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n Elisabeth Gustafadottor was born just north ofnGothenburg, Sweden in late 1843 and although she worked as a domestic servant,nby 1865 she was registered as a prostitute by the Swedish police. In that yearnshe gave birth to a stillborn child and was treated in October and November fornvenereal disease, and in 1866 she moved to London.
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| Elizabeth Stride in 1869 |
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nIn 1869, she married JohnnStride and they opened a coffee room in Poplar, London, but by 1882 she was living innlodging houses in Whitechapel, separated from John. He died in 1884, and inn1885 Elizabeth Stride was living in a loose relationship with Michael Kidney, andockyard labourer seven years her junior. She earned money from sewing andncleaning, supplementing the pittance with occasional prostitution, and althoughnshe was commonly described as good hearted and pleasant, she had a taste fornthe drink but she was a violent, nasty drunk, and was arrested eight times inntwenty months for disorderly conduct and using obscene language. Thenrelationship with Kidney was turbulent – on occasions he tried locking her inntheir room, in an attempt to stop her getting into trouble, and they separatednumpteen times. He was also frequently arrested for drunken behaviour andnElizabeth had pressed charges against him for assault on her at least once.
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| The Great Social Evil – Punch Sept 12 1857 |
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nStride was known as ‘Long Liz’, a nickname which some have speculatednwas applied because a ‘stride’ is a ‘long’ step (unlikely), because she had anlong face – which she didn’t (see photograph), or because of her height (she isnvariously described at between five foot two and five foot five, which isn’tnparticularly ‘long’). A simpler explanation I favour is that there was also a ‘ShortnLiz’, a smaller woman, in one of the lodging houses, and the nickname wasnused to distinguish between the two women. On Thursday evening September 27thn1888, she arrived at a lodging house at 32 Flower and Dean Street, where shentold the deputy, Elizabeth Tanner, that she had quarrelled with Kidney (henwould later deny this). Stride spent Saturday afternoon cleaning two rooms, fornwhich Tanner paid her sixpence, and the two women went out for a drink togethernat the Queen’s Head pub. Later in the evening, Long Liz was out on her own andnwas seen by two labourers in a doorway hugging and kissing a short, respectablyndressed man with a dark moustache, and when they tried to invite them into thenBricklayer’s Arms, and out of the rain, they went off at a quick pace towardsnCommercial Road and Berners Street; one of the labourers called after them, “That’snLeather Apron getting round you.”
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| Location of Elizabeth Stride’s murder |
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nLater, several witnesses recalled seeingnLong Liz with several different gentlemen, but their stories conflict in thendetails, and it may be they are describing different couples. She was seennalive in Berners Street before 1 am, but at this time Louis Diemschultz, anseller of cheap jewellery, was trying to get his pony and trap into Dutfield’snYard, off Berners Street, the animal shied and would not go through the gate.nHe probed with his whip and prodded a body, which he took to be drunk or asleep,nand went into the nearby International Working Men’s Educational Club, antwo-storey meeting place of native and foreign radicals, to get help in rousingnthe woman. Several men came out and it was then discovered that the woman wasndead. A single cut had slit her throat.
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| Police Photograph of Elizabeth Stride |
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nIt is speculated that Diemschultz’snarrival had disturbed the killer, which accounts for the pony’s behaviour, andnwhen Diemschultz went for help, he gave the murderer the opportunity to escape.nDoctor Blackwell, from 100, Commercial Road, was brought and he pronounced thenvictim dead on the spot. The following day, a crowd assembled in Berners Streetnto protest the lack of police progress in the case, as word of yet anothernmurder began to circulate. If the killer of Long Liz had been disturbed, asnseems likely, his appetite had not been satisfied, as another murder occurrednon the same night.
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| Catherine Eddowes |
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nCatherine (Kate) Eddowes had been born in Wolverhampton butnhad moved to London at an early age with her family. Taking the names of two ofnher common-law husbands, she was also known as Kate Conway and Kate Kelly, butnlike so many other women, the twists of fate led her to drink, Whitechapel andncasual prostitution. She too lodged on Flower and Dean Street, near to Long LiznStride, and was described as ‘a very jolly woman, often singing,’ andnalthough she liked a drink, she was not often drunk, however at 8 pm onnSaturday 29th 1888, she was found surrounded by a crowd, lying drunknand incapable on Aldgate High Street. Two policemen carried her to BishopsgatenPolice Station, where she was placed in a cell, to sleep it off. At 12.15 amnDuty Sergeant Byfield ordered PC Hutt to examine the prisoners in the cells, tonsee if any were fit to be released. Eddowes was found to be sober, and afternsome light banter with Hutt, she left the station.
