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12/29/2005
Major Suspects
Before looking at specific suspects, let's summarize what is known about Jack the Ripper from forensic surgeons and possible eyewitnesses.
From the testimony of the various eyewitnesses which police took most seriously, certain probabilities emerge about the killer. One must keep in mind the word probable since eyewitness accounts, particularly under conditions of dim lighting, are notoriously inaccurate in certain details even when offered by honest competent eyewitnesses.
The following is a list of probabilities about the Ripper:
- A white male
- Average or below average height
- Between 20 and 40 years of age in 1888
- Did not dress as laborer or indigent poor
- Had lodgings in the East End
- Did have medical expertise, despite 1-2 opinions to contrary
- May have been foreigner
- Right-handed
- Had a regular job since the murders all occurred on weekends
- Was single so that he could roam streets at all hours
Developing persuasive cases about Jack the Ripper suspects has become a profitable cottage industry for at least one hundred years. Many of these books promote one suspect or another as the "real Jack the Ripper." Usually the author conveniently compiles "evidence" that fits his pet theory and denigrates or ignores facts that don't support that theory. Given the vast number of suspects and books promoting particular suspects, a reader must be very skeptical of any new "final solutions" to the crimes.
Despite the thousands of hours of work on this case, there is not yet one suspect for which a strong unimpeachable case can be made. One remains hopeful that someday a suspect will emerge with better credentials than the ones currently promoted.
With those caveats in mind, certain suspects have garnered more interest than others and will be listed in this chapter. A few major suspects will be dealt with briefly in subsequent chapters.
09:30 Posted in Major Suspects | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
12/28/2005
Panic, concludes
Several people had seen Mary on the night she died. Mary Ann Cox, another prostitute who lived in Miller's Court, saw Mary with a man going into Miller's Court at 11:45 p.m. Mary was very drunk and had difficulty talking. Mrs. Cox described Mary's client as "about 36 years old, about 5 ft 6 in. high, complexion fresh and I believe he had blotches on his face, small side whiskers, and a thick carrotty moustache, dressed in shabby dark clothes, dark overcoat and black felt hat.
At 8 p.m. on Wednesday, November 7, laundress Sarah Lewis was walking with a girlfriend when a man about forty years of age who was fairly short, pale-faced with a black moustache wanted either one of the two women to follow him. He wore a short black coat and carried a black bag about one foot long. They refused, but he persisted, and the women ran away. At 2:30 a.m. Friday morning, just around the time that Mary Kelly was murdered, Sarah was coming to stay with friends at 2 Miller's Court when she saw the same man, but eluded him this time. Shaken by this second sighting, she rushed to her friend's house. Just before 4 a.m. she heard a woman shriek "Murder!" Another woman also heard the scream, but shrieks like that were apparently common in bawdy Whitechapel.
Inspector Abberline clearly believed Hutchinson's detailed account, but had to wonder about Hutchinson's motivation for following Mary and her client. He said he had known her for several years and had given her money more than once. Perhaps he was fond of Mary or just worried about her with this particular client. There had to be some reason that he would take such an interest and even follow the two of them to Miller's Court. Abberline instructed a couple of policemen to walk around with Hutchinson in the hopes that they would spot Mary's client. One cannot help wondering if Hutchinson did not make up this story to throw suspicion off of himself. However, for some reason the police did not pursue him as a suspect and disseminated the description that he gave to all of the police stations.
As winter set in, the frantic police activity began to slow. All suspects had been interrogated and leads came to a dead end. It appeared that Jack the Ripper had left the scene for good. However, there were two murders that were similar in nature that should be mentioned.
The first was Alice McKenzie who was found dead in July of 1889. She too had died from the slashing of her carotid artery. If this was another victim of Jack the Ripper, the wounds to her throat and abdomen were different than the other murders. Drs. Bond and Phillips disagreed as to whether it was Jack or not.
In February of 1891, a pretty prostitute named Frances Coles was found with her throat cut. Dr. Phillips did not believe that Jack the Ripper was responsible and suspicion fell upon a man who had a quarrel with her.
At any rate, the Jack the Ripper file was closed in 1892, the same year in which Inspector Abberline retired. The Ripper murders were over, but the legend lived on.
10:19 Posted in Panic | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
12/10/2005
Panic
The murder of Mary Kelly created panic in the streets of Whitechapel, which were again abandoned at night to the police patrols. Sporadic episodes of mob violence broke out when for various reasons, an individual cast suspicion on himself by something he did or said, usually under the influence of alcohol.
Police activity was frantic. Every lead was tracked down, every suspect interrogated thoroughly. The results were disappointing and the police were heavily criticized. Queen Victoria was furious. "This new most ghastly murder," she told the Prime Minister, "shows the absolute necessity for some very decided action. All these courts must be lit, and our detectives improved. They are not what they should be."
The Times was a bit more understanding of the difficulties the police faced: "The murders, so cunningly continued, are carried out with a completeness which altogether baffles investigators. Not a trace is left of the murderer, and there is no purpose in the crime to afford the slightest clue...All that the police can hope is that some accidental circumstance will lead to a trace which may be followed to a successful conclusion."
There was disagreement on the estimated time of Mary's death. Dr. Bond believed that she had died between 1 and 2 a.m. Friday morning. Dr. Phillips thought that death occurred much later, somewhere between 5 and 6 a.m. Not having a clearer idea about time of death complicated the eyewitness testimony regarding who was with Mary or seen in Miller Court during Friday morning.
