The Whitechapel Murders (1888-91) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Whitechapel murders were committed in or near the impoverished Whitechapel District

Whitechapel District (Metropolis)

Whitechapel was a local government district within the metropolitan area of London, England from 1855 to 1900. It was formed by the Metropolis Management Act 1855 and was governed by the Whitechapel District Board of Works, which consisted of elected vestrymen.Until 1889 the district was in the...

in the East End of London between 3 April 1888 and 13 February 1891. Eleven women were killed; the crimes remain unsolved. At various points some or all of the killings have been ascribed to the notorious, unidentified serial killer

Serial killer

A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...

known as Jack the Ripper

Jack the Ripper

"Jack the Ripper" is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer, that was disseminated in the...

.

Most, if not all, of the victims—Emma Elizabeth Smith

Emma Elizabeth Smith

Emma Elizabeth Smith was a prostitute and murder victim of mysterious origins in late-19th century London. Her killing was the first of the Whitechapel murders, and it is possible she was a victim of the notorious serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, though this is considered unlikely by most...

, Martha Tabram

Martha Tabram

Martha Tabram was an English prostitute whose killing was the second of the Whitechapel murders in late 19th century London...

, Mary Ann Nichols

Mary Ann Nichols

Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols was one of the Whitechapel murder victims. Her death has been attributed to the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper, who is believed to have killed and mutilated five women in the Whitechapel area of London from late August to early November 1888.- Life...

, Annie Chapman

Annie Chapman

Annie Chapman , born Eliza Ann Smith, was a victim of the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper, who killed and mutilated five women in the Whitechapel area of London from late August to early November 1888.-Life and background:Annie Chapman was born Eliza Ann Smith...

, Elizabeth Stride

Elizabeth Stride

Elizabeth "Long Liz" Stride is believed to be the third victim of the notorious unidentified serial killer called Jack the Ripper, who killed and mutilated prostitutes in the Whitechapel area of London from late August to early November 1888.She was nicknamed "Long Liz"...

, Catherine Eddowes

Catherine Eddowes

Catherine Eddowes was one of the victims in the Whitechapel murders. She was the second person killed on the night of Sunday 30 September 1888, a night which already had seen the murder of Elizabeth Stride less than an hour earlier...

, Mary Jane Kelly

Mary Jane Kelly

Mary Jane Kelly , also known as "Marie Jeanette" Kelly, "Fair Emma", "Ginger" and "Black Mary", is widely believed to be the fifth and final victim of the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper, who killed and mutilated prostitutes in the Whitechapel area of London from late August to...

, Rose Mylett, Alice McKenzie, Frances Coles, and an unidentified woman—were prostitutes. Smith was sexually assaulted

Sexual assault

Sexual assault is an assault of a sexual nature on another person, or any sexual act committed without consent. Although sexual assaults most frequently are by a man on a woman, it may involve any combination of two or more men, women and children....

and robbed by a gang. Tabram was stabbed 39 times. Nichols, Chapman, Stride, Eddowes, Kelly, McKenzie and Coles had their throats cut. Eddowes and Stride were killed on the same night, minutes and less than a mile apart; their murders were nicknamed the "double event", after a phrase in a postcard sent to the press by someone claiming to be the Ripper. The bodies of Nichols, Chapman, Eddowes and Kelly suffered abdominal mutilations. Mylett was strangled. The body of the unidentified woman was dismembered, but the exact cause of her death is unclear.

The Metropolitan Police Force

Metropolitan Police Service

The Metropolitan Police Service is the territorial police force responsible for Greater London, excluding the "square mile" of the City of London which is the responsibility of the City of London Police...

, City of London Police

City of London Police

The City of London Police is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement within the City of London, England, including the Middle and Inner Temple. The service responsible for law enforcement within the rest of Greater London is the Metropolitan Police Service, a separate...

, and private organisations such as the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee

Whitechapel Vigilance Committee

The Whitechapel Vigilance Committee was a group of local volunteers who patrolled the streets of London's Whitechapel District during the period of the Whitechapel murders of 1888. The volunteers patrolled mainly at night in the search for the murderer. The committee was set up by local businessmen...

were involved in the search for the killer or killers. Despite extensive inquiries and several arrests, the culprit or culprits evaded identification and capture. The murders drew attention to the poor living conditions in the East End slums, which were subsequently improved. The enduring mystery of who committed the crimes has captured the public imagination to the present day.

