Jack the Ripper

by The Whitechapel Society

  Bibliography

  Beadle, W., Jack the Ripper: Anatomy of a Myth (Wat Tyler Books, 1995)

  Beadle, W., Jack the Ripper Unmasked (John Blake Publishing, 2009)

  Macpherson, E., The Trial of Jack the Ripper (Mainstream Publishing, 2005)

  Christine Warman was born in Birmingham. She spent most of her working life in the retail trade, but is now retired and lives with her husband near Whitby. Christine is a member of Mensa. Her magpie tendency to pick up information has led to a couple of (brief) appearances on Mastermind. Christine is a member of the Whitechapel 1888 Society.

  3

  Severin Klosowski, alias George Chapman

  Sue Parry

  My candidate for Jack the Ripper is Severin Klosowski, also known as George Chapman, a convicted killer who was hung in 1903, following the murders of three women. Indeed, it was said that Frederick George Abberline, a senior police officer on the 1888 case, declared at the time of the Chapman’s arrest, ‘You’ve got the Ripper at last.’

  Severin Antonio Klosowski was born in Poland on 14 December, 1865, to Antonio, a carpenter, aged thirty, and his wife Emilie aged twenty-nine. Between the ages of eight and fifteen, he attended a rural primary school and a school report described his conduct as ‘very good’. On leaving school, he was apprenticed for a period of four and a half years to a surgeon. He was described as ‘diligent’ and of ‘exemplary conduct’, studying with ‘zeal’ the science of surgery whilst ‘under doctor’s instructions rendered very skilful assistance to patients.’ His name was entered in a registry of surgical pupils in 1885, and from October 1885 to January 1886, he studied at the Hospital of Praga in Warsaw – again his conduct was described as good. Klosowski appears to have achieved the status of Junior Surgeon, by December 1886, and paid his fees to the Treasury of the Warsaw Society of Assistant Surgeons up until March 1887.1 He then left Warsaw and came to London, but opinion varies as to the exact date of the emigration. On his arrival in London he worked as a hairdresser for Abraham Radin, in West India Dock Road. He remained in Mr Radin’s employ for about five months.2 Klosowski then appears to move on, working as a self-employed hairdresser in Cable Street. In 1890 he worked first as an assistant,and then as the proprietor of a barbers in the basement below the White Hart public house, on the corner of Whitechapel High Street and George Yard (now Gunthorpe Street).

  In the later part of 1889, Klosowski met Lucy Baderski at a Polish club in Clerkenwell.3 After a brief courtship, of only four or five weeks, they were married on 29 October 1889. Initially they lived together at No.126 Cable Street.4 A son, Wladyslaw, was born on 6 September 1890, but died on 3 March 1891. At the time of their son’s birth, the couple were living at No.89 High Street, Whitechapel. However, by the time of the infant’s death, they had moved to No.2 Tewkesbury Buildings, Whitechapel5, and they were still there when the census was taken on 5 April 1891. The couple then emigrated to the United States6 and settled in New Jersey. However, Klosowski was acting violently towards his wife and, in February 1892, Lucy returned to the UK and gave birth to a girl, Cecilia, on 15 May.7

  Klosowski returned from the US shortly after the birth of Cecilia and was re-united with his wife.8 It was Klosowski who registered the baby’s birth, on 20 June, and at that time the family were residing at No.26 Scarborough Street, Whitechapel.9 However, by November 1893, Klosowski was living with a woman named Annie Chapman (no connection to the Ripper victim). They lived together as Mr & Mrs Klosowski in West Green Road, Tottenham, but Annie left him about a year later. She was to claim later that she had a child by him.10 It seems that, from this point, Klosowski adopted the name George Chapman, so from here on I will refer to him as that.

  In 1895, Chapman met a Mrs Mary Isabella Spink (neé Renton) in Leytonstone. Mrs Spink’s husband, Shadrach, had deserted her, taking their son (also named Shadrach) in 1890; shortly after the desertion, Mrs Spink gave birth to a second son, William.11 By October 1895, the couple were telling people that they were married, though both were still married to others, and no record exists of a marriage ceremony.12 Mrs Spink had been left £500-600, by her grandfather,13 and it was not long before this money found its way into Chapman’s pockets. In early 1897, he used it to buy the lease on a small barber’s shop in George Street, Hastings.14 The family of three – Mrs Spink, Chapman and young William – lived in Hastings and by May of that year, Mrs Spink was frequently vomiting. It is likely that Chapman was also subjecting her to physical violence. They left Hastings in September 1897, and Chapman, making a career change, became the licensee of the Prince of Wales Pub in St Bartholomew Square, just off the City Road in London. Mrs Spink’s health rapidly deteriorated; she had lost a good deal of weight and suffered frequent bouts of sickness and diarrhoea. A Dr J.F. Rodgers was in attendance, and on Christmas Day 1897, this unfortunate woman died an agonizing death, aged forty-one years. Dr Rodgers gave the cause of death as phthisis (tuberculosis).15