The most important eyewitness
was George Hutchinson, a laborer who knew Mary Kelly. He met her about 2 a.m. Friday morning and she asked him for some money. He told her he had nothing to spare and she walked away, but soon stopped to talk to another man. If his testimony is correct, he probably saw Jack the Ripper:
He then placed his right hand around her shoulders. He also had a kind of a small parcel in his left hand with a kind of strap round it. I stood against the lamp of the Queen's Head Public House and watched him. They both then came past me and the man hung down his head with his hat over his eyes. I stooped down and looked him in the face. He looked at me stern. They both went into Dorset Street. I followed them. They both stood at the corner of the court for about 3 minutes. He said something to her. She said alright my dear come along you will be comfortable. He then placed his arm on her shoulder and gave her a kiss. She said she had lost her handkerchief. He then pulled his handkerchief a red one out and gave it to her. They both then went up the court together. I then went to the court to see if I could see them but could not. I stood there for about three quarters of an hour to see if they came out. They did not so I went away.
Description: age about 34 or 35, height 5 ft. 6, complexion pale, dark eyes and eye lashes, slight moustache curled up each end and hair dark, very surly looking; dress, long dark coat, collar and cuffs trimmed astrakhan and a dark jacket under, light waistcoat, dark trousers, dark felt hat turned down in the middle, button boots and gaiters with white buttons, black tie with horse shoe pin, respectable appearance, walked very sharp, Jewish appearance. Can be identified.
He further elaborated on this description later:
His watch chain had a big seal, with a red stone, hanging from it...He had no side whiskers, and his chin was clean shaven...I believe that he lives in the neighborhood, and I fancied that I saw him in Petticoat Lane on Sunday morning, but I was not certain.
17:36 Posted in Panic | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
12/02/2005
Mary Kelly, concludes
John McCarthy sent his assistant Thomas Bowyer to see if he could collect any rent from Mary that Friday morning. When his knock went unanswered, he reached inside the broken window and pulled aside the curtain. He wasn't quite sure what he saw, but it caused him to run back to McCarthy. When McCarthy looked through the window, he was so horrified that he sent Bowyer for a constable.
The constable was talking with police officer Walter Dew and they went immediately to 13 Miller Court. They did not force the door, but pushed away a coat that served as a curtain over the broken window. The constable told Dew not to look inside, but he did anyway. "When my eyes had become accustomed to the dim light I saw a sight which I shall never forget to my dying day."
Soon Dr. George Bagster Phillips, the police surgeon, and Inspector Abberline were there. They opened the door to a small, cluttered room with almost no furniture. Mary's body, unbelievably mutilated, lay sprawled on the bed. The cause of death was the severance of the carotid artery in the throat. The horrendous mutilation of this last and most hideous Ripper murder was done after her death.
Dr. Thomas Bond, another veteran police surgeon, had been brought into the case specifically to determine the extent of medical knowledge the killer had. Dr. Phillips' examination report did not survive, but Dr. Bond's did:
The body was lying naked in the middle of the bed, the shoulders flat, but the axis of the body inclined to the left side of the bed...The whole of the surface of the abdomen & thighs was removed & the abdominal cavity emptied of its viscera. The breasts were cut off, the arms mutilated by several jagged wounds & the face hacked beyond recognition of the features & the tissues of the neck were severed all round down to the bone. The viscera were found in various parts: the uterus & kidney with one breast under the head, the other breast by the right foot, the liver between the feet, the intestines by the right side & the spleen by the left side. The flaps removed from the abdomen & thighs were on a table.
The ferocity of this murder astounded the veteran police surgeons. Her throat had been slashed with such force that the tissues had been cut all the way down to the spinal column. Dr. Bond went on to describe the ghastly destruction of her body:
Her face was gashed in all directions, the nose, cheeks, eyebrows & ears being partly removed. The lips were blanched & cut by several incisions running obliquely down to the chin. There were also numerous cuts extending irregularly across all of the features.
The skin & tissues of the abdomen from the costal arch to the pubes were removed in three large flaps. The right thigh was denuded in front to the bone, the flap of skin including the external organs of generation & part of the right buttock. The left thigh was stripped of skin, fascia & muscles as far as the knee.
Dr. Bond went on in his report for several paragraphs cataloging the wounds and stripping of the skin. As they tried to reconstruct her torn body, they realized that the heart had been cut out and taken away.
There seemed to be agreement that the same monster that killed the other four women murdered Mary Kelly. All of the women were murdered with "a very sharp, strong knife about an inch in width and at least six inches long."
Dr. Bond fixed the time of the murder as between one or two o'clock in the morning. However, given the length of time between her death and the time she was examined by Dr. Phillips, the time of death was approximate.
On the question that Dr. Bond was asked to address -- the medical skill of Jack the Ripper - he replied: "In each case the mutilation was inflicted by a person who had no scientific nor anatomical knowledge. In my opinion he does not even possess the technical knowledge of a butcher or horse slaughterer or any person accustomed to cut up dead animals." It is possible that Dr. Bond could not imagine that a doctor would be capable of such atrocities, because his position is very different than other physicians who examined the victims.
11:01 Posted in Mary Kelly | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this