Murder is Afoot

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JACK THE RIPPER By Miss Bougheywww.SchoolHistory.
co.uk
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First Victim
Charles Cross walked through Whitechapel just
before four in the morning in August 1888. The
street was dark and looked deserted. It was
chilly and damp, typical for London in the
summer. He saw something that looked like
tarpaulin lying on the ground before the entrance
to a stable. He walked closer, and saw a woman
lying on her back, skirts lifted almost to her
waist. He saw another man walking the same way.
"Come and look over here," he asked the man,
assuming that the woman was drunk or a victim of
an assault. They tried to help her in the
darkened street, neither saw the awful wounds
that had nearly decapitated her. They fixed her
skirt for modesty's sake and went to look for a
policeman.
Victim One
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A few minutes later, Police Constable John Neil
found the body whilst walking his beat. From the
light of his lantern, he saw that blood was
oozing from her throat which had been slashed
from ear to ear. Her eyes were wide open. Even
though her hands and wrists were cold, Neil felt
warmth in her arms.
The wounds to the victims throat had been fatal.
Since parts of her body were still warm, a local
doctor felt she had been dead no longer than
half-hour. Her neck had been slashed twice,
cutting through her windpipe. She had been killed
where she was found, but there was very little
blood on the ground. Most of the lost blood had
soaked into her clothing. The body was taken to
the local mortuary, which was part of the
workhouse there. When the body was stripped,
Inspector Spratling discovered that her abdomen
had been mutilated.
Who was the victim?
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There were no identifying marks on the body. The
victim was approximately five feet two inches
tall with brown hair, brown eyes and several
missing front teeth. As news of the murder spread
around Whitechapel, the police learned of a woman
named "Polly," who lived in a local lodging
house. Eventually a woman from the Lambeth
Workhouse identified the victim as Mary Ann
Nichols, age 42. The next day her family
identified the body. Polly had been a heavy
drinker. Mostly, Polly had been living off her
small earnings as a prostitute. Every once in
awhile, she would try to get her life back
together, but it never worked out. She was a sad,
destitute woman, but one that most people liked
and pitied. Her death upset many people.
Polly Nicholls
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Victim Two
Annie Chapman, age 47, was seen as a pathetic
woman. She lived at common lodging houses when
she had the money and roamed the streets looking
for ways to earn a little money for shelter and
drink. Eventually Annie turned to prostitution,
despite her plain features, missing teeth, and
plump figure. Just before two in the morning on
Saturday, September 8, a slightly drunken Annie
was turned out of her lodging house to earn money
for her bed. Later, she was found dead several
hundred yards away in the backyard of 29 Hanbury
Street, Spitalfields.
Annie Chapman
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Doctor's Report
The body was lying in the yard on her back. The
left arm was across the left breast, legs were
drawn up, feet resting on the ground, and knees
turned outwards. The face was swollen, and the
tongue stuck out between the front teeth, it was
much swollen. The small intestines were lying on
the ground on the right side of
the body but were still attached. There was lots
of blood with part of the stomach. The body was
cold, except for some heat under the intestines.
Rigor Mortis was starting. The throat was cut
deeply. The cut was jagged, and reached right
round the neck. Newspapers worsened the obvious
fear and anger of the people in London, feeding
on every rumour and story. Two unsolved murders
left the busy streets quiet and virtually
deserted at night.
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The Double Murder
Louis Diemschutz was driving his cart to Dutfield
Yard in Whitechapel on Sunday, September 30,
1888. As he did so, he saw an object on the
ground near the wall of a building. He lit a
match and saw it was a woman. He rushed into a
nearby building and asked a man for help. When
they saw that the object was a woman with a
stream of blood running from her body, the two
men ran screaming for a policeman. The police
arrived and discovered that her neck was warm, as
were the legs and face. The hands were cold. The
right hand was open on the chest and smeared with
blood. The left hand was lying on the ground. The
face was peaceful. The mouth was slightly open.
In the neck there was a long cut which started on
the left side below the angle of the jaw, and
almost in a direct line with it, severing the
vessels on that side, cutting the windpipe
completely in two, and stopping on the opposite
side.
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Strike Two - the Double Murder!
While the police were coping with yet another
murder, a most extraordinary thing happened less
than a mile away in Mitre Square. At night, when
the businesses were closed, Mitre Square became a
dark and somewhat secluded area. The Square was
on the beat of Police Constable Watkins. He had
been through the square at 130 and all was
quiet. He came around 14 minutes later, just 45
minutes after the discovery of the first body.
