East End Terror:
----------------
On September. 1888, a letter was delivered to the Central News Agency in London's Fleet Street. It read:
Dear Boss, I keep on hearing that the police have caught me. But they won't fix me yet… I am down on certain types of women and I won't stop ripping them until I do get buckled. Grand job, that last job was. I gave the lady no time to squeal. I love my work and want to start again. You will soon hear from me, with my funny little game. I saved some of the proper red stuffin a ginger beer bottle after my last job to write with, but it went thick like glue and I can't use it. Red ink is fit enought, I hope. Ha, ha! Next time I shall clip the ears off and send them to the police just for jolly. The letter was signed 'Jack the Ripper'.
It was the first time the name had ever been used. And it immortalized this twisted and mysterious killer who lurked in London's backstreets. Jack the Ripper's reign of terror was a short one. He first struck on a warm night in August 1888. On a chill, foggy night three months later he claimed his last victim. He is known to have slaughtered at least five women and some criminologists have credited him with 11 murders. All that is known for certain about Jack the Ripper is that he had some medical knowledge and that he was left-handed a fact obvious to police surgeons who examined the grisly remains of his victims.
He was probably a tall, slim, pale man with a black moustache. This was the description given by witnesses, including one policeman who saw someone hurrying away from the vicinity of one ofthe crimes. Each time, he wore a cap and a long coat, and he walked with the vigorous stride of a young man. But it is unlikely that anyone will ever be able to identify him. Even in 1992, when the secret Scotland Yard files on the case are finally made public, they are expected to cast little new light on the case.
The story of London's most mysterious and ferocious mass-murderer began shortly after 05.00 on the morning of 7th August, 1888. A man hurried down the stairs of the Whitechapel hovel in which he had a room - to be confronted by a bundle lying on the first floor landing. He tried to push the bundle out of his way, then recoiled with horror when he realized that what lay at his feet were the bloody remains of a woman. She was identified as Martha Turner, a prostitute. Her throat had been slit, she had been stabbed several times, and bestial mutilations had been carried on her body. As the murder of prostitutes was no rare thing in those days, the case was soon shelved.
But when a second, similar murder was committed 24 days later, fear and panic began to sweep the mean streets of the East End. The mutilated body of 42-year-old Mary Ann Nicholls or Pretty Polly as she was known was found in the early hours of 31st August. Mary had probably taken no heed of the grisly fate of Martha Turner. She was desperate for money. She needed fourpence for a doss-house bed, and when a tall, pale man approached her she looked forward to the chance of making a few coppers, with perhaps something left over for a couple of tots of gin. The man drew her into the shadows. If she finally realized there was anything wrong, it was too late. The Ripperput a hand over her mouth and dexterously slit her throat. Then the crazed killer set about his savage butchery. A detective who examined the body said: 'Only a madman could have done this.' And a police surgeon said: 'I have never seen so horrible a case. She was ripped about in a manner that only a person skilled in the use of a knife could have achieved.' It was just one week before the Ripper struck again.
His prey was Dark Annie' Chapman, 47 years old and dying of tuberculosis when she was hacked down. When found in Hanbury Street by a porter from nearby Spitalfields Market, her few pitiful possessions had been neatly laid out beside her disembowelled corpse.
The next victim was Elizabeth 'Long Liz' Stride. On the evening of Sunday, 30th September, a police constable spotted a white-stockinged leg sticking out from a factory gate. Unlike earliercases, Elizabeth Stride's body had not been mutilated which led police to surmise that the Ripper had been disturbed in his grisly task. But, to satisfy his bloodlust, be soon found another victim.
And it was during this killing that he left the only clue to his identity. Just 15 minutes walk from the spot where Long Liz's body had been found was discovered the bloody remains of 40-year-oldCatherine Eddowes. Her body was the most terribly mutilated so Far - the Ripper had even cut off ears. And from the corpse a trail of blood led to a message scrawled in chalk on a wall: 'The Jewes
are not men to be blamed for nothing.' But this vital piece of evidence was never studied properly.