  Chapman played the grieving husband, but one month later, he applied for young William to be taken into a Dr Barnardo’s Home. He was not admitted to the home, but at a later date he had him taken into the Shoreditch Workhouse.16

  By Easter 1898, Chapman had appointed a new barmaid at the Prince of Wales: Elizabeth (Bessie) Taylor. They soon entered into a relationship and, just like the previous Mr & Mrs Chapman, they were telling people that they were married. Around the middle of 1898, Chapman bought The Grapes public house in Bishops Stortford.17 During their brief stay there, Bessie became ill and spent sometime in the hospital in the town. She was suffering abuse at the hands of Chapman and by March, 1899, the couple had sold The Grapes and moved on to another pub, The Monument Tavern, No.135 Union Street in Southwark. Just like her predecessor, Bessie’s health was deteriorating. She was suffering from exhaustion and pains in her stomach; she consulted a Dr James Morris Stoker several times at his surgery. However, her condition worsened; she was now suffering from vomiting and diarrhoea and complained of a burning sensation in her throat. Dr Stoker was in attendance almost daily, from 1 January 1901, and asked three other doctors to give their opinions: ‘womb trouble’, cancer, and ‘a severe form of hysteria’ were all suggested! Bessie died on 13 February 1901; she was thirty-six years old. On the death certificate, Dr Stoker gave the cause of death as ‘intestinal obstruction, vomiting and exhaustion.’18 This time Chapman displayed a callous indifference to his ‘wife’s’ death. Interestingly, in the April 1901 census, Chapman is recorded as the publican of The Monument public house; he described his marital status as ‘single’ and place of birth as ‘United States’.

  In August 1901, Chapman employed eighteen-year-old Maud Marsh. Again, within a short period of time they were telling people that they were married; having told Maud’s parents that Chapman was a widower.19 In December 1901, the couple moved to a nearby pub, The Crown, following a serious fire in which The Monument burnt down. In June 1902, a young barmaid, Florence Rayner, was employed at The Crown. Within a fortnight of Florence’s arrival, Chapman was making advances towards her and suggested that they go to America together; Florence would go first, Chapman would sell his business and then follow her. When Florence protested that he had a wife, Chapman replied, ‘If I give her that [snapping his fingers], she would be no more Mrs Chapman.’ Florence left The Crown after three or four weeks.20 The relationship between Chapman and Maud had become violent, and Maud confided in her sister Louisa that Chapman ‘had beaten her more than once, taking hold of her hair and banging her head.’21 Just like the two previous ‘Mrs Chapman’s’ Maud became ill, suffering from severe vomiting, diarrhoea and abdominal pains. She was admitted to Guys Hospital on 28 July,1902, where her illness confused her doctors; she remained there until 20 August.22 However, she improved during her time in hospital and returned to The Crown, but then her symptoms rapidly returned. On 10 October she too consulted Dr Stoker.23 Maud’s mother, Eliza, arrived at the pub on 20 October to nurse her daughter24 and Maud’s father, Robert, very concerned f
or his daughter’s health, arranged for his own doctor, Dr Grapel, of No.282 London Road, Croydon, to visit Maud at The Crown, on 21 October.25 Dr Grapel was initially baffled by Maud’s condition, but on his way back to Croydon, he came to the conclusion that this could well be a case of repeated arsenic poisonings, but he was reluctant to communicate this to Dr Stoker as he had no proof. He fully intended to get in touch with Dr Stoker the following day, but before he could do so, Mr Marsh showed him a telegram he had received, telling him of his daughter’s very sudden and agonising death, at 12.30 p.m. that day, 22 October 1902. On hearing this distressing news, Dr Grapel sent Dr Stoker a telegram, in which he conveyed his suspicions.26 The following day at The Crown, Mrs Marsh, her daughter Alice, and Maud’s aunt were having tea with Chapman, unaware of the storm gathering over his head. Not letting the grass grow under his feet, Chapman said to Alice, ‘There is a chance for you as barmaid now. Will you come?’ Naively she replied, ‘No thanks, London does not suit me.’27

