Who were Jack The Ripper’s victims?

Who were Jack The Ripper’s victims?

Jack the Ripper – By Unknown (illustrator) [Public domain]

The 100 years of anonymity has made this killer into a spectacle that intrigues people even now. He was especially active in poor areas in the Whitechapel area of London around 1888. Attacks were usually directed towards female prostitutes who both lived and worked in the slums of East London.

He would typically slit their throats, before mutilating the bodies. Many of his victims had their internal organs removed, hinting that the killer had surgical knowledge.

Background

Illustrated police news Jack the Ripper – By British Library [Public domain]

In October of 1888, the police estimated that there were over 1,000 women working as prostitutes in just the Whitechapel borough. Coupled with the economic problems was societal unrest, fueled by anti-semitism, crime, racism, and deprivation. To cap off the ongoing problems in the metropolis of London, the killings of Jack the Ripper furthered the theme of immorality and social disturbances in the Whitechapel area. 

Statistics of the Murders

Jack the Ripper postcard – By Anon (pen name “Jack the Ripper”) [Public domain]

At least five of these murders are widely believed to have been done by Jack the Ripper, due to the method of killing, removal of organs, and the distinctive features unique to his killings. The first two killings in the police file, Emma Elizabeth Smith and Martha Tabram, are not included in the five of Jack the Ripper. 

Mary Nichols 

MN death cert – By Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1240522

Mary Ann was born in 1845 in Soho London, to a locksmith and his wife. On January 16, 1864 she married William Nichols, a machinist, and had five children with her husband over the span of the next 13 years. Their marriage disintegrated in 1881, after William had an affair with the nurse who took care of their children. As a counter retort, he claimed that Mary Ann had left him and started prostituting. 

After separating, William was legally required to support Mary, paying her five shillings a week. In 1882, the payments stopped after he learned of her prostituting to make money – which counteracted the requirement of him paying her. Nichols then spent the rest of her life in workhouses and surviving off of charity. Ultimately, she ended up living in a Whitechapel common lodging house near Spitalfields. 

At almost 11 pm on August 30th, Nichols was seen walking down Whitechapel Road, leaving a pub in Brick Lane at a little after midnight, and then appeared on Thrawl Street a little while later. She was last seen alive at the corner of Osborn and Whitechapel at 2:30 am by her roommate, Emily Holland. Even though Nicholas claimed she had made enough money to pay for her bed that night, she repeatedly kept using the money to purchase alcohol instead. 

At around 3:40 am, Charles Allen Cross found Nichols’ body lying in Buck’s Row in Whitechapel. A driver passed him on the way to work, and came over to examine the body. They proceed to pull her skirt down to cover her body, and look for a policeman. After finding a police constable, Jonas Mizen, they proceed to go on their way to work. The constable called for backup, after assuming it was a dead body.

Another policeman, PC Thain, called Dr. Henry Llewellyn, a surgeon who would inspect the body. He said she had been dead for approximately 30 minutes. Her throat was slit twice, her abdomen was mutilated with one deep wound, and there were several other incisions across the abdomen, created violently and quickly. The surgeon noted the lack of blood at the scene, speculating that the body had been dumped here after killing her. However, after lifting the body, they found a mass of congealed blood below the body. 

Annie Chapman 

Annie Chapman – By See page for author [Public domain]

Four years later, Chapman was living in common lodging houses in Whitechapel, earning some income from selling flowers and prostitution. According to the house deputy, Tim Donovan, and the watchman, John Evans, they saw Chapman on the streets looking for money for lodging at around 1:45 am.

One of the witnesses of the crime, Mrs. Elizabeth Long, testified that she had seen Chapman talking to a man at about 5:30 am near Hanbury Street on Spitalfields. He appeared middle-aged, with dark hair, and foreign-looking. Although this sighting was correct by Mrs. Long, it is widely disputed as to whether she was the last person to see her alive, or if she saw Chapman with her killer.

Annie Chapman’s body was found at almost 6 am on September 8th, 1888 by a nearby resident, John Davis. Two other residents of the area had been in the area shortly before 6 am, and heard voices in the yard. Chapman’s throat had been cut, and slashed so deeply that the bones of her vertebrae had marks. She had been disembowell, with her intestines displayed over each of her shoulders. The doctor thinks that she may have been asphyxiated with the handkerchief around her neck prior to her throat being cut, making the cause of death strangulation. 

Elizabeth Stride

Elizabeth Stride – By Unknown photographer [Public domain]

In July of 1866, she relocated to London for unclear reasons – some reports say it was due to her employment in the domestic service of a gentleman, and some say that it was because she had family in London. In 1869, Elizabeth married John Thomas Stride, and operated a coffee room with him for the next few years. In 1874, the marriage was deteriorating, and by 1881, Elizabeth was admitted to a Whitechapel workhouse infirmary suffering from bronchitis. She was discharged, and then began living in one of the several lodging houses on Flower and Dean Street in the Whitechapel area. 