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| Location of Catherine Eddowes’ murder |
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nInstead of turning right,ntowards Flower and Dean Street, she turned left, towards Aldgate High Streetnagain, where she was seen by three witnesses at 1.35 am, talking to a manndressed rather like a sailor, at the entrance to Duke Street and ChurchnPassage.
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| Finding the Mutilated Body in Mitre Square |
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nAt 1.45 on the morning of September 30th, PC Edward Watkinsndiscovered her body in Mitre Square, at the end of Church Passage. She had beennviolently murdered and disfigured; her throat had been slashed to the bone,nwhich would have killed her almost instantly.
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| Police sketch of Eddowes’ murder scene |
nHer abdomen had been carved open,nher viscera taken out and draped over her right shoulder, with a portionndetached and deliberately positioned between the body and left arm.
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| Police Photograph of Catherine Eddowes |
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nThe facenhad been mutilated, an ear cut off, her eyelids slit, her nose severed, herncheeks sliced and her throat opened. Her liver had been stabbed, the pancreasncut and the uterus removed, and the left kidney had been carefully excised andntaken away.
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| Police Photograph of Catherine Eddowes |
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nThe knife that had been used must have been longer than six inches.nMitre Square is in the City of London, and so the City of London Police wasncalled in to assist the Metropolitan force.
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| Location where the apron was discovered |
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nAt 3 am on the same morning, anpiece of Eddowes’s bloodstained and feculent apron was discovered in the passagento a doorway to Goulston Street, Whitechapel, and nearby was a chalk graffitonon the wall that read, “The Juwes are the men that Will not be Blamed fornnothing.” It is not known if this was related to the murders, but for fearnof igniting anti-Semitic riots, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner SirnCharles Warren ordered the words washed from the wall. As Goulston Street liesnmidway between Mitre Square and Flower and Dean Street, in the centre ofnWhitechapel, many, then and now, assume the killer lived in Whitechapel ornnearby, and was returning home.
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| Dear Boss letter – Page One |
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nThe so-called ‘double event’ of September 30thngreatly increased the feelings of terror running through the whole of London,nand in Whitechapel in particular, and the situation was made even tenser when anletter arrived at the Central News Agency of London on September 27thn1888. Post-marked the same day, it was passed on the Metropolitan Police bynSeptember 29th, and although crank letters were nothing new, andnusually dismissed, this one was taken seriously.
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| Dear Boss letter – Page 2 |
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nIt is known as the ‘DearnBoss’ letter, and contains the threat that “…The next job I do I shallnclip the ladys ears off and send to the police officers just for jolly,” –nand Catherine Eddowes’s ear had been cut off, leading the police to assume itnmight just be genuine. It was also signed ‘Jack the Ripper’, and thisnname was used for the killer from then on.
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| Signature from the Dear Boss letter |
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nOn October 1st, anotherncommunication was received, and as details of the Dear Boss letter hadnnot been published, the references in the so-called Saucy Jacky postcardnalso caused it to be taken seriously. The text of the postcard read,
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n“I was not codding dear old Boss when I gave you thentip, you’ll hear about Saucy Jacky’s work tomorrow double event this timennumber one squealed a bit couldn’t finish straight off. Had not got time to getnears off for police thanks for keeping last letter back till I got to worknagain.n
nJack the Ripper”n
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| Saucy Jacky Postcard |
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nIt was not, however, written until 24 hours afternthe ‘double event’ and a resident of Whitechapel could, indeed would, havenheard rumours that can explain the content.
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| From Hell letter |
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nA third letter ‘From Hell’n(also called the ‘Lusk Letter’), postmarked October 15th andnaddressed to Mr Lusk, (head of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee) arrived onnthe 16th. It contained part of a preserved human kidney, and wasnwritten at a much lower level of literacy than the other letters but there arenindications that this was a deliberate attempt to conceal the identity of thenauthor. Many medical authorities at the time pointed out that medical studentsnor hospital porters could easily obtain preserved human kidneys, and the letternwas probably a cruel hoax. Nor was it signed by ‘Jack the Ripper,’ maybenbecause the hoaxer(s) was unaware that the name had only been used first anfortnight previously.
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nTomorrow – Another Murder