Context

In the late Victorian era

Victorian era

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

, Whitechapel was considered to be the most notorious criminal rookery

Rookery (slum)

A rookery was the colloquial British English term given in the 18th and 19th centuries to a city slum occupied by poor people...

in London. The area around Flower and Dean Street

Flower and Dean Street

Flower and Dean Street was a road situated at the heart of the Spitalfields rookery in the East End of London. It was one of the most notorious slum areas of the Victorian era and was closely associated with the victims of Jack the Ripper...

was described as "perhaps the foulest and most dangerous street in the whole metropolis"; Dorset Street

Dorset Street, London

For the Dublin street of the same name, see Dorset Street Dorset Street was situated at the heart of the Spitalfields rookery in the East End of London, England. It should not be confused with the road of the same name in Marylebone, in London's West End...

was called "the worst street in London". Assistant Police Commissioner Robert Anderson recommended Whitechapel to "those who take an interest in the dangerous classes" as one of London's prime criminal "show places". Robbery and violence were commonplace. The district was characterised by extreme poverty, sub-standard housing, homelessness, drunkenness and endemic prostitution. These factors were focused in the institution of the common lodging-house

Common lodging-house

A Common lodging-house is Victorian term for a form of cheap accommodation in which inhabitants are lodged together in one or more rooms in common with the rest of the inmates, who are not members of one family, whether for eating or sleeping. The slang term flophouse is roughly the equivalent of...

, which provided cheap communal lodgings for the desperate and the destitute, among whom the Whitechapel murder victims were numbered. All the identified victims lived in the heart of the rookery in Spitalfields

Spitalfields

Spitalfields is a former parish in the borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London, near to Liverpool Street station and Brick Lane. The area straddles Commercial Street and is home to many markets, including the historic Old Spitalfields Market, founded in the 17th century, Sunday...

, including three in George Street (later named Lolesworth Street), two in Dorset Street, two in Flower and Dean Street and one in Thrawl Street.

Police work and criminal prosecutions relied heavily on confessions, witness testimony, and apprehending perpetrators in the act of committing an offence or in the possession of obvious physical evidence that clearly linked them to a crime. Forensic techniques, such as fingerprint

Fingerprint

A fingerprint in its narrow sense is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. In a wider use of the term, fingerprints are the traces of an impression from the friction ridges of any part of a human hand. A print from the foot can also leave an impression of friction ridges...

analysis, were not in use. Policing in London was—and still is—divided between two forces: the Metropolitan Police Service

Metropolitan Police Service

with jurisdiction over most of the urban area, and the City of London Police

City of London Police

with jurisdiction over about a square mile (2.9 km²) of the city centre. The Home Secretary

Home Secretary

The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...

, a senior minister of the United Kingdom government, controlled the Metropolitan Police, whereas the City Police were responsible to the Corporation of London

Corporation of London

The City of London Corporation is the municipal governing body of the City of London. It exercises control only over the City , and not over Greater London...

. Beat constables walked regular, timed routes.

Eleven deaths in or near Whitechapel between 1888 and 1891 were gathered into a single file, referred to in the police docket as the Whitechapel murders. Much of the original material has been either stolen or destroyed.

Emma Smith

On Tuesday 3 April 1888, following the Easter Monday bank holiday, prostitute Emma Elizabeth Smith

Emma Elizabeth Smith

was assaulted and robbed at the junction of Osborn Street and Brick Lane

Brick Lane

Brick Lane is a street in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London. It runs from Swanfield Street in the northern part of Bethnal Green, crosses Bethnal Green Road, passes through Spitalfields and is linked to Whitechapel High Street to the south by the short stretch of...

, Whitechapel, in the early hours of the morning. Although injured, she survived the attack and managed to walk back to her lodging house at 18 George Street, Spitalfields. She told the deputy keeper, Mary Russell, that she had been attacked by two or three men, one of them a youth. Mrs Russell took Smith to the London Hospital, where medical examination revealed that a blunt object had been inserted into her vagina, rupturing her peritoneum

Peritoneum

The peritoneum is the serous membrane that forms the lining of the abdominal cavity or the coelom — it covers most of the intra-abdominal organs — in amniotes and some invertebrates...

. She developed peritonitis

Peritonitis

Peritonitis is an inflammation of the peritoneum, the serous membrane that lines part of the abdominal cavity and viscera. Peritonitis may be localised or generalised, and may result from infection or from a non-infectious process.-Abdominal pain and tenderness:The main manifestations of...

and died at 9 a.m. 4 April 1888. The inquest was conducted on 7 April by the coroner

Coroner

A coroner is a government official who* Investigates human deaths* Determines cause of death* Issues death certificates* Maintains death records* Responds to deaths in mass disasters* Identifies unknown dead* Other functions depending on local laws...

for East Middlesex

Middlesex

Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...

, Wynne Edwin Baxter

Wynne Edwin Baxter

Wynne Edwin Baxter FRMS, FGS LL.B was an English lawyer, translator, antiquarian and botanist, but is best known as the Coroner who conducted the inquests on most of the victims of the Whitechapel Murders of 1888 to 1891 including three of the victims of Jack the Ripper in 1888, as well as on...

, who also conducted inquests on six of the later victims. The local inspector of the Metropolitan Police Service

Metropolitan Police Service

, Edmund Reid of H Division Whitechapel, investigated the attack but the culprits were never caught. Walter Dew

Walter Dew

Detective Chief Inspector Walter Dew was a Metropolitan Police officer who was involved in the hunt for both Jack the Ripper and Dr Crippen.-Early life:...

