A
Timeline Chronicle of the "JACK THE RIPPER" Murders
Now, let us step into the night of Friday, August 31, 1888 and
take a stroll into the Whitechapel District on London's lower East Side and walk in the shoes of "JACK the RIPPER".
In a squalid alley way a man has just risen from a crouched
position and scurries into the darkness.
At 3:40 am. a porter on his way to work enters the alley. A
few feet in he notices a large object lying on opposite side against a building. He approaches cautiously,
upon nearing, he sees it to be a woman. Could it be a lady of the night passed out from drink?
His calls brings no answer. He rushes to summons the nearest
police officer. The constable's lantern reveals the woman's throat has been cut.
He's shocked. He had patroled this alley way no more than
thirty minutes earlier, finding it quiet and empty.
The alley is a narrow and ill-lit bounded on both sides by warehouses
and boarding rooms. The victim lay beside the gate to a stable barn.
A doctor from near-by was summoned to exam the body. Naturally,
with all the to-do a crowd began to gather. Whispers were abounding.
After a time, the body was moved to a near-by work-house infirmary.
Suddenly, screams
shook the walls of the blighted buildings upon the ungodly sight of blood that had collected under the body.
The post-mortum findings
were of a female approximate age 40 to 45 years of age, presumed to be accousted from the front, with having two deep slashes
to the throat. The wounds were inflicted from left to right, which could indicate being done by a left-handed person.
Several bruises about the face and neck area indicating she was first rendered unconscious. The abdolminal area was mutilated
which including the removal of the
sex organs. The weapon seemed to be a sharp long bladed instrument.
Neighbors were brought in to view the body. The woman was identified
as "Polly". Later, it was found out her name was Mary Ann Nichols.
The police believed that her murder was connected to two similar atrocities
that occured earlier in the year. To wit: Emma Smith, found stabbed and mutilated on April 3 and Martha (Turner) Tabram found
stabbed 39 times on August 7, a few hundred feet from where Mary Nichols was found.
Under suspicion were a band of hooligans known to be extorting monies
from the local prosititutes. Those who didn't or couldn't pay were sliced. Others
held suspicions of a Whitechapel bootmaker, John Pitzer, also known as "leather Apron" for his professed hatred toward
the local ladies of the night. Unfortunately,the brute was nowhere to be found.
The Whitechapel District has long been known to
be a haven for the disgarded, bedeviled and poor lost souls of the great city of London. The lowest of the low sickened with despair hobbled in conditions undescribable to those who prevailed unconcerned.
In an over-crowed unsanitary place, where most children died before the age of five, that stood as a painting of shame upon those of no earthly needs.
Mary Ann Nichols mother of five estranged from her husband because
of the dreaded sickness of alcohol lived from day to day on what she earned selling her "favors" to men.
She carried in her pocket all she possessed:
a comb, a button and a soiled handkerchief.
#
More than the chill of the night gluided along the darken back alley
streets of the Whitechapel District that night of September 8. Its companion, death in a black hat and cape, lurked
in the dark shadows waiting.
"Dark Annie", so named because her heavy drinking would put her in
the deep hole of despair and she would take out her anger in brawling with other ladies of her scorned profession.
She was a short stout woman and beauty didn't grace her alcohol swollen
face. She was another away from children and spouse.
After a day of selling flowers Annie was making the rounds of her favorite
haunts. Evidently, she had a good time because at 2:00 am she was turned out of the Dorset rooming house because
she lack "doss" money.
She was observed, by a local housewife, a little after 5:00 am. talking
to a dark foreign-looking man on Hanbury Street. In passing, the woman thought she heard the man ask,"will
you?" and Annie's reply, "yes."
At her inquest on September 11, a man who lives in the house adjacent
to 29 Hanbury Street where Annie body was found stated, "He left the house at approximately 5:20 am. and heard a cry
of help from the next yard and a sound of something falling against the fence". He was not one to mix into
affairs.
Annie was discovered by a lodger entering through the back gate about
6: am. He was so horrified by the sight of the woman's bloody body and entrails that lay about her head, he ran
screaming into the street awaking the neighborhood.
The doctor who examined the body was quoted saying,"It was gruesome".
At her inquest it was noted that her full name was Annie
Chapman and at times used the name Annie Siffey.
Her demise was similar to Nichol's. Two deep throat slashes. In
fact, so deep that she was almost beheaded. The killer had covered his handy work with a scarf, maybe to hide the incisions.
