Complete History of Jack the Ripper

by Philip Sudgen

  The coroner’s papers for the inquest on Charles Samuel White, held on 18 November 1865, will be found at CLRO, Southwark Inquests, 1865, No. 229. They contain the depositions of Mary Ann White (his daughter), Rebecca Grover (his landlady) and Henry O’Donnell (his doctor). White’s wife also testified but her deposition is missing from the file. See also, South London Chronicle 25 November 1865.

  11 Report of Inspector Reid, 16 August 1888, MEPO 3/140, f. 46; report of Chief Inspector Swanson, Sept. 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C/8a.

  12 Report of Inspector Reid, 25 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, ff. 52–7. See also report of Inspector Reid, 16 August 1888, MEPO 3/140, ff. 46–7, and report of Chief Inspector Swanson, Sept. 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C/8a.

  13 Kelly’s Kingston, Norbiton, Surbiton, and District Directory for 1891 lists a John Benjamin as the landlord of the Canbury Arms, 49 Canbury Park Road, Kingston.

  14 John Leary (regimental No. 6031), WO 97/3274, and John Leary (No. 172), WO 97/5324, PRO.

  15 For Pearly Poll’s story, see reports of Inspector Reid, 16 and 24 August 1888, MEPO 3/140, ff. 44–5, 50; report of Chief Inspector Swanson, Sept. 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C/8a; deposition of Mary Ann Connelly, 23 August 1888, ELA and ELO 25 August.

  16 ELO 18 August 1888.

  17 Reports of Inspector Reid, 16 August and 25 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, ff. 45, 47–8, 57–9; report of Chief Inspector Swanson, Sept. 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C/8a.

  18 Dew, I Caught Crippen, pp. 102–3; report of Chief Constable Melville Macnaghten, 23 February 1894, MEPO 3/141, f. 182.

  19 Summing up of George Collier, 23 August 1888, ELA 25 August.

  20 Report of Chief Inspector Swanson, Sept. 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C/8a; deposition of Dr Killeen, 9 August 1888, DN 10 August.

  21 McCormick, Identity of Jack the Ripper (1959), p. 17.

  22 ‘Detail of reports in tabular form for reference,’ MEPO 3/140, ff. 35–6.

  23 Paul Harrison, Jack the Ripper: The Mystery Solved (London, 1991), p. 99.

  24 ELA 18 August 1888. Unknown to each other Jon Ogan and I researched the Tabram murder at the same time. We both concluded that the evidence against the soldiery was unsatisfactory. See his perceptive article, ‘Martha Tabram – the Forgotten Ripper Victim?’, Journal of Police History Society, Vol. V (1990), pp. 79–83.

  25 Whitechapel Workhouse Infirmary, Admission & Discharge Book, 1888–9, GLRO, StBG/Wh/123/20; death certificate, St Catherine’s House; Eastern Post 7 April 1888; Russell Whitaker, ‘A New Ripper Victim,’ Ripperana, No. 7, January 1994, pp. 15–6.

  26 ELO 31 March 1888; London Hospital, Patient Admissions Register, 1888, RLHAM.

  27 DN 6 April 1888.

  28 The file upon Emma Smith is now missing from MEPO 3/140. Most of the information in the present account has been drawn from press notices of the inquest on 7 April 1888: Star 7 April; T, DT and DN 9 April. See also: London Hospital, Patient Admissions Register, 1888, RLHAM; Dew, I Caught Crippen, pp. 91–4; Rumbelow, Complete Jack the Ripper (1975), pp. 56–7.

  29 For the movements of Polly Nichols on the night of 30–31 August, see T 1 September 1888; report of Inspector Joseph Helson, 7 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, f. 237; report of Inspector Frederick G. Abberline, 19 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, ff. 246–7; deposition of Ellen Holland, 3 September 1888, ELO 8 September.