, a detective constable stationed with H Division, later wrote that he thought Smith was the first victim of Jack the Ripper, but his colleagues suspected it was the work of a criminal gang. Smith claimed that she was attacked by a group of men, but either refused to or could not describe them. Prostitutes were often managed by gangs, and Smith could have been attacked by her pimps as a punishment for disobeying them, or as part of their intimidation. She may not have identified her attackers because she feared reprisal, and her murder is unlikely to be connected with the later killings.

Martha Tabram

On Tuesday 7 August, following a Monday bank holiday, prostitute Martha Tabram

Martha Tabram

Martha Tabram was an English prostitute whose killing was the second of the Whitechapel murders in late 19th century London...

was murdered at about 2:30 a.m. Her body was found at George Yard Buildings, George Yard, Whitechapel. She had been stabbed 39 times with a short blade. On the basis of statements from a fellow prostitute, and PC Thomas Barrett who was patrolling nearby, Inspector Reid put soldiers at the Tower of London

Tower of London

Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...

and Wellington Barracks

Wellington Barracks, London

The Foot Guards Battalions on public duties in London are located in barracks conveniently close to Buckingham Palace for them to be able to reach the Palace very quickly in an emergency. In central London, a battalion is based at Wellington Barracks, Westminster, about 300 yards from Buckingham...

on an identification parade, but without positive results. The police did not connect the murder with Smith's, but they did connect it with the later murders. Most experts today do not connect it with the other killings, as Tabram was stabbed whereas the later victims were slashed, but a connection cannot be ruled out.

Mary Ann Nichols

On Friday 31 August, prostitute Mary Ann Nichols

Mary Ann Nichols

was murdered in Buck's Row (since renamed Durward Street), a back street in Whitechapel. Her body was discovered by cart driver Charles Cross at 3:45 a.m. on the ground in front of a gated stable entrance. Her throat had been slit twice from left to right and her abdomen was mutilated by a deep jagged wound. Several shallower incisions across the abdomen, and three or four similar cuts on the right side were caused by the same knife used violently and downwards. As the murder occurred in the territory of the J or Bethnal Green

Bethnal Green

Bethnal Green is a district of the East End of London, England and part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, with the far northern parts falling within the London Borough of Hackney. Located northeast of Charing Cross, it was historically an agrarian hamlet in the ancient parish of Stepney,...

Division of the Metropolitan Police, it was at first investigated by the local detectives. On the same day, James Monro

James Monro

James Monro CB was a lawyer who became the first Assistant Commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police and also served as Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis from 1888 to 1890.-Early career:...

resigned as the head of the Criminal Investigation Department

Criminal Investigation Department

The Crime Investigation Department is the branch of all Territorial police forces within the British Police and many other Commonwealth police forces, to which plain clothes detectives belong. It is thus distinct from the Uniformed Branch and the Special Branch.The Metropolitan Police Service CID,...

(CID) over differences with Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police

Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis

The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis is the head of London's Metropolitan Police Service, classing the holder as a chief police officer...

Sir Charles Warren

Charles Warren

General Sir Charles Warren, GCMG, KCB, FRS was an officer in the British Royal Engineers. He was one of the earliest European archaeologists of Biblical Holy Land, and particularly of Temple Mount...

. Initial investigations into the murder had little success, although elements of the press linked it to the two previous murders and suggested the killing might have been perpetrated by a gang, as in the case of Smith. The Star
The Star (London)
The Star was a London evening newspaper founded in 1788.The first edition was printed on 3 May 1788 under the editorship of Peter Stuart. Founding sponsors of the new paper included publisher John Murray and William Lane of the Minerva Press...

newspaper suggested instead that a single killer was responsible and other newspapers took up their storyline. Suspicions of a serial killer at large in London led to the secondment of Detective Inspectors Frederick Abberline

Frederick Abberline

Frederick George Abberline was a Chief Inspector for the London Metropolitan Police and was a prominent police figure in the investigation into the Jack the Ripper murders of 1888.-Early life:...

, Henry Moore

Henry Moore (policeman)

Henry Moore was a British policeman from Northamptonshire. He joined the London Metropolitan Police Service on 26 April 1869, was promoted to Sergeant on 29 August 1872, and became an Inspector on 25 August 1878...

and Walter Andrews

Walter Simon Andrews

Walter Simon Andrews was a British policeman. He was one of three inspectors who were sent from Scotland Yard to Whitechapel in 1888 to strengthen the investigation of the Whitechapel murders.He was born in Boulge, Suffolk, and married Jane Carr on 4 August 1867...

from the Central Office at Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...

. On the available evidence, Coroner Baxter

Wynne Edwin Baxter

concluded that Nichols was murdered at just after 3 a.m. where she was found. In his summing up, he dismissed the possibility that her murder was connected with those of Smith and Tabram, as the lethal weapons were different in those cases, and neither of the earlier cases involved a slash to the throat. However, by the time the inquest into Nichols' death had concluded, a fourth woman had been murdered, and Baxter noted "The similarity of the injuries in the two cases is considerable."

