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n Therenare no such doubts about the murder of Mary Ann Nichols, known as PollynNichols. Polly was born in 1845, and married William Nichols when she wasnnineteen, and with whom she had five children. By 1880, they had separated, andnalthough she was described as being a very neat, clean woman, she was also annalcoholic prostitute, and lived in lodging houses and workhouses.
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| Finding the Body in Buck’s Row |
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nOn the nightnof Thursday August 30th 1888, Polly went to find clients, and wasnseen at 11 pm on Whitchapel High Street. That night was cold and very rainy,nand she went to find lodgings in nearby Thrall Street, but didn’t have the 4dnto pay, so she went back out into the night, telling the deputy to save a placenas she would be back soon. She spoke with another prostitute, Emily Holland, atnabout 2.30 am, who described her as being very drunk. She had, she said, earnednthe 4d ‘doss money’ three times over but had drunk it all away (a streetnprostitute and a large glass of gin both cost about 3d in 1888), and theynparted after about ten minutes. At about 3.40, Charles Cross, a carman fornPickford’s, is on his way to work when he sees what at first he thinks is a tarpaulinnin Buck’s Row but on closer examination it is found to be woman’s body. Hencalls Robert Paul, a passer-by, over and the two men go in search of anpoliceman, during which time a beat policeman, PC John Neil, has also foundnPolly and raised the alarm.
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| Finding the Body in Buck’s Row |
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nNeil had seen nothing suspicious in an earlier passnof Buck’s Row, made at around 3.15. At 3.50, Dr Rees Llewellyn, who livednnearby, was brought and he examined the body, pronouncing her to have been deadnfor a matter of minutes. A small crowd of onlookers had started to form, sonLlewellyn ordered the body to be taken to the nearby morgue in Montague Street,nwhere he later made a more detailed examination. The police constables waitednfor more senior officers to arrive, as locals began to wash down the pavements,nand when Inspector John Spratling finally arrived he found little to see sonwent to Montague Street to examine the body. In the course of this, he liftednPolly’s skirts and discovered that her abdomen had been slashed, revealing thenintestines.
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| Map showing location of Nichol’s Murder |
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nDr Llewellyn made his second examination and the following day,nSeptember 1st, carried out the post mortem. Nichols’s throat hadnbeen cut twice, the arteries had been severed a deep slash that ran down to thenvertebrae and there were bruises on her face, caused either by a blow or bynbeing gripped firmly. There were also deep cuts to the abdomen, which had cutnthrough the tissues, exposing the viscera, which had been inflicted with greatnviciousness. The same weapon had made all the wounds and it was possible thatnthey had all been inflicted within a five-minute period. The lack of blood atnthe crime scene suggested that Polly had been killed elsewhere and the bodynmoved, but the cut to the throat had killed her instantly and the blood hadnsoaked into her hair and clothes. When the body was lifted, there was a greatndeal of congealed blood beneath it.
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| Police Mortuary Photgraph of Polly Nichols |
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nRumours began to spread in London, whichnwere taken up by the press, that the murderer was ‘Leather Apron,’ crudelyndepicted using Jewish stereotypes (the East End of London had long had a largenJewish population), and a Jewish leatherworker, John Pizer, who was nicknamednLeather Apron was arrested despite a lack of evidence and was later released,ngoing on to receive financial compensation from those newspapers which hadnnamed him as the killer. The official inquest into the murder lasted untilnSeptember 24th, during which time the Ripper had struck again,nleading many to question the progress and the competence of the policeninvestigation.
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| Mary Ann Nichols – Death Certificate |
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nThisnnext strike was the murder of Annie Chapman, born 1841, who had married anmaternal relative in 1869. She had three children, the first, a girl, died fromnmeningitis aged twelve, whilst the third was born disabled. She and her husbandnparted in 1884, and Annie moved to Whitechapel where she lived with a wirensieve maker until 1886 when the small allowance paid by her ex-husband stopped,nfollowing his death from cirrhosis.
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| Annie Chapman c.1869 |
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nThe sieve maker left when the incomenstopped and Annie became very depressed, almost giving up on life and taking tondrink. She made a meagre living from selling crochet work, flowers and somenoccasional prostitution, although as she was forty-eight this was a diminishingnsource of income. At 6.00 am September 8th 1888, John Davis, anmarket porter, found the body of Annie Chapman lying close to a doorway in thenback yard of 29 Hanbury Street (also called Brown Street).
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| 29 Hanbury Street |
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nElizabeth Long saidnshe had seen Annie Chapman standing hard against the railings of 29, HanburynStreet with a dark, shabby-smart man at 5.30 am (she knew the time because shenheard the brewery clock chiming), she heard the man say, “Will you?” andnChapman reply, “Yes.” Albert Cadosch, the resident of No 27, had gone into hisnyard to use the privy shortly afterwards and had heard a woman say, “No,” andnthen something fall against the fence.
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| Location of Annie Chapman’s Murder |
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nChapman’s throat had been deeply slitnright around the neck, and two parallel cuts had been made to the left of thenspine, as if to remove it. She lay on her back, with her legs drawn up and thensoles of her feet resting on the ground and her knees parted. Her abdomen wasnentirely opened and the intestines had been drawn out and draped over hernshoulders. The uterus, the posterior two thirds of the bladder and the uppernpart of the vagina had been removed and were missing – these parts had beennremoved, not hacked out, the rectum was not damaged and the cut had been lownenough to include the cervix uteri, implying that the killer had a good, if notnexcellent, knowledge off the internal female anatomy.
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| Police Mortuary Photograph of Annie Chapman |
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nThe incisions had beennmade with a long narrow blade, finer than a bayonet, longer than a leatherman’snknife, perhaps a ground-down butcher’s knife, or a surgeon’s or an undertaker’sninstrument. It was also discovered that Chapman was suffering from a chronicnlung complaint.
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| Wanted Poster – Leather Apron |
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nThenfinding of a leather apron in the yard fuelled press speculation but itnbelonged to a resident, John Richardson, whose mother had put it under the tapnto wash it. This didn’t stop the papers however and several foreigners werenarrested on the flimsiest evidence. The police search for Leather Apronncontinued but little progress was being made in the case.
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| Punch – September 22nd 1888 |
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nTomorrow – More Murders