Sir Charles Warren, head of the Metropolitan Police, perhaps fearing a violent backlash of hatred aimed at the Jews, ordered the slogan to be rubbed out and kept a secret. Rumours now began to sweep like wildfire through the sleazy streets of London's East End……The Ripper carried his instruments of death in a little black bag and terror-crazed crowds chased any innocent Passer-by carrying such a bag. He was a foreign seaman and anyone with a foreign accent went in fear of opening his mouth for fear of being set upon. He was a Jewish butcher and latent anti-Semitism already simmering because of the influx of Jewish immigrants fleeing the Russian and Polish pogroms began bubbling to the surface.
An even wilder theory, popular in the most squalid areas where there was no love lost between the inhabitants and the police, was that the killer was a policeman. How else would he be able to prowl the streets at night without creating suspicion? The killer was in turn thought to be a mad doctor, a homicidal Russian sent by the Czar's secret police trying to cause unrest in London, a puritan obsessed with cleansing the East End of vice, and a crazed midwife with a hatred of prostitutes.
On 9th November, the Ripper struck again. Mary Kelly was unlike any of the other victims. She was younger only 25 blonde and she was attractive. The last person to see her alive was George Hutchinson whom she had asked for money to pay her rent. When he said he could not help she
approached a slim, well-dressed man with a trim moustache and a deerstalker hat. She was never seen alive again. Early next morning, Henry Bowers knocked impatiently at her door for his unpaid rent. Finally he went to the window of Mary's room and pushed aside the sacking curtain.
The sickening sight within made him forget all about the rent and sent him running for the police. Later, he was to say: I shall be haunted by this for the rest of my life.' With Mary Kelly's death, the Ripper's reign ended as suddenly and mysteriously as it began.
Two convicted murderers claimed to be the Ripper. One, who poisoned his mistress, said when arrested: 'You've got Jack the Ripper at last.' But there is little evidence to suggest that he was telling the truth. The second cried out as the trapdoor on the gallows opened I am Jack the...' But it was later proved that he was in America when the Ripper crimes were committed. Some members of the police force were sure they knew who the Ripper was.
In 1908, the assistant commissioner of police said flatly: 'In stating that he was a Polish Jew, I am merely stating a definitely established fact.' But Inspector Robert Sagar, who played a leading part in the Ripper investigations and who died in 1924, said in his memoirs: 'We had good reason to suspect a man who lived in Butcher's Row, Aldgate. We watched him carefully. There was no
doubt that this man was insane, and, after a time, his friends thought it advisable to have him removed to a private asylum. After he was removed, there were no more Ripper atrocities.' Even Queen Victoria's eldest grandson has been named as a suspect. He was Prince Albert Victor, Dukeof Clarence, who, if he had lived, would have become king when his father, Edward VII, died.
But perhaps the most likely solution is the one arrived at by author and broadcaster Daniel Farson. He pointed the finger of suspicion at Montagu John Druitt, a failed barrister who had both medical connections and a history of mental instability in his family. Farson based his became head of the Criminal Investigation Department in 1903. Macnaghten named three Ripper Suspects a Polish tradesman, who hated women and was probably Jewish, a homicidal Russian doctor, and Druitt. The soundest basis for blaming Druitt for the murders is that a few weeks after the death of Mary Kelly, Druitt's body was found floating in the River Thames. After that, there were no further attacks by Jack the Ripper.
*******************************************************
White chapel murders 1:
-----------------------
The police at the Commercial Street station have made another arrest on suspicion in connection with the recent murders. It appears that among the numerous statements and descriptions of suspected persons are several tallying with that of the man in custody, but beyond this the police know nothing at present, against him. His apprehension was of a singular character. Throughout yesterday his movements are stated to have created suspicion among various persons, and last night he was handed over to a uniform constable doing duty in the neighbourhood of Flower and Dean Street on suspicion in connection with the crime.