Annie Chapman

The horribly mutilated body of the fourth woman, prostitute Annie Chapman

Annie Chapman

, was discovered at about 6:00 a.m. on Saturday 8 September on the ground near a doorway in the back yard of 29 Hanbury Street

Hanbury Street

Hanbury Street is a street in Spitalfields, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London. It runs east from Commercial Street to a cul-de-sac at the east end. It was laid out in the seventeenth century, and was originally known as Browne's Lane after the original developer...

, Spitalfields. Chapman had left her lodgings at 2 a.m. on the day she was murdered, with the intention of getting money from a client to pay her rent. Her throat was cut from left to right. She had been disemboweled, and her intestines had been thrown out of her abdomen over each of her shoulders. The morgue examination revealed that part of her uterus was missing. The pathologist, George Bagster Phillips

George Bagster Phillips

Dr George Bagster Phillips MBBS, MRCS Eng, L.M., LSA , was, from 1865, the Police Surgeon for the Metropolitan Police's 'H' Division, which covered London's Whitechapel district...

, was of the opinion that the murderer must have possessed anatomical knowledge to have sliced out the reproductive organs in a single movement with a blade about 6–8 inches (15–20 cm) long. However, the idea that the murderer possessed surgical skill was dismissed by other experts. As the bodies were not examined extensively at the scene, it has also been suggested that the organs were actually removed by mortuary staff, who took advantage of bodies that had already been opened to extract organs that they could sell as surgical specimens.

On 10 September, the police arrested a notorious local called John Pizer, dubbed "Leather Apron", who had a reputation for terrorising local prostitutes. His alibis for the two most recent murders were corroborated, and he was released without charge. At the inquest one of the witnesses, Mrs Elizabeth Long, testified that she had seen Chapman talking to a man at about 5:30 a.m. just beyond the back yard of 29 Hanbury Street, where Chapman was later found. Baxter inferred that the man Mrs Long had seen was the murderer. Mrs Long described him as over forty, a little taller than Chapman, of dark complexion, and of foreign, "shabby-genteel" appearance. He was wearing a deer-stalker hat and dark overcoat. Another witness, carpenter Albert Cadosch, had entered the neighbouring yard at 27 Hanbury Street at about the same time, and heard voices in the yard followed by the sound of something falling against the fence.

In his memoirs, Walter Dew

Walter Dew

Detective Chief Inspector Walter Dew was a Metropolitan Police officer who was involved in the hunt for both Jack the Ripper and Dr Crippen.-Early life:...

recorded that the killings caused widespread panic in London. A mob attacked the Commercial Road

Commercial Road

Commercial Road , in length, is in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London. It runs from "Gardener's Corner" , through Stepney to the junction with Burdett Road , Limehouse from which point the route becomes the East India Dock Road...

police station, suspecting that the murderer was being held there. Samuel Montagu

Samuel Montagu, 1st Baron Swaythling

Samuel Montagu, 1st Baron Swaythling was a British banker who founded the bank of Samuel Montagu & Co.. He was a philanthropist and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1900, and was later raised to the peerage.Montagu was born in Liverpool as Montagu Samuel, the second...

, the Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

for Whitechapel

Whitechapel (UK Parliament constituency)

Whitechapel was a parliamentary constituency in the Whitechapel district of East London. In 1885 the seat was established as a division of the parliamentary borough of Tower Hamlets...

, offered a reward of £100 (roughly £ as of ) after suppositions by the public that the attacks were Jewish ritual killings led to anti-Semitic demonstrations. The Whitechapel Vigilance Committee

Whitechapel Vigilance Committee

under the chairmanship of George Lusk

George Lusk

George Akin Lusk was a builder and decorator who specialised in music hall restoration, and was the Chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee during the 'Whitechapel Murders' of Jack the Ripper in 1888. Lusk was a Freemason, having been initiated into the Doric Lodge on 14 April 1882, but he...

was founded and offered a reward for the apprehension of the killer—something the Metropolitan Police (under instruction from the Home Office) refused to do because it could lead to false or misleading information. The Committee employed two private detectives to investigate the case.

Robert Anderson was appointed head of the CID on 1 September, but he went on sick leave to Switzerland on the 7th. Superintendent Thomas Arnold

Thomas Arnold (policeman)

Police Superintendent Thomas Arnold was a British policeman of the Victorian era best known for his involvement in the hunt for Jack the Ripper in 1888...

, who was in charge of H (Whitechapel) Division, went on leave on 2 September. Anderson's absence left overall direction of the enquiries confused, and led Chief Commissioner

Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis

The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis is the head of London's Metropolitan Police Service, classing the holder as a chief police officer...

Sir Charles Warren

Charles Warren

General Sir Charles Warren, GCMG, KCB, FRS was an officer in the British Royal Engineers. He was one of the earliest European archaeologists of Biblical Holy Land, and particularly of Temple Mount...

to appoint Chief Inspector Donald Swanson

Donald Swanson

Chief Inspector Donald Sutherland Swanson was born in Thurso in Scotland, and was a senior police officer in the Metropolitan Police in London during the notorious Jack the Ripper murders of 1888.-Early life:...

to co-ordinate the investigation from Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard

. A German hairdresser named Charles Ludwig was taken into custody on 18 September on suspicion of the murders, but he was released less than two weeks later when a double murder demonstrated that the real culprit was still at large.

