a knife, which had been used violently and been used downwards. The injuries were from
left to right, and might have been done by a left-handed person. All the injuries had been done by the
same instrument. The inquiry was adjourned.

On Monday the inquest was resumed. Inspector John Spratling, of the J Division, was the first witness
called. He stated that he first heard of the murder about half-past four on Friday morning, while in
Hackney-road. Proceeded to Buck's-row, he saw Police-constable Thain there, and the constable pointed
out the spot where the deceased had been found. Witness noticed a slight stain of blood on the footpath.
Witness, continuing, stated that he returned to the mortuary about noon on Friday. He then found the
body stripped, and the clothes lying in a heap in the yard. The clothes consisted of a reddish brown
ulster, with seven large brass buttons. It was apparently an old garment, but a brown linsey dress looked
new. There was a grey woollen petticoat and a flannel one belonging to the workhouse. Some pieces
bearing the words "Lambeth Workhouse, P.R." (Prince's-road), had been cut out by inspector Helson with
the object of identifying th edeceased. Among the clothes there was also a pair of stays in fairly good
condition, though they had been repaired, but he did not notice how they fastened.

Henry Tompkins, of Coventry-street, Bethnal-green, stated that he was a horse slaughterer in the employ
of Mr. Barber. He was at work in teh slaughterhouse, Winthrop street, adjoining Buck's-row, from eight
o'clock on Thursday night till twenty minutes past four o'clock on Friday morning. He generally went
home after leaving work, but that morning he had a walk. A police-constable passed the slaughterhouse
about a quarter-past four, and told the men there that a woman had been murdered in Buck's-row. They
then went to see the dead woman. Besides witness two other men, named James Mumford and Charles
Britten, worked in the slaughterhouse. Witness and Britten had been out of the slaughterhouse previously
that night, namely, from twenty minutes past twelve till one o'clock, but not afterwards till they went to
see teh body. It was not a great distance from the slaughterhouse to the spot where the deceased was
found. The work at the slaughterhouse was very quiet work.

The Coroner: Was all quiet, say after two o'clock on Friday morning? Witness: Yes, quite quiet. The gates
were open, and we heard no cry.--The Coroner asked if anybody came to the slaughterhouse that
morning. Witness stated that nobody passed except the policeman.--The Coroner: Were there any women
about? Witness: Oh, I don't know anything about them. I don't like them. (Laughter.)--The Coroner:
Never mind whether you like them or not. Were there any about that night? Witness replied that in
Whitechapel-road there were all sorts and sizes. (Laughter.) He could tell them that it was a rough
neighbourhood.--The Coroner: Had anybody called for assistance from the spot where the deceased was
found would you have heard it in the slaughterhouse? Witness thought not, as it was too far away. When
he arrived in Buck's-row with the intention of seeing the murdered woman he found the doctor and three
or four policemen there, and he believed that two other men whom he did not know were also there. He
heard no statement as to how the deceased came into Buck's-row. About a dozen people came up before
the body was taken away. He did not see anyone from one o'clock on Friday morning till a quarter-past
four, when the policeman passed the slaughterhouse.

A Juror: Did you hear any vehicle pass the slaughterhouse? No, sir. If one had passed I should have
heard it.--Where did you go when you went out between twenty minutes past twelve and one o'clock? My
mate and I went to the front of the road.--Is not your usual time of quitting work six in the morning? No;
it is according to what we have to do.--Why did the constable call to tell you about the murder? He called
to get his cape.

Detective-inspector Joseph Helson said that he received information about the discovery of the body at a
quarter to seven o'clock on Friday morning, and between eight and nine o'clock he saw the body, with
the clothing still on it, at the mortuary. He noticed that the dress was fastened in front with the exception
of two or three buttons, and the stays were also fastened. They were fastened with clasps, and were
fairly tight but short. There was blood in the hair and about the collars of the dress and ulster, but he saw
none at the back of the skirts. He found no marks on the arms such as would indicate a struggle and no
cuts in the clothing. All the wounds could, in my opinion, have been inflicted without the removal of the
clothing. The only suspicious mark about the place where the body was found was one spot in Brady-
street. It might have been blood.

A Juror: Did the body look as if it had been brought dead to Buck's-row? Witness: No, I should say that
the offence was committed on the spot.

Police-constable Mizen deposed that at about a quarter to four o'clock on Friday morning, while he was at
the corner of Hanbury-street and Baker's-row, a carman passing by, in company with another man, said,
"You are wanted in Buck's-row by a policeman. A woman is lying there." The witness then went to
Buck's-row, and Police-constable Neil sent him for the ambulance. Nobody but Neil was with the body at
that time.--In reply to a juryman, witness said that when the carman spoke to him he was engaged in
knocking people up, and he finished knocking at the one place where he was at the time, giving two or
three knocks, and then went directly to Buck's-row, not wanting to knock up anyone else.

Charles A. Cross, a carman, said that he was in the employment of Messrs. Pickford and Co. He left home
about half-past three o'clock on Friday morning to go to work, and in passing through Buck's-row he saw
on the opposite side something lying against a gateway. He could not tell in the dark what it was at first.
It looked like a tarpaulin sheet, but, stepping into the middle of the road, he saw that it was the body of
a woman. At this time he heard a man--about forty yards off--approaching from the direction that
witness had himself come from. He waited for the man, who started on one side, as if afraid that witness
meant to knock him down. Witness said, "Come and look over here. There's a woman." They then went
over to the body. Witness took hold of teh hands of the woman, and the other man stooped over her
head to look at her. Feeling the hands cold and limp witness said, "I believe she's dead." Then he touched
her face, which felt warm. The other man put his head on her heart saying, "I think she's breathing, but
it is very little if she is." The man suggested that they should "shift her," meaning to set her upright.
Witness answered, "I am not going to touch her." The other man tried to pull her clothes down to cover
her legs, but they did not seem as if they would come down. Her bonnet was off, but close to her head.
Witness did not notice that her throat was cut. The night was very dark. Witness and the other man left
the woman, and in Baker's-row they saw Police-constable Mizen. They told him that a woman was lying
in Buck's-row, witness adding, "She looks to me to be either dead or drunk." The other man observed, "I
think she's dead." The policeman replied, "All right." The other man, who appeared to be a carman, left
witness soon afterwards. Witness did not see Constable Neil. He saw no one except the man that
overtook him, the constable in Baker's-row whom he spoke to, and the deceased. In reply to further
questions, the witness said the deceased looked to him at the time as if she had been outraged, and had
gone off in a swoon. He had then no idea that she was so seriously injured. The other man merely said
that he would have fetched a policeman, but he was behind time. Witness was behind time himself. He
did not tell constable Mizen that another policeman wanted him in Buck's-row.

William Nicholls, a printer's machinist, living in Coburg-road, Old Kent-road, said that the deceased
woman was his wife. They did not live together, but had lived apart for eight years last Easter. He last
saw her alive about three years ago. He had not heard from her since. He did not know what she had
been doing during the last three years.--A Juror: It is said that you were summoned by the Lambeth
Union for her maintenance, and that you pleaded that she was living with another man. Did that refer to
the blacksmith that she had lived with? Witness: No, to another man or men. I had her watched. That
was seven years ago. The Juror: Did you leave her or did she leave you? Witness: She left me. She had
no occasion for leaving me.--The witness further stated that but for the drink his wife would have been all
right. It was not true that he took up with a nurse eight years ago when his wife left him.

Emily Holland stated that she was a married woman, and lived at Thrawl-street, Spitalfields, in a common
lodging-house. Deceased had lived there about six weeks, but was not there during the last ten days. AT
about half-past two o'clock on Friday morning witness saw the deceased going down Osborne-street into
Whitechapel-road. She was staggering along drunk and was alone. She told witness that where she had
been living recently they would not let her in because she could not pay. Witness tried to persuade her to
go home with her. The deceased refused, saying, "I have had my lodging-money three times to-day, and
have spent it." The deceased then went along Whitechapel-road, stating that she was going to get some
money to pay for her lodgings. Witness did not know what deceased did for a living, or whether she
stayed out late at night. She was a quiet woman, and kept herself to herself. Witness did not know
whether she had any male acquaintance or not. She had never seen the deceased quarrel with anybody.
When deceased left witness at the corner of Osborne-street and Whitechapel-road she said that she
would not be long before she was back.

Mary Ann Monk deposed that she last saw the deceased about seven weeks ago in a public-house in New
Kent-road. She had previously seen her in the Lambeth Workhouse, but she had no knowledge of the
acquaintance of the deceased.

As this was all the evidence the police were prepared to offer at present, the inquest was then adjourned
until the 17th inst., and it was arranged that the jury should inspect the clothes of the deceased at the
mortuary instead of in the room where the inquiry was held.
Notwithstanding every effort the police engaged in investigating the murder of Mary Ann Nicholls have to
confess themselves baffled, their numerous inquiries having yielded no positive clue to the perpetrator of
the crime. At the conclusion of the inquest Detective-inspector Abberline and Detective-inspector Helson
were busily engaged in the matter, but have not elicited any new facts of importance. A large number of
constables are engaged upon the case. Crowds of spectators continue to visit the scene of the murder in
Buck's-row.

Related pages:
Polly Nichols
Home: Timeline - Mary Ann Nichols
Dissertations: Old Wounds: Re-examining the Bucks Row Murder
Dissertations: The Riddle of New Cottage
Message Boards: Mary Ann Nichols
Official Documents: Bucks Row - Census Listings
Official Documents: Polly Nichol's Inquest
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Press Reports: East London Advertiser - 1 September 1888
Press Reports: East London Advertiser - 22 September 1888
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Press Reports: Grimsby Observer - no date
Press Reports: Illustrated Police News - 22 September 1888
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Press Reports: Morning Advertiser - 1 September 1888
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Press Reports: Penny Illustrated Paper - 22 September 1888
 Press Reports: Penny Illustrated Paper - 29 September 1888
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Press Reports: People - 2 September 1888
Press Reports: People - 23 September 1888
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Press Reports: St. James Gazette - 18 September 1888
Press Reports: Star - 1 September 1888
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Press Reports: Star - 31 August 1888
Press Reports: Star - 4 September 1888
Press Reports: Star - 6 September 1888
Press Reports: Times [London] - 1 September 1888
Press Reports: Times [London] - 18 September 1888
Press Reports: Times [London] - 24 September 1888
Press Reports: Times [London] - 27 April 1866
Press Reports: Times [London] - 3 September 1888
Press Reports: Times [London] - 4 September 1888
Press Reports: Walthamstow and Leyton Guardian - 8 September 1888
Press Reports: Weekly Herald - 7 September 1888
Press Reports: Woodford Times - 21 September 1888
Press Reports: Woodford Times - 28 September 1888
Press Reports: Woodford Times - 7 September 1888
Victims: Mary Ann 'Polly' Nichols
Victims: Testimonies of Charles Cross and PC John Neil
Victorian London: Buck's Row
Witnesses: Henry Tomkins, James Mumford and Charles Brittain

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 home > press reports > illustrated police news > illustrated police news - 22 september 1888

Introduction
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22 September, 1888
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About the Casebook THE WHITECHAPEL MURDERS.
(SUBJECT OF ILLUSTRATION.)

THE following facts which have just come to hand may furnish a clue by which the Hanbury-street murderer
may be traced. On the day of the murder (the 8th instant) a man was seen in the lavatory of the City News
Rooms, Ludgate-circus-buildings, changing his clothes. He departed hurriedly, leaving behind him a pair of
trousers, a shirt, and a pair of socks. Unfortunately, no one connected with the establishment saw the man,
or he would certainly have been stopped and questioned as to why he was changing his clothes there and
leaving the old ones behind. Mr. Walker, the proprietor of the News Rooms, states that he did not hear of
the occurrence until late in the afternoon, when his attention was called to the clothes in the lavatory. He
did not at the time attach any importance to the fact, and the clothes were thrown into the dust box and
placed outside, being carted away in the City Sewers' cart on the Monday. On the following Tuesday,
however, he received a visit from a man who represented himself to be a police-officer and asked for the
clothes which has been left there on the Saturday. Mr. Walker replied that if he wanted them he would have
to go to the Commissioners of the City Sewers, telling him at the same time what he had done with them.
Two detectives called on Thursday, and had an interview with Mr. Walker, and they succeeded in finding a
man who saw the party changing his clothes in the lavatory, and he gave the police a description of him. He
is described as a man of respectable appearance, about thirty years of age, and wearing a dark moustache;
but the police are very reticent about the matter, and decline to give any information on the subject. They
evidently attach some importance to the affair, as Mr. Walker again received a visit from two detectives. The
police are now trying to trace the clothes, as it is hoped they will furnish some clue to lead to the identity of
the man whom they are searching for.

THE WHITECHAPEL MURDERS.

(SUBJECT OF ILLUSTRATION.)

The detective officers continued their investigations on Sunday, but up to a late hour that night no arrest
had been made, neither is there any immediate prospect of an arrest being effected. The public of the
neighbourhood continue to make statements, which are committed to writing at Commercial-street
station, and in several instances the police have been made cognisant of what the informants consider to
be suspicious movements of individuals whose appearance is supposed to tally with that of the man
wanted. Every "clue" given by the public in their zeal to assist the police has been followed up, but
without success, and the lapse of time, it is feared, will lessen the chances of discovering the perpetrator
of the crimes.

The man who was arrested on Friday night in the neighbourhood of Flower and Dean-street is named
Edward M Kenna, and he gave an address of 15, Brick-lane, Whitechapel. Being slightly built, about five
feet eight inches in height, having a head of hair somewhat inclined to be "sandy", with beard and
moustache of the same colour, and wearing a skull-cap, it was concluded that he might be the man seen
Most Recent Posts:
by Mrs. Lloyd and her daughter in Heath-street, Commercial-road. M Kenna also resembled the man seen
Other Mysteries: Bible John
(General Discussion) - by by the potman at the Ten Bells public house to put his head inside the door and angrily call a woman out
Herlock Sholmes 2 minutes ago.
of the bar on the evening of the murder. He was also like the man followed by Taylor into Bishopsgate-
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 &
MJK3 camera positions - plan street from the Prince Albert after the murder. Mrs. Lloyd and her daughter, therefore, were summoned
view. (Warning - graphic to the Commercial-street Police-station on Saturday morning, where she made a complete statement of
images) - by richardh 8
minutes ago. what she had seen, and indignantly denied much that had been imputed to her. She said she was
Other Mysteries: Bible John standing near her front door, and her daughter was sitting on the steps, when some boys chased a man
(General Discussion) - by
Herlock Sholmes 31 minutes
up the street. The man crossed the road, went up to her daughter, looked her in the face, and then
ago. continued his course without saying a word. She could not say that he had a knife, but he kept one hand
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 & behind his back, and appeared to be holding something in it. Mrs. Lloyd was then fronted with M Kenna,
MJK3 camera positions - plan
view. (Warning - graphic but failed to recognise him as the man she had seen. In the afternoon a detective made inquiries at 15,
images) - by Simon Wood 58 Brick-lane, a common lodging house, and it was found beyond doubt that M Kenna slept there on Friday
minutes ago.
Mary Jane Kelly: Why is that
night; accordingly he was liberated. Inquiries were also prosecuted regarding the man who was arrested
linen so odd? *Graphic in Holloway, with the result that he too, was discharged, it being maintained that he was a harmless
Warning* - by Scott Nelson 2
hours ago.
lunatic. Attention was also directed to another incident that had been reported. About ten o'clock on
Other Mysteries: Bible John Friday night a man passed through the Tower Subway to the Middlesex side, and said to the caretaker,
(General Discussion) - by "Have you caught any of the Whitechapel murderers yet?" He then produced a knife about a foot in
cobalt 2 hours ago.
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 &
length with a curved blade, and remarked "This will do for them." He was followed, but ran away, and
MJK3 camera positions - plan was lost sight of. The police have obtained a description of the man, but attach no importance to the
view. (Warning - graphic
images) - by richardh 2 hours
statement. The explanations of his proceedings furnished by Edward Stanley, the pensioner, have thrown
ago. no light upon the crime. They are regarded, however, as affording no ground for connecting him with it in
Other Mysteries: Bible John any way.
(General Discussion) - by
Herlock Sholmes 3 hours ago.
The report that in their anxiety to bring the criminal to justice the members of H Division of police had
Most Popular Threads: subscribed £50 to supplement the reward of £100 offered by Mr. Samuel Montague, M.P., is unfounded.
Pub Talk: Irritations - (36 The police of this division entertain hopes that the private offer of a reward of £100 may lead many of
posts)
those who are frequenters of the common lodging-houses in the neighbourhood, and have hitherto been
Other Mysteries: Bible John
(General Discussion) - (27 reluctant to give information, to come forward and give evidence which may materially facilitate the work
posts) of the officers engaged in unravelling the mystery. A large number of extra police and detectives have
Hutchinson, George: A closer
look at George Hutchinson -
been engaged in patrolling the neighbourhood the last two or three nights.
(10 posts)
General Victim Discussion: On Saturday night a meeting of the Vigilance Committee took place at the Crown Tavern, 74, Mile End-
What Makes A Victim? - (5
posts)
road, for the purpose of considering what steps should be taken to aid the police in the search for the
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 & murderer. In the absence of Mr. Lusk, the chairman, Mr. Aarons, the proprietor of the tavern, was voted
MJK3 camera positions - plan to the chair, and in opening the proceedings, said that he had great pleasure in announcing that Mr.
view. (Warning - graphic
images) - (4 posts) Spencer Charrington, of the brewery adjacent, had, with his usual liberality, responded to the appeal
Mary Jane Kelly: Why is that made to him on behalf of his fellow creatures. He had sent a cheque for £5, and he would not have done
linen so odd? *Graphic
Warning* - (3 posts)
that unless he had been convinced the amount was for a much-needed object. In announcing other
subscriptions, including £5 from Mr. Lusk, and a similar amount from himself, the speaker said he had
been forcible reminded, during his efforts to obtain subscriptions towards a reward for the apprehension
of the murderer, of the great dissatisfaction which existed owing to the withdrawal of Government
rewards for the discovery of murder; for, with one exception, every donor had expressed an opinion that
it was the duty of the Government to offer a substantial reward in such cases, and many persons who
were ready to lay down £100 towards any charitable object were flatly refused to subscribe to this fund
on the ground that it was the imperative duty of the Scotland-yard authorities and of the Home Office to
offer a pecuniary inducement to persons (not the actual murderer) to come forward and give information.
He regretted to say that the police authorities had decided to offer no reward, but at the same time it
was only fair to reflect that the police probably knew more about the matter than they chose to make
public, and that, therefore, they considered a reward unnecessary. Time, of course, might show how the
matter stood, and he trusted that the police were right in what they were doing. Mr. Rogers and other
gentlemen having addressed the meeting, the proceedings were adjourned.

THE INQUEST.

On Monday, Mr. Wynne E. Baxter, coroner for South-East Middlesex, resumed his inquiry at the Working
Lad's Institute, Whitechapel-road, into the circumstances attending the death of Mary Ann Nicholls
[Nichols], aged forty-two, wife of a machinist, who was brutally murdered in Buck's-row, Whitechapel, on
August 31st. Inspector Helson attended with several officials from Scotland-yard, on behalf of the Chief
Commissioner of Police - The first witness was the doctor (re-called) who said that he had examined the
body since the last hearing, and had found an old soar on the forehead.

Emma Green, of New Cottage, Buck's-row, a widow, said that her house was situated next to the one
where the deceased was found. Previous to the day of the murder she went to bed about eleven o'clock
at night, her three children going before. At about four o'clock in the morning she heard a knock at the
front door, and upon opening the window she saw three or four constables, and noticing the body of a
person lying on the ground. During the night neither witness nor any of her family heard any noise. - By
a Juror: She was a very light sleeper, and such a noise as a scream would be sure to wake her.

Thomas Eade, signalman, in the employ of the East London Railway, said that on Saturday, September
8th, he was proceeding along Cambridge-road towards Whitechapel when he saw a man walking along
who had such an extraordinary look about him that the witness could not help looking at him. He seemed
to have a wooden arm. When opposite the Forester's Arms the witness saw a knife down the man's
trousers. The blade was sticking out about four inches. The man appeared to be about thirty-five years of
age, five foot eight inches in height, and dark. He wore a short, dark brown jacket, a pair of white
overalls over a pair of dark trousers, and had on a double-peaked cap. The witness, seeing some people
also watching the man, asked them to follow with him, but they refused, and the man was lost sight of.
The man had the appearance of a workman. - By the Jury: He did not appear to be a very strong fellow.
The witness did not see what kind of a knife it was.

Walter Perkins, of Essex Wharf, Buck's-row, said the premises were nearly opposite the gate where the
deceased was found. On the night of the murder he went to bed about half-past eleven o'clock. He was
awoke at various times during the night. He was called up by the police about four o'clock in the
morning. The witness's wife was awake during the whole night. The night was unusually quiet, hardly a
sound being heard. If the woman had called out, or had been quarreling with anybody, the witness would
have been sure to have heard the noise. Several men were standing with the police when he was called
up.
Alfred Mulshaw, night watchman for the Board of Works, Whitechapel district, said that he was on duty in
Winthorpe-street, Buck's-row, all the night of the murder. He was watching the sewage works. Between
three and four o'clock on the morning of the murder he was awake, but did not see anyone about at that
time, nor did he hear any cries for assistance, or any other noise. He was stationed not very far from the
place where the murdered woman was found. About twenty minutes to five o'clock a man came and said,
"Old man, I think a woman has been murdered," and he immediately went round to Buck's-row, where
he saw the deceased lying on the ground.

Police-constable John Thain, 96 J Division, said that his beat passed the end of Buck's-row, and he
passed that end about thirty minutes before he was called, but he saw nothing. At a quarter to four a.m.,
about half-way down Buck's Row, he saw a lamp signal, and upon going down he saw Police-constable
Neal standing beside the body of the deceased. He said, "For God's sake, Jack, go and fetch the doctor."
In the gutter there was a large quantity of blood which had run off the pavement. The deceased's
clothing was saturated with blood, which appeared to have run from her back. After the body had been
removed to the mortuary the witness searched the neighbouring alleys and the Underground Railway, but
found nothing suspicious. By a Juror: When he was called by the signal the woman was dead. The
witness was not allowed to leave his beat unless called. He went to fetch his cape because he did not
know where he would be sent by his inspector.

