WILLIAM GLEN: Jack The Ripper (Whitechapel)

Between August and November 1888, a series of murders took place in an area of the East End of London known as “Whitechapel”. Five murders were blamed on an unidentified assailant known as Leather Apron; later to become more commonly named by the media as the first serial killer “Jack the Ripper”. Since that time the identity of the killer or killers has been hotly debated, and over one hundred suspects have been proposed. Though many theories have been advanced, experts find none widely persuasive, and some can hardly be taken seriously at all. Over the years many books and films have been made about the subject mostly glamorising the events and the killer. The Ten Bells Public House was frequented by the victims and most probably by the murderer. Between 1976 and 1988, the Public house was renamed “The Jack the Ripper”, and memorabilia relating to the case were displayed in the bars to cash in on the tourism which the area now attracted. The owners “Truman Brewery” ordered the change back to its original name after a long campaign by “Reclaim the Night” (Protest group against violence to women) demanded that a murderer of women should not be commemorated. This Album is dedicated to the five women who were brutally killed and their bodies mutilated, some beyond recognition.

The victims were:

Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols (Aged 44 – Married, 5 Children)

Annie Chapman (Aged 48 – Married, 2 Children)

Elizabeth "Long Liz" Stride (Aged 44 – Married)

Catherine (Kate) Eddowes (Aged 46 – Partner – 3 Children)

Mary Jane Kelly (Aged 25 – Widow – 1 child unconfirmed)

Mary Ann 'Polly'Nichols (Age 43) - Bucks Roe renamed Durward Street

Jack the Ripper's first victim. Found at 3.40am with her throat slit twice from left to right and her abdomen mutilated with one deep jagged wound, several incisions across the abdomen, and three or four similar cuts on the right side caused by the same knife at least 6–8 inches (15–20 cm) long used violently and downwards.

Mortuary photograph of Mary Ann Nichols (Buried in the City of London Cemetery)

Annie Chapman (Aged 48) - Hanbury Street

Chapman's body was discovered at just before 6:00 a.m. on the morning of 8 September 1888 by a resident of number 29, market porter John Davis. She was lying on the ground near a doorway in the back yard. She was “lying on her back, dead, left arm resting on left breast, legs drawn up”. Her throat was “cut deeply from left and back in a jagged manner right around the throat”. Inspector Chandler’s report also indicated her abdomen had been cut with her entrails on the ground above her right shoulder. The wall and fence near where the body was laid out was spattered with blood.

Mortuary photograph of Annie Chapman (Buried in Manor Park Cemetery)

Elizabeth Stride (Age 44) - Berner Street renamed Henriques Street

Stride's body was discovered 1 a.m. on Sunday 30 September 1888 by Louis Diemschutz, the steward of the Workers' Club, in the adjacent Dutfield's Yard. Diemshutz drove into the yard with a pony and two-wheeled cart, when his horse shied. The yard was so dark that he was unable to see her body without lighting a match. She was found lying on her left side with left arm extended from the elbow with small candies in her hand. Her right arm was over her stomach – back of hand and inner wrist dotted with blood. Her legs were drawn up, knees fixed, feet close to the wall. Slightly torn silk handkerchief around her throat with throat being deeply gashed and showing a skin abrasion about 1 ¼ inches in diameter.

Mortuary photograph of Elizabeth Stride (Buried in East London Cemetery)

Catherine (Kate) Eddowes (Aged 46) - Mitre Square

At 1.45 a.m on 30th September 1888, Catherine Eddowes's mutilated body was found in the south-west corner of Mitre Square by the square's beat policeman PC Edward Watkins. Eddowes was killed and mutilated in the square between 1.35 and 1.45 a.m. The bonnet was at the back of the head—great disfigurement of the face. The throat cut. Across below the throat was a neckerchief. ... The intestines were drawn out to a large extent and placed over the right shoulder—they were smeared over with some feculent matter. A piece of about two feet was quite detached from the body and placed between the body and the left arm, apparently by design. The lobe and auricle of the right ear were cut obliquely through. A part of her nose was missing. Her throat was cut. Her abdomen was laid open and one kidney had been removed.

Mortuary photograph of Catherine (Kate) Eddowes (Buried in East London Cemetery)

Mary Jane Kelly (Age 25) - Dorset Street now Fruit Exchange

On the morning of 9 November 1888, Mary Jane Kelly was found dead, by her landlord's assistant Thomas Bowyer. Shortly after 10:45 a.m., Bowyer knocked on her door but received no response, he peered through the curtain and discovered Kelly's horribly mutilated corpse lying on the bed. The body was lying naked in the middle of the bed, The whole of the surface of the abdomen and thighs was removed and the abdominal cavity emptied of its viscera. The breasts were cut off, the arms mutilated by several jagged wounds and the face hacked beyond recognition of the features. The tissues of the neck were severed all round down to the bone.