Double event: Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes

On Sunday 30 September, the body of prostitute Elizabeth Stride

Elizabeth Stride

was discovered at about 1 a.m. in Dutfield's Yard, inside the gateway of 40 Berner Street (since renamed Henriques Street

Henriques Street

Henriques Street, formerly known as Berner Street, is a narrow East End street off Commercial Road in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.-Landmarks:...

), Whitechapel. She was lying in a pool of blood with her throat cut from left to right. She had been killed just minutes before, and her body was otherwise unmutilated. It is possible that the murderer was disturbed before he could commit any mutilation of the body by someone entering the yard, perhaps Louis Diemschutz, who discovered the body. However, some commentators on the case conclude that Stride's murder was unconnected to the others on the basis that the body was unmutilated, that it was the only murder to occur south of Whitechapel Road

Whitechapel Road

Whitechapel Road is a major arterial road in the East End of London, England. It connects Whitechapel High Street to the west with Mile End Road to the east and forms part of the A11 road. It is a main shopping street in the Whitechapel area of Tower Hamlets and has a street market...

, and the blade used might have been shorter and of a different design. Most experts, however, consider the similarities in the case distinctive enough to connect Stride's murder with at least two of the earlier ones, as well as that of Catherine Eddowes

Catherine Eddowes

on the same night.

At 1:45 a.m. Catherine Eddowes' mutilated body was found by PC Edward Watkins at the south-west corner of Mitre Square

Mitre Square

Mitre Square is a small square in the City of London. It measures about by and is connected via three passages with Mitre Street to the SW, to Creechurch Place to the NW and, via St James's Passage , to Duke's Place to the NE....

, in the City of London

City of London

The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...

, about 12 minutes walk from Berner Street. She had been killed less than 10 minutes earlier by a slash to the throat from left to right with a sharp, pointed knife at least 6 inches (15 cm) long. Her face and abdomen were mutilated, and her intestines were drawn out over the right shoulder with a detached length between her torso and left arm. Her left kidney and most of her womb were removed. The Eddowes inquest was opened on 4 October by Samuel F. Langham, coroner for the City of London. The examining pathologist, Dr Frederick Gordon Brown, believed the perpetrator "had considerable knowledge of the position of the organs" and from the position of the wounds on the body he could tell that the murderer had knelt to the right of the body, and worked alone. However, the first doctor at the scene, local surgeon Dr George William Sequeira, disputed that the killer possessed anatomical skill or sought particular organs. His view was shared by City medical officer William Sedgwick Saunders, who was also present at the autopsy. Because of this murder's location, the City of London Police

City of London Police

under Detective Inspector James McWilliam were brought into the enquiry.

At 3 a.m. a blood-stained fragment of Eddowes' apron was found lying in the passage of the doorway leading to 108 to 119 Goulston Street, Whitechapel, about a third of a mile (500 m) from the murder scene. There was chalk writing on the wall of the doorway

Goulston Street graffito

The Goulston Street graffito was some writing on a wall that was found beside a clue in the Whitechapel murders investigation. The Whitechapel murders were a series of brutal attacks on women in the Whitechapel district in the East End of London that occurred between 1888 and 1891...

, which read either "The Juwes are the men that will not be blamed for nothing" or "The Juwes are not the men who will be blamed for nothing." At 5 a.m., Warren attended the scene and ordered the words erased for fear that they would spark anti-Semitic

Anti-Semitism

Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...

riots. Goulston Street was on a direct route from Mitre Square to Flower and Dean Street, where both Stride and Eddowes lived.

The Middlesex coroner, Wynne Baxter, believed that Stride had been attacked with a swift, sudden action. She was still holding a packet of cachous (breath freshening sweets) in her left hand when she was discovered, indicating that she had not had time to defend herself. A grocer, Matthew Packer, implied to private detectives employed by the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee

Whitechapel Vigilance Committee

that he had sold some grapes to Stride and the murderer; however, he had told police that he had shut his shop without seeing anything suspicious. At the inquest, the pathologists stated emphatically that Stride had not held, swallowed or consumed grapes. They described her stomach contents as "cheese, potatoes and farinaceous powder [flour or milled grain]". Nevertheless, Packer's story appeared in the press. Packer's description of the man did not match the statements by other witnesses who may have seen Stride with a man shortly before her murder, but all but two of the descriptions differed. Joseph Lawende

Joseph Lawende

Joseph Lawende born in Warsaw, Poland, a cigarette salesman, is, with Israel Schwartz, among the most discussed of witnesses in the series of murders committed by the notorious Jack the Ripper in Whitechapel in London in 1888....

passed through Mitre Square with two other men shortly before Eddowes was murdered there, and may have seen her with a man of about 30 years old, who was shabbily dressed, wore a peaked cap, and had a fair moustache. Chief Inspector Swanson noted that Lawende's description was a near match to another provided by one of the witnesses who may have seen Stride with her murderer. However, Lawende stated that he would not be able to identify the man again, and the two other men with Lawende were unable to give descriptions.

