The Whitechapel Murders – Mary Nichols

On the 31st of August 1888, just before 3:40 am, a carman (or carriageman), Charles Cross, was on his way to work along Bucks Row. This dark thoroughfare was lined by two-storey houses and imposing warehouses on either side. He noticed what appeared to be a bundle of clothing on the floor in a gateway. He bent to inspect it and found it to be a woman. As he inspected the woman, another carman, Robert Paul, approached and Cross pointed out the body. They both believed her to be alive as they thought they had felt a movement as if she were breathing. They pulled her skirts down to cover her lower body and left, with the intention of telling a Policeman should they pass one. They must have just missed P.C Neil who was walking his beat along Bucks Row at 3:45 am and shone his lantern onto the figure lay in the gateway. He noticed blood oozing from a deep gash in her throat. He was joined on the scene moments later by P.C Thain, who then went to fetch local surgeon Dr Ralph Llewellyn.

Upon Llewellyn’s arrival at a little after 4am, he pronounced life to be extinct and began to examine the body. He noted that the legs were still warm, suggesting that she had been dead for little more than half an hour. The Police already at the scene were slowly being joined by more and more spectators from the surrounding warehouses and slaughterhouses, with a macabre eagerness to see the grizzly remains. Llewellyn ordered the Police to remove the body to the mortuary, and at this point, a local resident washed the congealed blood away from the gateway.

The mortuary photograph of Mary Nichols.

By the time the senior officer, Inspector John Sprattling, arrived at the scene, there was little evidence for him to examine, save for a few bloodstains between the paving stones. He made his way to the mortuary to examine the body, and made a detailed description of the deceased. He lifted the woman’s clothing and made a horrific discovery. Her abdomen had been ripped open. Her throat had been slit twice from left to right with several other incisions to her abdomen.

On examining her clothes, they discovered the mark of the Lambeth Workhouse on one of her petticoats. This led them to Ann Monk who was a resident of the workhouse, and who identified the victim as Mary Ann Nichols, also known as Polly. They then traced Mary’s father Edward Walker and her estranged husband, William Nichols, who both confirmed her identity.

On the 30th of August, Nichols had been observed walking the Whitechapel Road, and at 00:30 had been seen leaving a pub on Brick Lane. She was then turned out of a lodging house on Thrawl Street as she did not have the fourpence to pay for a bed. She told the keeper that she would easily make the doss money, adding “See what a jolly bonnet i’m wearing.” She obviously believed her new bonnet would be an irresistible allure to potential customers. She was last seen on the corner of Osborn Street and Whitechapel Road at 2:30, an hour before her death, by Nelly Holland. Mary told her that she had made enough money to pay for a bed twice over (evidently from prostitution) but had drunk it all away. Nelly tried to persuade her to come back to the lodging house with her, but Mary refused, and staggered off into the night.

 

Bucks Row / Durward Street where Mary was found

Mary was 43 at the time of her murder, 5 feet 2 inches tall with grey eyes and greying dark hair. She had married her estranged husband William Nichols in1864 and they had 5 children together. Mary’s drinking became too much for her husband to stand however, and they separated in 1880. William had custody of the children, but provided her with an allowance of five shillings per week, which he withdrew when he discovered that she had been working as a prostitute. Having identified his wifes body at the mortuary, he emerged visibly shaking and said “…it has come to a sad end at last.”

Jack had claimed his first victim.

Next time, Jack’s reign of terror continues with the murder of Annie Chapman.

The Whitechapel Murders – The Murderous Beginning

The Jack the Ripper murders occurred in an area comprising of little more than one square mile, with all victims being prostitutes. There were 11 murders in total, these became known as the Whitechapel Murders. The Chief Constable of the Criminal Investigation department, Sir Melville Macnaughten, stated in 1894 that Jack the Ripper only had 5 victims referred to as “the canonical five” but as no one was ever charged with the murders, it is impossible to say how many women actually died at his hands. The canonical five were:

• Mary Nichols
• Annie Chapman
• Elizabeth Stride
• Catherine Eddowes
• Mary Kelly

They were murdered between the 31st of August and the 9th of November 1888.

There were two murders that occurred before the first generally acknowledged ripper victim, Mary Nichols.

The first was Emma Smith, who during the early hours of April 3rd was assaulted and robbed by a gang of three men on Brick Lane. She died the following day of Peritonitus. A verdict of “wilful murder by some person, or persons, unknown” was returned at the inquest into her death. It is pretty much certain that she was not one of Jack’s victims, but that she fell prey to one of the notorious gangs that targeted vulnerable prostitutes in the area.

On August 7th 1888, at 5am, the body of Martha Tabram was discovered on the first floor landing of a tenement building in George Yard, a dark and sinister alley not far from where Emma Smith had been attacked. Martha had been stabbed 39 times, with most of the wounds inflicted on her throat and lower abdomen. It was a brutal and frenzied attack.