John Paul, of 30, Foster-street, Whitechapel, said he was a carman. On Friday, August 31st, he left home
at about a quarter to four o'clock to go to his work in Spitalfields. He was passing up Buck's-row and saw
a man standing in the road. As he got nearer the man stepped on to the pavement, and as witness was
passing he touched him on the shoulder and said, "Come and look at this woman." He then saw the body
of a woman lying across the gateway, dead. The night being very dark he did not notice any blood. - By
the Coroner: The morning was cold. Witness and the man who had stopped him walked down Buck's-row
to find a policeman, which they did in a few minutes.

Robert Mann and other witness, inmates of the Whitechapel Workhouse and keepers of the mortuary,
deposed that they received the body of the deceased, which they undressed. They did not have any
instructions to do that, and did not know that a doctor had to see the body. He was told by Inspector
Helston [sic] to cut the clothes.

The Coroner: When the doctor was examining the body in Buck's-row a man is said to have passed. Has
he been found? Inspector Helston: We have been unable to find him - Detective-sergeant Spratling
deposed that he had made many inquiries in Buck's-row, but most of the people heard nothing unusual
on the night in question. - The Coroner: Then, that is the whole of the evidence. Is there any possibility
of obtaining any more? Inspector Helston: That I cannot say. - A Juryman: Would there have been any
chance of the murderer escaping by the railway? Sergeant Spratling: I should not think so. The foreman
of the jury said it was his own opinion and that of his fellow-jurymen that the Government should offer a
substantial reward. If it had been a rich person that was murdered there would have been a reward of
£1,000 offered; but as it was a poor unfortunate hardly any notice was taken.
The Coroner: I think you are wrong altogether, and have no right to make such statements. For some
time past the offering of rewards has been discontinued, no distinction being made between rich and
poor.
Inspector Helston: That is quite right, sir.
The Foreman: Nevertheless, I maintain that if a large reward had been offered in the George-yard
murder the last two horrible murders would not have been committed. I am glad to see that the
inhabitants are themselves going to offer a reward, and I will myself give £25.
The coroner asked the jury if they would close the inquest or have it adjourned.
The jury were of opinion that they would rather have the inquest adjourned, so as to give the police a
chance to make more inquiries.
Ultimately the inquest was adjourned for a few days.

PASSING NOTES.

The theory that the succession of murders which have lately been committed in Whitechapel are the work
of a lunatic appears to us to be by no means at present well established. We can quite understand the
necessity for any murderer endeavouring to obliterate by the death of his victim his future identification
as a burglar. Moreover, as far as we are aware, homicidal mania is generally characterised by the one
single and fatal act, although we grant this may have been led up to by a deep-rooted series of
delusions. It is most unusual for a lunatic to plan any complicated crime of this kind. Neither, as a rule,
does a lunatic take precautions to escape from the consequences of his act; which data are most
conspicuous in these now too celebrated cases. The truth is, that under the circumstances nobody can do
more than hazard a guess as to the possible condition of mind of the perpetrator of these terrible
tragedies. Until more evidence is forthcoming, it appears to us to be useless to speculate upon what can
only at present be regarded as problematical.

ANOTHER WOMAN STABBED.

(SUBJECT OF ILLUSTRATION.)

At five minutes after eleven o'clock on Saturday forenoon a man suddenly attacked a woman in
Spitalfields-market while she was passing through. After felling her to the ground with a blow, he began
kicking her and pulled out a knife. Some women who had collected, having the terrible tragedy that
brought them there still fresh in their minds, on seeing the knife, raised such piercing shrieks of "Murder"
that they reached the enormous crowds in Hanbury-street. Seeing the immense crowd swarming around
him, the man who was the cause of the alarm made more furious efforts to reach the woman, from
whom he had been separated by some persons who interfered on her behalf. He, however, threw these
on one side, fell upon the woman, knife in hand, and inflicted various stabs on her head, cutting her
forehead, neck and fingers before he was again pulled off. When he was again pulled off the woman lay
motionless - the immense crowd took up the cry of "Murder", and the people who were on the streets
raised cries of "Lynch him." At this juncture the police arrived, arrested the man, and after a while had
the woman conveyed on a stretcher to the police-station in Commercial-street, where she was examined
by the divisional surgeon.

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 home > press reports > illustrated police news > illustrated police news - 6 october 1888

Introduction
Victims Illustrated Police News
Suspects
6 October, 1888
Witnesses
THE WHITECHAPEL MURDERS.
Ripper Letters MORE ATROCITIES.
Police Officials
Official Documents The scene of the first outrage is a narrow Court in Berner-street, a quiet thoroughfare, running from
Press Reports Commercial-road down to the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway. At the entrance to the court are a
Victorian London pair of large wooden gates, in one of which is a small wicket for use when the gates are closed. At the
Message Boards hour when the murderer accomplished his purpose these gates were open - Indeed, according to the
Ripper Media testimony of those living near, the entrance to the court is seldom closed. For a distance of eighteen or
Authors twenty feet from the street there is a dead wall on each side of the court, the effect of which is to shroud
Dissertations the intervening space in absolute darkness after sunset. Further back some light is thrown into the court
Timelines from the windows of a workmen's club, which occupies the whole length of the court on the right, and
Games & Diversions from a number of cottages, occupied mainly by tailors and cigarette makers on the left. At the time when
Photo Archive the murder was committed, however, the lights in all of the dwelling-houses in question had been
Ripper Wiki extinguished, whilst such illumination as came from the club, being from the upper story, would fall on
Casebook Examiner the cottages opposite, and would only serve to intensify the gloom of the rest of the court. From the
Ripper Podcast position in which the body was found it is believed that the moment the murderer had got his victim in
About the Casebook the dark shadow near the entrance to the court, he threw her to the ground, and with one gash severed
her throat from ear to ear. The hypothesis that the wound was inflicted after and not before the woman
fell is supported by the fact that there are severe bruises on her left temple and left cheek, thus showing
that force must have been used to prostrate her, which would not have been necessary had her throat
been already cut. When discovered the body was lying as if the woman had fallen forward, her feet being
about a couple of yards from the street, and her head in a gutter which runs down the right-hand side of
the court close to the wall. The woman lay on her left side, face downwards, her position being such that
although the court at that part is only nine feet wide, a person walking up the middle might have passed
the recumbent body without notice. The condition of the corpse, however, and several other
circumstances which have come to light during the day, prove pretty conclusively that no considerable
period elapsed between the committal of the murder and the discovery of the body. In fact, it is pretty
generally conjectured that the assassin was disturbed while at his ghastly work, and made off before he
had completed his designs. All the features of the case go to connect the tragedy with that which took
place three-quarters of an hour later a few streets distant. The obvious poverty of the woman, her total
lack of jewelry or ornaments, and the soiled condition of her clothing, are entirely opposed to the theory
that robbery could have been the motive, and the secrecy and dispatch with which the crime was
effected are equally good evidence that the murder was not the result of an ordinary street brawl. At the
International Workmen's Educational Club - which is an offshoot of the Socialist League, and a
rendezvous of a number of foreign residents, chiefly Russians, Poles and Continental Jews of various
nationalities, it is customary on Saturday nights to have friendly discussions on topics of mutual
interests, and to wind up the evening's entertainment with songs, &c. The proceedings commenced on
Saturday about half past eight with a discussion on the necessity for Socialism amongst Jews. This was
kept up until about eleven o'clock, when a considerable portion of the company left for their respective
homes. Between twenty and thirty remained behind, and the usual concert which followed was not
concluded when the intelligence was brought in by the steward of the club that a woman had been done
to death within a few yards of them and within ear-shot of their jovial songs. The people residing in the
cottages on the other side of the court were all indoors, and most of them in bed by midnight. Several of
these persons remember lying awake and listening to the singing, and they also remember the concert
coming to an abrupt termination; but during the whole of the time from retiring to rest until the body
was discovered no one heard anything in the nature of a scream or woman's cry of distress. It was Lewis
Diemshitz, [Diemschutz] the steward of the club, who found the body. Diemshitz, who is a traveller in
cheap jewelry, had spent the day at Westow-hill Market, near the Crystal Palace, in pursuance of his
vocation, and had then driven home, reaching Berner-street at one o'clock. On turning into the gateway
he had some difficulty with his pony, the animal being apparently determined to avoid the right-hand
wall. For the moment Diemshitz did not think much of the occurrence, because he knew the pony was
given to shying, and he thought perhaps some mud or refuse was in the way. The pony, however,
obstinately refused to go straight, so the driver pulled him up to see what was in the way. Failing to
discern anything in the darkness, Diemshitz poked about with the handle of the whip and immediately
Most Recent Posts: discovered that some large obstacle was in his path. To jump down and strike a match was the work of a
Other Mysteries: Bible John second, and it then became at once apparent that something serious had taken place. Without waiting to
(General Discussion) - by
Herlock Sholmes 2 minutes ago.
see whether the woman whose body he saw was drunk or dead, Diemshitz entered the club by the side-
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 & door higher up the court, and informed those in the concert-room upstairs that something had happened
MJK3 camera positions - plan in the yard. A member of the club named Kozobrodski, but familiarly known as Isaacs, returned with
view. (Warning - graphic
images) - by richardh 8 Diemshitz into the court, and the former struck a match, while the latter lifted the body up. It was at
minutes ago. once apparent that the woman was dead. The body was still warm, and the clothes enveloping it were
Other Mysteries: Bible John
(General Discussion) - by
wet from the recent rain, but the heart had ceased to beat, and the stream of blood in the gutter
Herlock Sholmes 31 minutes terminating in a hideous pool near the club door showed but too plainly what had happened. Both men
ago.
ran off without delay to find a policeman, and at the same time other members of the club, who had by
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 &
MJK3 camera positions - plan this time found their way into the court, went off with the same object in different directions. The search
view. (Warning - graphic was for some time fruitless; at last, however, after considerable delay, a constable, 252H, was found in
images) - by Simon Wood 58
minutes ago. Commercial-road. With the aid of the policeman's whistle more constables were quickly on the spot, and
Mary Jane Kelly: Why is that the gates at the entrance of the court having been closed, and a guard set at all the exits of the club and
linen so odd? *Graphic
Warning* - by Scott Nelson 2
the cottages, the superintendent of the district and the divisional surgeon were sent for. In a few minutes
hours ago. Dr. Phillips was at the scene of the murder, and a brief examination sufficed to show that life had been
Other Mysteries: Bible John extinct some minutes. Careful note having been taken of the position of the body it was removed to the
(General Discussion) - by
cobalt 2 hours ago. parish mortuary of St. George's-in-the-East, Cable-street to await identification.
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 &
MJK3 camera positions - plan Lewis Diemshitz has made the following statement:- "I have been steward of the International Club for
view. (Warning - graphic
images) - by richardh 2 hours six or seven years. I am also a traveller in common jewelry. I went yesterday to Westow-hill Market, a
ago. place I usually visit on Saturdays, and I got back about one o'clock this morning. My usual time for
Other Mysteries: Bible John
(General Discussion) - by
getting home from market is between one and two in the morning. I drove home in my own trap. My
Herlock Sholmes 3 hours ago. pony is rather shy, and as I turned into the yard it struck me that he bore too much to the left-hand side,
against the wall. I bent my head to see what it was that he was shying at, and I noticed that the ground
Most Popular Threads:
was not level. I saw a little heap, which I thought perhaps might be some mud swept together. I touched
Pub Talk: Irritations - (36
posts) the heap with the handle of my whip and then I found that it was not mud. I jumped off the trap and
Other Mysteries: Bible John struck a match, when I saw that it was the body of a woman. I did not wait to see whether she was
(General Discussion) - (27 drunk or dead, but ran indoors and asked whether my wife was there. I did this because I knew my wife
posts)
Hutchinson, George: A closer
had a rather weak constitution, and anything of that kind shocks her. I saw my wife was sitting
look at George Hutchinson - downstairs, and I at once told the members that something bad happened in the yard. I did not tell them
(10 posts)
whether the woman was murdered or drunk, because I did not then know. A member named Isaacs went
General Victim Discussion:
What Makes A Victim? - (5 down into the yard with me, and we struck a match. We saw blood right from the gate up the yard. Then
posts) we both went for the police, but unfortunately it was several minutes before we could find a constable. At
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 &
MJK3 camera positions - plan
last another member of the club named Eagle, who ran out after us and went in a different direction,
view. (Warning - graphic found one somewhere in Commercial-road. This policeman blew his whistle and several more policemen
images) - (4 posts)
came up, and soon after the doctors arrived. The woman seemed to be about twenty-seven or twenty-
Mary Jane Kelly: Why is that
linen so odd? *Graphic eight years old. She was a little better dressed, I should say, than the woman who was last murdered.
Warning* - (3 posts) Her clothes were not disarranged. She had a flower in the bosom of her dress. In one hand she had some
grapes and in the other some sweets. She was grasping them tightly. I had never seen her before. She
was removed about a quarter to five to Cable-street mortuary. When I first saw her she was lying on her
left side, two yards from the entrance, with her feet towards the street. I do not keep my trap in the yard
but I keep my goods at the club."

Mrs. Mortimer, living at 36, Berner-street, four doors from the scene of the tragedy, says:- "I was
standing at the door of my house nearly the whole time between half-past twelve and one o'clock on
Sunday morning, and did not notice anything unusual. I had just gone indoors, and was preparing to go
to bed, when I heard a commotion outside and immediately ran out thinking that there was another row
at the Socialists' Club close by. I went to see what was the matter, and was informed that another
dreadful murder had been committed in the yard adjoining the clubhouse, and on going inside I saw the
body of a woman lying huddled up just inside the gates with her throat cut from ear to ear. A man
touched her face and said it was quite warm, so that the deed must have been done while I was standing
at the door of my house. There was certainly no noise made, and I did not observe anyone enter the
gates. It was just after one o'clock when I went out, and the only man whom I had seen pass through
the street previously was a young man carrying a black, shiny bag, who walked very fast down the street
from the Commercial-road. He looked up at the club and then went round the corner by the Board
School. I was told that the manager or steward of the club had discovered the woman on his return home
in his pony-cart. He drove through the gates, and my opinion is that he interrupted the murderer, who
must have made his escape immediately under cover of the cart. If a man had come out of the yard
before one o'clock I must have seen him. It was almost incredible to me that the thing could have been
done without the steward's wife hearing a noise, for she was sitting in the kitchen, from which a window
opens four yards from the spot where the woman was found. The body was lying slightly on one side,
with the legs a little drawn up as if in pain, the clothes being slightly disarranged so that the legs were
partly visible. The woman appeared to me to be respectable, judging by her clothes, and in her hand
were found a bunch of grapes and some sweets. A young man and his sweetheart were standing at the
corner of the street, about twenty yards away, before and after the time the woman must have been
murdered, but they told me they did not hear a sound."

Charles Letchford, living at 30, Berner-street, says:- "I passed through the street at half-past twelve, and
everything seemed to me to be going on as usual, and my sister was standing at the door at ten minutes
to one, but did not see anyone pass by. I heard the commotion when the body was found, and heard the
policeman's whistle, but did not take any notice of the matter, as disturbances are very frequent at the
club, and I thought it was only another row."

In an interview with a representative of the Press, Dr. Blackwell made a statement in which he said that
about ten minutes past one he was called by a policeman to 40 Berner-street, where he found the body
of the murdered woman. Her head had been almost severed from her body; the body was perfectly warm
and life could not have been extinct for more than twenty minutes. It did not appear to him that the
woman was a Jewess; she was more like an Irish woman. He roughly examined her, and found no other
injuries, but this he could not definitely state until he had made a further examination. The deceased had
on a black velvet jacket and a black dress; in her hand she held a box of cachous, whilst pinned in her
dress was a flower. Altogether, judging from her appearance, he considered that she belonged to an
immoral class. He had no doubt that the same man committed both the murders. In his opinion the man
is a maniac, but one at least who is accustomed to use a heavy knife. His belief was that as the woman
held the sweets in her left hand her head was dragged back by means of a silk handkerchief which she
wore round her neck, and that her throat was then cut. One of the woman's hands was smeared with
blood, and this was evidently done in the struggle. He had, however, no doubt that the woman's windpipe
being completely cut through she was thus rendered unable to make any sound. Dr. Blackwell added that
it did not follow that the murderer would be bespattered with blood, for as he was sufficiently cunning in
other things, he could contrive to avoid coming in contact with the blood by reaching well forward.

THE ALDGATE MURDER.

Shortly before two o'clock on Sunday morning, or about three-quarters of an hour after the crime
described above, it was discovered that a second woman had been horribly murdered and mutilated, this
being in Mitre-square, Aldgate, within the City boundaries, but on the confines of the now notorious
district. It appears that Police-constable Watkins (No. 881), of the City police, was going round his beat,
when, turning his lantern upon the darkest corner of Mitre-square, he saw the body of a woman,
apparently lifeless, in a pool of blood. He at once blew his whistle, and several persons being distracted
to the spot he dispatched messengers for medical and police aid. Inspector Collard, who was in command
at the time at Bishopsgate police-station, but a short distance off, quickly arrived, followed a few minutes
after by Mr. G. W. Sequeira, surgeon, of 34, Jewry-street, and Dr. Gordon Browne, the divisional police
doctor, of Finsbury-circus. The scene then disclosed was a most horrible one. The woman, who was
apparently about forty years of age, was lying on her back quite dead, although the body was still warm.
Her head was inclined to the left side, her left leg being extended, whilst the right was flex. Both arms
were extended. The throat was cut half-way round, revealing a dreadful wound, from which blood had
flowed in great quantity, staining the pavement for some distance round. Across the right cheek to the
nose was another gash, and a part of the right ear had been cut off. Following the plan in the
Whitechapel murders the miscreant was not content with merely killing his victim. The poor woman's
clothes had been pulled up over her chest, the abdomen ripped completely open, and part of the
intestines laid on her neck. After careful notice had been taken of the position of the body when found it
was conveyed to the City mortuary in Golden-lane. Here a more extended examination was made. The
murdered woman was apparently about forty years of age, about five feet in height, and evidently
belonged to that unfortunate class of which the women done to death in Whitechapel were members.
Indeed, one of the policemen who saw the body expressed his confident opinion that he had seen the
woman several times walking in the neighbourhood of Aldgate High-street. She was of dark complexion,
with auburn hair and hazel eyes, and was dressed in shabby dark clothes. She wore a black cloth jacket,
with imitation fur collar and three large metal buttons. Her dress was made of green chintz, the pattern
consisting of Michaelmas daisies. In addition she had on a thin white vest, light drab linsey skirt, a very
old dark green alpaca petticoat, white chemise, brown ribbed stockings (mended at the feet with white
material), black straw bonnet, trimmed with black beads, and green and black velvet, and a large white
handkerchief round her neck. In the pockets of the dress were a peculiar collection of articles. Besides a
pocket containing tea and other articles, which people who frequent the common lodging-houses are
accustomed to carry, the police found upon the body a white pocket handkerchief, a blunt bone-handled
table knife, a short clay pipe, and a red cigarette case with white metal fittings. The knife bore no traces
of blood, so could have no connection with the crime. When the news of this additional murder became
known the excitement in the crowded district of Aldgate was intense. Usually a busy place on a Sunday
morning, Houndsditch, and connecting thoroughfares, presented a particularly animated appearance,
men with barrows vending fruit and eatables, doing a brisk trade. Crowds flocked to the entrances to the
square where the body had been discovered, but the police refused admittance to all but a privileged
few. Sir Charles Warren visited the spot at a particularly early hour, and made himself thoroughly
conversant with the neighbourhood and the details of the affair. Major Smith, (acting-superintendent of
the City police), Superintendent Foster, Detective-Inspector M'William (Chief of the City Detective
Department), Detective-sergeants Downs and Outram also attended during the morning. A little while
after the finding of the body all traces of blood had been washed away by direction of the authorities, and
there was little to indicate the terrible crime which had taken place.

Before proceeding further it may be convenient to describe the scope of the murder. Mitre-square is an
enclosed place in the rear of St. Katherine Cree Church, Leadenhall-steet. It has three entrances, the
principal one, and the only one having a carriageway, is at the southern end, leading into Mitre-street, a
turning out of Aldgate High-street. There is a narrow court at the north-east corner leading into Duke-
street, and another one at the north-west, by which foot passengers can reach St. James's-square,
otherwise known as the Orange-market. Mitre-square contains but two dwelling houses, in one of which,
singularly enough, a City policeman lives, whilst the other is uninhabited. The other buildings, of which
there are only three, are large warehouses. In the south-east corner, and near to the entrance from
Mitre-street, is the back yard of some premises in Aldgate, but the railings are closely hoarded. It was
just under these that the woman was found quite hidden from sight by the shadow cast by the corner of
the adjoining house. The officer who found the body is positive that it could not have been there more
than a quarter of an hour before he discovered it. He is timed to "work his beat", as it is called, in from
ten to fifteen minutes, and is spoken of by his superior officers as a most trustworthy man. The police
theory is that the man and woman, who had met in Aldgate, watched the policeman pass round the
square, and they then entered it for an immoral purpose. Whilst the woman was laying on the ground her
throat was cut, as described above, causing instant death. The murderer then hurriedly proceeded to
mutilate the body, for the wounds, though so ghastly, do not appear to have been caused so skillfully and
deliberately as in the case of the murder of Annie Chapman in Hanbury-street. Five minutes, some of the
doctors think, would have sufficed for the completion of the murderer's work, and he was thus enabled to
leave the ground before the return of the policeman on duty. None of the police on duty early on Sunday
morning appears to have had particular attention drawn to the man and woman together, and this
appears strange at first when it remarked that within the last the few weeks the police have been
keeping a particularly keen watch upon suspicious couples. The murderer probably avoided much blood-
staining on account of the woman being on her back at the time of the outrage, and leaving the square
by either of the courts he would be able to pass quickly away through the many narrow thoroughfares
without exciting observation. But one of the most extraordinary incidents in connection with the crime is
that not the slightest scream or noise was heard. A watchman is employed at one of the warehouses in
the square, and in a direct line but a few yards away on the other side of the square a City policeman
was sleeping. Many people would be in the immediate neighbourhood, even at this early hour, making
preparations for the market which takes place every Sunday in Middlesex-street (formerly Petticoat-lane)
and the adjacent thoroughfares. Taking everything into account, therefore, the murder must be
pronounced one of extraordinary daring and brutality. The effect it has had upon the residents in the East
of London is extraordinary. All day crowds thronged the streets leading to Mitre-square discussing the
crime, and the police in the neighbourhood of the square, under Inspector Izzard and Sergeants Dudman
and Philps and other officers, were fully occupied in keeping back the excited and curious people.