Again, her legs were bent up and out. Upon lifting her skirt the sight of seeing her entire body cavity slash open brought
gasps to the group of constables standing within sight of the body.
A leather apron was found near-by. An extensive search for the
ellusive John Pitzer produced him hiding with family. Several others were arrested along with Pitzer
and released because they proved their whereabouts the nights of the murders.
Also, the infirmary doctor claimed a left-handed man with
medical knowledge had committed the crimes. Again, referring to the precision removal of the sexual organs.
Fear heightened througout the Whitechapel district. A vigilante
committee was formed. They appealed for better street lighting and more police protection.
Was the dark "foreign-looking man", dressed rather shabby, that
the neighborhood woman saw our first lead as to what the Ripper looked like?
The police compiled these facts: each murder was committed after
midnight in the dark street by-ways within a half-mile circle, all women were prosititutes in their middle age, all sliced
with a surgical instrument which indicated a possible medical person, no apparent motive and the killer had the ability
to disapper or blend into the street mix of early morning people.
Their obvious
conclusion was that the four murders of: Martha Tabram, Emma Smith, Mary Nichols and Annie Chapman were quite possible committed
by the same man.
#
A week and a fortnight past. Then on September 30, two more horrible
murders were committed. One in the Whitecahpel District and the other a short distance away over the line into
the London's city limits. Assuring all, that this heinous fiend was still lurking and preying upon women.
The rain caused a damp chill to caress the night air. A
vender who sought the warmth of a pub early that evening was pulling his cart into a small alley-way shortly past 1:00
am. His horse reared. Standing up to view why, he saw a dark form blocking the way in. Stepping from
the cart, he steadied the animal. He then turned to look at the object. Immediately seeing it was a
woman on her back. He pondered, could she be drunk or worst, dead?
A group of men leaving a near-by club were approaching with lanterns.
As they approached their light reveal blood collected about the head. A closer look showed her throat slashed.
A constable was summoned. He alerted a neighborhood physcian.
Upon his inspection of the body, he noted that the the body was still warm and had a single gash across the neck.
Could the vender sudden appearance have interrupted the assailant? Was it the Ripper?
What is discovered a short distance away, beyond the edge of the Whitecahpel
District, would make it posible to be the case.
A London constable at 1:45 am. was returning from his circle of protection
where he had been no more than 15 minutes before. Turning a dark corner, into Mitre Square, he sees the body
of a woman lying on her back. Rasing his light to view it, he gasps and fumbles for his whistle.
The sounds alert all near the scene. Their arrival finds the
constable muttering "ripped open, like a market pig".
A second body only a few blocks away and fifteen minutes later.
Bold, brash and with knowledge of the area, now seem to be the Ripper's "modus operandi".
Either he's becoming more daring or possibly desperate to strike so
close, so soon.
The second victim's throat had only one deep slash. Her face
was a bit bruised with the tip of her nose severed and a piece of her ear was also slashed off. Could she have given him a bit of a struggle?
The poor woman was split up the middle and her entrails tossed up over
her right shoulder. Later, the two doctors from the different murder scenes agreed that the second victim's disembowelment
was done with rash quick slashes and not as neat as the previous victims.
Of course, time may have gave way to a botched cut-up job.
This was told to be said by the constable who found the second body.
All through the night, until morning, the entire area was
canvased, reports related: A blood-smeared knife was found on Whitechapel Road, on Dorset Street a basin with
bloody water was found, on the near-by Goulston Street a piece of torn cloth with blood smears was found in a doorway
and a weird inscription upon a wall near the doorway written in chalk.
The arrangement of words were a puzzle. A word "Juwes" brought
much confusion into the text. Was it a misspelled word? Did it mean "Jews"? Was it written before the murders?
Where was the chalk?
The city of London was in a political turmoil at this time.
The liberals and the social reformers, as well as the Irish partisans were accusing each other on many issues which included
certain things pertaining to the Jews. So, before the contents scrawled on the wall could be recorded, the police
commissioner ordered it to be erase.
As dawn approached the
bodies were taken to their respective mortuaries in Whitechapel and the city.
The body in Whitechapel was identified as the wife of a man
named Stride, with whom she had two children. It was later established that her maiden name was Elizabeth Gustafdottir,
age 45. Her street name was "Long Liz".
The doctors couldn't find, beyond the slash of her throat, no other
body violations. Conclusion: either the work of an imitator or possibly totally unrelated to the Ripper's handy work.
She, from time to time, lived with a dockworker on Fashion Street.
