Jack the Ripper: The Casebook

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I am interested in taking one of the "Ripper Walks" offered in London. Which ones do you recommend and where do I write for more information? Mrs. Phoenix says that "She was Welsh and that her parents, who had discarded her, still lived in Cardiff, from which place she came. But on occasions she declared that she was Irish." She added that Mary Jane was very abusive and quarrelsome when she was drunk but "one of the most decent and nice girls you could meet when sober." Mrs. Cox follows them into Miller's Court. they are standing outside Kelly's room as Mrs. Cox passed and said "Goodnight." Somewhat incoherently, Kelly replied "Goodnight, I am going to sing." A few minutes later Mrs. Cox hears Kelly singing "A Violet from Mother's Grave" (see below). Cox goes out again at midnight and hears Kelly singing the same song. The "David Cohen" suspect is an expanded and revised version of what is known as the "Polish Jew theory", which in turn is originating from three primary sources:

The Ripper seemed to follow a fairly regimented modus operandi when dispatching his victims. In many cases there seems to be evidence of strangulation, followed by the severance of the carotid artery, which caused near-immediate death. Then he performed various abdominal/genital/facial mutilations, to varying degrees. On some victims there were only a few cuts and stab wounds, while others were mutilated beyond recognition. Some theorists have suggested that the victims knew one another, though there is no evidence to support this idea. Although many of the victims did have lodgings, at various times, in the same small area of Whitechapel, it must be remembered that this district was wildly overcrowded with common lodgers – literally hundreds would huddle together in a single house, two, three or four to a bed. The possibility of course exists that two or more of the victims knew each other, but we have no reason to suspect they did.Contemporary medical examinations on the Ripper's canonical victims reported that there was no evidence of "recent connexion" (a Victorian euphemism for sexual intercourse). Arguments have been made, however, that prostitutes commonly practised extra-vaginal sex as a means of birth control, and it is not quite clear whether 19th century medical examiners would have looked for evidence of such activity. So although we can not be absolutely certain that no sex of any kind took place, there is no absolutely no evidence to show that it did. In all likelihood the Ripper did not have sexual relations with his victims. Some have claimed that he was born at 43 King David Lane, Shadwell. This particular George Hutchinson, was, in 1901 however, an insurance collector. Are we expected to believe that a serial killer after murdering five prostitutes in ten weeks, suddenly stopped killing and turned up twelve years later selling insurance for a living, Interesting theory. I removed the content of the stomach and placed it in a jar for further examination. There seemed very little in it in the way of food or fluid, but from the cut end partly digested farinaceous food escaped.

Hutchinson was paid the equivalent of a months wages by the police for his help in searching for his Ripper suspect, he was also paid by the press for his story. Could this be the real reason why an unemployed groom was so keen to help and perhaps why he elaborated on his statement description a little. When the body arrived at Golden Lane, some of the blood was dispersed through the removal of the body to the mortuary. The clothes were taken off carefully from the body. A piece of deceased's ear dropped from the clothing. He may have been locally resident in the Whitechapel area. Modern-day serial killers tend to hunt their victims on familiar ground. Often a killer’s first victim will be found closest to the assailant’s home or place of work – a place where he felt comfortable and knew numerous routes for escape. All the Ripper’s victims were found either in Whitechapel, or within a short distance from the district – within a range of approximately one square mile. This was the Ripper’s “comfort zone.” The skin was retracted through the whole of the cut through the abdomen, but the vessels were not clotted. Nor had there been any appreciable bleeding from the vessels. I draw the conclusion that the act was made after death, and there would not have been much blood on the murderer. The cut was made by someone on the right side of the body, kneeling below the middle of the body. I made a post mortem examination at half past two on Sunday afternoon. Rigor mortis was well marked; body not quite cold. Green discoloration over the abdomen.There are patterns as well in the dates and times of the murders. Every murder from Tabram to Kelly was commited on either a weekend or a holiday – a strong indication that the killer held regular employment. The murders were committed between midnight and 6am, all in the general area surrounding Whitechapel. And the modus operandi was similar in all cases except Tabram and Stride. Memories of Mile End" - Life in Mile End at the end of the 19th and start of the 20th century as remembered by C.A. Brown (1887-1978). Published in the "East London Record", no.2 (1979) and republished here with the kind permission of the East London History Society. PM: City PCs on night beat leave Bishopsgate Station. They are marched behind their Beat Sergeants from Bishopsgate Station to their respective beats. In amongst these men were City PCs Edward Watkins and James Harvey. There was a stab of about an inch on the left groin. This was done by a pointed instrument. Below this was a cut of three inches going through all tissues making a wound of the peritoneum about the same extent.