A man named Albert Baskert [Bachert] has made the following statement: I was in the Three Nuns Hotel,
Aldgate, on Saturday night when a man got into conversation with me. He asked me questions which
now appear to me to have some bearing upon the recent murders. He wanted to know whether I knew
what sort of loose women used the public bar at the house, when they usually left the street outside, and
where they were in the habit of going. He asked further questions, and from his manner seemed up to no
good purpose. He appeared to be a "shabby-genteel" sort of man, and was dressed in black clothes. He
wore a black felt hat, and carried a black bag. We came out together at closing-time (twelve o'clock), and
I left him outside Aldgate Railway Station.

Morris, the night-watchman in Mitre-square, has made a statement, in which he says that at about a
quarter to two o'clock the policeman upon the beat knocked at the door of the warehouse. When he
replied the constable said, "For God's sake, man, come out and assist me; another woman has been
ripped open!" He said, "All right; keep yourself cool while I light a lamp." Having done so, he
accompanied the constable to the south-west corner of the square, where he saw a woman lying
stretched upon the pavement, with her throat cut and horribly mutilated. He then left the constable and
proceeded into Aldgate, where he blew his whistle, and other police officers soon made their appearance.
The whole shape of the woman was marked out in blood upon the pavement. In addition to her throat
being cut there were two slashes across the face, one of the cuts almost completely severing the nose.
The woman's face was so mutilated that he could not describe what she was like. She wore a dark skirt
and a black bonnet, and her appearance was exceedingly shabby. The strangest part of the whole thing
was that he did not hear the slightest sound. As a rule he could hear the footsteps of the policeman as he
passed on his beat every quarter of an hour, so that it appeared impossible that the woman could have
uttered any sound without his detecting it. It was only on the night that he remarked to some policemen
that he wished the "butcher" would come round Mitre-square and he would give him a doing; yet the
"butcher" had come and he was perfectly ignorant of it.

THE INQUEST.

Mr. Wynne E. Baxter, coroner of South-East Middlesex, opened the inquiry on Monday morning at the
Vestry Hall, St. George's-in-the-East, on the body of Elizabeth Stride, the woman who was murdered in
Berner-street, Commercial-road, on Sunday morning.

The first witness called was William West, of 40, Berner-street, Commercial-road, printer. He said: I live
on the premises; it is the International Working Men's Educational Club. There are two windows on the
ground floor facing the street, and the door opens into the same street. At the side of the house there is
a passage into a yard, and there are two wooden gates at the entrance to the yard; they open into the
street. The first passage into the club leads into a room, and the door opens out of this passage. The
gates are open at all hours of the day, but are mostly closed at night. The door is not closed till the
members leave. There is no particular person to look after it. The room contains three doors leading into
the yard. There is no other way out of the yard except through the gate. Opposite the gate there is a
workshop, which belongs to a sack manufacturer. There is a stable on the left-hand side before you come
to the club. One room is used as a printing office; the men from which left, I should think, about two
o'clock in the afternoon. It is a Socialist club, and any working man, whatever his nationality, who
professes Socialism, can be a member. I left the club for home at a quarter past twelve o'clock. In the
evening there had been a discussion going on in the large room on the first floor, in which there are two
windows looking into the street. About one hundred persons were present on Saturday. - When did the
discussion cease? About midnight, and the bulk of the people left the premises then. - Which way did
they go out? Through the street door, which is the most convenient. Some of the members, about thirty,
remained behind. These latter were singing and discussing various questions. - Were the windows open?
Partly. - Where did you go when you left? To my lodgings, 2, William-street, Cannon-street-road. - Which
way did you go out of the club? - I went out of the yard passage. I noticed the gates were open, so I
went that way. - Is there any light in the yard? None whatever. - Are there any lamps in the street that
light the yard? There are lamps, but not opposite. - How is the yard lighted? By the light of the club
windows. - When you left the club did anything attract your attention? No, sir; I noticed nothing as I
looked towards the gates. - Was there anything on the ground? I can't say. - Might there have been? I
don't know, it was rather dark, so there might have been. - Did you notice anyone in the yard? No, sir. -
Did you meet anybody in Berner-street? I can't recollect; but as I went along Fairclough-street, close by,
I noticed some men and women standing together. - Did you see no one nearer? No, sir. - Have you ever
seen a man and woman in the yard? About twelve months ago I happened to go into the yard and heard
some chatting near the gate, and I at once went there and shut the gate.

Morris Eagle, 4, New-road, Commercial-road said: I am a traveller and a member of the Socialist Club. I
was at the club on Saturday night, and did not leave till after the discussion. I went through the front
door on my way out at a quarter-past twelve, but returned to the club about twenty to one. When I
returned the front door was closed, so I went in at the back door in the yard and along the passage into
the club. - Did you notice anything lying on the ground? No; I did not notice anything as I came in. -
Could anything have lain there and you not seen it? I don't think so. - How wide is the passage? About
nine feet. - Can you say whether the body was lying there then? I could not say for certain. It was very
dark near the gates, and only the lights from the club shone into the yard. - If a man and woman had
been there would you have seen them? Oh yes; I should certainly have seen them. - When did you hear
of the murder? A member called Gidleman told me there was a dead woman in the yard. I went, and saw
the woman lying there in much blood. Her feet were about six or seven feet from the gate. - Was she
against the club wall? Yes, sir. - Her head towards the yard? Yes, her feet to the gate and her head to the
yard. I struck a light and saw her covered in blood. I could not look at her long, so I ran for the police.
Another man went for them at the same time. We could not find one at first; but when we got to the
corner of Grove-street, Commercial-road, I found two constables and I told them there was a woman
murdered in Berner-street. One of them turned his light on down the yard. There were lots of people
present in the yard at the time we returned. One of the constables said to his companion, "Go for a
doctor," and turning to me he said, "Go to the police-station for the inspector." - Did anyone appear to be
touching the body? The policeman touched the body; not those standing close by. The people seemed
afraid to go near it. - Cad [sic] you fix the time the discovery was made? About one o'clock was the time
that I first saw the body. I did not notice the time, but I have calculated it from the time I left home to
return to the club.
By a Juror: On Saturday night there is a free discussion at the club, and any one can go in. There were
some women there on Saturday night. They were only those we knew - no strange women. It was not a
dancing night, but there may have been a little dancing among the members after the discussion.
The Coroner: If there were singing and dancing going on would you have been likely to have heard the
cry of a woman in great distress - a cry of murder, for instance - from the yard? Oh, we should certainly
have heard such a cry.

Lewis Deimshitz said: I live at 40, Berner-street, and am steward of the International Working Men's
Educational Club. I am married, and my wife lives there too. She assists in the management of the club. I
left home about half-past eleven on Saturday morning, and returned home exactly at one o'clock on
Sunday morning. I noticed the time at Harris's tobacco shop at the corner of Commercial-road and
Berner-street. It was one o'clock. I had a barrow, something like a costermonger's with me. I was sitting
in it, and a pony was drawing it. It is a two-wheeled barrow. The pony is kept at George-yard, Cable-
street. I do not keep it in the yard of the club. I was driving home to leave my goods. I drove into the
yard. Both gates were wide open. It was rather dark there. I drove in as usual, and, all at once, as I
came into the gate, the pony shied to the left. That caused me to turn my head down to the ground on
my right to see what it was that had made him shy. - Could you see anything? I could see that there was
something unusual on the pavement. I could not see what it was. It was a dark object. There was
nothing white about it. I did not get off the barrow, but I tried with my whip handle to feel what it was. I
tried to lift it up, but I could not. I jumped down at once and struck a match, and as it was rather windy I
could not get sufficient light to see exactly what it was. I could, however, see that there was the figure of
some person lying there. I could tell by the dress that it was a woman. I did not disturb it. I went into the
club and asked where my missus was. I saw her in the front room on the ground floor. There were
several members in the front room where my wife was, and I told them all, "There is a woman lying in
the yard, but I could not say whether she was drunk or dead." I then took a candle and went out at once,
and by the candlelight I could see that there was blood about before I reached the body. I did not touch
the body, but went off at once for the police. We passed several streets without meeting a policeman,
and we returned without one. All the men who were with me halloaed as loud as they could for the
police, but no one came. When I returned a man that we met in Grove-street, and who came back with
us, took hold of the head, and as we lifted it up I first saw the wound in the throat. At the very same
time Eagle and the constable arrived. I noticed nothing unusual on my approach to the club, and met no
one that looked at all suspicious. The doctor arrived about ten minutes after the constable arrived. The
police afterwards took our names and addresses and searched everybody. - Did you notice if her clothes
were in order? In perfect order as far as I could see. - How was she lying? She was lying on her side,
with her face towards the wall of the club. I could not say whether the body was on its side, but her face
was. As soon as the police came I ceased to take any interest in the matter. I did not notice in what
position her hands were. I only noticed when the doctor came up he undid the first buttons of her dress
next the neck, and put his hand it. He then told the constable that she was quite warm yet. He told the
constable to put his hand in and feel the body, and he did so. There appeared to me to have been about
two quarts of blood on the ground, and it seemed to have run up the yard from her neck. The body was
lying, I should say, about a foot from the club wall. The gutter of the yard passage is made of paving
stones, the centre being of irregular boulders. The body was lying half on the paving stones. - Have you
ever seen men and women in the yard? Never. - Have you ever heard anyone say that they have found
men and women there? I have not.
By a Juror: Was there room for you to have passed the body with your cart? Oh, yes. Mine is not a very
wide cart; it only took up the centre of the passage. If my pony had not shied perhaps I would not have
noticed it at all. When I got down my cart passed the body. The barrow was past the body when I got
down to see what it was.
Another Juror: Was any one left in charge of the body while you went for the police? I cannot say, but
there were several about when I came back. I cannot say positively, but I do not believe any one touched
the body.
Detective-Inspector Reid: All the people who came into the yard were detained and searched? Yes, and
their names and addresses were taken. The first question was whether they had any knives. They were
then asked to account for their presence there.
By a Juror: Would it have been possible for anyone to have escaped from the yard if he had been hiding
there while you went into the club to inform the members? Yes, it would have been possible; but as soon
as I informed the members everyone went out, and I do not think it would have been possible for anyone
to get out then. - If anyone had run up the yard would you have seen him? Yes, because it is dark just in
the gateway; but further up the yard you could see anybody running or walking by the lights of the club.
- Do you think anyone could have come out of the gateway without you seeing them? No, I think they
could not.

Detective-Inspector Reid stated that the body had not been identified yet.
The Coroner: It has been partially identified: but it is a mistake to say that she has been identified by
one of her relatives. It is known, however, where she lived. At this stage in inquiry was adjourned.

The Lord Mayor, acting upon the advice of Colonel Sir James Fraser, K.C.B., the Commissioner of City
Police, has, in the name of the Corporation of London, offered a reward of £500 for the detection of the
Whitechapel murderer, the last crime having been committed within the jurisdiction of the City. The
Common Council have confirmed this action of his lordship.

The following is the placard offering the reward:-

"MURDER - £500 REWARD,

"Whereas, at 1:45 a.m. on Sunday, the 30th of September, a woman, name unknown, was found brutally
murdered in Mitre-square, Aldgate, in this City, a reward of £500 will be paid by the Commissioner of
Police of the City of London to any person (other than a person belonging to a police force in the United
Kingdom) who shall give such information as shall lead to the discovery and conviction of the murderer
or murderers.
"Information to be given to the Inspector of the Detective Department, 26, Old Jewry, or at any police-
station.

"JAMES FRASER, Colonel, Commissioner.

"City of London Police Office, 26 Old Jewry,
"October 1st, 1888."

Mr. Marks has sent a cheque for £300 to the Home Secretary, on behalf of several subscribers, and
requested him to offer that sum, in the name of the Government, as a reward for the discovery of the
perpetrators of the murders. In returning the cheque, Mr. E. L. Pemberton writes from the Home Office:-
"If Mr. Matthews had been of opinion that the offer of a reward in these cases would have been attended
by any useful result he would himself have at once made such an offer, but he is not of that opinion.
Under these circumstances, I am directed to return you the cheque (which I enclose) and to thank you
and the gentlemen whose names you have forwarded, for the liberality of their offer, which Mr. Matthews
much regrets he is unable to accept."

The prompt action of the Lord Mayor in offering a reward for the apprehension of the Mitre-square
murderer has been received with general satisfaction. The sum offered by his lordship, together with
£400 which two newspapers offer to supply, the £100 offered by Mr. Montagu, M.P., and the £200
collected by the Vigilance-Committee, make an aggregate sum of £1,200. It is probable that the reward
will be increased to £2,000, as the Lord Mayor has been urged to open a subscription list, and some
members of the Stock Exchange seem disposed to take the matter up.

A singular story is being investigated by the police at Kentish-town. About nine o'clock on Monday
morning the proprietor of the Nelson Tavern, Victoria-road, Kentish-town, entered an outbuilding for the
purpose of pointing out to a builder some alterations he desired executed, when a paper parcel was
noticed behind the door. No particular importance was attached to the discovery until an hour later, when
Mr. Chinn, the publican, while reading the newspaper, was struck with the similarity of this bundle with
the one of which the police have issued a description, as having been seen in the possession of the man
last seen in company of the woman Stride. The police at the Kentish-town-road Police-station were
acquainted with the discovery, and a detective officer was sent to prosecute inquiries. It was then
discovered that the parcel had not been picked up, but had been kicked into the roadway, where the
paper burst, and revealed a pair of dark trousers. The description of the man wanted for the murders
gives the colour of the trousers he wore to be dark. The fragments of paper were collected and found to
be stained with blood, and it is stated that some hair was found amongst some congealed blood attached
to the paper. It was subsequently ascertained from some lads who had been dragging the trousers
through the Castle-road that a poor man picked up the article of clothing and carried it off.

AN ATTEMPT TO MURDER.

On Monday morning, at the Thames Police-court, William Seaman, forty, a builder of 11, Prince's-street
Whitechapel, was charged with attempting to murder John Simkin, a chemist, of 82, Berner-street,
Whitechapel. Inspector R. Thresher, H Division, watched the case on behalf of the Commissioners of
Police. Prosecutor was now able to attend. He stated that on Saturday night, the 8th ult., at ten minutes
to twelve, he was about closing his shop-door when prisoner came in alone. He asked for a pennyworth
of zinc ointment. Witness got the ointment and gave it to him. Seaman then asked for a pennyworth of
powdered alum. Whilst witness was serving accused behind the counter he was facing witness. Suddenly
the prisoner struck him a heavy blow with a hammer on the head. Witness had his hat on at the time,
but could not say how it got off, as it was afterwards found in the road. This blow caught him on the
forehead. Directly the prisoner hit him he rushed round the counter, and again struck him with the
hammer. The accused then dropped the hammer, and witness picked it up and gave it to a man who
came in. Witness was cut at the back of the ear, and was bruised all over the body. That was the first day
he had been able to get out. He had never before seen the prisoner, and he appeared sober. Witness was
covered with blood. By Seaman: Witness did not weigh the alum. Prisoner: What is it a pound? That is
what caused the dispute. Dr. Francis John Allen M.D., of No. 1, Dock-street, stated that when he was
called to the prosecutor he found him suffering from a wound on the forehead and one behind the left
ear. The latter was very much swollen and bruised. Prosecutor had considerable difficulty in swallowing,
and witness should say he had been seized by the throat. Prosecutor was also bruised all over his body,
and at one time his life was in considerable danger through the injuries he had received. The hammer
produced would cause the injuries on the forehead. Henry John Smith, a warehouseman of 6, Chamber-
street, Whitechapel, said that on the night in question he was opposite the prosecutor's shop, when he
heard a scream. He then saw prosecutor's daughter, who called out to witness "They are murdering my
father!" Witness went into the shop, and saw prisoner having hold of the prosecutor's throat and
punching him about the face and chest. Prosecutor was covered with blood. Witness helped to hold the
prisoner until a constable came. Charles M'Carthy, labourer, of 11, Ellen-place, Ellen-street, Whitechapel,
stated that about twelve o'clock on the night of Saturday three weeks he was walking along Ellen-street.
He heard a scream in the direction of Berner-street. He went into a chemist's shop at 82, Berner-street,
kept by John Simkin. He saw Mr. Simkin with his white beard all over blood. He was behind his counter,
and prisoner was standing in the shop. Mr. Simkin said to witness "Here is the hammer he hit me with,"
and gave it to witness. The prisoner made no attempt to escape, and made no remark. The police came
and took the prisoner into custody. Constable 85H said when he arrested the accused he said "I shan't
tell you what I did it for, but I will tell the magistrate". He had been drinking. When he entered the shop,
prisoner had hold of prosecutor tightly by the throat, and was punching him in the ribs with his right fist.
The witness M'Carthy handed him the hammer. The prisoner having been formally cautioned, said, "I will
say nothing". Mr. Saunders committed him for trial on the charge of attempted murder.

BURGLARIES IN LONDON.

When the post-office in High-street, Aldgate, but a few yards from where the murder took place on
Sunday, was opened on Monday morning it was discovered that it had been entered by burglars and the
safe forced. The thieves, who must have done their work between Saturday evening and the following
morning, appeared to have first entered some adjoining unoccupied premises, and then, forcing the
trapdoor, walked downstairs. Making a hole in the staircase they went into the cellar, and from there they
got into the office, which is situated on the ground floor. The safe is kept under the counter, and the thief
or thieves made a hole in the side, but were unable to reach the gold, and therefore only abstracted a
small sum and some stamps. Considering the number of police who must have been all round the
building in consequence of the recent murder, the robbery is a most daring one. The police were at once
on the spot and Inspector Izzard, and Detectives Bacon, Hunt and Leamen are now investigating the
matter. A later account says that the robbery turns out to be more serious than was at first supposed.
The safe contained an unusually large amount of money, £370 being locked up in one of the drawers of
the safe, and about £49 being in an ordinary bowl just inside one of the compartments. Stamps to the
amount of about £350 were also in the safe. The burglars, after discovering the safe, proceeded to
wrench open one of the sides. They were successful in this, and managed to reach the money in the bowl
and the stamps, which they took. The drawer in which the larger amount of cash was locked was
subjected to very rough treatment; but, fortunately, it resisted the thieves' efforts. A sum of about £3,
belonging to the postmaster, was also taken from an upper room in the house. The fact that the office
had been broken into was discovered by a clerk on his arrival at eight o'clock on Monday morning. On
entering the passage he saw that some of the stairs leading from the upper part of the house, and over
some steps by which the cellar is reached from the office, had been forced up. He at once informed the
police, who then found the damage to the safe. Careful examination by the police shows that the burglars
first entered an empty warehouse in Duke-street, just round the corner, and then got into the office
through the trap door on the roof. For some time the safety of the office has been suspected by the
police and Post Office authorities, who have noticed the comparative ease by which it could be entered
from the back on account of the adjacent premises being unoccupied. It is supposed that the robbery
took place on Saturday night, for it seems astonishing that any thieves should have been daring enough
to enter the premises after the great commotion caused by the discovery of the murders but a few yards
away, and the consequent presence of so many police in the district. The thieves do not appear to have
left anything behind them which can assist the police. It was officially stated that the amount stolen from
the Aldgate post-office is £250 in stamps, ranging from the value of a ½d. to 10s., while £50 in money
was also taken.

SHOCKING DISCOVERY IN WESTMINSTER.

HORRIBLE MUTILATION.

The inhabitants of Westminster appear to have only on Tuesday morning realised the ghastly enormity of
the crime which the discovery of human remains on the site of the new police head-quarters in Whitehall
revealed. The details of the discovery are the all-absorbing theme of conversation in the district, and the
horrors of the East-end have apparently, at least in this locality, lapsed as of minor importance compared
with the discovery of a seventh dreadful crime, this time in the West-end of the Metropolis. The police
and medical men connected with the affair were early astir, Dr. Bond, the divisional police-surgeon, and
Dr. Hibbert, the assistant surgeon, arriving at the mortuary shortly after seven o'clock for the purpose of
holding the post-mortem examination. The body was taken to a building near the House of Lords at
seven o'clock last night, and after having been seen by Dr. Bond, who had the remains placed in spirits,
they were carefully locked up and left in charge of the police, who had a constable doing duty at the
doors of the mortuary throughout the night. The doctors continued engaged until a quarter to nine
o'clock, when the examination was completed, having lasted about an hour and a half. The trunk - or
rather the upper portion of a trunk - is said to have been much decomposed. The examination of the
remains by the medical gentlemen was necessarily limited in consequence of the advanced state of
decomposition in which the trunk was found, but was nevertheless of a searching character. Dr. Bond,
who conducted the autopsy, declined to give any particulars as to the result of their investigations before
they had made their official report to the authorities, which would be immediately. He stated that it was
intended to obtain the arm which was discovered in the Thames on the 11th of September from the
Ebury-street Mortuary, where it has been preserved, in order to discover, if possible, whether the arm is
part of the same body which has been so terribly mutilated and distributed over the metropolis. The arm
which was discovered at Lambeth last week is not considered to have any connection with the present
case, but notwithstanding, it will, it is stated, be taken to the Westminster Mortuary, together with the
limb from Pimlico, and for the same purpose. It has not yet been decided whether an inquest will be held,
and this decision will probably depend upon the nature of the report of Dr. Bond, who was instructed by
Mr. Troutbeck to make the post-mortem examination. Dr. Bond gives it as his opinion that one will be
held.