On his arrival at the police station in Commercial Street the detective officers and Mr. Abberline were communicated with, and an inquiry concerning him was at once opened. On being searched perhaps one of the most extraordinary accumulation of articles were discovered - a heap of rags, comprising pieces of dress fabrics, old and dirty linen, two purses of a kind usually used by
women, two or three pocket handkerchiefs, one a comparatively clean white one, and a white one with a red spotted border; two small tin boxes, a small cardboard box, a small leather strap, which might serve the purpose of a garterstring, and one spring onion.
The person to whom this curious assortment belongs is slightly built, about 5ft. 7in. or 5ft. 8in. in
height, and dressed shabbily. He has a very careworn look. Covering a head of hair, inclined somewhat to be sandy, with beard and moustache to match, was a cloth skull cap, which did not improve his appearance. Suspicion is the sole motive for his temporary detention, for the police, although making every possible inquiry about him, do not believe his appehension to be of any
importance.
Regarding the man Pigott, who was captured at Gravesend, nothing whatever has been discovered by the detectives in the course of their inquiries which can in any way connect him with the crimes, and his release, at all events, from the custody of the police is expected shortly. In connection with the arrest of a lunatic at Holloway, it appears that he has been missing from his friends for some time now. The detectives have been very active in prosecuting their inquiries concerning him, and it is believed the result, so far, increases their suspicion. He is at present confined in the asylum at Grove Road, Bow. All inquiries have failed to elicit anything as to the whereabouts of the missing
pensioner who is wanted in connexion with the recent murder.
On the question as to the time when the crime was committed, concerning which there was a difference between the evidence of the man Richardson and the opinion of Dr. Phillips, a correspondent yesterday elicited that Mr. Cadoche, who lives in the next house to No. 29, Hanbury Street, where the murder was committed, went to the back of the premises at half-past 5 a.m. As he passed the wooden partition he heard a woman say "No, No." On returning he heard a scuffle and then someone fell heavily against the fence. He heard no cry for help, and so he went into his house. Some surprise is felt that this statement was not made in evidence at the inquest. There is a very strong feeling in the district and large numbers of persons continue to visit the locality.
Annie Chapman, the victim of the crime, was buried early yesterday morning at Manor Park Cemetery. Some of her relatives attended the funeral.
Copyright London Times nov 10 , 1888
*******************************************************
White chapel murders 2:
-----------------------
Another murder of the foulest kind was committed in the neighbourhood of Whitechapel in the early hours of yesterday morning, but by whom and with what motive is at present a complete mystery. At a quarter to 4 o'clock Police constable Neill, 97J, when in Buck's Row, Whitechapel, came upon the body of a woman lying on a part of the footway, and on stooping to raise her up in
the belief that she was drunk he discovered that her throat was cut almost from ear to ear. She was dead but still warm. He procured assistance and at once sent to the station and for a doctor.
Dr. Llewellyn, of Whitechapel Road, whose surgery is not above 300 yards from the spot where the woman lay, was aroused, and, at the solicitation of a constable, dressed and went at once to the scene. He inspected the body at the place where it was found and pronounced the woman dead. He made a hasty examination and then discovered that, besides the gash across the throat, the woman had terrible wounds in the abdomen. The police ambulance from the Bethnal-green Station having arrived, the body was removed there. A further examination showed the horrible nature of the crime, there being other fearful cuts and gashes, and one of which was sufficient to cause death apart from the wounds across the throat.
After the body was removed to the mortuary of the parish, in Old Montague Street, Whitechapel, steps were taken to secure, if possible, identification, but at first with little prospect of success. The clothing was of a common description, but the skirt of one petticoat and the band of another article bore the stencil stamp of Lambeth Workhouse. The only articles in the pockets were a comb and a piece of a looking glass. The latter led the police to conclude that the murdered woman was an inhabitant of the numerous lodging-houses of the neighbourhood, and officers were despatched to make inquiries about, as well as other officers to Lambeth to get the matron of the workhouse to view the body with a view to identification. The latter, however, could not identify, and said that the clothing might have been issued any time during the past two or three years. As the news of the murder spread, however, first one woman and then another came forward to view the body, and at length it was found that a woman answering the description of the murdered woman had lodged in a common lodging-house, 18, Thrawl-street, Spitalfields.