  3 Without the Slightest Shadow of a Trace

  1 Cross and Paul told their stories at the Nichols inquest, Cross on 3 September and Paul on 17 September. The most useful notices of Cross’ testimony are in Star, 3 September; DT, 4 September; DN, 4 September. There is a brief notice of Paul’s testimony in T, 18 September, and even briefer ones in DT, 18 September, and ELA, 22 September. Their discovery of the body is also described in the report of Inspector Abberline, 19 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, ff. 242–3.

  2 This account of police activities consequent upon the discovery of Nichols’ body rests primarily upon inquest depositions. For those of PC John Neil and Dr Rees Ralph Llewellyn, 1 September 1888, see T, 3 September; DT, 3 September; DN, 3 September. For those of PC Jonas Mizen and Inspector John Spratling, 3 September, see Star, 3 September; DN, 4 September. And for that of PC Thain, 17 September, see T, 18 September; DT, 18 September.

  Llewellyn’s press statement of 31 August 1888 is printed in DT, 1 September, and DN, 1 September. Finally, the events are briefly covered in two police reports – that of Inspector Spratling, 31 August 1888, MEPO 3/140, f. 239, and that of Inspector Abberline, 19 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, ff. 243–4.

  3 Report of Inspector Spratling, 31 August 1888, MEPO 3/140, ff. 239–240; report of Chief Inspector Swanson on Nichols murder, 19 October 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C/8a.

  4 Deposition of Dr Llewellyn, 1 September 1888, see n. 2 above.

  5 Much on Polly Nichols’ history will be found in: report of Inspector Helson, 7 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, ff. 235–6; report of Inspector Abberline, 19 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, ff. 244–6; deposition of Edward Walker, 1 September 1888, T, DT and DN, all for 3 September; depositions of William Nichols and Ellen Holland, 3 September 1888, ELO, 8 September, for best coverage, but see also DT, 4 September, and DN, 4 September; statement of William Nichols, not dated, DT, 10 September 1888; registers of births, marriages and deaths, St Catherine’s House.

  I have also derived great benefit from the pioneering researches of Donald Rumbelow, The Complete Jack the Ripper (revised edition, 1987), pp. 41–2, and Neal Shelden, ‘Victims of Jack the Ripper’, True Detective, January 1989, p. 49.

  6 Quoted in DN, 3 September. Since Polly did not leave Lambeth Workhouse until 12 May 1888 the date of 17 April given for this letter in DT, 3 September, must be incorrect and may be a misprint for 17 May.

  7 Helson, in his report of 7 September, identifies the ‘White House’ as No. 55 Flower and Dean Street. Abberline, writing twelve days later, makes it No. 56.

  8 DT, 3 September; ELO, 8 September. Both Edward Walker and William Nichols found it difficult to live with Polly’s drinking. Nichols told the inquest: ‘I did not leave my wife but she left me of her own accord. She had no occasion for so doing. If it had not been for her drinking habits we would have got on all right together.’ See deposition of William Nichols, 3 September 1888, cited in n. 5 above.

  9 ELO, 17 December 1887. For convenient sketches of Abberline’s career, see ‘On Duty in Plain Clothes (A Detective Officer’s Reminiscences)’, Cassell’s Saturday Journal, Vol. X, No. 452, 28 May 1892, p. 852; Paul Begg, Martin Fido and Keith Skinner, The Jack the Ripper A to Z, pp. 5–8.

  10 This account of the police investigation is drawn from the report of Inspector Spratling, 31 August 1888, MEPO 3/140, ff. 240–1, and from inquest testimony. For the depositions of Spratling and Helson, 3 September, see Star, 3 September, and DN, 4 September. For those of Spratling, PC Thain, Emma Green, Walter Purkis and Patrick Mulshaw, 17 September, see T, 18 September, and DT, 18 September.

  11 T prints the watchman’s name as Patrick Mulshaw, DT as Alfred Malshaw.

  12 Deposition of Henry Tomkins, 3 September 1888, Star, 3 September; DN, 4 September; DT, 4 September. For Neil, DN, 3 September.