The detectives commenced their investigations at an equally early hour. Their inquiries at the works
where the body was found were resumed, but the result appears to be very discouraging. The officer's
operations were confined to questioning the workmen employed on the building and to examining the
works in quest of any other portions of a body which might have been deposited there, or a clue to the
person or persons who put the remains where they were found. From what can be ascertained they have
conclusively established the period about which the parcel was placed in the vault. They have ascertained
that it was not in the vault on Saturday - at least, so several of the workmen assert. It appears that
several of the men were in the habit of concealing their tools in this particular vault, and could not have
failed to have noticed the bundle, although it was situated in a dark spot, had it been there on Saturday
afternoon when the men left work. It has been ascertained that the bundle was first noticed in the vault
on Monday morning the first thing. A carpenter went there for his tools, and supposed the remains to be
something belonging to one of the workmen, and took no notice of them; but as they had not been
removed on the following day, he called attention to the parcel, when it was opened by George Budgen,
with the results already known. It is therefore evident that it was placed in the vault between Saturday
afternoon and Monday morning. As to how it was placed there, and by whom, there has been nothing yet
discovered to show. A minute search is being continued on the works for any further portions of this
unfortunate victim's body, which it is thought may have been secreted about the foundation.

It appears that about three o'clock on Tuesday afternoon a labourer engaged upon the buildings for the
New Central Police Offices, Cannon-row, Westminster, noticed a large bundle in a vault tied up with cord,
and drew the attention of the assistant-foreman to it, who ordered him to pull it out and untie it. Upon
doing so he found wrapped up in an old black skirt the trunk of a human being much decomposed. The
police at King-street Police-station were at once communicated with, and Inspector Marshall, from the
Criminal Investigation Department, took charge of the remains, and immediately summoned a doctor.
The arms, the legs, and the head had been cut off, and were missing. Nothing in the shape of clothing
beyond the black skirt referred to covered the remains, which are those of a female of about twenty-five
years of age, so far as it was possible to judge. An opinion was expressed that the body had probably
been dead for about a month.

Dr. Nevill, who examined the arm of a female found a few weeks ago in the Thames, off Ebury-bridge,
said on that occasion that he did not think that it had been skillfully taken from the body, and this fact
would appear to favour the theory that the arm, together with the one found in the grounds of the Blind
Asylum in the Lambeth-road last week, belong to the trunk discovered on Tuesday, for it is stated that
the limbs appear to have been taken from the body in anything but a skillful manner.

Mr. Troutbeck has decided to hold an inquest on the remains found in Whitehall, but the date has not yet
been fixed. The inquiry is not, however, expected to be held until three days' time at the least. The police
state that they have no further information.

THE WESTMINSTER WIFE MURDER.

At the Westminster Police-court, on Monday, John Brown, forty-five, a labourer, working in St. James's
Park, was charged with murdering his wife, Sarah, by cutting her throat at 11, Regent-gardens, Regency-
street, Westminster. Mr. Chief-superintendent Dunlop attended on behalf of the Commissioners of Police.
Constable Powell, 499 A, deposed that at eleven o'clock on Saturday night he was at the police station
(Rochester-row) door, when the prisoner came running up, and in reply to a question thrice repeated as
to his business, he said, "I have stabbed my wife!" He seemed out of breath. I at once took him to Mr.
Fairey, the inspector on duty, to whom he repeated the statement. Inspector D. Fairey, A Division, said
that the prisoner was brought into the charge-room by the last witness. Brown said, "I have stabbed my
wife at 11, Regent-gardens." Detective-sergeant Waldock was dispatched to see if the information was
correct, and the prisoner, who had a wild look about the eyes, was detained. He was perfectly sober. After
the lapse of a quarter of an hour a message was received from Sergeant Waldock, and then the prisoner
was formally charged with the murder of his wife and placed in a cell. A large spring-backed knife, with a
single blade stained with fresh blood, was found on him. Prisoner was placed in the cell, and witness
went to 11, Regent-gardens, and there, in a front room on the ground floor, he saw a woman lying in a
pool of blood, with her head near the fireplace and her throat cut in two places. She was quite dead. The
prisoner made no answer at all to the charge, and only exclaimed, "I have nothing to say." His heavy
boots (produced) were stained with blood.
By the Magistrate: The spring-backed knife produced had recently been sharpened. Constable Brown, 88
A, corroborated Inspector Fairey's evidence as to what occurred in the charge-room, and said that on
receiving orders to look after the prisoner he said, "I shan't run away; I am only too glad to get here." He
took the spring-backed knife out of his pocket and said, "This is what I have done it with. I hope she is
dead; she had led me a pretty dance." Detective-sergeant Waldock said he went to 11, Regent-gardens,
with a constable after the prisoner had given himself up. On arriving there he found two little boys in
their shirts, standing at the door, crying. The prisoner is their stepfather. Witness went into the front
parlour and saw a woman with her throat cut lying on the floor, with her head resting on her right arm.
There was a large quantity of blood about, and she was quite dead, though still warm. Near her head lay
her bonnet. Charles Redding, living at 12, Regent-gardens, next door to the little three roomed house
occupied solely by the prisoner and his family, stated that during the last three months they had
frequently quarrelled. Shortly before eleven o'clock on Saturday he heard scuffling in the prisoner's front
room, then a cry of distress from a woman of "Oh, don't!" This was followed by a dull thud on the floor,
and all became quiet. He went to the front door of his house immediately, and saw the prisoner leaving
his house. He slammed the door after him, and very hurriedly left the gardens. Mr. Partridge: Did you
speak to him? Witness: No. My wife and I went to knock at his door, as we were alarmed. The eldest boy,
Robert Young, opened it and he made a statement which caused my wife to go for a policeman. Deceased
was in the sitting-room. By the Magistrate: I have observed that the prisoner has been rather strange in
his manner lately. He always looked very much excited. Mr. L. Archer, M.R.C.S. 38, Vincent-square,
Westminster, said he was called by the police to the deceased on Saturday night. She had two cuts on
her throat - one, only a deep flesh wound, an inch and a half long, and a lower one which had divided the
upper part of the trachea and gone right to the backbone. The last-described injury was undoubtedly the
cause of death. Very considerable violence must have been used to have inflicted the wounds. Deceased
was a woman about forty years of age and healthy. Robert Young, a stepson of the accused, nine years of
age, said that the prisoner came home from work on Saturday afternoon and his mother was frightened
of him. She intended to leave him on Saturday night. He told her that he had "something in a box" for
her, and that then he intended to give himself up. Witness knew that his mother went out to see her
eldest daughter, and, though he had been sent to bed, he heard his stepfather going in and out. He
heard the noise of a scuffle and was aroused by the knocking of the neighbours. By the Magistrate: Six or
seven weeks ago the prisoner went to Westminster Hospital, and was there three or four weeks. He
subsequently went to a convalescent home, and on his return there was something the matter with him.
He kept saying that mother let men into the house, and would look for them before he went to work in
the morning and when he came home at night, lighting matches to peer into corners. One night he
walked about and lit an entire box of matches. He sharpened the large knife (produced) every day,
before mother, both at dinner-time and tea-time, although he did not use it to [eat] his meals. On
Saturday when he came home from work the deceased told him (witness) that the prisoner was going to
try and kill her. The prisoner never got drunk; he only had a little beer at night-time. Superintendent
Dunlop asked for a remand, and the prisoner, who had asked no questions, and had all along manifested
an indifferent attitude, was remanded. It is stated that the deceased on the night of the murder went to
the district medical officer, and also expressed her fear to the police as to the prisoner's conduct.

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 home > press reports > illustrated police news > illustrated police news - 20 october 1888

Introduction
Victims Illustrated Police News
Suspects
20 October, 1888
Witnesses
THE EAST-END MURDERS.
Ripper Letters [SUBJECT OF ILLUSTRATION].
Police Officials
Official Documents The adjourned inquest on the body of Catherine Eddowes, alias Kelly, aged forty-three, who was found
Press Reports murdered in Mitre-square on September 30th, was resumed on Thursday morning at the City Mortuary,
Victorian London before Mr. S. F. Langham, City Coroner.
Message Boards
Ripper Media MORE MEDICAL EVIDENCE.
Authors
Dr. Sequeira was the first witness called. He said he was called to Mitre-square on September 30th, and
Dissertations
was the first medical man to arrive. He got to the place about five minutes to two o'clock. He agreed with
Timelines
the medical evidence already given by Dr. Goodwin [Gordon] Brown and by Mr. Crawford. He was
Games & Diversions
acquainted with the locality. The place where the deceased was found was the darkest place. There
Photo Archive
would, however, be plenty of light for the murderer to see to inflict the injuries. Mr. Crawford: From what
Ripper Wiki
you have seen, have you formed an opinion that the perpetrator of the deed had or had not any design
Casebook Examiner
to obtain any particular part of the body? I have formed the opinion that he had no design on any
Ripper Podcast
particular organ. Judging from the injuries, would you say the murderer had any anatomical skill? No, I
About the Casebook
should say not. Dr. Saunders the medical officer of health for the City of London, who analysed the
contents of the stomach, said he could find no trace of poison. He was present at the post-mortem
examination, and he agreed with Dr. Goodwin Brown and the last witness that the perpetrator of the
deed did not possess any anatomical skill, nor had he, in his opinion, any particular design on any
particular organ.

A DAUGHTER OF THE DECEASED.

The next witness was Anne Phillips, a daughter of the deceased, who said she was married, her husband
being a lampblack packer, living at Dilston-grove, Southwark. Her mother always told her that she was
married to her father, whose name was Thomas Conway, and he was a hawker. Her father left her mother
and witness suddenly seven or eight years ago, and she did not know what had become of him - did not
even know whether her father was living. He had been a pensioner. She last saw her mother about two
years ago. Witness used to live at King-street, Bermondsey; that was two years ago. She did not leave
her address when she left there, and her mother did not know her address, which was kept from her to
prevent her from applying to them for money. Witness's father knew that the deceased was living with a
man named Kelly. Her mother last received money from witness two years ago, when she attended
witness during her confinement. It was two years ago also when she last saw Kelly with her mother, in a
common lodging-house. She had lost all trace of her father, her mother, and her two brothers for the last
eighteen months. A Juryman: Why have you not seen your mother for the last eighteen months? We did
not part on very good terms. She used to drink. Police-sergeant John Mitchell, said he had made every
endeavour to find the father and brothers but without success. He had found a pensioner named Conway
belonging to the 18th Royal Irish, and he had been confronted by the sister of the deceased, but she
admitted he was not the husband of the murdered woman. Every endeavour had been made to arrest the
murderer. Detective-sergeant Baxter Hunt gave corroborative evidence.

LOCKED UP UNTIL JUST BEFORE THE MURDER.

Police-constable Roberts [Robinson] deposed that on the Saturday night, at ten minutes to nine, before
the murder, the deceased was lying on the footway in High-street, Aldgate, drunk, and surrounded by a
crowd of people. He sat her up against the shutters and she fell down again. He obtained assistance and
conveyed her to the Bishopsgate Police-station, when she was asked what her name was. She replied,
"Nothing!" She was then wearing an apron, which he identified as the one produced - a portion of which
was found on the body and another in Goulston-street after the murder. Police-constable Byfield said he
remembered the deceased being brought to the station on the Saturday night, at about a quarter to nine
o'clock, drunk. She remained at the station until one o'clock in the morning, and gave her name as being
Mary Ann Kelly, of Fashion-street. Deceased told him she had been hopping in Kent.

DISCOVERY OF THE CRIME.

Most Recent Posts:
Other Mysteries: Bible John George James Morris, watchman to Messrs. Kearley and Tonge, tea dealers, Mitre-square, said that at a
(General Discussion) - by quarter to two in the morning Police constable Watkins came to him in a most agitated manner, and said,
Herlock Sholmes 2 minutes ago.
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 &
"Oh dear! - here is another woman murdered in the corner!" Witness had not seen any suspicious person
MJK3 camera positions - plan about at the time. If there had been any cry of distress he would certainly have heard it. Police-constable
view. (Warning - graphic
images) - by richardh 8
James Harvey testified that he was called to the square by the watchman Morris. He had care of the
minutes ago. prisoners at Bishopsgate-street.
Other Mysteries: Bible John
(General Discussion) - by
Herlock Sholmes 31 minutes
TALKING TO A MAN.
ago.
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 & Dr. Joseph Lawende, commercial traveller, said that on Saturday night he was at the Imperial Club in
MJK3 camera positions - plan Duke-street, Aldgate, and accompanied by some friends, he passed Church-passage, near Mitre-square,
view. (Warning - graphic
images) - by Simon Wood 58 where he saw a man and a woman together. He saw the woman's back, but did not see her face. The
minutes ago. man was taller than the woman, who wore a black jacket and a black bonnet. The man wore a cloth cap
Mary Jane Kelly: Why is that
linen so odd? *Graphic
with a peak. He had given a description of the man to the police. (Mr. Crawford here said in the interest
Warning* - by Scott Nelson 2 of justice he did not desire that this description should be published, and the coroner said he was quite
hours ago.
right.) Asked would he know the man again, witness doubted it. It was a few minutes after half-past one.
Other Mysteries: Bible John
(General Discussion) - by Neither the man nor the woman appeared in an angry mood? She placed her hand on the man's breast
cobalt 2 hours ago. as though to push him away. He was not curious enough to look back to see where they went. He had
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 &
MJK3 camera positions - plan
seen the clothes of the deceased, and believed they were the same as those worn by the woman he saw
view. (Warning - graphic in the street. Mr. Joseph Levy, of Hutchinson-street, Aldgate, said he was with the last witness. He did
images) - by richardh 2 hours
ago. not like to go home by himself and meet such characters. He expressed his fears when he saw the man
Other Mysteries: Bible John and woman and hurried on.
(General Discussion) - by
Herlock Sholmes 3 hours ago.
THE WRITING ON THE WALL.
Most Popular Threads:
Police-constable Long next went into the box and gave evidence of the finding of a portion of the
Pub Talk: Irritations - (36
posts) deceased's apron in Goulston-street on the morning of the murder. It was lying in the passage leading to
Other Mysteries: Bible John the staircase of some model dwellings. Above it on the wall was written in chalk, "The Jews are the men
(General Discussion) - (27
posts)
who will not be blamed for nothing." The apron was not at this spot at twenty minutes after two. He
Hutchinson, George: A closer could form no opinion as to whether the writing on the wall had been recently done. The word "Jews" was
look at George Hutchinson - spelt "Juees." Detective Halse, of the City police force, said that he saw some chalk writing on the wall in
(10 posts)
Goulston-street. Detective-superintendent M'William shortly afterwards arrived, and gave directions for
General Victim Discussion:
What Makes A Victim? - (5 the writing to be photographed, but afterwards, thinking that the writing might cause a riot, and that
posts)
there might be an outbreak against the Jews, decided to have the writing rubbed out. Mr. Crawford: Did
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 &
MJK3 camera positions - plan anyone suggest taking away the word "Jews" and leaving the rest to be photographed? Yes, I did. It was
view. (Warning - graphic the fear of a riot that caused the writing to be rubbed off? Yes. The writing was on the ground of the
images) - (4 posts)
Metropolitan police force, and it was one of their officers who ordered it to be rubbed out. Witness
Mary Jane Kelly: Why is that
linen so odd? *Graphic protested against the rubbing out.
Warning* - (3 posts)
THE VERDICT.

The jury returned a verdict that the deceased was murdered by some person or persons unknown.

ELIZABETH WATTS DISCOVERED ALIVE.

Notwithstanding the apparently conclusive evidence given at the inquest by Michael Kidney as to the
identity of the Berner-street victim, many people believed that the poor creature was really Elizabeth
Watts, formerly of Bath. It will be remembered that Mrs. Mary Malcolm, of Red Lion-square, swore
positively that the deceased was her sister, Elizabeth Watts, and that she had last seen her on the
Thursday preceding the murder. The Central News state that, as a result of inquiries prosecuted by them
they have succeeded in finding Elizabeth Watts alive and well in the person of Mrs. Stokes, the hard-
working respectable wife of a brickyard labourer, living at Tottenham. Mrs. Stokes says:- "My father was
a publican in the village of Colerne, near Chippenham, Wiltshire. There were eight children in our family,
four girls and four boys. I have one sister in New Zealand, and a brother still lives in Wiltshire, but I have
no idea where the rest of the family are. My maiden name was Elizabeth Perrin. I have been married
three times. My first husband was Mr. Watts, a wine merchant at Bath, to whom I was married at Bristol.
My second husband's name was Speller, whom I married at Deal; and my third and present husband's
name is Stokes, to whom I was married at St. Andrew's Church, New Kent-road, on December 15th,
1884. He has been employed lately at Plowman's Brickfield, Tottenham. Mrs. Malcolm, who gave evidence
at the inquest, is my sister, but I have not seen her for years, and I do not expect to see her until I
attend the adjourned inquest on the 23rd inst. My sister, Mary Malcolm, has never, as she swore, given
me any money. It is untrue that I saw her on the Thursday preceding the murder. I was out washing that
day at Mrs. Peterkin's laundry, near White Hart-lane. I never used to meet her, as she said, in Red Lion-
street, to receive a shilling from her. I am not short of clothes, and I never lived in Commercial-road, nor
kept a coffee house in Poplar. I may take a little drink now and then, but my sister never saw me in
drink. My two children by my first husband, Watts, were taken from me, and that preys on my mind at
times. I never quarrelled with my first husband. Watts's friends did not approve of our marriage on
account of my being a poor girl. He was sent abroad, and died in America, leaving me with the two
children, a boy and a girl. Where they are I do not know. Their father's friends took the children from me,
and I was placed in the lunatic asylum of Fisherton House, near Salisbury. The relieving officer of Bath
got me out and I then went to live as a domestic servant at Walmer. There I made the acquaintance of
Speller, whom I afterwards married at Deal Church. He was engaged on a vessel in the Royal Navy, which
was stranded on St. Paul's Island, and there he died. His half-pay was then stopped, and I was left
destitute. Subsequently I was put in the Peckham Lunatic Asylum, under Dr. Stocker and Dr. Brown,
because I endeavoured to gain possession of my two children, whom I have never seen or heard of since
they were taken from me. The Lunacy Commissioners afterwards pronounced me to be sane, and I was
again discharged, perfectly destitute. Owing to my troubles my memory is somewhat impaired. I married
my present husband, Stokes, four years ago."

FUNERAL OF CATHERINE EDDOWES.

The funeral of Catherine Eddowes, the victim of the Mitre-square murder, took place on Monday at Ilford
Cemetery. The body was removed shortly after one o'clock from the mortuary in Golden-lane, where a
vast concourse of people had assembled. A strong force of City Police, under Mr. Superintendent Foster,
was present, and conducted the cortege to the City boundary. At Old-street a large number of the
Metropolitan Police were present under Inspector Barnham. The cortege passed Whitechapel parish
church, and along Mile-end-road, through Bow and Stratford to the cemetery. The sisters of the ill-fated
woman and the man Kelly, with whom she had lived for seven years, attended the funeral. Along the
whole route great sympathy was expressed for the relatives.

FURTHER LETTER FROM THE HOME SECRETARY.

The Home Secretary has addressed the following letter to the President of the Whitechapel Vigilance
Committee:- "Whitehall, October 6th, 1888. Sir, - The Secretary of State for the Home Department has
had the honour to lay before the Queen the petition signed by you, praying that a reward may be offered
by the Government for the discovery of the perpetrator of the recent murders in Whitechapel, and he
desires me to inform you that, though he has given directions that no effort or expense should be spared
in endeavouring to discover the person guilty of the murders, he has not been able to advise her Majesty
that in his belief the ends of justice would be promoted by any departure from the direction already
announced with regard to the proposal that a reward should be offered by Government. - I am, Sir, your
obedient servant, E. LEIGH PEMBERTON.

SIR CHARLES WARREN AND THE WRITING ON THE WALL

The Pall Mall Gazette having announced that the order for the removal of the writing was given personally
by Sir Charles Warren, who visited the spot shortly after the discovery was made, a representative of the
Press Association visited Whitehall-place on Thursday afternoon, for the purpose of asking whether this
statement was correct. The reporter saw Sir Charles Warren's private secretary, who on returning from
the Chief Commissioner's room, said, "Sir Charles Warren was in Goulston-street shortly after the
murders, and if he had wished to make any communication to the Press on the subject he would have
done so then." In reply to a further question as to whether he was to understand from this that Sir
Charles preferred to say nothing about the allegation, the reporter was informed that such was the case.

STRANGE STATEMENT FROM NEW YORK.

A news agency has received a telegram from New York with respect to a statement alleged to have been
made in that city by an English sailor bearing the peculiar name of Dodge. The statement is that he
arrived in London from China on the 13th of August by the steamship Glenorchy, that he met at the
Queen's Music-hall, Poplar, a Malay cook, and that the Malay said he had been robbed by a woman of bad
character, and unless he found the woman and recovered his money he would murder and mutilate every
Whitechapel woman he met. The statement also includes the following description of the Malay: "He was
about 5ft. 7in. in height, 130lb. in weight, and apparently thirty-five years of age." Judging from these
precise figures relating to the Malay's appearance, it is evident that Dodge must have scrutinised him
very closely. Inquiries have been made by the news agency in London, but no information has been
obtained in verification of the sailor's story.

A Reuter's telegram says the New York Herald declares that Dodge said that he knew the street where
the Malay stayed, but that he would not divulge the name until he learned what chance there was of a
reward. He stated, however, that the street was not far from the East India Dock-road, but he was not
certain about the house where the man lived. Another seaman said he thought the Malay was now on a
vessel plying in the North Sea.