Women from that place were fetched and they identified the deceased as "Polly," who had shared a room with three other women in the place on the usual terms of such houses - nightly payment of 4d. each, each woman having a separate bed. It was gathered that the deceased had led the life of an "unfortunate" while lodging in the house, which was only for about three weeks past.
Nothing more was known of her by them but that when she presented herself for her lodging on Thursday night she was turned away by the deputy because she had not the money.
She was then the worse for drink, but not drunk, and turned away laughing, saying, "I'll soon get my 'doss' money; see what a jolly bonnet I've got now." She was wearing a bonnet which she had not been seen with before, and left the lodging house door. A woman of the neighbourhood saw her later, she told the police -- even as late as 2:30 on Friday morning -- in Whitechapel Road, opposite the church and at the corner of Osborne-street, and at a quarter to 4 she was found within 500 yards of the spot, murdered.
The people of the lodging-house knew her as "Polly," but at about half-past 7 last evening a woman named Mary Ann Monk, at present an inmate of Lambeth Workhouse, was taken to the mortuary and identified the body as that of Mary Ann Nicholls, also called "Polly" Nicholls.
She knew her, she said, as they were inmates of the Lambeth Workhouse together in April and May last, the deceased having been passed there from another workhouse. On the 12th of May, according to Monk, Nicholls left the workhouse to take a situation as servant at Ingleside, Wandsworth Common. It afterwards became known that Nicholls betrayed her trust as domestic servant, by stealing L3 from her employer and absconding. From that time she had been wandering about. Monk met her, she said, about six weeks ago when herself out of the workhouse and drank with her. She was sure the deceased was "Polly" Nicholls, and, having twice viewed the features as the body lay in the shell, maintained her opinion.
So far the police have satisfied themselves, but as to getting a clue to her murderer they express little hope. The matter is being investigated by Detective Inspector Abberline, of Scotland Yard, and Inspector Helson, J Division. The latter states that he walked carefully over the ground soon after 8 o'clock in the morning, and beyond and the discolourations ordinarily found on pavements there was no sign of stains. Viewing the spot where the body was found, however, it seemed difficult to believe that the woman recieved her death wounds there. The police have no theory with respect to the matter, except that a gang of ruffians exists in the neighborhood, which, blackmailing women of the "unfortunate" class, takes vengeance on those who do not find money for them. They base that surmise on the fact that within 12 months two other women have been murdered in the district by almost similar means - one as recently as the 6th of August last - and left in the gutter of the street in the early hours of the morning.
If the woman was murdered on the spot where the body was found, it is impossible to believe she would not have aroused the neighborhood by her screams, Bucks Row being a street tenanted all down one side by a respectable class of people, superior to many of the surrounding streets, the other side having a blank wall bounding a warehouse. Dr. Llewellyn has called the attention of the police to the smallness of the quantity of blood on the spot where he saw the body, and yet the gashes in the abdomen laid the body right open.
The weapon used would scarcely have been a sailor's jack knife, but a pointed weapon with a stout back - such as a cork-cutter's or shoemaker's knife. In his opinion it was not an exceptionally long-bladed weapon. He does not believe that the woman was seized from behind and her throat cut, but thinks that a hand was held across her mouth and the knife then used, possibly by a left-handed man, as the bruising on the face of the deceased is such as would result from the
mouth being covered with the right hand. He made a second examination of the body in the mortuary, and on that based his conclusion, but will make no actual post mortem until he receives the Coroner's orders. The inquest is fixed for today.
copyright london times -- Sept 15,1888