  13 Report of Inspector Helson, 7 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, f. 237; report of Inspector Abberline, 19 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, f. 247; report of Chief Inspector Swanson, 19 October 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C/8a.

  14 DT, 18 September 1888.

  15 For Llewellyn’s press statement, 31 August 1888, see n. 2 above.

  16 For depositions of Inspectors Spratling and Helson, 3 September 1888, see n. 10 above.

  17 Statement of Inspector Helson, 2 September 1888, DN, 3 September; report of Inspector Helson, 7 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, f. 236; report of Inspector Abberline, 19 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, f. 253; for Helson’s inquest deposition, see n. 10 above.

  18 Statement of Dr Llewellyn, 31 August 1888, T, 1 September.

  19 Rumbelow, Complete Jack the Ripper (1987), p. 162; Arthur Douglas, Will the Real Jack the Ripper (Chorley, Lancs., 1979
), p. 10.

  20 Report of Inspector Spratling, 31 August 1888, MEPO 3/140, f. 240; report of Chief Inspector Swanson, 19 October 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C/8a; deposition of Dr Llewellyn, 1 September 1888, DN, 3 September, and DT, 3 September.

  21 McCormick, Identity of Jack the Ripper, p. 30.

  22 Colin Wilson & Robin Odell, Jack the Ripper: Summing Up and Verdict (London, 1987), p. 139.

  23 T, 1 September 1888.

  24 For full text, see Daniel Farson, Jack the Ripper, pp. 45–6.

  4 Leather Apron

  1 Summing up by George Collier, Tabram inquest, 23 August 1888, DT 24 August; The Illustrated Police News, 18 August 1888; ELO, 11 August 1888. Cries of murder, as Francis Hewitt and his wife observed, may have been commonplace in the East End but murder itself evidently was not. It is interesting that Superintendent Thomas Arnold, Head of H Division, noted that although Whitechapel had a considerable population of ‘low and dangerous classes’ that frequently indulged in rowdyism and street offences, ‘with the exception of the recent murders crime of a serious nature is not unusually heavy in the district.’ See, report of Supt. Arnold, 22 October 1888, MEPO 3/141, ff. 164–5. Cf. Cullen, Autumn of Terror, p. 32.

  2 DT, 4 September 1888. After an investigation by Wilton Friend, the manager of the Foresters’ Music Hall, the journalist who sent the report to the news agency confessed that he ‘had absolutely no foundation for the story . . . that, in fact, it existed only in his own imagination.’ See, ELO, 6 October 1888.

  3 DN, 1 September 1888.

  4 Star, 31 August and 1 September 1888.

  5 ELO, 8 September 1888.

  6 DN, 5 September 1888.

  7 T 7 September 1888; ELA 8 September 1888; burial register, City of London Cemetry, Little Ilford, GL, MS. 10445/33.

  8 L. & P. Walter & Son, 31 August 1888, to Matthews, and E. Leigh-Pemberton, 4 September 1888, to Messrs. Walter & Son, HO 144/220/A49301B.

  9 For general accounts of Warren’s career, see T, 24 January 1927; Dictionary of National Biography, 1922–30, pp. 889–891; Watkin W. Williams, The Life of General Sir Charles Warren (Oxford, 1941).

  Warren’s commissionership of the Metropolitan Police is treated in Sir Charles Warren, ‘The Police of the Metropolis,’ Murray’s Magazine, Vol. IV, No. 23, November 1888, pp. 577–594; Charles Clarkson & J. Hall Richardson, Police! (London, 1889), ch. vi, ix, xv; George Dilnot, The Story of Scotland Yard (London, 1926), pp. 95–105, 261–4; Sir John Moylan, Scotland Yard and the Metropolitan Police (London, 1934), pp. 48–52; Douglas G. Browne, The Rise of Scotland Yard (London, 1956), pp. 201–211; Paul Begg and Keith Skinner, The Scotland Yard Files (London, 1992), pp. 111–36. On public order, see Lisa Keller, ‘Public Order in Victorian London,’ Ph.D. thesis, Cambridge University, 1976.