REVELATIONS TO SPIRITUALISTS

A strange statement bearing upon the Whitechapel tragedies was made to the Cardiff police on Monday
by a respectable-looking elderly woman, who stated that she was a Spiritualist, and, in company with
five others, held a séance on Saturday night. They summoned the spirit of Elizabeth Stride, and after
some delay the spirit came, and, in answer to questions, stated that her murderer was a middle-aged
man, whose name she mentioned, and who resided at a given number in Commercial-road, or Street,
Whitechapel, and who belonged to a gang of twelve. At another Spiritualistic séance held at Bolton on
Tuesday a medium claims to have revealed the Whitechapel murderer. She describes him as having the
appearance of a farmer, dressed like a navvy, with a strap round his waist, and peculiar pockets. He
wears a dark moustache, and bears scars behind the ears and other places. He will, says the medium, be
caught in the act of committing another murder.

A NEW LIGHT ON THE CRIMES.

The Vienna correspondent of the Standard states that Dr. Bloch, a member of the Austrian Reichsrath for
the Galician constituency of Kokomea, has called his attention to certain facts which may throw a new
light on the Whitechapel murders, and perhaps afford some assistance in tracing the murderer. In various
German criminal codes of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as also in statutes of a more recent
date, punishments are prescribed for the mutilation of female corpses with the object of making from the
uterus and other organs the so-called "diebalichter" or "schlafslichter", respectively "thieves' candles" or
"soporific candles." According to an old superstition, still rife in various parts of Germany, the light from
such candles will throw those upon whom it falls into the deepest slumbers, and they may, consequently,
become a valuable instrument to those of the thieving profession. Hence arose their name. In regard to
these "schlafslichter," quite a literature might be cited. They are referred to by Ave Lallement in his "Das
Deutsche Gaunerthum" published in Leipzig in 1858; by Loffler, in "Die Mangelhafte Justiz" by Thiele, and
numerous others. They also played an important part in the trials of robber bands at Odenwald and in
Westphalia, in the years 1812 and 1841 respectively. The "schlafslichter" were heard of, too, at the trial
of the notorious German robber, Theodor Unger, surnamed "the handsome Charley," who was executed at
Magdeburg in 1810. It was on that occasion discovered that a regular manufactory had been established
by gangs of thieves for the production of such candles. That this superstition has survived among
German thieves to the present day was proved by a case tried at Biala, in Galicia, as recently as 1875. In
this the body of a woman had been found mutilated in precisely the same way as were the victims of the
Whitechapel murderer. At that trial, as at one which took place subsequently at Zeszow, which is also in
Galicia, and in which the accused were a certain Ritter and his wife, the prevalence among thieves of
superstition was alluded to by the Public Prosecutor. In the Ritter case, however, the Court preferred
harping on another alleged superstition of a ritual character among the Jews of Galicia, which, however,
was shown to be a pure invention of the Judenhettzer. Dr. Bloch, who for ten years was a rabbi in Galicia
and has made the superstitions of that province his special study, affirms that the "thieves' candle"
superstition still exists among robbers of every confession and, as he believes, also of every nationality.
He considers, however, that it prevails most among German thieves. Among other German laws where
the crime in question is dealt with, the "Code Theresiana," chap. xxii., clause 59, may be referred to.

TRIALS OF BLOODHOUNDS IN HYDE PARK.

Sir Charles Warren witnessed a private trial of bloodhounds in one of the London parks at an early hour
on Tuesday morning. The hounds were the property of Mr. Edwin Brough, of Wyndgate, near
Scarborough, who for years past has devoted himself to bloodhound breeding. He was communicated
with by the police, and came to London on Saturday evening, bringing with him two fine animals named
Barnaby and Burgho. Mr. Brough tried both dogs in Regent's-park at seven o'clock on Monday morning.
The ground was thickly coated with hoar frost; but they did their work well, successfully tracking for
nearly a mile a young man who was given about fifteen minutes law; they were tried again in Hyde Park
on Monday night. It was of course dark, and the dogs were hunted in a leash, as would be the case if
they were employed in Whitechapel. They were again successful in performing their allotted task, and at
seven o'clock on Tuesday morning a trial took place before the Chief Commissioner. In all half a dozen
runs were made, Sir Charles Warren in two instances acting as the hunted man. In consequence of the
coldness of the scent the hounds worked very slowly, but they demonstrated the possibility of tracking
complete strangers on to whose trails they had been laid. The Chief Commissioner seemed pleased with
the result of the trials.

A CLUE.

Superintendent Farmer, of the River Tyne Police, has received information which, it is considered, may
form a clue to the Whitechapel murders. An Austrian seaman signed articles on board a Faversham
vessel in the Tyne on Saturday, and sailed for a French port. Afterwards it was found that his signature
corresponded with the facsimile letters signed "Jack the Ripper," and that the description of the man also
corresponded with that of the Whitechapel murderer circulated by the Metropolitan Police.

Upwards of seven hundred letters giving information have been inquired into by the police, with a vast
amount of trouble, and with no success. The difficulties the police have to contend with have been
enchauced by so many men wandering about the East-end who, by their strange behaviour,
unaccountable movements, and apparent resemblance to the vague description of the man who is
wanted, have given rise to suspicions which have necessarily terminated in police investigation. The
murder scare has spread to other parts of the Metropolis, as an instance of which, about noon on
Saturday, a sensation was occasioned in the locality of High Holborn. A gentleman was proceeding along
Holborn in the direction of the City, when he was suddenly pounced upon by a strange man of the
labouring class, who exclaimed, "This is Jack the Ripper." A struggle ensued, and the two fell heavily to
the ground. The scene soon attracted a very large crowd of people, who quickly collected, thinking that
the Whitechapel murderer had been arrested. Much excitement prevailed, and the man was conveyed to
the police-station.

The following communication has been received from the Home Office, in answer to a request that a free
pardon might be proclaimed to an accomplice or accomplices of the murderer:- "October 12th, 1888, Sir
- I am desired by the Secretary of State to thank you for the suggestions in your letter of the 7th inst. on
the subject of the recent Whitechapel murders, and to say in reply that, from the first, the Secretary of
State has had under consideration the question of granting a pardon to accomplices. It is obvious that
not only must such a grant be limited to persons who have not been concerned in contriving or in
actually committing the murders, but the expediency and propriety of making the offer must largely
depend on the nature of the information received from day to day, which is being carefully watched, with
a view to determining that question. With regard to the offer of a reward, Mr. Matthews has, under the
existing circumstances, nothing to add to his former letter. - I am Sir, your obedient servant, GODFREY
LUSHINGTON."

PASSING NOTES.

The East End murderer is still at large. After another week we seem as far from capturing him as ever.
The police, in spite of all their efforts, appear to have absolutely no clue of a definite character. There is
only one comforting feature in the present state of affairs. Up to the time of writing no other murders of
the same horrible type have been committed. The police may fairly claim some credit for this fact. They
have helped to put an end to the fiendish work, and at any rate for the present. They have been assisted
by the class of women against whom the murderer's energies are directed. These poor creatures are
more careful of themselves than usual. Between the police and the women the murderer, doubtless, finds
it difficult to continue his awful operations. There is too much reason to fear that he is just biding his
time, waiting for the present precautions to be relaxed, when he will be at it again. We can only hope
that before that time arrives he will be in the clutches of the law.

***********

It is becoming quite the thing amongst the residuum to personate "Jack the Ripper." The cornerman has
at last found a change of occupation. Instead of making our streets hideous by violent and disorderly
conduct, he goes about the less frequented thoroughfares with a large knife, which he brandishes in the
face of defenceless women. It is hard to say which is the more objectionable proceeding. It is clear,
however, that this new form of idiotcy must be sternly repressed. It is satisfactory to notice that a
number of these cowardly brutes have been promptly handed over to the police. If this continues to be
done, and if the magistrates give them no quarter, they will soon give up their new game.

***********

Female detectives! This is the latest idea. Sir Charles Warren has been urged to enroll women in his
force, and the suggestion has the support of Miss Frances Power Cobbe. In a letter to the Times she says
that a female detective would pass unsuspected where a man would be instantly noticed; she could
extract gossip from other women much more freely; she could employ for whatever it might be worth
that gift of intuitive quickness and mother wit with which her sex is commonly credited. We are bound to
assume that Miss Cobbe wrote her letter in sober earnest and after mature consideration. But the
communicated certainty reads more like a grim joke than anything else. It is the female employment
question carried to a ludicrous extreme.

THE WHITEHALL MYSTERY.

[SUBJECT OF ILLUSTRATION.]

A remarkable feature in the case of the discovery of the mutilated body at Whitehall is the number of
missing women brought to the notice of the authorities by persons making inquiries respecting the
remains. It is thus shown that very many women leave their friends without communicating with them,
and pass out of site of those nearest to them. No trustworthy clue to the murder has yet been obtained
from these inquiries, though each piece of information is closely sifted.

THE INQUEST.

Mr. John Troutbeck, coroner for Westminster, opened an inquest on the remains of the woman discovered
in the vault of the new police office on the Thames-embankment. Assembling at the mortuary in
Millbank-street, the jury were sworn, and viewed the remains there, afterwards adjourning to the
Sessions House Broad-Sanctuary, where the evidence was taken.

George Budgen deposed to finding the remains.

Mr. Thomas Bond: I am a surgeon and reside at the Sanctuary, Westminster Abbey. On October 2nd,
shortly before four o'clock, I was called to the new police buildings, where I was shown the decomposed
trunk of a body. It was then lying in the basement, partially unwrapped. I visited the place where it had
been discovered, and found that the wall against which it had lain was stained black. The parcel seemed
to have been there for several days, and it was taken to the mortuary that evening and the remains
placed in spirits. On the following morning, assisted by my colleague, I made an examination. The trunk
was that of a woman of considerable statue and well nourished. The head had been separated from the
trunk by means of a saw. The lower limbs and the pelvis had been removed in the same way. The length
of the trunk was seventeen inches, and the circumference of the chest thirty-five and a half inches and
the waist twenty-eight and a half inches. The parts were decomposed, and we could not discover any
wounds. The breasts were large and prominent. The arms had been removed at the shoulder joints by
several incisions, the cuts having apparently been made obliquely from above downwards, and then
around the arm. Over the body were clearly defined marks, where string had been tied. It appeared to
have been wrapped up in a very skillful manner. We did not find marks indicating that the woman had
borne any children. On opening the chest we find that the rib cartilages were not ossified, that one lung
was healthy, but that the left lung showed signs of severe pleurisy. The substance of the heart was
healthy, and there were indications that the woman had not died either of suffocation or of drowning. The
liver and stomach, kidneys, and spleen were normal. The uterus was absent. There were indications that
the woman was of mature age - twenty-four or twenty-five years. She would have been large and well
nourished, with fair skin and dark hair. The date of death would have been from six weeks to two
months, and the decomposition occurred in the air, not the water. I subsequently examined the arm
brought to the mortuary. It was the arm of a woman, and accurately fitted to the trunk; and the general
contour of the arm corresponded to that of the body. The fingers were long and taper, and the nails well
shaped; and the hand was quite that of a person not used to manual labour.

Mr. Charles O. Hibbert, assistant to Mr. Bond, was also examined, as was likewise Inspector Marshall, of
the Criminal Investigation Department. The inquest was adjourned for a fortnight.

FRESH EVIDENCE.

The police are in possession of what is likely to prove a most important piece of evidence in connection
with the discovery of the mutilated body in a cell of the new police buildings at Westminster. It has been
supplied by an inhabitant of Llanelly, of South Wales. He happened to be in Cannon-row on the Saturday
before the body was found, and at an hour when the place was practically deserted. His attention was at
that moment directed to a man who climbed over a hoarding into the ground whereon the new police
office is being erected, and where afterwards the body was discovered. Two other men were with him,
who had a barrow on which was a bundle. The whole proceeding seemed curious, and afterwards, when
the remains were found, the South Walian "put two and two together," handed in his information, and
also a description of the man. The result is that a workman has since been interviewed in the vicinity,
who admits having been on the spot the day in question, though his business there is not very clear.
Beyond this the police, it is said, succeed in obtaining no clue.

Related pages:
Bloodhounds
Dissertations: Sir Charles Warren and the Bloodhounds
Press Reports: Aftonbladet - 15 October 1888
Press Reports: Aftonbladet - 26 October 1888
Press Reports: Atchison Daily Globe - 17 October 1888
Press Reports: Bournemouth Visitors Directory - 14 November 1888
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Press Reports: Echo - 1 October 1888
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Press Reports: Evening News - 11 October 1888
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Press Reports: Evening News - 2 October 1888
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Press Reports: Evening News - 9 October 1888
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Press Reports: New York Herald - 10 November 1888
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Press Reports: Pall Mall Gazette - 01 October 1888
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Press Reports: People - 14 October 1888
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Press Reports: Thanet Advertiser - 13 October 1888
Press Reports: Thanet Advertiser - 17 November 1888
Press Reports: Times - 11 October 1888
Press Reports: Times [London] - 10 October 1888
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Press Reports: Times [London] - 13 October 1888
Press Reports: Times [London] - 16 October 1888
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Press Reports: Times [London] - 8 October 1888
Press Reports: Toronto Daily News - 4 October 1888
Press Reports: Trenton Times - 6 October 1888
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 Press Reports: Woodford Times - 12 October 1888
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Catherine Eddowes
Home: Timeline - Catherine Eddowes
Dissertations: A Piece of Apron, Some Chalk Graffiti and a Lost Hour
Dissertations: Anything But Your Prayers: Victims and Witnesses on the N...
Dissertations: By Accident or Design? A Critical Analysis of the Murder...
Dissertations: Catherine Eddowes: Wolverhampton and Birmingham
Dissertations: Double Trouble: Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes
Dissertations: Grave-Spitting & Other Tall Tales
Dissertations: Hyam Hyams
Dissertations: May My End A Warning Be: Catherine Eddowes and Gallows Li...
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Victims: The Whitehall Mystery

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 home > press reports > illustrated police news > illustrated police news - 17 november 1888

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17 November, 1888
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ANOTHER WHITECHAPEL HORROR.

MORE REVOLTING MUTILATION THAN EVER.

[WITH FULL PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.]

ON Friday another addition was made to the series of horrible crimes that has created a panic in the East
End of London for many weeks past, and has sent a thrill of horror through the country at large. As in the
previous cases, the scene of the tragedy lies in the district of Whitechapel, within almost a stone's throw
of Hanbury-street, where the unfortunate woman Nicholls (sic) was so brutally put to death. The victim
was another of the unfortunate class, who occupied a miserably- furnished room in a court off Dorset-
street, a narrow thoroughfare out of Commercial-street, not far removed from the police-station. She had
lived in the court for some little time, and was known as Mary Jane Kelly, alias "Ginger." She was a Welsh
woman, and it is believed was married, but separated from her husband. Recently she had lived with a
man who was known in the neighbourhood as Dan, but the couple parted a few days ago. Since that time
the murdered woman had been seen several times walking about the locality, and on more than one
occasion has been in the company of men. It is supposed that she met the man who was to be her
murderer at a late hour on Thursday night, and that he induced her to allow him to accompany her
home. Though there is good reason to believe that the murderer was in the house the whole of the night,
he did not carry out his terrible purpose until a period later than half- past eight o'clock on Friday
morning. At that time the deceased was seen walking along Dorset-street, and it is supposed that she
Most Recent Posts: had left the house for the purpose of purchasing breakfast. She is then said to have appeared cheerful
Other Mysteries: Bible John and looking bright and well. Some two hours from this time the unfortunate woman was found lying dead
(General Discussion) - by and frightfully mutilated. At half-past eleven o'clock a man went to the room to collect the rent, and
Herlock Sholmes 2 minutes ago.
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 &
failing to gain any answer to his knocking at the door, he looked through the window. It was then seen
MJK3 camera positions - plan that the woman was lying naked and bleeding on the bed, and an alarm was at once given.
view. (Warning - graphic
images) - by richardh 8
minutes ago. A policeman was summoned, and he at once took possession of the room, and refused to allow anyone to
Other Mysteries: Bible John enter until a medical man had been brought to the spot. When this had been done, a scene more terrible
(General Discussion) - by
Herlock Sholmes 31 minutes
than any of the others that have preceded it was disclosed. Such a shocking state of things was there as
ago. has probably never been equalled in the annals of crime. The throat had been cut right across with a
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 & knife, nearly severing the head from the body. The abdomen had been ripped partially open, and both of
MJK3 camera positions - plan
view. (Warning - graphic the breasts had been cut from the body. The left arm, like the head, hung to the body by the skin only.
images) - by Simon Wood 58 The nose had been cut off, the forehead skinned, and the thighs, down to the feet, stripped of the flesh.
minutes ago.
Mary Jane Kelly: Why is that
The abdomen had been slashed with a knife across and downwards, and the liver and entrails wrenched
linen so odd? *Graphic away. The entrails and other portions of the frame were missing, but the liver, etc., it is said, were found
Warning* - by Scott Nelson 2
hours ago. placed between the feet of the poor victim. The flesh from the thighs and legs, together with the breasts
Other Mysteries: Bible John and nose, had been placed by the murderer on the table, and one of the hands of the dead woman had
(General Discussion) - by been pushed into her stomach.
cobalt 2 hours ago.
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 &
MJK3 camera positions - plan Inspector Beck took charge of the case, and, having sent out all the constables that could be spared to
view. (Warning - graphic make inquiries, he repaired to Dorset-street, where he established a kind of blockade at Miller's-court,
images) - by richardh 2 hours
ago. refusing either egress or ingress to the inhabitants. The traffic in Dorset-street was also regulated, and
Other Mysteries: Bible John the immense crowds which the news of the murder had attracted thither were prevented from entering
(General Discussion) - by
Herlock Sholmes 3 hours ago.
the street. The refusal of the police to allow any one to enter or to leave Miller's-court was connected
with an intention to put the bloodhounds on the track of the murderer, and it was feared that the scent
Most Popular Threads: would be seriously interfered with, if not completely destroyed, if indiscriminate traffic were allowed. The
Pub Talk: Irritations - (36 bloodhounds were asked for immediately the discovery was made; but they could not be found.
posts)
Other Mysteries: Bible John
(General Discussion) - (27
The victim of the monstrous outrage belonged to the very lowest class. She occupied a cheerless and
posts) dismal-looking room on the ground floor or No. 26, Dorset-street. The entrance to her room, however, is
Hutchinson, George: A closer from the passage between the houses Nos. 26 and 29, leading into Miller's-court. The room, which was
look at George Hutchinson -
(10 posts) at the back of the house, was very scantily furnished. It contained little besides a bed, a rickety table and
General Victim Discussion: a couple of chairs. Both Nos. 26 and 28 are in the occupation of a Mrs. M'Carthy, who carried on the
What Makes A Victim? - (5
posts)
business of a provision dealer at No. 28. It was the son of the landlady who first discovered the murder
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 & and gave information to the police. The landlady adheres strictly to the principle of "ready" cash in
MJK3 camera positions - plan dealing with the lodgers. It is usually her practise to wait on them in the course of the morning, and
view. (Warning - graphic
images) - (4 posts) receive each day's rent in advance.
Mary Jane Kelly: Why is that
linen so odd? *Graphic Dr. Dukes; Dr. Phillips, of Spital-square; Dr. J. R. Gabe, of Mecklenburg-square; and Dr. Bond, of
Warning* - (3 posts)
Westminster Hospital, all saw the body, of which a photograph had been taken, shortly before two
o'clock. As it lay on the bed it presented a ghastly spectacle, and so complete had been the mutilation,
that it was difficult to tell whether it was that of a man or woman. It lay on its back, with the legs
outspread. The face had been so cut and hacked that the features could not be discerned at all. The
conclusion was arrived at that the woman's throat had first been cut, causing her instant death, and
preventing the possibility of cries.

The body was placed in a plain coffin and removed, shortly before four o'clock, to the mortuary in
Shoreditch, in a spring van, followed by a crowd.

REMARKABLE STATEMENT.

A Mrs. Pannier, a young woman who sells roasted chestnuts at the corner of Widegate street, a narrow
thoroughfare, about two minutes' walk from the scene of the murder, told a reporter a remarkable story.
She says that about twelve o'clock (noon) on Friday, a man, dressed like a gentleman, came to her and
said, "I suppose you have heard about the murder in Dorset-street." She replied that she had, and the man
grinned and said, "I know more about it thank you." He then stared into her face, and went away down
Sandes-row, another narrow thoroughfare which cuts across Widegate-street. When he had got some way
off, however, he looked back as if to see whether she was watching him, and then vanished. Mrs. Pannier
says that the man had a black moustache, was about five feet six inches high, and wore a black silk hat, a
black coat, and speckled trousers. He carried a black shiny bag about a foot in depth, and a feet and a half
in length. Mrs. Pannier states further that the same man accosted three young unfortunates in Dorset-
street on Thursday night, and they chaffed him, and asked him what he had in the bag, and he replied,
"Something that the ladies don't like." Mrs. Pannier told her story with every appearance of truthfulness.

Maurice Lewis, a tailor, living in Dorset-street, stated that he had known the deceased woman for the last
five years. Her name was Mary Jane Kelly. She was short, stout, and dark; and stood about five feet
three inches. He saw her on the previous (Thursday) night, betwen ten and eleven, at the Horn of Plenty
in Dorset-street. She was drinking with some woman and also with "Dan," a man selling oranges in
Billingsgate and Spitalfields markets, with whom she lived up till as recently as a fortnight ago. He knew
her as a woman of the town. One of the woman whom he saw with her was known as Julia. To his
knowledge she went home overnight with a man. He seemed to be respectably dressed. Whether or no
the man remained all night he could not say. Soon after ten o'clock in the morning he was playing with
others at pitch and toss in M'Carthy's-cour, when he heard a lad call out "Copper," and he and his
companions rushed away and entered a beer-house at the corner of Dorset- street, known as Ringer's.
He was positive than on going in he saw Mary Jane Kelly drinking with some other people, but is not
certain whether there was a man amongst them. He went home to Dorset-street on leaving the house,
and about half an hour afterwards heard that Kelly had been found in her room murdered. It would then
be close upon eleven o'clock.