A more recent place was a "doss" house on Flower and Dean Street. Long Liz was a known prostitute and had numerous
arrest for drunkiness.
It seems, as the story is told, what caused her "fits" of drinking
was the death of her husband and children who were drown with the sinking of the "Princess Alice" in1878.
A parade of witness came forth at her inquest telling and giving
varied descriptions of the men she was with the night of her demise. None proved to be posit.
#
The second body was delivered to the St. George Mortuary. The
victim was idenified by her sister as, Cathrine Eddowes. Some called her Kate Kelly. She was 43 on her last birthday.
Friends related that she also had a sad story of a husband and
three children left behind to wander in a drunkin stupor to ease the pain of dissolution.
Upon sorting out her body cavity parts, it was found that her
uterus and left kidney were missing. It was also confirmed that the bloody scrape of cloth found was, in fact, from
her skirt.
In Eddowes case a bit of embarrassment befell upon Scotland Yard.
It seems at 8:30 pm.that evening she was found fast asleep on the street and arrested. She was released at 1:00 am.
and observed walking unsteady in the direction of her demise.
Two eye-witnesses gave an account of seeing her with a dark skinned
younger man dressed like a sailor. Still another said he encountered her from afar to be talking to a man in a
long dark coat with a deer-stalker hat. Both proved to be unreliable.
The balance of the month was spent checking the
accounts of the numerous eye-witnesses in all of the cases.
Theories were endless. Some were: a family man with
a score to settle with prostitutes, a butcher gone mad, a jilted commoner, a deranged surgeon, a father whose daughter
had taken to the life in the street, a policeman in disguised, a cab driver killing for the thrill, and even a woman,
"Jill the Ripper". Most pranced upon the ridiculous.
And then, there were the many letters forwarded to the police purporting to be written by "JACK". All but a few were proved to be sent
by either pranksters and even newspaper men trying to start a story.
Although, there were three: The Dear Boss letter, the Saucy Jacky
postcard and the "From Hell " letter that stirred an interest.
The "Dear Boss" letter became important because it was signed
with the name "JACK the RIPPER".
The "Saucy Jacky" postcard made reference to the first letter and the
double murders.
The "From Hell" letter was enclosed in a box with a piece
of a kidney preserved in wine. Although, it was similar to Catherine Eddowes, it was inconclusive.
Still, the most interesting was a poem. It later was proven to
be a hoax. 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 slides up to Jack, then there were five.
Four and the whore rhyme alright,
So do three and me,
I'll set the town alight,
Ere there be 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.
#
Thirty-nine days and nights past and nary a spat of blood
dropped upon the blighted streets of Whitechapel, save a drop or two upon the floors of the District's haunts of those
who imbibe in the evil aqueous.
The district and all of London was on high alert with hundreds of constables
and detectives roaming the alleys and streets. Citizens, for the most part remained indoors, less the seducers of the
night. Among them was a shrouded whispered attitude, "we're all up to no good, suppose we do get killed, nobody
cares. Maybe it will be a good thing".
Common belief became, Jack moved on to bloodier pastures, possibly another
city or even a country.
Until that unholy morn when the devil upheavaled a bloody butchery
not equaled afore.
A chill rode atop a slow moving wind the morning of Friday,
November 9. The rent was due at 13 Miller's court and a collecter was sent around to procure it. Repeated raps
upon the door came with no answer. The door was latched from the inside. Save a pane in the window was missing.
What lay in bloody pieces was a scene of deviltry ordained in the darkness of that night.
A young prosititute, Mary Jane Kelly, was no longer among the living.
The incoherent words of a screaming man on a fast ramble to the police set forth a crowd blustering to 26 Dorset Street.
The forcing of the door took place at 1:30 pm. The carnage deeds
that were beheld sent many retching back outdoors.
The poor girl lay in a bath of her own blood with her entrails in pieces
about her and on the night table. The work of this fiend took time and pleasured him assured. WAS JACK
BACK?
Her mid-section was empty and much of her skin was stripped down
to the bone and arranged on the night stand.
Yet, strange was the room. Her clothes were neatly folded and
placed upon a corner chair. No signs of a struggle was beheld to the sight in this tiny sparse room.
Her torso and other body parts were collected and taken to the mortuary.
Hour after hour the dismembered parts of her corpse were selectively re-assembled. All remained present except the heart.
No doubt, a trophy carried off. It was agreed that the time of death lay between 3:00 am. and 4:00 am.