  10 Williams, Life of Warren, pp. 216, 218.

  11 On the search, see Warren’s press notice, 17 October 1888, DT, 18 October; minute of Robert Anderson, 23 October 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C/8a; DN, 19 October 1888.

  12 For good examples of press criticism, see DN, 31 August 1888; PMG 8 October 1888.

  13 The best account of the Warren–Monro feud is Bernard Porter, The Origins of the Vigilant State (London, 1987), pp. 82–7; there is a good assessment of Monro in Begg, Fido & Skinner, Jack the Ripper A to Z, pp. 190–1.

  14 Sir Robert Anderson, ‘The Lighter Side of My Official Life,’ Blackwood’s Magazine, Vol. CLXXXVII, No. 1132, February 1910, pp. 250–1; T, 16 November 1888.

  15 Anderson, ‘Lighter Side of My Official Life,’ Blackwood’s Magazine, Vol. CLXXXVII, No. 1133, March 1910, p. 356. A. P. Moore-Anderson, Sir Robert Anderson, KCB, LLD, and Lady Agnes Anderson (London & Edinburgh, 1947) is an indifferent biography.

  16 Warren, 15 September 1888, to Assistant Commissioner A. C. Bruce, in private hands.

  17 Anderson, ‘Lighter Side of My Official Life,’ February 1910, p. 251; Star, 4 October 1888.

  18 Quoted by John J. Tobias, Crime and Industrial Society in the Nineteenth Century (Pelican edition, Harmondsworth, 1972), p. 148.

  19 Charles Booth, Life and Labour of the People in London (London, 1902), 3rd Series, Vol. II, p. 7. See also Lloyd P. Gartner, The Jewish Immigrant in England, 1870–1914 (London, 1973), pp. 41–4; V. D. Lipman, ‘Jewish Settlement in the East End of London, 1840–1940,’ pp. 31–4, in Aubrey Newman (ed.), The Jewish East End 1840–1939 (London, 1981). For a colourful portrait of East London in the year of the Ripper murders, see William J. Fishman, East End 1888 (London, 1988).

  20 For the full ramifications of this fascinating case, see T. A. Critchley & P. D. James, The Maul and the Pear Tree (London, 1971).

  21 Quoted by Clarkson & Richardson, Police!, p. 280.

  22 C. E. Howard Vincent, A Police Code, and Manual of the Criminal Law (London, 1881), p. 253.

  23 ELA, 18 August and 8 September 1888.

  24 DN, 3 September 1888; T, 4 September 1888.

  25 DT, 24 September 1888.

  26 DT, 6 September 1888.

  27 Star, 5 and 6 September 1888. According to Lincoln Springfield, Some Piquant People (London 1924), pp. 45–7, the author of the articles was an American journalist named Harry Dam.

  28 Report of Inspector Helson, 7 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, f. 238; report of Inspector Abberline, 19 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, f. 248.

  29 Sir Melville Macnaghten, Days of My Years (London, 1914), pp. 64–5; Dew, I Caught Crippen, p. 102.

  30 Nick Ross & Sue Cook, Crimewatch UK (London, 1987), p. 159.

  31 DN, 3 September 1888.

  32 ELA, 8 September 1888.

  5 Dark Annie

  1 For details of Annie Chapman’s background and character, see depositions of Amelia Palmer, Timothy Donovan and John Evans, 10 September 1888, in DT and DN, 11 September; deposition of Fountain Smith, 12 September 1888, in DT and DN, 13 September, and ELA, 15 September; deposition of Timothy Donovan, 13 September 1888, in DT and DN, 14 September; depositions of Eliza Cooper and Ted Stanley, 19 September 1888, in DT and DN, 20 September; report of Inspector Joseph Chandler, 8 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, ff. 10–11; report of Inspector Abberline, 14 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, f. 17; report of Inspector Abberline, 19 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, ff. 250–252; report of Chief Inspector Swanson, 19 October 1888, relating to Hanbury Street murder, HO 144/221/A49301C/8a; registers of births, marriages and deaths, St Catherine’s House; Shelden, ‘Victims of Jack the Ripper,’ pp. 49–50.