Criticism of the Metropolitan Police and the Home Secretary

Home Secretary

, Henry Matthews

Henry Matthews, 1st Viscount Llandaff

Henry Matthews, 1st Viscount Llandaff PC, QC was a British lawyer and Conservative politician. He is best remembered for his role in the 1885 Sir Charles Dilke divorce trial and for his tenure as Home Secretary from 1886 to 1892.-Background and education:The member of an old Herefordshire family,...

, continued to mount as little progress was made with the investigation. The City Police and the Lord Mayor of London

Lord Mayor of London

The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London is the legal title for the Mayor of the City of London Corporation. The Lord Mayor of London is to be distinguished from the Mayor of London; the former is an officer only of the City of London, while the Mayor of London is the Mayor of Greater London and...

offered a reward of £500 (roughly £ as of ) for information leading to the capture of the villain. The use of bloodhound

Bloodhound

The Bloodhound is a large breed of dog which, while originally bred to hunt deer and wild boar, was later bred specifically to track human beings. It is a scenthound, tracking by smell, as opposed to a sighthound, which tracks using vision. It is famed for its ability to discern human odors even...

s to track the killer in the event of another attack was considered, but the idea was abandoned because the trail of scents was confused in the busy city, the dogs were inexperienced in an urban environment, and the owner was concerned that the dogs would be poisoned by criminals if their role in crime detection became known.

On 27 September, the Central News Agency

Central News Agency (London)

The Central News Agency was a news distribution service founded as Central Press in 1863 by William Saunders and his brother-in-law, Edward Spender...

received a letter, dubbed the "Dear Boss" letter

Dear Boss letter

The "Dear Boss" letter was a message allegedly written by the notorious Victorian serial killer known as Jack the Ripper. It was postmarked and received on 27 September 1888, by the Central News Agency of London. It was forwarded to Scotland Yard on 29 September.The message, like most alleged...

, in which the writer, who signed himself "Jack the Ripper", claimed to have committed the murders. On 1 October, a postcard, dubbed the "Saucy Jacky" postcard and also signed "Jack the Ripper", was received by the agency. It claimed responsibility for the most recent murders on 30 September, and described the murders of the two women as the "double event", a designation which has endured.

On Tuesday 2 October, an unidentified female torso was found in the basement of New Scotland Yard, which was under construction. It was linked to the Whitechapel murders by the press, but it was not included in the Whitechapel murders file, and any connection between the two is now considered unlikely. The case became known as the Whitehall Mystery

The Whitehall Mystery

The Whitehall Mystery is an unsolved murder from London in 1888. The dismembered remains of a woman were found at three different sites in central London, including the future site of Scotland Yard.-Discovery of remains:...

. On the same day, the psychic Robert James Lees

Robert James Lees

Robert James Lees was a British spiritualist, medium, preacher, writer and healer of the late Victorian era and early twentieth century known today for claims that he knew the identity of Jack the Ripper, responsible for the Whitechapel murders of 1888.-Early life:The son of William Lingham Lees...

visited Scotland Yard and offered to track down the murderer using paranormal powers; the police turned him away and "called [him] a fool and a lunatic".

The head of the CID

Criminal Investigation Department

, Anderson, eventually got back from leave on 6 October and took charge of the investigation for Scotland Yard. On 16 October, George Lusk

George Lusk

of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee

Whitechapel Vigilance Committee

received another letter claiming to be from the killer. The handwriting and style were unlike that of the "Dear Boss" letter and "Saucy Jacky" postcard. The letter arrived with a small box containing half of a human kidney preserved in alcohol. The letter's writer claimed that he had extracted it from the body of Eddowes and that he had "fried and ate" the missing half. Opinion on whether the kidney and the letter were genuine was and is divided. By the end of October, the police had interviewed over 2,000 people, investigated "upwards of 300", and detained 80.

Mary Kelly

On Friday 9 November, prostitute Mary Jane Kelly

Mary Jane Kelly

was murdered in the single room where she lived at 13 Miller's Court, behind 26 Dorset Street, Spitalfields

Dorset Street, London

. One of the earlier victims, Chapman, had lived in Dorset Street, and another, Eddowes, was reported to have slept rough there. Kelly's severely mutilated body was discovered shortly after 10:45 a.m. lying on the bed. The first doctor at the scene, Dr George Bagster Phillips

George Bagster Phillips

Dr George Bagster Phillips MBBS, MRCS Eng, L.M., LSA , was, from 1865, the Police Surgeon for the Metropolitan Police's 'H' Division, which covered London's Whitechapel district...

, believed that Kelly was killed by a slash to the throat. After her death, her abdominal cavity was sliced open and all her viscera removed and spread around the room. Her breasts had been cut off, her face mutilated beyond recognition, and her thighs partially cut through to the bone, with some of the muscles removed. Unlike the other victims, she was undressed and wore only a light chemise. Her clothes were folded neatly on a chair, with the exception of some found burnt in the grate. Abberline thought the clothes had been burned by the murderer to provide light, as the room was otherwise only dimly lit by a single candle. Kelly's murder was the most savage, probably because the murderer had more time to commit his atrocities in a private room rather than in the street. Her state of undress and folded clothes have led to suggestions that she undressed herself before lying down on the bed, which would indicate that she was killed by someone she knew, by someone she believed to be a client, or when she was asleep or intoxicated.