On the third day beyond the 9th, an inquest was held to collect
the facts of the last day of Mary Kelly's life.
Although, Mary was younger than the Ripper's (and one must assume it
was him) other victims, certain traits of her life followed their ways. She also was married as a teen to a man named
Davis, a prostitute and lived with various men from time to time.
Several witnesses came forth and filled in the time prior to her demise.
A near neighbor saw Mary escort a short, stout moustached man into her quarters about 11:45 the evening before her death.
Still another added when entering the court entrance she observed
a man lurking in a doorway across from Mary's
room.
The same woman continued saying that near 4:00 am. she heard
a cry "Oh murder" coming from the court. Another, who arrived home about 3:30 am., in the same court, said that
she also heard the same word " murder" upon the night's stillness. Asked, in each
case, why a constable was not summons? Both responded; Such outcrys are not of the unusual throughout the night
in the many rooms connected in Miller's Court. Thus, such statements as
to the time of death collaborate the coroners findings.
Suddenly, for purposes unknown, by order of the residing doctor,
the inquest was ended. The Verdict, " Wilful murder by persons unknown".
After, a close friend and admirer of Mary came forth with his
encounter with Mary at approximately 2:30 am. His stated
related that Mary asked him for some money, of which he had none. A few words were exchanged and she walked on
only to be approached by a man a short distance away.
It seems their conversation was a bit funny, because they burst into
laughter. With that they turned walked in his direction. The admirer walked a distance in front of them until
they passed him at Fashion Street in front of the Queen's Pub. The light coming from the outside wall lanterns
allowed him to closely observe the man.
His details of the man's description lay within these words,"
His walking manner and looks where above the gender residing in this area. He embraced the appearance of a dark foreign
personage at the age in the vicinity of his mid thirties. His clothing was of a dark nature and well pressed.
He must be a man of some money because he sported a gold watch chain and a jeweled tie pin in the shape of a horseshoe.
"Under his arm he carried a medium size strapped case. A glance
from him in my direction shown his face to set upon rejection of my fixed look.
"After a second or two, I followed within hearing distance.
They stopped for a bit, that be where I saw him pull a red handkerchief from his pocket and hand it
to her.
"Her words in reply were,' come along my dear, comfortable you
will be'. She then kissed him and led him into the court.
"I waited near an hour for him to leave. I departed in lament".
No miss deeds fell upon the Whitechapel District for near
a fortnight. Then, on Wednesday, 21 day in November the cries of murder was heard once more.
Alas, nay were it murder, just an ill-gotten dispute between a lady
and her client about the price of her "favors". The woman was stabbed in the neck in her lodgings. She
claimed, it must have been "Jack the Ripper". She was disspelled when told, "You'd not be talking today,
stay it be The Ripper".
#
The year 1888 disappeared into 1889 and the police searches came
to no avail week after week. Suspects were brought in for questioning. The list seemed endless. Many
lodgings were search. The months began to fall with no sign of Jack.
All sorts of conclusions abounded from the local citizens and even
the police. Was Jack gone? Did he move on? In prison for another crime? Did he die or pray do himself
in?
Then, on Wednesday, July 17 all the guess work stopped with the
body of a woman found in Castle Alley of the Whitechapel district. It
seems Jack might be back.
The mutilated body of Alice McKenzie, a prostitute, age 40 was
found with stab wounds to her throat and her abdominal area sliced open by downward slashes.
Conclusion: Not the work of the Whitechapel killer, "JACK THE
RIPPER". The citizens were relieved to hear the woman was thought to be killed by another of lessor fiendish
atrocities.
WAS THE RIPPER REALLY GONE???
It's 119 years later and I've just finished telling the story of Jack
the Ripper with no conclusive proof to " Who was Jack the Ripper?".
Will there every be an answer?? Only time will tell. The
grave yards of the Whitechapel District and London hold silent the voices of his victims. How many really were
there? Three, four, five, seven, eight, nine, twelve? No one knows for sure.
Hundreds of books, story's and articles have been written trying to
solve the greatest mystery of that century.
Let's assemble the known facts:
a. He had to have a good knowledge of the Whitechapel District,
less he couldn't have come and disappeared into the night so quickly.
b. He had to have some knowledge of the human anatomy to
slice and dice so quickly in the dark.
c. He only killed prostitutes in their 40's, who were married
with children and left their homes in pursuit of an alcohloic life on the streets of a blighted district. Saved one
Mary Kelly. (If that was him not a copy-cat and an amateur.)
d. He used what appeared to be a surgical knife doing his
handy work.
e. Two eye-witnesses described a dark, "foreign looking"
moustached well-dressed man carrying a package or case of medium size under his arm.
f. He always killed on the weekend or a holiday.