Dr. J. R. Gabe, of Mecklenburg-square, saw the body, but, in reply to a question put to him, he declined
to give any details. He merely said that he had never, in all his life, seen such a horrible sight as the
murdered woman presents. In addition to the mutilations already named, it was afterwards ascertained
that the forehead and even the cheeks were skinned.

THE DISCOVERY OF THE CRIME.

John M'Carthy, who resides at 27, Dorset-street, informed a reporter that Mary Jane Kelly, the murdered
woman, was a person about twenty-five years of age. She was an unfortunate. The last that he heard of
her was at one o'clock on Friday morning, when she was singing in her room, and appeared to be very
happy. At eleven o'clock on Thursday night she was seen in the Britannia public-house, which is situated at
the corner of this thoroughfare, with a young man with a moustache. She was then intoxicated. The young
man appeared to be very respectable and well dressed. With respect to the discovery of the appalling
crime, M'Carthy said: About half-past ten this (Friday) morning I saw a man named Henry Bower go to
Mary Jane Kelly and asked for the rent she owed. Bower went to the house, but got no answer to his
knocks. He peered through one of the windows and saw the woman lying out up on the bed. The bed was
saturated with blood. Bower called me, telling me what he had seen, and we went and looked through the
window. I cannot fully describe her injuries, for the sight was too much for me. She was quite naked. I
noticed that both breasts were cut off, and that she was ripped up. The intestines were laid on the table,
both ears were cut off, as was also the nose. The legs of the deceased were cut to such an extent that the
bones could be seen. Her face was one mass of cuts. We ran to the Commercial- street Police-station and
told them of it. In answer to questions as to whether the woman was married, M'Carthy said deceased's
husband was a fish porter, employed in Billingsgate, but in consequence of a quarrel between them four
nights ago the man left her, and went to lodge at Mr. Buller's boarding- house in Bishopsgate-street.

THE SCENE OF THE MURDER.

Dorset-street, the scene of the murder, runs off Commercial- street, and is almost opposite St. Stephen's
Church, Spitalfields. It is a narrow thoroughfare, with barely sufficient room for two vehicles to pass one
another. There are several lodging-houses in the street, and there is hardly a house that does not give
shelter to lodgers, many of whom come at night and disappear in the morning. The courts leading out of
the street are full of lodging-houses. Miller's-court, leading at right angles out of Dorset-street, is a
miserable alley, forming a cul de sac. It is known in the locality as M'Carthy's court, on account of being
owned by the keeper of the chandler's shop. There are three or four houses of the meanest description,
with whitewashed fronts, and approached by a narrow arched passage, not more than a yard and a half
wide. The surrounding district is very rough. It is in close vicinity to Spitalfields Market, and within a
hundred yards or so of Toynbee Hall.

The most curious item in the entire surroundings is a large placard posted on the walls of the next house
to one where the murder was committed offering, in the name of the ILLUSTRATED POLICE NEWS, a reward
of POUNDS 100 for the discovery of the diabolical assassin. This is shown in the centre illustrated on our
front page together with a plan of the locality. The precise spot where each crime was committed is
indicated by a dagger and a numeral.

1. Emma Elizabeth Smith, forty-five, stabbed near Osborne-street, Whitechapel, April 3rd.
2. Martha Tabram, thirty-five, stabbed in thirty-nine places, at George-yard-buildings, Commercial-street,
Spitalfields, August 7th.
3. Mary Ann Nicholls, forty-seven, had her throat cut and body mutilated, in Buck's-row, Whitechapel,
August 31st.
4. Annie Chapman, forty-seven, her throat cut and body mutilated, in Hanbury-street, Spitalfields,
September 8th.
5. Elizabeth Stride, throat cut in Berner-street, Whitechapel, on Sunday, September 30th.
6. Catherine Eddowes, alias Conway, alias Kelly, mutilated in Mitre-square, Aldgate, also on September
30th.
7. Mary Jeanette Kelly, mutilated in Miller's-court, Whitechapel, November 9th.

There was no appearance of a struggle having taken place, and, although a careful search of the room
was made, no knife or instrument of any kind was found. Dr. Phillips, on his arrival, carefully examined
the body of the dead woman, and later on again made a second examination in company with Dr. Bond,
from Westminster; Dr. Gordon Brown, from the City; Dr. Duke, from Spitalfields; and Dr. Phillip's
assistant. Mr. Anderson, the new Commissioner of Police, Detective-Inspectors Reid and Abberline
(Scotland-yard), Chief-Inspector West, H Division, and other officers were quickly on the spot. After the
examination of the body it was placed in a shell, which was put into a van and conveyed to the
Shoreditch mortuary to await an inquest.

From inquiries made among the persons living in the house adjoining the court, and also those residing in
rooms in No. 26, it appears clear that no noise of any kind was heard. No suspicious or strange-looking
man was seen to enter or leave the murdered woman's room, and up to the present time the occurrence
is enveloped in as much mystery as were the previous murders. The man Kelly was quickly found, and
his statement ascertained to be correct. After the examination the windows were boarded up and the
door padlocked by direction of the police, who had considerable difficulty in keeping the street clear.

WHEN THE WOMAN WAS LAST SEEN ALIVE.

Another account says that she had a little boy, aged about six or seven years, living with her, and latterly
she had been in narrow straits, so much so that she is reported to have stated to a companion that she
would make away with herself, as she could not bear to see her boy starving. There are conflicting
statements as to when the woman was last seen alive. One of them is that of a young woman, who
states that at about half- past ten o'clock on Thursday night at the corner of Dorset-street, she met the
murdered woman, who said to her that she had no money, and if she could not get any would never go
out anymore, but would do away with herself. Soon after they parted, and

A MAN WHO IS DESCRIBED AS RESPECTABLY DRESSED,

came up and spoke to the murdered woman Kelly, and offered her some money. The man then acompanied
the woman home to her lodgings, and the little boy was removed from the room and taken to a neighbour's
house. Nothing more was seen of the woman until Friday morning, when, it is stated, the little boy was sent
back into the house, and subsequently dispatched on an errand by the man who was in the house with his
mother. Another statement is to the effect that Kelly was seen in a public-house known as the Ringers, at
the corner of Dorset-street and Commercial-street, about ten o'clock on Friday morning, and that she there
met her paramour Barnett, and had a glass of beer with him.

THE MURDER COMMITTED AFTER NINE A.M.

If the following statement can be confirmed, it has a very important bearing on the question, "who is the
murderer?" because it fixes approximately the time at which the murder was committed. But so many
stories have been invented for the sake of gain by people who live in the locality, since these murders
became the sensation of the newspapers, that it is difficult to ascertain at once whether they are
accurate or otherwise. However, it is the latest statement and it is given on the authority of the Central
News:--"Mrs. Maxwell, the wife of the deputy of a lodging-house in Dorset-street, situated just opposite
the court where Mary Kelly lived, said to a Central News reporter: 'I assist my husband in his duties, but
we live next door, at No. 26 Dorset-street. We had to stay up all night, and yesterday morning, as I was
going home, carrying my lantern and other things with me, I saw the woman Kelly standing at the
entrance of the court. It was then about half-past eight, and as it was unusual for her to be seen about at
that hour I said to her, "Hallo, what are you doing up so early?" She said, "Oh, I'm very bad this
morning. I have had the horrors. I have been drinking so much lately." I said to her, "Why don't you go
and have half a pint of beer? It will put you right." She replied, "I have just had one, but I am so bad I
couldn't keep it down." I didn't know then that she had separated from the man she had been living with,
and I thought he had been "paying" her. I then went out in the direction of Bishopsgate to do some
errands, and on my return I saw Kelly standing outside the public-house talking to a man. That was the
last I saw of her. Who he was I don't know. He was a short, stout man, of about fifty years of age. I did
not notice what he had on, but I saw that he wore a kind of plaid coat. I then went indoors to go to bed,
as I had been "on duty" all night. Mary Jane (I only know her by that name) was a pleasant little woman,
rather stout, fair complexion, and rather pale."

Although rumours were current on Friday that the woman had been seen in the morning, they could not
be authenticated, and the opinion of the police was that the woman had been murdered during the night
by a man whom she took home to her lodgings. Mrs. Maxwell, however, who knew the deceased well by
sight, is empatic both as to the two occasions she saw the deceased on Friday morning, and also as to
the conversation reported above. At half-past nine on Friday morning, therefore, the ceased was alive,
and, according to her own statement, suffering from a drinking bout. Presumably, between half-past
eight and half- past nine she had been drinking with the man who afterwards butchered her, for at the
latter hour she was seen talking to a man outside a public-house. At a quarter to eleven the body was
discovered in the room which served as lodging, the remains being open to the view of any one who
chose to look through the window facing the court. Therefore, assuming Mrs. Maxwell's story to be
accurate, the murderer must have walked from the public-house to the victim's lodgings, and in broad
daylight killed the woman and performed the most horrible barbarities. He must have removed himself
any traces of the crime and walked away from the spot unnoticed. But, having seen the man in broad
daylight, Mrs. Maxwell ought to be able to give a description upon which the police can work; and if it be
true that murderer and victim were drinking together in the public-house between nine o'clock and half-
pass (sic) nine, then the people at the house should be able to partially corroborate Mrs. Maxwell's story
and description.

INTENSE EXCITEMENT IN THE EAST-END

On Sunday the excitement created by the murder in Whitechapel had not abated to any appreciable
extent, and the streets of the district were crowded, Dorset-square, the scene of the tragedy, being in
the afternoon and evening in a practically congested condition. The crowds which extended even into
Commercial-street rendered the locomotion all but impossible. Vendors of pamphlets descriptive of the
Whitechapel crimes advertised their wares in shrill tones which could be heard even above the cries of
the proprietors of fruit barrows and confectionary boxes, who appeared to be doing a thriving trade. Two
police-constables guarded the entrance to Miller's-court, where of course the crowd was thickest, and the
adjacent shop of the landlord of the house in which the body of the murdered woman had been found
was besieged with people anxious to glean further particulars regarding the crime. A very short distance
away an itinerant street preacher sought to improve the occasion. The assemblage within and about
Dorset-street comprised men and women of various classes, and now and then vehicles drove up
containing persons impelled by curiosity to visit the scene of the tragedy.

Great excitement was caused shortly before ten o'clock off Sunday night, in the East-end, by the arrest
of a man with a blackened face, who publicly proclaimed himself to be "Jack the Ripper." This was at the
cornet of Wentworth-street, Commercial-street, near the scene of the latest crime. Two young men, one
a discharged soldier, seized him and the crowds, which always on Sunday night parade this
neighbourhood, raised a cry of "Lynch him!" Sticks were raised, and the man was furiously attacked, and
but for the timely arrival of the police he would have been seriously injured. The police took him to
Leman-street Station. He refused to give any name, but asserted that he was a doctor at St. George's
Hospital. His age is about thirty-five years, height five feet seven inches, complexion dark, and dark
moustache, and he was wearing spectacles. He wore no waistcoat, but had an ordinary jersey vest
beneath his coat. In his pocket he had a double-peaked light check cap, and at the time of his arrest he
was bareheaded. It took four constables and four civilians to take him to the station and protect him from
the infuriated crowd. He is detained in custody, and it seems that the police attach importance to the
arrest, as the man's appearance answers to the police description of the man who is wanted.

The excitement in the neighbourhood of Dorset-street in intense, and some of the low women, with
whom the street abounds, appear more like fiends than human beings. The police have naturally great
trouble to preserve order, and one constable who is alleged to have struck an onlooker, was so mobbed
and hooted that he had to beat a retreat to Commercial-street Police-station, whither he was followed by
a large crowd, who were only kept at bay the presence of about half a dozen stalwart constables, who
stood at the door and prevented anyone from entering.

AN IMPORTANT STATEMENT

Mrs. Kennedy, who was on the day of the murder staying with her parents at a house facing the room
where the mutilated body was found, has made an important statement. She says that about three
o'clock on Friday morning she entered Dorset-street on her way to the house of her parents, which is
situated immediately opposite that in which the murder was committed. She noticed three persons at the
corner of the street near the Britannia. There was a man--a young man, respectably dressed, and with a
dark moustache, talking to a woman whom she did not know, and also a female porly clad, and without
any head gear. The man and woman appeared to be the worse for liquor, and she heard the man say,
"Are you coming?" whereupon the woman, who appeared to be obstinate, turned in an opposite direction
to which the man apparently wished her to go. Mrs. Kennedy went on her way, and nothing unusual
occurred until about half an hour later. She states that she did not retire to rest immediately after she
reached her parents' abode, but sat up, and between half-past three and a quarter to four she heard a
cry of "Murder!" in a woman's voice proceed from the direction in which Mary Kelly's room was situated.
As the cry was not repeated she took no further notice of the circumstance until the morning, when she
found the police in possession of the place, preventing all egress to the occupants of the small houses in
this court. When questioned by the police as to what she had heard throughout the night, she made a
statement to the above efect. She has since supplemented that statement by the following:--"On
Wednesday evening, about eight o'clock, I and my sister were in the neighbourhood of Bethnal-green-
road, when we were accosted by a very suspicious-looking man about forty years of age. He was about
five feet seven inches high, wore a short jacket, over which he had a long top-coat. He had a black
moustache, and wore a billycock hat. He invited us to accompany him into a lonely spot, as he was
known about there, and there was a policeman looking at him." She asserts that no policeman was in
sight. He made several strange remarks, and appeared to be agitated. He was very white in the face, and
made every endeavour to prevent them looking him straight in the face. He carried a black bag. He
avoided walking with them, and led the way into a very dark thoroughfare at the back of the workhouse,
inviting them to follow, which they did. He then pushed open a small door in a pair of arge gates, and
requested one of them to follow him, remarking, "I only want one of you," whereupon the women
became suspicious. He acted in a very strange and suspicious manner, and refused to leave his bag in
possession of one of the females. Both women became alarmed at his actions, and escaped, at the same
time raising an alarm of "Jack the Ripper." A gentleman who was passing is stated to have intercepted
the man while the women made their escape. Mrs. Kennedy asserts that the man whom she saw on
Friday morning with the woman at the corner of Dorset-street resembled very closely the individual who
caused such alarm on the night in question, and that she would recognise him again if confronted with
him. There is no cause to doubt this woman's statement.

PARDON OFFERED.

The following notice was posted in Dorset-street, and at all the police-stations in the Metropolis on
Saturday:--

"MURDER -- PARDON -- Whereas, on November 8th or 9th, in Miller's-court, Dorset-street, Spitalfields,

Mary Janet Kelly was murdered by some person or persons unknown, the Secretary of State will advise
the grant of her Majesty's gracious Pardon to any accomplice not being a person who contrived or
actually committed the Murder, who shall give such information and evidence as shall lead to the
discovery and conviction of the person or persons who committed the Murder. (Signed)--
CHARLES WARREN, the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis. Metropolitan Police Office, 4, Whitehall-
place, November 10th, 1888."

THE INQUEST.

The inquiry into the cause of death of Mary Janet Kelly, was opened on Monday morning, at eleven
o'clock, in the Shoreditch Town Hall, before Dr. Macdonald and a jury of fifteen.

The coroner said, with regard to what the newspapers had said about the jurisdiction, he had not had any
communication with Dr. Baxter as to jurisdiction. There was no doubt at all; it was his duty to hold the
inquest. A previous murder which took place occurred in his jurisdiction, but the body was taken into the
district over which Dr. Baxter had direction, and he of course held the inquest. There was no question
whatever as to his right to hold the inquiry.

Joseph Barnett then deposed--I was originally a fish porter, but now I am a labourer. I work at the river
side, and carry fish. I lived up to Saturday last at 24, New-street, Bishopsgate. Since Saturday last I
have been staying at my sister's, who lives at 21, Portpool-lane, Leather-lane. I have lived with the
deceased for year and eight months. Her name was Marie Jeanette. Kelly was her maiden name. I have
seen the body of the deceased, and I identify it by the hair and eyes. I am positive that the deceased
was the woman with whom I lived, and that her name was Marie.
This witness was subjected to a somewhat lengthy cross-examination, in the course of which all that was
known by him of the murdered woman's parentage, history, and her recent mode of life was fully
detailed. He left her because she took in an immoral woman to live with her out of compassion. The
witness spoke with a stutter, and evidently laboured under great emotion.

Thomas Bowyer said: I live at 37 Dorset-street, Spitalfields. I am a servant to M'Carthy, the owner of a
chandler's shop. On Friday morning I went by order of M'Carthy to collect the rent from Mary Jane. I did
not know her by any other name. I knocked, but receiving no answer I went round the corner by the
gutter-spout, where there is a small pane of glass broken in the large window. There was a curtain before
the window, which covered both windows. I pulled the curtain aside and looked in, and saw two lumps of
flesh lying on the table in front of the bed and close against it. Afterwards I saw the body of somebody
lying on the bed, and blood on the floor. I at once went then very quietly back to my master and I told
him what I had seen. "Good God," he said, "do you mean to say that, Harry?" We both went back to the
police-station "momently." No, first my master went and looked. At the station we told the police what
we had seen. I last saw the deceased alive on Wednesday afternoon in the court.

John M'Carthy corroborated the statements of the last witness.

Mary Ann Cox was the first of the female witnesses called. She said: I live at the last house at the top of
the court-- Miller's-court. I am a widow, and get my living on the streets. I've been unfortunate. On
Thursday night at 11.45, I last saw the deceased. She was very intoxicated. There was a short, stout
man, shabbily dressed, with her, who had a pot of ale in his hand. He had a round black billy-cock hat on.
He had a blotchy face, and a full, carrotty moustache. The chin was bare. I followed them up into the
court, and said, "Good nigh, Mary." She never turned round, and he banged the door. He had nothing but
a quart can of beer in his hand. She said "Goodnight, I'm going to have a song." Then the door was shut,
and she sang, "The violet I plucked from my mother's grave when a boy." I remained a quarter of an
hour in my room. She was singing all the time. I went out, returned about one o'clock, and she was
singing then. In answer to an inquiry by the coroner the witness said: I feel certain that if there had been
a cry of "Murder" in the deceased's room after three o'clock in the morning, I should have heard it.

Elizabeth Prater, living at No. 20, Miller's-court, said she heard a cry of "Oh, murder!" between half-past
three and four on the morning of the tragedy, as did likewise another woman named Sarah Lewis.

Dr. George Bater Phillips, M.R.C.S., surgeon to the H Division of the Metropolitan Police, minutely
described the condition of the room in whcih the murdered woman was discovered. He was of opinion the
immediate cause of the death of the deceased was the severance of the right carotid artery, which was
inflicted while she was lying at the right side of the bedstead, and her head and neck in the top right-
hand corner.

The coroner then intimated that that was the whole of the evidence at present forthcoming. It was for
the jury to say whether they desired an adjournment If they could come to a decision as to the cause of
death, that was all they had to do. The jury at once returned a verdict of willful murder against some
person or persons unknown.

RESIGNATION OF SIR CHARLES WARREN.

In the House of Commons, on Monday, in reply to Mr. Conybere, Mr. Matthews said: I have to inform the
hon. member that the Chief Commissioner of Police did on the 8th inst. tender his resignation to her
Majesty's Government, and that his resignation has been accepted.