The coroner for North East Middlesex, Dr Roderick Macdonald

Roderick Macdonald (politician)

Roderick Macdonald, MD, FRCS was a Scottish doctor and a Crofters Party politician. As a coroner he presided over the inquest of one of the victims in the Whitechapel murders....

, MP, presided over the inquest into Kelly's death at Shoreditch Town Hall on 12 November. Amid scenes of great emotion, an "enormous crowd" of mourners attended Mary Kelly's funeral on 19 November. The streets became gridlocked and the cortège struggled to travel from Shoreditch mortuary to the Roman Catholic Cemetery at Leytonstone

Leytonstone

Leytonstone is an area of east London and part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It is a high density suburban area, located seven miles north east of Charing Cross in the ceremonial county of Greater London and the historic county of Essex...

, where she was laid to rest.

On 8 November, Charles Warren

Charles Warren

General Sir Charles Warren, GCMG, KCB, FRS was an officer in the British Royal Engineers. He was one of the earliest European archaeologists of Biblical Holy Land, and particularly of Temple Mount...

resigned as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police

Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis

The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis is the head of London's Metropolitan Police Service, classing the holder as a chief police officer...

after the Home Secretary

Home Secretary

informed him that he could not make public statements without Home Office approval. James Monro

James Monro

, who had resigned a few months earlier over differences with Warren, was appointed as his replacement in December. On 10 November, the police surgeon Thomas Bond

Thomas Bond (British physician)

Dr Thomas Bond FRCS, MB BS , was a British surgeon considered by some to be the first offender profiler, and best known for his association with the notorious Jack the Ripper murders of 1888.-Early life:...

wrote to Robert Anderson, head of the London CID, detailing the similarities between the five murders of Nichols, Chapman, Stride, Eddowes and Kelly, "no doubt committed by the same hand". On the same day, the Cabinet

Cabinet of the United Kingdom

The Cabinet of the United Kingdom is the collective decision-making body of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, composed of the Prime Minister and some 22 Cabinet Ministers, the most senior of the government ministers....

resolved to offer a pardon to any accomplice who came forward with information that led to the conviction of the actual murderer. The Metropolitan Police Commissioner reported that the Whitechapel murderer remained unidentified despite 143 extra plain-clothes policemen deployed in Whitechapel in November and December.

Rose Mylett

On Thursday 20 December 1888, a patrolling constable found prostitute Rose Mylett (also known as Catherine Millett and Lizzie Davis), 29, strangled in Clarke's Yard, off Poplar

Poplar, London

Poplar is a historic, mainly residential area of the East End of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is about east of Charing Cross. Historically a hamlet in the parish of Stepney, Middlesex, in 1817 Poplar became a civil parish. In 1855 the Poplar District of the Metropolis was...

High Street. Mylett had lodged at 18 George Street, as had Emma Smith. Four doctors who examined Mylett's body thought she had been murdered, but Robert Anderson thought she had accidentally hanged herself on the collar of her dress while in a drunken stupor. At Anderson's request Dr Bond examined Mylett's body, and agreed with Anderson. Monro also suspected it was a suicide or natural death as there were no signs of a struggle. The coroner, Wynne Baxter, told the inquest jury that "there is no evidence to show that death was the result of violence". Nevertheless, the jury returned a verdict of "wilful murder against some person or persons unknown" and the case was added to the Whitechapel file.

Alice McKenzie

Alice McKenzie was possibly a prostitute, and was murdered at about 12:40 a.m. on Wednesday 17 July 1889 in Castle Alley, Whitechapel. Like most of the previous murders, her left carotid artery was severed from left to right and there were wounds on her abdomen. However, her wounds were not as deep as in previous murders, and a shorter blade was used. Police Commissioner Monro and one of the pathologists examining the body, Bond, believed this to be a Ripper murder, though another of the pathologists, Phillips, and Robert Anderson disagreed, as did Abberline. Later writers are also divided, and either suggest that McKenzie was a Ripper victim, or that the unknown murderer tried to make it look like a Ripper killing to deflect suspicion from himself. At the inquest, Coroner Baxter acknowledged both possibilities, and concluded: "There is great similarity between this and the other class of cases, which have happened in this neighbourhood, and if the same person has not committed this crime, it is clearly an imitation of the other cases."