When he shined his lantern in one corner of the
square, he made a horrible discovery. He
described it to the coroner a few days later I
saw the body of a woman lying on her back with
her feet facing the square, her clothes up above
her waist. I saw her throat was cut and her
bowels protruding. The stomach was ripped up. She
was lying in a pool of blood. This was to be
Jacks fourth victim!
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Murder Number Two
While the police were coping with yet another
Whitechapel murder, an extraordinary thing
happened not far away in Mitre Square. It was
generally a respectable area surrounded by
commercial buildings and warehouses, with very
few residences. At night, when the businesses
were closed, Mitre Square became a dark and
somewhat secluded area. Mitre Square was on the
beat of Police Constable Edward Watkins. He had
been through the square at 130 and all was
quiet. He came around again at 144 a.m. Again,
it was quiet and deserted. When he shined his
lantern in one corner of the square, he made a
horrible discovery. The body of a woman lying on
her back with her feet facing the square, her
clothes up above her waist. The throat was cut
and her bowels protruding. The stomach was ripped
up. She was lying in a pool of blood."
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The First Clue
How this murderer was able to accomplish two such
murders in such a short time, particularly with
the mutilations of the second victim, without
being seen by the police or anybody and then,
when the area was in a heightened state of alarm,
and create the chalk writing on the archway is
nothing short of amazing.
A constable found a piece of a bloody apron lying
in the entrance to a building in Goulston Street.
There was also a message written in chalk.
In one night both Elizabeth Stride and Catharine
Eddowes had lost their lives. Both were women of
the street.
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25 Sept 1888Dear Boss I keep on hearing the
police have caught me but they wont fix me just
yet. I have laughed when they look so clever and
talk about being on the right track. That joke
about Leather Apron gave me real fits. I am down
on whores and I shant quit ripping them till I do
get buckled. Grand work the last job was. I gave
the lady no time to squeal. How can they catch me
now. I love my work and want to start again. You
will soon hear of me with my funny little games.
I saved some proper red stuff in a ginger beer
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 hope ha. ha. The next job I do I
shall clip. The lady's ears off and send to the
Police officers just for jolly wouldn't you. Keep
this letter back till I do a bit more work then
give it out straight. My knife's so nice and
sharp I want to get to work right away if I get a
chance. Good luck.Yours truly Jack the
Ripper
Contact from a Killer
Hundreds of letters from the murderer were sent
to the police, news agencies and people linked
with solving the crime. Only three of these
letters were believed. Two, in particular, which
are written by the same individual, actually
created the name "Jack the Ripper." The two
letters, written in red ink, gave the murderer
his name. It was received by Central News on
September 27, 1888 and was addressed to The Boss.
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Mary Kelly
By October things were returning to normal in
Whitechapel. With no murders for a month women
began to ply their trade in force. One such woman
was a good-looking young Irish girl by the name
of Mary Kelly. Police officer Walter Dew knew her
by sight. "She was usually in the company of two
or three of her kind, fairly neatly dressed and
invariably wearing a clean white apron, but no
hat. Mary had a lot on her mind at the beginning
of November. She was several weeks behind in her
rent and her lover, was unemployed. She
rented a first floor room in Miller's Court in
the back of Dorset Street. On Friday November 9th
Marys landlord, sent his assistant to see if he
could collect any rent from her. When his knock
went unanswered, he reached inside the window and
pulled aside the curtain.
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He wasn't sure what he saw, but it caused him to
run back to McCarthy. McCarthy looked through the
window and was so horrified that he sent for the
police. Soon the police surgeon was there. They
opened the door to a small room with almost no
furniture. Mary's body, lay sprawled on the bed.
The cause of death was the cutting of the artery
in the throat. The horrendous mutilation of this
last Ripper murder was done after her death.
There was an agreement that the same monster who
killed the other four women murdered Mary Kelly.
All of women were murdered with "a very sharp,
strong knife about an inch in width and at least
six inches long."
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4 Main Suspects
Michael Ostrog, a Russian doctor, and convict,
who was held in a lunatic asylum as a homicidal
maniac. Hiis whereabouts at the time of the
murders could never be discovered.
A Mr. Druitt, was a doctor in a good family, who
disappeared at the time of the Miller's Court
murder, whose body was found in the Thames on
31st December.
In 1992  Michael Barrett, from Liverpool, found a
diary reputedly written by James Maybrick who
died in 1889.  In this diary, Maybrick confessed
to being Jack the Ripper.
A well known theory is that Prince Edward was the
Ripper because he liked to slum it in the East
End and he had the influence to cover up murders