Related pages:
Mary Jane Kelly
Home: Timeline - Mary Jane Kelly
Dissertations: Did Kelly Have a Heart?
Dissertations: Did Mary Kelly Survive?
Dissertations: Estimating Mary Kellys Time of Death
Dissertations: Is Truth Stranger Than Fiction? A Response to Des McKenna
Dissertations: Kit, Kitty, Kitten: The Story of Kitty Ronan
Dissertations: Mary Kelly
Dissertations: Mary Kelly is Dead
Dissertations: McCarthy, Kelly and Breezer's Hill
Dissertations: Providence Row Night Refuge
Dissertations: Reinvestigating Murder: The Kelly Enigma
Dissertations: Room 13 Millers Court
Dissertations: The Enigmas of Millers Court
Dissertations: The Enigmas of Millers Court
Dissertations: The Funeral of Mary Jane Kelly
Dissertations: The Kelly Crime Scene Photographs
Dissertations: The Mystery of Mary Jane Kelly
Dissertations: The Origins of Mary Kelly
Dissertations: The Whitechapel Dossier: Dorset Street and Miller’s...
Dissertations: Time is on My Side
Dissertations: What Happened at Miller's Court?
Message Boards: Mary Jane Kelly
Official Documents: Dr. Bond's Post Mortem on Mary Kelly
Official Documents: Mary Jane Kelly's Inquest
Press Reports: Atlanta Constitution - 12 November 1888
Press Reports: Barking and East Ham Advertiser - 24 November 1888
Press Reports: Bismarck Daily Tribune - 10 November 1888
Press Reports: Boston Daily Globe - 10 November 1888
Press Reports: Boston Daily Globe - 9 November 1888
Press Reports: Bournemouth Visitors Directory - 14 November 1888
Press Reports: Croydon Advertiser - 10 November 1888
Press Reports: Croydon Advertiser - 17 November 1888
Press Reports: Croydon Times - 14 November 1888
Press Reports: Daily News - 10 November 1888
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Press Reports: East and West Ham Gazette - 10 November 1888
Press Reports: East London Advertiser - 17 November 1888
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Press Reports: East London Observer - 10 November 1888
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Press Reports: Echo - 10 November 1888
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Press Reports: Evening News - 19 November 1888
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Press Reports: Florida Times - 10 November 1888
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Press Reports: Galveston Daily News - 11 November 1888
Press Reports: Globe [Canada] - 12 November 1888
Press Reports: Globe [Canada] - 13 November 1888
Press Reports: Graphic - 17 November 1888
Press Reports: Irish Times - 10 November 1888
Press Reports: Irish Times - 12 November 1888
Press Reports: Irish Times - 13 November 1888
Press Reports: Kellogg Enterprise - 16 November 1888
Press Reports: Macclesfield Courier and Herald - 17 November 1888
Press Reports: Macleod Gazette - 11 November 1888
Press Reports: Manchester Guardian - 10 November 1888
Press Reports: Manchester Guardian - 14 November 1888
Press Reports: Manitoba Daily Free Press - 10 November 1888
Press Reports: Marion Daily Star - 10 November 1888
Press Reports: Marion Daily Star - 12 November 1888
Press Reports: Montreal Daily Star - 14 November 1888
Press Reports: Montreal Gazette - 12 November 1888
Press Reports: Morning Advertiser - 10 November 1888
Press Reports: Morning Advertiser - 12 November 1888
Press Reports: Morning Advertiser - 13 November 1888
Press Reports: Morning Advertiser - 15 November 1888
Press Reports: Morning Advertiser - 16 November 1888
Press Reports: Morning Advertiser - 20 November 1888
Press Reports: Munster News - 10 November 1888
Press Reports: Munster News - 14 November 1888
Press Reports: New York Herald - 10 November 1888
Press Reports: New York Herald - 11 November 1888
Press Reports: New York Times - 10 November 1888
Press Reports: New York Tribune - 10 November 1888
Press Reports: New York World - 10 November 1888
Press Reports: New York World - 11 November 1888
Press Reports: Ottawa Citizen - 10 November 1888
Press Reports: Ottawa Free Press - 9 November 1888
Press Reports: Pall Mall Gazette - 10 November 1888
Press Reports: Pall Mall Gazette - 12 November 1888
Press Reports: Pall Mall Gazette - 13 November 1888
Press Reports: Pall Mall Gazette - 14 November 1888
Press Reports: Pall Mall Gazette - 19 November 1888
Press Reports: Penny Illustrated Paper - 17 November 1888
Press Reports: Penny Illustrated Paper - 24 November 1888
Press Reports: Port Philip Herald - 10 November 1888
Press Reports: St. James Gazette - 10 November 1888
Press Reports: St. James Gazette - 13 November 1888
Press Reports: St. James Gazette - 14 November 1888
Press Reports: Star - 10 November 1888
Press Reports: Star - 12 November 1888
 Press Reports: Star - 13 November 1888
Press Reports: Star - 14 November 1888
Press Reports: Star - 19 November 1888
Press Reports: Star - 9 November 1888
Press Reports: Syracuse Herald - 11 November 1888
Press Reports: Thanet Advertiser - 17 November 1888
Press Reports: Times [London] - 10 November 1888
Press Reports: Times [London] - 12 November 1888
Press Reports: Times [London] - 13 November 1888
Press Reports: Times [London] - 14 November 1888
Press Reports: Times [London] - 19 November 1888
Press Reports: Times [London] - 20 November 1888
Press Reports: Trenton Times - 10 November 1888
Press Reports: Trenton Times - 12 November 1888
Press Reports: Trenton Times - 9 November 1888
Press Reports: Walthamstow and Leyton Guardian - 24 November 1888
Press Reports: Weekly Herald - 16 November 1888
Ripper Media: Jack l’Eventreur: Le Secret de Mary Jane K.
Ripper Media: Mary Jane Kelly: La derniere victime
Ripper Media: The Inquest of the Final Victim of Jack the Ripper, Mary ...
Ripper Media: Will the Real Mary Kelly?
Victims: A Violet From Mother's Grave
Victims: Mary Jane Kelly
Victims: Testimonies of George Hutchinson and Sara Lewis
Victorian London: Dorset Street
Victorian London: Overcrowding in a School Room
Witnesses: Elizabeth Phoenix
Witnesses: Lizzie Albrook
Witnesses: Thomas Bowyer
Witnesses: Walter Beck
Pardons
Official Documents: Parliamentary Debates - November 23 1888
Press Reports: Evening News - 15 October 1888
Press Reports: Evening News - 24 November 1888
Press Reports: Fort Wayne Gazette - 11 November 1888
Press Reports: Freemans Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser - 15 Oct...
Press Reports: Morning Advertiser - 24 November 1888

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 home > timeline

Introduction
Victims Timeline
Suspects
Below is a timeline of Ripper-related events covering the 110 years between 1887 and 1997.
Witnesses
Ripper Letters
APRIL 1887
Police Officials
Official Documents April 6, 1887 -- Elizabeth Stride brings charges of assault against her lover, Michael Kidney.
Press Reports
Victorian London April 8, 1887 -- Joseph Barnett and Mary Kelly meet for the first time.
Message Boards
Ripper Media JUNE 1887
Authors
Dissertations Severin Klosowski arrives in London from Poland.
Timelines
Games & Diversions
June 10, 1887 -- Elizabeth Stride, using the name 'Annie Fitzgerald', is brought before Thames
Photo Archive
Magistrates Court for drunk and disorderly conduct.
Ripper Wiki
June 28, 1887 -- Israel Lipski poisons Miriam Angel at 16 Batty Street.
Casebook Examiner
Ripper Podcast
AUGUST 1887
About the Casebook
Mary Ann Cox charged on assault charges in front of Thames Magistrates Court.

August 22, 1887 -- Israel Lipski is hanged for the murder of Miriam Angel.

SEPTEMBER 1887

Michael Ostrog sent into Surrey Pauper Lunatic Asylum, suffering from mania, on September 30th, 1887.

OCTOBER 1887

William Henry Bury moves to Bow, where he lives until January, 1889.

NOVEMBER 1887

November 13, 1887 -- "Bloody Sunday" A mass riot of the unemployed in Trafalgar Square, which Sir
Charles Warren suppresses through military force. One man dies, and the radical press never forgets the
incident.

DECEMBER 1887

December 26, 1887 -- The alleged murder of 'Fairy Fay' near Commercial Street.

JANUARY 1888

January 1, 1888 -- Nicolas Wassili released from lunatic asylum either in France or Tiraspol.

James Kelly escapes from Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.

FEBRUARY 1888

February 25, 1888 -- Annie Millwood attacked and stabbed by a strange man with a clasp knife. She
survives the attack.

MARCH 1888

William Henry Bury caught stealing from James Martin.

March 10, 1888 -- Michael Ostrog released from Surrey Pauper Lunatic Asylum.

Most Recent Posts: March 24, 1888 -- Nathan Kaminsky diagnosed as syphilitic at the Whitechapel Workhouse Infirmary.
Other Mysteries: Bible John
(General Discussion) - by
Herlock Sholmes 2 minutes ago.
March 28, 1888 -- Ada Wilson stabbed twice in the neck, barely surviving her attack.
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 &
MJK3 camera positions - plan APRIL 1888
view. (Warning - graphic
images) - by richardh 8
minutes ago. William Henry Bury marries Ellen Elliot.
Other Mysteries: Bible John
(General Discussion) - by April 3, 1888 -- Emma Smith attacked by a gang of young men around 12:30 am.
Herlock Sholmes 31 minutes
ago.
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 & April 5, 1888 -- Emma Smith dies in the London Hospital as a result of her injuries.
MJK3 camera positions - plan
view. (Warning - graphic
images) - by Simon Wood 58 MAY 1888
minutes ago.
Mary Jane Kelly: Why is that Nathan Kaminsky released from the Whitechapel Workhouse Infirmary, cured of his syphilitic infection.
linen so odd? *Graphic
Warning* - by Scott Nelson 2
hours ago.
JUNE 1888
Other Mysteries: Bible John
(General Discussion) - by
cobalt 2 hours ago. JULY 1888
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 &
MJK3 camera positions - plan
view. (Warning - graphic
Joseph Barnett loses job as a fish porter at Bilingsgate.
images) - by richardh 2 hours
ago. Ann Druitt, mother of suspect Montague John Druitt, is certified as insane at the Brooke Asylum, Clapton.
Other Mysteries: Bible John
(General Discussion) - by
Herlock Sholmes 3 hours ago. Michael Kidney jailed for three days for drunk and disorderly conduct.

Most Popular Threads: AUGUST 1888

Pub Talk: Irritations - (36
posts)
August 4, 1888 -- John Pizer charged with indecent assault before Thames Magistrates, but the case is
Other Mysteries: Bible John
(General Discussion) - (27 dismissed.
posts)
Hutchinson, George: A closer -- Oswald Puckeridge released from Hoxton House Lunatic Asylum.
look at George Hutchinson -
(10 posts)
General Victim Discussion:
August 7, 1888 -- Martha Tabram murdered in George Yard Buildings.
What Makes A Victim? - (5
posts) August 14, 1888 -- Henry Samuel Tabram identifies the body of Martha Tabram, his former wife.
Mary Jane Kelly: MJK1 &
MJK3 camera positions - plan
view. (Warning - graphic August 28, 1888 -- An envelope which would be found near the body of Annie Chapman on September
images) - (4 posts) 8th, is postmarked, "London, 28 August, 1888."
Mary Jane Kelly: Why is that
linen so odd? *Graphic
Warning* - (3 posts)
August 29, 1888 -- Prince Albert Victor left for Danby Lodge, Grosmont, Yorkshire.

August 30, 1888 -- Fire breaks out at the Shadwell Dry Dock and burns until late the next morning,
which later helps to establish John Pizer's innocence.

August 31, 1888 -- Polly Nichols killed in Bucks Row

-- Robert Anderson appointed Assistant Commissioner for Crime; selects Donald Swanson to head the
case.

-- L.P. Walter writes to the Home Office, requesting a reward be offered for the capture of the murderer.
Request is denied by E. Leigh Pemberton.

SEPTEMBER 1888

Catharine Eddowes goes hop-picking with John Kelly.

September 1, 1888 -- William Nichols identifies the body of his estranged wife, Polly Nichols.

-- Coroner Wynne E. Baxter begins the inquest into the murder of Polly Nichols at the Whitechapel
Working Lads' Institute -- adjourned until the 3rd.

-- Mrs. Sarah Colwell claims to have seen spots of blood in Brady Street, adding to the theory that
Nichols was killed elsewhere.

September 3, 1888 -- Inquest into the murder of Polly Nichols reconvened. Adjourned until the 17th.

September 4, 1888 -- The first press reports of a man named 'Leather Apron' appear.

September 6, 1888 -- Polly Nichols is buried at Little Ilford Cemetery.

September 7, 1888 -- Prince Albert Victor travelled to Cavalry Barracks in York.

-- First official mention of John Pizer as 'Leather Apron.'

September 8, 1888 -- Annie Chapman killed in Hanbury Street.

-- Amelia Palmer identifies Annie's body at 11:30 am.

-- Robert Anderson leaves for Switzerland on sick leave.

-- Thomas Ede sees Henry James outside The Forrester's Arms, in possession of a large knife.

-- Mrs. Fiddymont sees suspicious bloodstained man in the Prince Albert.

September 9, 1888 -- Miss Lyons claims to have had a drink with a man she suspected to be 'Leather
Apron' at the Queen's Head pub.

-- John Evans and Mr. Fountain Smith both identify Annie Chapman's body.

September 10, 1888 -- Prince Albert Victor returned to London from York.

-- Samuel Montagu offers a £100 reward for the capture of the murderer.
-- George Lusk elected president of The Whitechapel Vigilance Committee.

-- John Pizer arrested as 'Leather Apron.'

September 11, 1888 -- Dr. Cowan and Dr. Crabb inform police that they believe Jacob Issenscmid to be
the Ripper.

September 12, 1888 -- Coroner Wynne E. Baxter begins the inquest into murder of Annie Chapman at
the Whitechapel Working Lads' Institute -- adjouned until the 13th.

-- Inspector Joseph Luniss Chandler is quoted in the Star as saying the 'bloodstains' found on the fence in
the yard of 25 Hanbury Street were simply urine stains.

-- Mrs. Darrell identifies the body of Annie Chapman.

-- Laura Sickings discovers 'bloodstains' on the fence in her yard at 25 Hanbury Street, later said to be
urine stains.

September 13, 1888 -- Inquest into the murder of Annie Chapman reconvened. Adjourned until the
14th.

-- Edward McKenna is arrested in connection with the Ripper murders, but is released soon after.

September 14, 1888 -- Inquest into the murder of Annie Chapman reconvened. Adjourned until the
19th.

-- Annie Chapman is buried at Manor Park Cemetary.

September 16, 1888 -- B. Harris of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee requests that the Home
Secretary add to the reward money offered.

September 17, 1888 -- Inquest into the murder of Polly Nichols reconvened. Adjourned until the 23rd.

-- Jacob Issenschmid confined to Fairfield Row Asylum, Bow.

September 18, 1888 -- Charles Ludwig threatens Elizabeth Burns with a knife near the Minories, and
soon after threatens Alexander Freinberg at a coffee stall, leading to his arrest.

September 19, 1888 -- Inquest into the murder of Annie Chapman reconvened. Dr. Philips suggests the
uterus of the woman might have been removed for sale to a medical student who had been inquiring
about obtaining such specimens. The Inquest was adjourned until the 26th.

-- Inspector Abberline reports that Issenschmid was the man seen by Mrs. Fiddymont.

September 23, 1888 -- Inquest into the murder of Polly Nichols completed.

September 26, 1888 -- Inquest into the murder of Annie Chapman completed.

September 27, 1888 -- Prince Albert Victor leaves for Abergeldie, Scotland.

-- Catherine Eddowes and John Kelly return to London, having been hop-picking all month.

-- The 'Dear Boss' letter is received at the Central News Agency, the first to use the name 'Jack the
Ripper.'

September 29, 1888 -- Catherine Eddowes arrested at 8.45 pm for public drunkenness by Sergeant
James Byfield.

September 30, 1888 -- Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes killed at 1:00 and 1:45 am,
respectively.

-- Prince Albert Victor dines with Queen Victoria in Abergeldie, Scotland.

-- Whitechapel Vigilance Committee sends letter to the Home Office requesting a reward be officially
offered. Request denied.

-- Diary entry in the Swedish Church Parish Register records the death of Stride, possibly "murdered by
Jack the Ripper?" If indeed written on the 30th September, this is the earliest known use of the name
"Jack the Ripper."

OCTOBER 1888

October 1, 1888 -- Coroner Wynne E. Baxter begins inquest into the murder of Elizabeth Stride at the
Vestry Hall, Cable Street. Adjourned until the 2nd.

-- The morning issue of the Daily News first prints the text of the Dear Boss letter.

-- Thomas Coram finds a bloodstained knife in Whitechapel Road, with a blade of about 9 inches.

-- The Financial News contributes £300 toward a reward for the capture of the murderer.

-- Lord Mayor offers £500 reward.

-- Sir Alfred Kirby offers £100 reward and 50 militia men to help apprehend the criminal. Offer declined.

-- Queen Victoria telephones the Home Office at 3:30 pm and expresses her shock at the murders.

-- The 'Saucy Jacky' postcard is received at the Central News Agency.

-- Michael Kidney arrives drunk at Leman Street Police Station, blaming the PC on duty at the time of
Stride's murder, and asking to speak with a detective.

-- The Star prints the text of the Saucy Jacky postcard in the evening edition.

-- The first of many imitative hoax letters is received, with the word "Boss" hastily inserted in play of
"The City Police."

October 2, 1888 -- Inquest into the murder of Elizabeth Stride reconvened. Adjourned until the 3rd.

-- George Lusk sends petition to the Home Office requesting a reward by offered by the police.

-- Clairvoyant Robert James Lees offers his psychic assistance to the police, but is denounced as a fool.

-- Two private detectives, Grand and Batchelor, find a grape stalk in the drain near the spot where
Elizabeth Stride's body was found.

October 3, 1888 -- Unidentified trunk of a woman discovered in Whitehall.

-- Inquest into the murder of Elizabeth Stride reconvened. Adjourned until the 5th.

-- Clairvoyant Robert James Lees offers his psychic assistance to the police, but his offer is refused.

October 3, 1888 -- Grand and Batchelor take Matthew Packer to view the body of Catharine Eddowes,
implying that it is Elizabeth Stride in order to evaluate his testimony. Packer passes the test, saying he
does not recognize the body.

October 4, 1888 -- Inquest into the murder of Catharine Eddowes opened by Coroner Langham at the
Golden Lane Mortuary.

-- Clairvoyant Robert James Lees offers his psychic assistance to Scotland Yard, who respectfully decline.

-- Matthew Packer views the body of Elizabeth Stride and confirms it as the woman he saw on the night
of the double murders.

-- Facsimiles of the Dear Boss and Saucy Jacky letters first published in the Evening Standard.

October 5, 1888 -- Inquest into the murder of Elizabeth Stride reconvened. Adjourned until the 23rd.

October 6, 1888 -- Elizabeth Stride buried at East London Cemetery.

October 7, 1888 -- George Lusk writes the Home Office, requesting that a pardon be granted for the
murderer's accomplice(s), in the hopes that these accomplices would reveal his identity.

October 8, 1888 -- Catharine Eddowes is buried at Little Ilford.

October 9, 1888 -- Police test out the bloodhounds Barnaby and Burgho, successfully, at Regent's Park.

-- Sir Charles Warren replies affirmatively to Lusk's request of a pardon, but the idea is struck down by
Matthews.

October 10, 1888 -- The bloodhounds are tested again, this time personally by Sir Charles Warren in
Hyde Park. They were not successful this time, however, and this incident was quite an embarrassment
for Warren.

October 11, 1888 -- Inquest into the murder of Catharine Eddowes completed.

October 12, 1888 -- E.W. Bonham, from Boulogne, brings suspect John Langan to the attention of the
Home Office

October 16, 1888 -- John Langan's innocence verified by police.

-- George Lusk receives a package including the "From Hell" letter and half a kidney, allededly from the
body of Catharine Eddowes.

October 21, 1888 -- Maria Coroner charged with hoaxing several "Jack the Ripper letters" claiming the
murderer would claim his next victim in Bradford.

October 23, 1888 -- Inquest into the murder of Elizabeth Stride completed.

October 30, 1888 -- Joseph Barnett and Mary Kelly quarrel -- Barnett leaves their room at 13 Miller's
Court.

NOVEMBER 1888

November 1, 1888 -- Prince Albert Victor arrives in London from York.

November 2, 1888 -- Prince Albert Victor leaves for Sandringham.

November 7, 1888 -- Francis Tumblety arrested in London on charges of gross indecency.

November 9, 1888 -- Mary Kelly killed in Miller's Court.

-- Sir Charles Warren resigns.

November 10, 1888 -- Pardon offered to "anyone other than the murderer" by the Home Office.

November 11, 1888 -- Dr. William Holt, with his face blackened and wearing spectacles, frightens a
woman outside of George Yard and is attacked by a mob soon after.

November 12, 1888 -- Prince Albert Victor returns to London from Sandringham.

-- The inquest into the murder of Mary Jeanette Kelly, presided over by Coroner Roderick Macdonald,
begins and concludes in one day.

-- Dr. William Holt is released from police custody, having explained that he was tracking down the
murderer using various disguises.

-- George Hutchinson gives police his description of a suspicious man he saw with Kelly on the night of
her murder (after the inquest had finished).

November 13, 1888 -- Edward Knight Larkins tells police of a man named Antoni Pricha who resembled
Hutchinson's description.

November 15, 1888 -- Wolf Levisohn accosted by two prostitutes who shouted "You are Jack the
Ripper!" after he refused to accept their solicitations.

November 17, 1888 -- Nikaner Benelius, a Swedish man, is arrested by P.C. Imhoff for breaking into
Harriet Rowe's house and staring at her silently with an impudent grin. He was briefly suspected of being
the Ripper but was later cleared of all charges.

November 19, 1888 -- Edward Buchan, not suspected as Jack the Ripper until a century later, commits
suicide.

-- Mary Jeanette Kelly is buried at Leytonstone Roman Catholic Cemetary; no family members attend.

November 20, 1888 -- Annie Farmer allegedly attacked by Jack the Ripper.

November 24, 1888 -- Francis Tumblety flees to France, and then to America under the name 'Frank
Townshend.'

November 30, 1888 -- Montague Druitt dismissed from his position at a school in Blackheath.

DECEMBER 1888

Inspector Walter Andrews sent to New York to investigate an unnamed possible Ripper suspect.

December 1, 1888 -- Probable date of Montague John Druitt's suicide.

December 6, 1888 -- Joseph Isaacs arrested, believed by the press to have been Jack the Ripper, but
charged only with stealing a watch.

December 7, 1888 -- David Cohen arrested and placed in Whitechapel Workhouse Infirmary.

December 11, 1888 -- William Druitt hears of his brother Montague's disappearance.

December 20, 1888 -- Rose Mylett killed in Clarke's Yard.

December 21, 1888 -- David Cohen transfered to Colney Hatch Asylum.

-- Coroner Wynne E. Baxter begins the inquest into the murder of Rose Mylett in Poplar Coroner's Court.
Adjourned until January 3rd.

December 24, 1888 -- Sir Melville Macnaghten's father dies.

December 28, 1888 -- David Cohen separated from his fellow patients, listed as dangerous and
'physically ill.'

December 31, 1888 -- The body of Montague Druitt discovered floating in the Thames.

JANUARY 1889

* Dr. Jon William Sanders dies of heart failure.

* William Henry Bury and his wife Ellen move to Dundee

* Alfred Gray is arrested in Tunis on burglary charges, and is briefly suspected to be Jack the Ripper.

January 2, 1889 -- The inquest into the death of Montague John Druitt concludes in one day.
January 3, 1889 -- Inquest into the murder of Rose Mylett reconvened. Adjourned until the 9th.

January 9, 1889 -- Inquest into the murder of Rose Mylett completed.

FEBRUARY 1889

February 10, 1889 -- William Henry Bury tells police his wife has committed suicide.

MARCH 1889

William Bachert, Chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, allegedly told by police officials that
the Whitechapel murderer drowned in the Thames at the end of 1888.

APRIL 1889

William Henry Bury hanged in Dundee, convicted of murdering his wife.

MAY 1889

James Maybrick dies.

JUNE 1889

Sir Melville Macnaghten joins Scotland Yard as an Assistant Chief Constable.