Which would tend to prove, he might have been a business or working man.
g. He had to be single and live alone. How else
could he have been out all night and possible arrive home with blood stained clothing and hands.
#####
JACK THE RIPPER---CASE SOLVED
As to my assumption: Based on the facts that I have accumulated
it is to my belief that "JACK THE RIPPER' was not one person, possible three to five different killers. Some may have
seized the opportunity of Jack's notoriety to take revenge and used his manner of killing while some killed
for the thrill of the act. Others were probably just plain murder of the moment or were mere copy-cats.
I believe, whomever it was appeared on the scene with a fiendish
grudge against women or he was ridiculed or wronged by one or more prostitutes in the Whitechapel District.
If he arrived with murder in his heart it could have been
because of a personal experience. Maybe, he was a family man with children and his wife left with another man for
the "wine and dine" taste of life. This would certainly be a strong motive for killing married prostitutes.
As to who he was? I believe he was a ship's doctor that arrived and
on his weekend shore leaves took his revenge. All of the Whitechapel murders took place on weekends or holidays.
A ship's doctor would have the weekends off while the ship was being possible refitted and reloaded. Remember
in the 1800's, a ship's doctor could have been any one who had a feel and taste for practicing medicine. Especially,
on sailing freighters. Aboard ships, crew members have all kinds of illnesses and a lot of experiential surgery takes
place in dimly lit ship's hulls.
Most sailing ships came into port with a load of cargo and in need
of repairs. This could account for the time period of the killings from late August until October Ist 1888.
You see, I think he was only responsible for three or maybe four of
the twelve the killings.
Mary Nichols, Annie Chapman and Catherine Eddowes were all murdered
outside and had their entrails removed in approximately the same way. I think Elizabeth Stride was to be his
third victim and he was almost caught in the act by the gent pulling his cart into the alley court.
This enraged him and he scurried away into the darkness to his chance
meeting with Eddowes. She prove to give him some sort of trouble and that caused her face to be disfigured
with several cuts. Even the doctors who handed her autopsy agreed that her disembowelment was hurried.
The only reason that I've considered Stride as a Ripper victim is because
according to the medical reports her body was still warm when the doctor arrived. Plus the fact, that Eddowes murder
scene was a short distance away. Eddowes, I believe was in the wrong place at the wrong time, thus she became
his fourth victim.
Also, the fact of Eddowes's killing was outside of the Whitechapel District,
I think he was heading back to his ship when he came upon her. His double
murder that unholy night caused quite a stir amongest the citizens. Thousands of people the next afternoon had a meeting
in Victoria Park to petition the Queen for help to stop this carnage of women. This is outrage, could
have caused him to, shall we say"lay low" until his ship sailed.
As to his knowledge of the Whitechapel District, he must have shipped
into London's port a number of prior times and and that's how he gained
the knowledge of the area to be able to disappear rather quickly from the streets and alleys of the District after
his dastdardly deeds.
I seriously think
that the prostitute's age and leaving their families played a huge part in his carnage of death. Maybe that's what
happened to him?
Among the many eye witnesses to the killings two described two
men about the same height and built. Both wearing a sailor type peaked cloth cap mixed with,
shall we say,"street clothes".
Did these wicked
acts of slaughter upon women surpress his anger? Who knows? It might depend on what port his ship docked
next. Throughout history in every port crimes of heinous acts abounded.
Then again, there is the distinct possibility that his ship could have
been swallowed up by the sea. Thus, ending the life of a homicidal maniac, "JACK THE RIPPER" and the reason why there will
quite possibly never be answer the question "Who was Jack the Ripper"?
So, there you have my opinion as to --"WHO WAS
JACK THE RIPPER?"
P.S. As to my not believing
that Jack slaughtered Mary Kelly; she was mutilated beyond the Ripper's normal professional disembowelment,
she wasn't strangled to death, she had indeed offered some resistance and the length of time he took to commit such
a horrible and diabolical act which included the stripping of the skin from her bones. This
carnage was just simiply not "JACK THE RIPPER'S" modus operandi.
####
CHICAGO'S JACK THE RIPPER vs LONDON'S JACK THE RIPPER-----you'll just have to buy the book and make you own decision.