While living in these common lodging-houses, she received some charitable assistance from the Church of Sweden. She also would live with a local laborer, Michael Kidney, and they had a tumultuous relationship, with infidelity and violence. After one of their arguments, she took up residence at 32 Flower and Dean Street – at the time, this was a notorious slum. 

On September 29th, the day before her murder, she visited the Queen’s Head Pub on Commerical Street before returning ‘home’ to the lodging house. Many eyewitnesses of her activities later in the evening suggests that she may have been with some of her ‘clients.’ She seems to have been busy with these acquaintances from late evening until 12:45 am. The last person to have seen her was James Brown, a dockworker, who observed a woman who he believed to be Elizabeth leaning against a wall at the corner of Berner Street, conversing with a man of average build, and overheard saying to him “No. Not tonight.” 

Elizabeth’s body was found at approximately 1 am on Sunday, September 30th 1888 by a steward of the International Men’s Educational Club, Louis Diemschultz. He drove into the adjacent Dutfield’s Yard, and almost ran over a dark bundle splayed across the ground. He lit a match, only to see the woman’s body, and immediately reported his finding to the police. 

Blood was still emerging from a single knife wound to her neck, and parts of her body were still fairly warm, indicating the murder took place very shortly before Louis arrived in the yard. Even so, several patrons of the Educational Club had left the building between 12:30 am and 12:50 am, and no one reported anything amiss in the area. The doctor on the case guesses that the murderer may have pulled her backwards to the ground by her neckerchief before cutting her throat. 

Catherine Eddowes

We have removed the autopsy photo of Catherine Eddowes as it is very graphic

Catherine Eddowes, also known by the names of ‘Kate Conway’ and ‘Kate Kelly’ after her two husbands, was born in Wolverhampton in April of 1842. Her parents were tinplate workers, and moved to London a year after her birth. Her mother had 10 other children, and Catherine was put to work at an early age, frequently changing residences between Birmingham and Wolverhampton. While in Birmingham, she had two children with a soldier named Thomas Conway. 

In 1868, the couple relocated to London, where they had another child. Unfortunately, she became addicted to drinking and left her family in 1880. She was living with another partner at a common lodging-house in Spitalfield – at the infamous 55 Flower and Dean Street. She partook in casual sex to pay the rent.

In the summer of 1888, Catherine began hop-picking in Kent – she earned enough money to stay a night at the Mile End Casual Ward. The next morning on September 29th, she met up with her friends, Emily Birrell and Kelly. She informed them that she would leave that evening to try and get some money for her daughter, and left a little after 8 pm that night. At 8:30 pm, she was found lying drunk on Aldgate High Street, and was taken into custody until she was released on the morning of September 30th at 1 am. 

After leaving the station, she was last seen alive at 1:35 am by three witnesses who had just left a club on Duke Street. She was standing and talking to a man at the entrance to Church Passage. At 1:45 am, Catherine’s mutilated body was found at the corner of Mitre Square by a policeman, Edward Watkins. She was killed and mutilated between 1:35 am and 1:45 am, with multiple abdominal wounds, cuts across the face, and parts of her nose and ear cut off. 

Mary Jane Kelly 

We have removed the crime scene photo of Mary Jane Kelly as it is very graphic

Mary Jane Kelly, unlike the other four victims, has a lack of reliable information about her history, with much of the information embellished and obscure. The man she most recently lived with prior to her murder, Joseph Barnett, provided some useful information about her history. He claimed that her father’s name was John Kelly, and he worked in iron works. He said that she came from a well-to-do family and had ties to Ireland. 

Kelly had been reported to be either a blonde or a redhead, even though her nickname was ‘Black Mary.’ She moved in with Barnett in 1887, and later relocated to Spitalfieds in 1888. When Barnett fell out of employment, Kelly turned to prostitution, and moved in with another prostitute in the area. 

On the last day she was alive, Barnett visited Kelly between 7 and 8pm on November 8th. Kelly was seen returning home with a man, intoxicated, at 11:45pm. She was seen again at 1 am, still outside and singing. At 1:30 am, the singing had stopped. George Hutchinson, a local laborer, claimed that Kelly met him at 2 am asking for a sixpence. George then saw her talking with a man in the street opposite of where Kelly lived. Kelly and the man headed for her room, and George didn’t see them after that. 

On the morning of November 9th 1888, Kelly’s landlord sent his assistant, Thomas Bowyer, to collect the rent. Bowyer found Kelly’s mutilated corpse on the bed, with her having died at about 4:30am. The mutilation of Kelly’s body was the most extensive of any of the murders, possibly due to the fact that he had the privacy of a room. The abdomen was removed, the organs splayed across the body, and numerous slashes across various parts of the body.

Jack the Ripper – one of the world’s most infamous serial killers

Jack the ripper – By National Police Gazette [2] [Public domain]