Parts of Elizabeth Jackson's body wash up on the shores of the Thames throughout the middle weeks of
June.

Michael Kidney treated for a syphilitic infection at the Whitechapel Workhouse Infirmary.

JULY 1889

July 17, 1889 -- Alice McKenzie killed in Castle Alley.

-- Margaret 'Mog' Cheeks, a friend of Alice McKenzie is missed at her lodgings and feared dead as well.

-- John McCormack identifies Alice McKenzie's body.

-- Coroner Wynne E. Baxter begins the inquest into the death of Alice McKenzie. Adjounred until the
19th.

July 19, 1889 -- Margaret 'Mog' Cheeks is discovered, having stayed with her sister for a few days.

-- Police force augmented with 1 inspector, 5 sergeants and 50 constables.

-- Inquest into the death of Alice McKenzie reconvened. Adjourned until August 14th.

July 23, 1889 -- Reverend Samuel Barnett publishes a letter in the Times concerning degradation in
Whitechapel.

July 25, 1889 -- Letter signed 'Jack the Ripper' arrives at Scotland Yard, reading: "Dear Boss -- You
have not caught me yet you see, with all your cunning, with all your "Lees' with all your blue bottles. I
have made two narrow squeaks this week, but still though disturbed I got clear before I could get to
work -- I will give the foreigners a turn now I think -- for a change -- Germans especially if I can -- I was
conversing with two or three of your men last night -- their eyes of course were shut and thus they did
not see my bag. Ask any of your men who were on duty last night in Piccadilly (Circus End) if they saw a
gentleman put 2 dragoon guard sergeants into a hansom. I was close by & heard him talk about
shedding blood in Egypt I will soon shed more in England. I hope you read mark & learn all that you can
if you do so you may and may not catch -- Jack the Ripper."

AUGUST 1889

August 14, 1889 -- Inquest into the death of Alice McKenzie completed.

SEPTEMBER 1889

Michael Kidney treated for lumbago and dyspepsia at the Whitechapel Workhouse Infirmary.

September 10, 1889 -- The Pinchin Street Torso is discovered under a railway arch.

OCTOBER 1889

October 15, 1889 -- David Cohen is confined to his bed at the asylum.

October 20, 1889 -- David Cohen dies in Colney Hatch Asylum

JULY 1890

Aaron Kosminski treated at the Mile End Old Town Workhouse and diagnosed as having been insane for
the past two years (July 12). He is released three days later into the custody of his brother, Wolf. (July
15).

DECEMBER 1890

15 December - Ann Druitt, mother of suspect Montague John Druitt, dies in Chiswick of heart failure.

JANUARY 1891

An individual named Colicott stabs about 6 women from behind over a month-long period.

FEBRUARY 1891

February 4, 1891 -- Aaron Kosminski taken to Mile End Workhouse Infirmary.

February 7, 1891 -- Aaron Kosminski transfered to Colney Hatch lunatic asylum.

February 11, 1891 -- Thomas Sadler meets Frances Coles.

February 13, 1891 -- Frances Coles killed in Swallow Gardens.

February 15, 1891 -- Coroner Wynne E. Baxter begins the inquest into the murder of Frances Coles at
the Working Lads' Institute. Adjourned until the 16th.

February 16, 1891 -- Inquest into the murder of Frances Coles reconvened. Adjourned until the 20th.

February 20, 1891 -- Inquest into the murder of Frances Coles reconvened. Adjourned until the 23rd.

February 23, 1891 -- Inquest into the murder of Frances Coles reconvened. Adjourned until the 27th.

Fenruary 27, 1891 -- Inquest into the murder of Frances Coles completed.

A scare similar to the 'Leather Apron' scare of September, 1888, begins anew with a man named Jacobs,
believed by the public to be the killer soon after the Frances Coles murder.

MARCH 1891

March 5, 1891 -- Thomas Cutbush held in Lambeth Infirmary as a lunatic, but escapes soon after.

March 9, 1891 -- Thomas Cutbush arrested, charged with stabbing Florence Grace Johnson and
attempting to stab Isabelle Frazer Anderson in Kennington.

DECEMBER 1891

Prince Albert Victor engaged to Princess May of Teck (later Queen Mary)

JANUARY 1892

Prince Albert Victor dies of complications from influenza.

FEBRUARY 1892

J.K. Stephen dies.

FEBRUARY 1893

Superintendent Thomas Arnold interviewed by Evening Post.

1894

April 13, 1894 -- Aaron Kosminsky transfered to Leavesden Asylum for Imbeciles, noted as 'Demented
and Incoherent.'

Sir Melville Macnaghten writes his memoranda, in response to an article in the [Link]

1895

April 25, 1895 -- The Chicago Sunday-Times Herald publishes a story which describes a 'psychic hunt'
of Robert James Lees's which ended up in his tracking down 'an eminent physician.'

1896

Superintendent Charles Henry Cutbush, uncle of Thomas Cutbush, commits suicide.

Dr. George Bagster Phillips dies.

John Pizer dies.

1898
Journalist Thomas J. Bulling, alleged in the Littlechild Letter to have written the "Jack the Ripper letters",
is fired from the Central News Agency for sending a telegram reporting Bismarck's death which read
"Bloody Bismarck is dead."

Major Arthur Henry Griffiths publishes the first volume of Mysteries of Police and Crime, with the two
remaining volumes released by 1903.

1900

PC Ernest Thompson, who discovered the body of Frances Coles on his first night on the beat, is stabbed
and killed while arresting a disorderly man at a coffee-stall.

1901

* King Edward VII rises to the throne.

* Robert Anderson retires and is knighted -- makes first public statement that the Ripper's identity is
known.

* Dr. Thomas Bond, who was involved in the examinations of Mary Kelly, Alice McKenzie and Rose Mylett,
commits suicide by throwing himself from his bedroom window.

1902

Fogelma, a Norweigan suspect, dies in Morris Plains Lunatic Asylum, USA.

1903

Cabman John Netley is killed when he is thrown from his seat and run over by his own carriage.

Severin Klosowski (alias George Chapman) is hanged.

1904

Major Arthur Henry Griffiths publishes Fifty Years of Public Service.

1907

Sir Robert Anderson writes Criminals and Crime, again stressing that the Ripper's identity was known.

1908

Book Hvem Var Jack the Ripper? released, suggesting the murderer was Alios Szemeredy.

Vassily Konovalov dies.

1909

Issue of the Ochrana Gazette is published, allegedly including an article implicating Pedachenko as the
Ripper.

1910

* King Edward VII dies.

* Sir Robert Anderson publishes his memoirs under the title The Lighter Side of My Official Life.

* Sir Henry Smith publishes his memoirs, From Constable to Commissioner: The Story of Sixty Years:
Most of Them Misspent.

1913

September 23, 1913 -- Chief Inspector John George Littlechild writes the recently discovered 'Littlechild
letter,' which was addressed to G.R. Sims and discussed his feelings about the Tumblety suspect.

1914

Police Work From Within written by Hargrave Lee Adam.

Sir Melville Macnaghten publishes his memoirs, Days of My Years.

1915

Film Farmer Spudd and his Missus Take a Trip to Town released in England.

1919

March 24, 1919 -- Aaron Kosminsky dies in Leavesden Asylum for Imbeciles, from gangrene.
 1920

The Police Encyclopaedia written by Hargrave Lee Adam, with an introduction by Sir Robert Anderson.

Annie Elizabeth Crook dies in the Lunacy Ward of Fulham Road Workhouse.

Wynne E. Baxter dies.

James Monro dies.

1923

October 28, 1923 -- The Evening Standard reports the only known account of the Fogelma suspect.

1924

Chief Inspector Donald Swanson dies.

Film Waxworks released in Germany.

1926

Alfred Hitchcock film The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog released in the UK.

1927

James Kelly voluntarily returns to the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, 39 years after his escape from
the same institution.

William Le Queux dies.

1928

The Britannia, the public house at which Mary Kelly was seen on the night of her death, is demolished
during a project to renovate Spitalfields Market.

Film, Die Busche der Pandora (Pandora's Box) released in Germany.

1929

Inspector Abberline dies.

James Kelly dies at the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.

Leonard Matters publishes The Mystery of Jack the Ripper

1930

The Trial of George Chapman written by Hargrave Lee Adam.

Sergeant William Thick dies.

According to local legend, the Duke of Clarence, Prince Albert Victor, dies in Osborne House on the Isle of
Wight. (He officially died in 1892).

1931

C.I.D.; Behind the Scenes at Scotland Yard written by Hargrave Lee Adam.

Robert James Lees dies.

PC Robert Spicer writes to the Daily Express, relating his tale of the 'Brixton doctor' suspect (later named
'Dr. Merchant')

1932

Film The Lodger (The Phantom Fiend) released in the UK; a remake of the Hitchcock original, with sound.

1935

Dr. Harold Dearden writes article 'Who was Jack the Ripper?' in Great Unsolved Crimes.

Jean Dorsenne writes Jack L'Eventreur.

1937

Film Drole de Drame ou L'Etrange Aventure de Docteur Molyneux released in France.

Edwin Thomas Woodhall publishes Jack the Ripper: Or, When London Walked in Terror, forwarding the
Olga Tchkersoff theory.
Hugh Pollard gives Miss Dorothy Stroud a knife he claims was used by Jack the Ripper.

1938

Walter Dew publishes his memoirs, I Caught Crippen.

1939

William Stewart publishes Jack the Ripper: A New Theory, suggesting a midwife was the murderer.

1941

Detective Sergeant George Godley dies.

1942

Walter Sickert dies.

1944

Film The Lodger released in the US.

1947

Aleister Crowley dies.

1950

October 29, 1950 -- Terence Robertson, writing in the Reynold's News, makes the first known reference
to 'Fairy Fay.'

Film Room to Let released in the UK.

1951

Leonard Matters dies.

1953

Film Man in the Attic, starring Jack Palance, is released in the US.

1954

Ada Reeve publishes Take it for a Fact.

1958

American television series Cimarron City airs episode 'Knife in the Darkness.'

Film Jack the Ripper released in Great Britain.

American television series The Veil airs episode 'Jack the Ripper.'

1959

Dr. Dennis Gratwick Halstead publishes Doctor in the Nineties, naming the Ripper as a North Sea
fisherman.

Lady Aberconway, daughter of Sir Melville Macnaghten, shows her father's now famous memoranda to
Daniel Farson, who makes them public for the first time.

Donald McCormick publishes The Identity of Jack the Ripper, stressing the culpability of Michael Ostrog
and Vassily Konovalov.

November 5, 1959 -- Programme Farson's Guide to the British airs its first episode (cont'd November
12).

November 7, 1959 -- Daniel Farson prints article 'On the Trail of Jack the Ripper'in TV Times.

November 12, 1959 -- Programme Farson's Guide to the British airs its second, final episode, revealing
for the first time the initials of Macnaghten's suspect: M.J.D.

1961

American television series Thriller airs episode 'Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper.'

1962
Phillppe Julien makes the first public allegation that Prince Albert Victor was the Ripper in his book,
Edouard VII.

1965

Tom Cullen publishes Autumn of Terror -- a.k.a When London Walked in Terror, or The Crimes and Times
of Jack the Ripper. First to use the Macnaghten memoranda and to name his top suspect, Montague John
Druitt.

Robin Odell publishes Jack the Ripper in Fact and Fiction, suggesting a shochet to be the killer.

Film A Study in Terror released in the UK.

1966

The August 1966 edition of Crime and Detection includes an article which describes how a journalist for
the Star (named Best) claimed to have written all the "Jack the Ripper letters" ever sent to the press and
police.

American television series The Green Hornet airs episode, 'Alias the Scarf.'

1967

Film No Orchids for Lulu released in Austria.

Popular television series Star Trek airs episode 'Wolf in the Fold.'

1969

Inspector Lewis Henry Keaton, who joined the MEPO force in 1891, gives a tape-recorded interview
discussing police activity at the time.

1970

Dr. Thomas Stowell publishes the first article implicating Sir William Gull in the Criminologist, and writes
to the Times in November of the same year that he did not suggest that the Ripper was Prince Albert
Victor. By the time the letter was published, Stowell was dead.

1971

Film Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde released in England.

Film Hands of the Ripper released in England.

1972

Michael Harrison writes Clarence, a biography of Prince Albert Victor.

Arthur Butler writes a series of articles for the Sun, furthering the "Jill the Ripper" theory.

Film Jack El Destripador de Londres released in Spain and Italy.

Daniel Farson releases Jack the Ripper, forwarding the Montague John Druitt theory.

'Alexander Kelly' publishes Jack the Ripper: A Biography and Review of the Literature.

American television series The Sixth Sense airs episode 'With Affection, Jack the Ripper.'

1973

Leonard Gribble publishes 'Was Jack the Ripper a Black Magician?' in the March, 1973 issue of True
Detective, discussing the Dr. Stanley theory.

BBC Documentary Miniseries, Jack the Ripper, airs in the UK, culminating in an interview with Joseph
Sickert, in which he names Gull as the Ripper.

Irving Rosenwater publishes 'Jack the Ripper -- Sort of Cricketing Person?' in The Cricketer, January
1973.

1974

Donald Bell publishes "Jack the Ripper -- The Final Solution" in the Spring, 1974 edition of Criminologist,
arguing Thomas Neill Cream to be the Ripper.

Arthur Douglas writes Will the Real Jack the Ripper?

American television series Kolchak airs episode 'The Ripper.'

1975
Movie Black the Ripper is released in the US, starring Hugh van Patten.

Richard Whittington-Egan writes A Casebook on Jack the Ripper.

Donald Rumbelow publishes The Complete Jack the Ripper.

Thomas Mann publishes 'The Ripper and the Poet: A comparison of Handwriting' in WADE Journal, June
1975.

Chaim Bermant publishes Point of Arrival: A Study of London's East End; chapter 9, 'Jacob the Ripper.'

Elwyn Jones and John Lloyd publish The Ripper File, based on the 1973 BBC miniseries Jack the Ripper.

Seymour Shuster publishes 'Jack the Ripper and Doctor Identification' in the International Journal of
Psychiatry.

1976

Film Der Dirnenmoreder von London released in Switzerland.

The Ten Bells public house is renamed the Jack the Ripper.

Stephen Knight publishes Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution, forwading the Sickert story of royal
conspiracies.

1977

Leonard Gribble publishes 'The Man They Thought was Jack the Ripper' in March, 1977 issue of True
Detective, which dismisses the George Chapman theory.

Mark Andrews publishes The Return of Jack the Ripper, a fictional work which proposes that Mary Kelly's
lover was the Ripper.

1978

Two separate films, one American and one French, are released, both entitled Lulu.

Frank Spiering publishes Prince Jack: The True Story of Jack the Ripper.

Joseph Sickert publicly states that his story of Masonic conspiracy was a hoax.

1979

Film Murder By Decree released in Canada and Great Britain.

Film Time After Time released in the US.

Arthur Douglas publishes Will the Real Jack the Ripper?

1980

American series Fantasy Island airs episode, "With Affection, Jack the Ripper."

Television documentary Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution produced in Australia, following the lines of
the book by the same name.

1982

April 1982 -- Bruce Paley publishes 'A New Theory on the Jack the Ripper Murders' in True Crime,
publicly forwarding the theory that Joseph Barnett was the Ripper for the first time.

1983

The Scotland Yard folio on the murder of Emma Elizabeth Smith is first reported missing in December,
1983.

1984

'Alexander Kelly's' Jack the Ripper: A Bibliography and Review of the Literature is updated in a second
edition.

1985

Author and researcher Stephen Knight dies of a brain tumor.

Joseph Sickert recants his previous confession that his story of Masonic conspiracy was a hoax.

Film The Ripper is released in the US.

1986
Euan Macpherson first calls attention to suspect William Bury.

John Morrison erects a headstone above the previously unmarked grave of Mary Jeanette Kelly.

1987

Martin Fido publishes The Crimes, Detection and Death of Jack the Ripper.

A number of Ripper-related documents are returned anonymously to Scotland Yard, including the post-
mortem notes of Doctor Bond concerning the Mary Kelly autopsy.

Melvis Harris publishes Jack the Ripper: The Bloody Truth.

Martin Howells and Keith Skinner publish The Ripper Legacy.

Terence Sharkey publishes Jack the Ripper: 100 Years of Investigation.

Peter Underwood publishes Jack the Ripper: One Hundred Years of Mystery.

Colin Wilson and Robin Odell publish Jack the Ripper: Summing Up and Verdict.

The Swanson Marginalia are published for the first time, in the Daily Telegraph.

1988

April 21, 1988 -- The Evening Standard makes the first public mention of the existence of the Abberline
Diaries.

William Eckert of the Milton Helpern Institute of Forensic Sciences, prepares the FBI's psychological
profile of Jack the Ripper.

The Home Office Files are placed on microfilm.

Television miniseries Jack the Ripper, starring Michael Caine, airs in the US and UK.

The Jack the Ripper public house is restored to its original name, The Ten Bells.

Film Jack's Back released in the US, starring James Spader.

Colin Kendell publishes 'Did Mary Kelly Die?' in the Criminologist, Autumn 1988.

November 1988 -- Television programme The Secret Identity of Jack the Ripper airs in the US.

Simon Wood first draws attention to the apparent initials visible on the photo of Mary Kelly's body.

Paul Begg's Jack the Ripper: The Uncensored Facts is published.

1989

Film Edge of Sanity released in Great Britain.

Neal Shelden publishes 'Victims of Jack the Ripper' in January, 1989 issue of True Detective.

N.P. Warren publishes 'A Postal Kidney' in the Spring, 1989 issue of the Criminologist.

1990

Spring, 1990 -- Mason Jay writes 'The Ripper -- A Layman's Theory' in the Spring, 1990 issue of The
Criminologist.

September, 1990 -- Roger Barber writes "Did Jack the Ripper Commit Suicide?" in the Autumn, 1990
issue of Criminologist, forwarding Edward Buchan as the Ripper.

December, 1990 -- Andrew Holloway publishes "Not Guilty?" in the Cricketer, suggesting M.J. Druitt
was murdered by his older brother,William.

LWT TV broadcasts Crime Monthly: Who Was Jack the Ripper in the London area, advancing the Aaron
Kosminski theory.

Jean Overton Fuller publishes Sickert and the Ripper Crimes.

Melvin Harris publishes The Ripper File.

1991

Melvyn Fairclough publishes The Ripper and the Royals.

Paul Harrison publishes Jack the Ripper: The Mystery Solved.

Booklet Jack the Ripper released as part of the Scandal series, written by Paul Begg.

Booklet Who Was Jack the Ripper? released as part of the Murder Casebook series, written by Paul Begg.
Martin Fido releases audio-book On the Trail of Jack the Ripper.

1992

Stephane Bourgoin publishes Jack L'Eventreur.

N.P. Warren publishes article in the Spring 1992 edition of Criminologist concerning the 'Dr. Merchant'
suspect.

Video Jack the Ripper: Gescichte Eines Morders released in Germany.

Publication Ripperana is begun by N.P. Warren.

Begg, Fido, and Skinner print first edition of the revolutionary The Jack the Ripper A to Z.

1993

Shirley Harrison's The Diary of Jack the Ripper is published; Martin Howells's video of the same name is
released soon after.

Stewart Evans discovers the Littlechild Letter, bringing the Tumblety suspect to light.

William Henry publishes 'The Ripper case: New Evidence' in Spring, 1993 issue of the Criminologist.

Sue Iremonger delivers paper 'Jack the Ripper Revisited' to the WADE Conference in June, 1993,
detailing her handwriting analysis of a number of Ripper letters and documents.

A.P. Wolf publishes Jack the Myth: A New Look at the Ripper.

The London Dungeon opens The Jack the Ripper Experience.

John Wilding publishes Jack the Ripper Revealed, suggesting that M.J. Druitt and J.K. Stephen were
together Jack the Ripper.

Map/Pamphlet Jack's London released by Daryl Sullivan and Andrew Cocknell.

Gary Rowlands publishes 'Jack the Ripper: The Writing on the Wall' in the Summer, 1993 issue of the
Criminologist.

1994

The Cloak and Dagger Club begun by Mark Galloway.

Philip Sugden publishes The Complete History of Jack the Ripper.

Researcher D.S. Goffee publishes 'The Search for Michael Ostrog' in the October, 1994 edition of
Ripperana, revealing much new information on the suspect.

Melvin Harris publishes The True Face of Jack the Ripper.

Martin Fido releases narrated audiotape In the Footsteps of Jack the Ripper, which includes directions for
individuals to take a tour of Whitechapel.

'Alexander Kelly's' Jack the Ripper: A Bibliography and Review of the Literature is updated in a third
edition.

1995

April, 1995 -- Mark Angus publishes article in Spring, 1995 issue of Criminologist arguing against the
authenticity of the Maybrick diary.

Bernard Brown publishes "Was Jack the Ripper a Policeman?" in The Journal of Police History Society
Journal.

Patricia Cory writes An Eye to the Future.

Stewart Evans and Paul Gainey publish The Lodger.

Martin Fido releases audiotape Jack the Ripper.

Scott Palmer publishes Jack the Ripper: A Reference Guide.

William Beadle publishes Jack the Ripper: Anatomy of a Myth, forwarding William Henry Bury as the
Ripper.

The London Dungeon updates and revamps The Jack the Ripper Experience

Bruce Paley publishes Jack the Ripper: The Simple Truth.

Camille Wolff publishes Who Was Jack the Ripper?

 1996

January 31, 1996 -- Casebook: Jack the Ripper goes on-line.

February 29, 1996 -- American cable channel A&E airs programme "Biography: Jack the Ripper."

UK National Conference takes place in Ipswitch, April 1996.

Peter Fisher publishes An Illustrated Guide to Jack the Ripper, which identifies the Ripper as a Turkish
priest named Eppstein.

Peter Turnbull publishes The Killer that Never Was.

1997

January 3, 1997 -- American television station FOX airs Sliders episode "Murder Most Foul."

April 10-26, 1997 -- Musical "Jack the Ripper" premiers at the Boston Center for the Arts.

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