Pinchin Street torso

A woman's torso was found at 5:15 a.m. on Tuesday 10 September 1889 under a railway arch in Pinchin Street, Whitechapel. No other body parts were found, despite a search of the area, and neither the victim nor the culprit were ever identified. Chief Inspector Swanson

Donald Swanson

and Commissioner Monro

James Monro

noted that the presence of blood within the torso indicated that death was not from haemorrhage or cutting of the throat. The pathologists, however, noted that the general bloodlessness of the tissues and vessels indicated that haemorrhage was the cause of death. Newspaper speculation that the body belonged to Lydia Hart, who had disappeared, was refuted after she was found recovering in hospital after "a bit of a spree". Another claim that the victim was a missing girl called Emily Barker was also refuted, as the torso was from an older and taller woman. The age of the victim was estimated at 30–40 years.

Swanson did not consider this a Ripper case, and instead suggested a link to similar dismembered body cases in Rainham

Rainham, London

Rainham is a suburban town in northeast London, England, and part of the London Borough of Havering. Located east of Charing Cross, it is one of the locally important district centres identified in the London Plan and is surrounded by a residential area, which has grown from the historic village,...

and Chelsea

Chelsea, London

Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...

, as well as "the Whitehall Mystery

The Whitehall Mystery

". Monro agreed with Swanson's assessment. These three murders and the Pinchin Street case are suggested to be the work of a serial killer, nicknamed the "Torso killer", who could either be the same person as "Jack the Ripper" or a separate killer of uncertain connection. Experts on the murders—colloquially known as "Ripperologists"—such as Stewart Evans, Keith Skinner, Martin Fido

Martin Fido

Martin Austin Fido is a university teacher, true crime writer and broadcaster. His many books include The Crimes, Detection and Death of Jack the Ripper, The Official Encyclopedia of Scotland Yard, and The Murder Guide to London.After leaving Balliol College, Oxford in 1966 where he had been a...

, and Donald Rumbelow

Donald Rumbelow

Donald Rumbelow is a British crime historian, former Curator of the City of London Police's Crime Museum., two-time chairman of Britain's Crime Writers' Association, and author of the book The Complete Jack the Ripper...

, discount any connection between the torso and Ripper killings on the basis of their different modus operandi.

Monro was replaced as Commissioner by Sir Edward Bradford on 21 June 1890, after a disagreement with Home Secretary Matthews

Henry Matthews, 1st Viscount Llandaff

over police pensions.

Frances Coles

The last of the murders in the Whitechapel file was committed on Friday 13 February 1891, when prostitute Frances Coles was murdered under a railway arch. Her body was found by PC Ernest Thompson only moments after the attack at 2:15 a.m. at Swallow Gardens, a passageway under a railway arch between Chamber Street and Royal Mint Street, Whitechapel. Minor wounds on the back of her head suggest that she was thrown violently to the ground before her throat was cut at least twice, from left to right and then back again. Otherwise there were no mutilations to the body. Superintendent Arnold and Inspector Reid arrived soon afterwards from the nearby Leman Street police station, and Chief Inspectors Donald Swanson

Donald Swanson

and Henry Moore

Henry Moore (policeman)

, who had been involved in the previous murder investigations, arrived by 5 a.m.. A man named James Sadler, who had been seen with Coles earlier, was arrested by the police and charged with her murder. A high-profile investigation by Swanson and Moore into Sadler's past history and his whereabouts at the time of the previous Whitechapel murders indicates that the police may have suspected him to be the Ripper. However, Sadler was released on 3 March for lack of evidence.

Legacy

Abberline retired in 1892, and Matthews lost office in that year's general election

United Kingdom general election, 1892

The 1892 United Kingdom general election was held from 4 July to 26 July 1892. It saw the Conservatives, led by Lord Salisbury, win the greatest number of seats, but not enough for an overall majority as William Ewart Gladstone's Liberals won many more seats than in the 1886 general election...

. Arnold retired the following year, and Swanson and Anderson retired after 1900. There are no documents in the Whitechapel murder file dated after 1896. The murderer or murderers were never identified and the cases remain unsolved. Sensational reportage and the mystery surrounding the identity of the killer or killers fed the development of the character "Jack the Ripper

Jack the Ripper

", who was blamed for all or most of the murders. Hundreds of books and articles discuss the Whitechapel murders, and they feature in novels, short stories, comic books, television shows, and films

Jack the Ripper fiction

Jack the Ripper, the notorious serial killer who terrorised Whitechapel in 1888, features in works of fiction ranging from gothic novels published at the time of the murders to recent motion pictures, televised dramas and computer games....

of multiple genres.

The poor of the East End had long been ignored by affluent society, but the nature of the murders and of the victims drew attention to their living conditions. The murders galvanised opinion against the overcrowded, unsanitary slums of the East End, and led to demands for reform. On 24 September 1888, George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...

commented sarcastically in a letter to The Star

The Star (London)

The Star was a London evening newspaper founded in 1788.The first edition was printed on 3 May 1788 under the editorship of Peter Stuart. Founding sponsors of the new paper included publisher John Murray and William Lane of the Minerva Press...

newspaper on the media's sudden concern in social justice

Social justice

Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...

:

Acts of Parliament, such as the Housing of the Working Classes Act 1890 and the Public Health Amendment Act 1890, set minimum standards for accommodation in an effort to transform degenerated urban areas. The worst of the slums were demolished in the two decades following the Whitechapel murders.

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