A local prostitute, Mary Anne Connelly also known as “Pearly Poll” provided an interesting lead. She told police she had been drinking with Martha and two soldiers all evening on the 6th of August in pubs along Whitechapel Road. Before midnight they had split into two couples, Connelly took one of the soldiers into Angel Alley and Martha had led one of the soldiers into the adjacent George Yard (today called Gunthorpe Street). In the early hours of the morning, a resident of the building was awoken by cries of “Murder!” but as domestic violence and this kind of cry was common in the area, she ignored the noise.

Two other residents, a husband and wife, coming home at 2am, noticed no one on the stairs. A patrolling officer, PC Thomas Barrett, questioned a grenadier loitering nearby, who told him he was waiting for a friend. A cab driver and resident of the building returned home and noticed Tabrams body lying on the stairs at 3:30am. He thought she was a sleeping vagrant, and so ignored the body. It was only when a dock labourer was passing down at 5am on his way to work that he realised she was dead and immediately called the police.

 

George Yard in the 1800’s, and today as Gunthorpe Street still has a sinister feel.

The soldiers were never found, even though witnesses attended identity parades both with the soldiers at the Tower of London and at Wellington barracks. A verdict was again returned as “murder by person, or persons, unknown”.

Martha Tabrams injuries did not correspond with the meticulous surgical methods of the Ripper, she was stabbed and not ripped, so she was commonly disregarded as one of his victims. However, the particular attention the killer had paid to the stab wounds in the throat and lower abdomen are consistent with his habits in future victims. Was Martha his first victim before he developed his modus operandi for later crimes?

The East London Advertiser commented that:

“…there is a feeling of insecurity to think that in a great city like London…a woman could be foully and horribly killed almost next to the citizens peacefully sleeping in their beds, without a trace or clue being left of the villain that did the deed…”

My next post will look at the murder generally acknowledged to be the Rippers first, Mary Nichols, who was found barely three weeks after Martha Tabrams murder, in a dark gateway off Whitechapel Road.

The Whitechapel Murders – Policing the case

At the height of the Jack the Ripper case, the main man in charge of the Metropolitan police was Sir Charles Warren. He was originally a popular commissioner when he was appointed, but his reputation was soon tarnished when in November 1887 he sent a number of baton-wielding police officers in to a socialist demonstration in Trafalgar square on what became known as “Bloody Sunday.” He became the target for the radical press, who blamed him for the police’s inability to catch the ripper.

Warren soon decided to put someone in charge who would not be concerned with any other case but that of the ripper. Every piece of evidence was to be given straight to Chief Inspector Donald Sutherland who assumed complete control over every aspect of the case. This was until Dr. Robert Anderson returned from a recuperative break in Switzerland. Anderson was a Dublin born lawyer who took on the role of Assistant Commissioner already suffering from exhaustion and left for Switzerland after only a week in the position.

The ripper case was investigated by two police forces, the Metropolitan Police and the City of London Police. The Metropolitan Police was broken down into divisions responsible for policing different areas. The two divisions investigating the Whitechapel murders were “J” division and “H” division. The rippers first victim, Mary Nichols fell under the jurisdiction of J division while the others were investigated by H. Inspector Edmund Reid was a popular detective of the time and was in charge of the Criminal Investigation Department of H division. It was decided early on that experienced officers from the Metropolitan Police’s Scotland Yard headquarters would supplement these two local forces. Chief Inspector Moore, Inspector Abberline and Inspector Andrews were sent in to head the investigation on the ground. Inspector Abberline was the senior of the three officers and it was he who took overall control of the investigation.

 “H” Division in the mid 1870’s, Inspector Frederick George Abberline
is front row sixth in from the left.

The murder of Catherine Eddowes took place in Mitre Square in the City of London, therefore her murder was investigated by the City of London Police. The Acting Commissioner of this force was Major Henry Smith, while the head of their detective department was Inspector James McWilliam. Hundreds of police officers worked tirelessly on the Jack the Ripper investigation, but due to the sporadic nature of the murders and no pattern emerging, it was incredibly difficult to catch him. There was no forensics, or CCTV, and the police had to rely solely on catching people in the act so to speak. In the end a lot of it came down to luck, and unfortunately, luck was not on their side in this case.

On September 10th 1888, in the wake of the murder of Annie Chapman, a group of local businessmen and tradesman got together to form the Mile End Vigilance Committee. Local builder Mr George Akin Lusk was elected as president, and they set about aiding the police in bringing the killer to justice. They organised patrols of the area by night in the hope of catching the ripper in the act and raised money to offer rewards for information in the day. Lusk was sent threatening letters, supposedly from the killer, for his endeavours. The infamous “From Hell” letter was sent to Lusk with half a human kidney on the 16th of October 1888. Many scholars of the murders regard this letter as the one most likely to have been sent by the killer. Private detectives and concerned citizens also took to the street at night making things very difficult for patrolling police who could not tell the difference between these odd characters and the indigenous cranks and crackpots who called the area home.