The wounds on the face and abdomen prove that they were inflicted by a sharp, pointed knife, and that in the abdomen by one six inches or longer. The family recollects that Mrs Shaw arrived early, well before the end of Bert's shift at 11.30am. We have subsequently put the time at about 11.00am. She recounts seeing a body in Emily's rooms. Some accounts say Emily and Bert lived in the basement, others say on the first floor. It was certainly the latter and the houses are built in such a way that the first floor is at ground level. It is in Dundee that the case against Bury reaches its apogee. On the night of February 10th, 1889, he walked into a Dundee police station and claimed that his wife had committed suicide. In fact, she had been strangled and her body ripped up in the same was as the London victims. Aside from the fact that Ellen's throat was not cut - in the circumstances it was unnecessary - this was a Ripper crime, the mutilations to the genital area his 'signature'. It is when we directly compare the post mortem report on Ellen to that of Catherine Eddowes and the inquest testimonies on 'Polly' Nichols and Annie Chapman's injuries that we can see that they were all the work of the same man. Had Ellen Bury been butchered in the streets of Whitechapel between the murders of Nichols and Chapman then nobody would have had any doubts about it. Moreover, it transpired from the autopsy that Bury, with the time and facility to do so, had returned to Ellen's body and begun to incise around her genital area again. Only sexual serial murderers, turned on by deviant lust, do this. There was no other reason for the mutilations in the first place. He was the Ripper and he had to do it. Behind this, the liver was stabbed as if by the point of a sharp instrument. Below this was another incision into the liver of about two and a half inches, and below this the left lobe of the liver was slit through by a vertical cut. Two cuts were shewn by a jagging of the skin on the left side.

Catherine is educated at St. John's Charity School, Potter's Field, Tooley Street until her mother dies in 1855, when most of her siblings entered Bermondsey Workhouse and Industrial School.

Spitalfields (Part V)" - Article from "The Copartnership Herald, Vol. II, no. 14 (April 1932), about the decline of the silk weaving industry in Spitalfields in the late 18th and 19th century. Dr. George Bagster Phillips was also present at the scene, and gave the following testimony at the inquest: The throat was cut across to the extent of about six or seven inches. A superficial cut commenced about an inch and a half below the lobe below, and about two and a half inches behind the left ear, and extended across the throat to about three inches below the lobe of the right ear. It is estimated that it would have taken less than ten minutes to reach Mitre Square. This leaves a thirty minute gap from the time she leaves the police station to the time she is seen outside of Mitre Square.Dark green chintz skirt, 3 flounces, brown button on waistband. The skirt is patterned with Michaelmas daisies and golden lilies. Spitalfields (Part IV)" - Article from "The Copartnership Herald, Vol. II, no. 13 (March 1932), about the silk weaving industry in Spitalfields in the 18th century. A remarkably detailed statement. Not only did Hutchinson visually observe every detail, despite the poor light, but he also appeared to have heard every word that was exchanged between the couple. There are several possible scenarios to explain the statement he made. A Friend in my Retreat" - An account of the day-to-day life of that great East End institution: mother. Kingsley Royden remembers the daily routines of his mother (and father) living in Bromley-by-Bow in the 1920's. Published in the "East London Record", no.1 (1978) and republished here with the kind permission of the East London History Society. The family have read most books on the murder including Napley's account and state that this is as close as can be to the actual events.