  T, 11 September 1888, prints Amelia Palmer’s name as Amelia Farmer. In five other inquest reports checked by the author the name is given as Palmer and this name has been adopted in the present text.

  2 Her name is not recorded in the Admissions & Discharge Book of the Whitechapel Workhouse Infirmary, 1888–9, GLRO, StBG/Wh/123/20.

  3 Statement of Frederick Simpson, Star, 8 September 1888.

  4 The times stated are those given by Donovan at the inquest, 10 September, see n. 1. They are consistent with the report of Inspector Chandler, written on the day of the murder, which states that Annie was approached for her lodging money at 1.45. John Evans, testifying on 10 September, said that Annie left the lodging house at about 1.45. Abberline’s report of 19 September makes it later, at about 2.00.

  5 Frustratingly, names are often reported differently in different newspapers. Thus Mrs Hardiman’s first name is most commonly given as Harriet but also as Annie and Mary. Tyler is called Francis in some reports and John in others. All the contemporary references I have seen to the residents of the first floor back call them Waker but Begg, Fido & Skinner, Jack the Ripper A to Z, enter them under Walker. While the surname of the two unmarried sisters from the second floor back is variously given as Cooksley, Copsey and Huxley. The report in T even refers to them (erroneously) as Mr and Mrs Copsey.

  6 This account of the discovery of Annie Chapman’s body rests largely upon inquest testimony. See, deposition of John Davis, 10 September 1888, in DT and DN, 11 September; depositions of Amelia Richardson, Harriet Hardiman, James Kent,
James Green and Henry John Holland, 12 September 1888, in DT and DN, 13 September; summing up of Coroner Wynne E. Baxter, 26 September 1888, in T, 27 September. See also, report of Inspector Abberline, 19 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, f. 249.

  7 Report of Inspector Chandler, 8 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, f. 9.

  8 Dew, I Caught Crippen, pp. 115–6.

  9 Deposition of Dr George Bagster Phillips, 13 September 1888, in DT, 14 September.

  10 Report of Inspector Chandler, 8 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, ff. 9–10; depositions of Inspector Chandler and Dr Phillips, 13 September 1888, in DT, DN and T, 14 September. The date of the postmark, 23 August, is taken from Swanson’s summary report (see n.1). Dates of 3, 20 and 28 August are given in the press.

  11 For Chandler’s evidence, see n. 10.

  12 Deposition of Dr Phillips, 13 September 1888, in DT, DN and T, 14 September; deposition of Dr Phillips, 19 September 1888, in DT, DN and T, 20 September; ‘The Whitechapel Murders’, The Lancet, 1888, Vol. II, 29 September 1888, p. 637; report of Chief Inspector Swanson, 19 October 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C/8a.

  13 Endorsement of Acting Superintendent West to report of Inspector Chandler, 8 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, f. 11.

  14 For these police activities, see report of Inspector Chandler, 8 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, f. 11; report of Inspector Abberline, 19 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, ff. 252–3; report of Chief Inspector Swanson, 19 October 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C/8a. On the leather apron, see the inquest depositions of Amelia Richardson, 12 September 1888, and Inspector Chandler and Dr Phillips, 13 September 1888, cited in n. 6 and 10.

  15 Report of Inspector Chandler, 14 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, f. 16; report of Inspector Chandler, 15 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, ff. 18–20; deposition of William Stevens, 19 September 1888, in DT and T, 20 September.