In my next post, I will begin to analyse the murders, starting with those generally disregarded as being committed by the ripper, but important nevertheless.

The Whitechapel Murders – London in 1888

In the run up to Halloween, and a highly anticipated trip to London the day after, I decided to do some proper posts on the murders in Whitechapel in 1888 by the notorious Jack the Ripper. It’s a subject that has long fascinated me, and in some of my previous posts on this blog I briefly outlined some of the murders as we had just returned from London where we had followed the Rippers trail with the help of the fantastic Haunted London app. It was so atmospheric and fascinating I decided that I would like to discover more and potentially become a Ripperologist. I can’t wait for our trip on the 1st as we have booked a hotel in the heart of Spitalfields on the edge of Whitechapel where Jack roamed and I am excited to get some creepy night time pictures in some of the unchanged areas and alleyways surrounding the hotel.

So lets begin by taking a step back in time to the dank, dark, and dangerous streets and thoroughfares of the East End of London in the late 1880’s. With my trusty Jack the Ripper Casebook by Richard Jones as my guide, I will try to set the scene for these grizzly crimes.

It is the year after Queen Victorias Golden Jubilee, 1888. London is expanding, having just experienced a period of sustained economic growth, and a new middle class has been created due to the need for managers, clerks and administrators. However, things are starting to change with growing competition coming from Germany and America challenging our Industrial dominance. A slump in trade has caused mass unemployment, and thousands of people are on the brink of poverty. There is unrest among the lower classes, and socialism is becoming more and more popular. In 1886 and 1887 there are several riots and protests on the streets of the West End, with several shops being looted and property damaged. The middle and upper classes fear a revolution is inevitable, and focus their nervousness on Whitechapel and the East End.

Whitechapel had some of London’s worst slums, highest death rates and the most dreadful living conditions. Every day was a constant fight for survival, where people were endlessly fighting for jobs in order to feed their families. The area was densely populated, with the worst area seen to be the “evil quarter mile” which consists of a series of thoroughfares such as Thrawl Street, Flower and Dean Street, and Wentworth Street. The dregs of society were crammed into rank dwellings with sometimes as many as 20 people sharing a house. In some cases, entire families were forced to live in one room, and in dire situations they would sublet a corner to a lodger.

The “evil quarter mile” was the largest provider of accommodation, with many common lodging houses in which thousands of men, women and children were crammed into dormitories. Many of these lodging houses were above board and orderly, however a large number were dens of iniquity inhabited by dangerous criminals, prostitutes and mentally unstable characters. The upper and middle classes virtually never ventured into these slums, but if the wind was blowing in the wrong direction they were reminded of their existence due to a foul stench of sewage or the areas slaughterhouses and factories.

A quarter of a million people lived in Whitechapel, 15,000 of it’s residents were classed as homeless. Disease, hunger, neglect and violence claimed the lives of one in four children before they reached the age of five. A wealthy shipping magnate turned philanthropist and social reporter, Charles Booth, claimed that as many as 60,000 East End men, women and children loved their daily lives on the brink of starvation.

At this time, a surge of immigrants flooded into the area, mostly consisting of jews. Throughout the 1880’s the Jewish population had surged from 45,000 to 50,000. The mass unemployment due to the economic depression saw the Jews vilified for stealing English jobs. Many Jewish workers were willing to work long hours for minimal wages, and so were accused of underhand methods in order to obtain jobs over the English populace. In June of 1887, a Jewish man named Isreal Lipski who was lodging at a house in Batty Street, forcibly poisoned another Jew and fellow lodger named Miriam Angel by pouring nitric acid down her throat. He was hanged for the murder, but it did increase the anti-Semitic feeling in the area. “Lipski” was by 1888 being used as a term of abuse towards jews from Gentiles.

The harsh and demoralising living conditions that many were forced to endure in the East End were blamed for many young women turning to the streets in order to make a living. They were labelled “unfortunates”, and were forced to become prostitutes in order to provide for themselves and their families. A prostitute could make more in one night than many could in one week in a factory or sweat shop, and this money would go towards food and lodging, but more importantly, towards the drink that would allow them to forget their horrific existence. Many of these unfortunates could conduct their business relatively safely in brothels. That was until the well-meaning campaign of a local brewing dynasty heir, Frederick Charrington, caused the closure of 200 of the areas brothels, thus forcing the displaced prostitutes out onto the streets and into the path of the Ripper.

In my next post, I will talk about the policing of the case and the inspectors and officers assigned to bring the murderer to justice.