  Shaken by Dr Grapel’s telegram, Dr Stoker refused to sign a death certificate and arranged for tests to be carried out on Maud’s organs. The results showed that both arsenic and antimony, were present in the victim’s remains.28 On 25 October, Dr Stoker contacted the police, and Detective Inspector George Godley and Inspector William Kemp went to The Crown. Chapman was arrested and that night was charged with the murder of Maud Marsh.29 It was while the police searched the pub that they found paperwork which clearly showed that George Chapman and Severin Klosowski, despite his protestations,30 were one and the same man.31

  The bodies of Mrs Spink and Bessie Taylor were exhumed and both contained considerable amounts of antimony. On 31 December Chapman was charged in the name of Severin Klosowski with the murders of Mary Spink and Bessie Taylor.

  On 11 February 1903, Chapman was committed for trial at the Central Criminal Court; the trial commenced on 16 March. Sir Edward Carson KC, the Solicitor General, was the prosecuting counsel; Mr Elliott defended Chapman and the judge was Mr Justice Grantham. Chapman pleaded ‘Not guilty’ to all three counts of murder. However, the jury were then instructed to try for the case of the murder of Maud Marsh. Forty-three witnesses gave evidence for the prosecution, including members of all his victims’ families, the family of Lucy Baderski, Annie Chapman, Drs Grapel and Stoker, and of course Detective Inspector Godley and Inspector Kemp.32

  One interesting witness was William Davidson, a chemist from Hastings who testified that on 3 April 1897, George Chapman purchased one ounce of tartar-emetic.33 Sir Edward Carson had explained to the jury, earlier, that the main ingredient of tartar-emetic was the irritant poison antimony. Tartar-emetic is a white powder which is easily soluble in water and causes vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, weight loss and often a burning sensation in the throat. One ounce of tartar-emetic would have contained at least 146 grains of antimony. The ingestion of two grains can be fatal, while ten to twelve grains would undoubtedly produce death.34 Mrs Spink’s body contained nearly four grains of antimony, Bessie Taylor’s contained over twenty-nine and Maud Marsh’s body contained just over twenty grains.35 The fact that Mrs Spink’s body had been in the ground for nearly five years would account for why so little antimony was found, but, in the words of prosecuting counsel, the other two bodies were ‘soaked’ in the poison.

  George Chapman in the dock. (Thomson’s Weekly News, 21 June, 1930)

  Another significant witness was Jessie Toon, who had been employed by Chapman to nurse Maud Marsh for the last twelve days of her life. She testified that Chapman had administered a liquid to Maud on a number of occasions, which he had prepared, always washing the container himself. Towards the end of Maud’s life, Chapman supplied all Maud’s drinking water in a jug and prepared all her food. Chapman told the nurse that it was a mixture of beef tea, egg and milk and he administered it to Maud through a syringe and rubber tube. Not surprisingly, Maud would vomit these preparations back and be in considerable pain. Again, Chapman washed all the feeding apparatus himself. She confirmed that Chapman was becoming very nervous about Mrs Marsh’s presence, advising Toon to be careful what she said to Maud’s mother and to report to him anything that Mrs Marsh said. Toon also described how, on the day of Maud’s death, Chapman gave the victim some brandy and water. On taking a sip Maud cried out, so Toon tasted it herself; she said it tasted as though there was a ‘foreign substance’ in it. She described how this liquid had burnt her lips and she had had to wash her mouth out. Mrs Marsh also testified that after drinking some brandy and soda, which had been given by Chapman, as she sat at her daughter’s bedside, she too was seized with violent stomach pains. Jessie Toon said that Chapman appeared to find this funny and told her, laughing, that ‘The old mother is bad now.’36

  In Mr Justice Grantham’s summing up, he launched a scathing attack on Dr Rogers’ competence, berated the three doctors called to give second opinions in the case of Bessie Taylor and expressed exasperation at the conduct of Dr Stoker. He paid tribute to Mr and Mrs Marsh, Maud’s parents, and said that if it had not been for their actions, the cause of the death of their daughter would not have been established and there could well have been more victims. Dr Grapel faired only a little better in this onslaught, when the judge said, ‘…this is the first time in all these long years that any intelligence has been brought in.’ However, he quite rightly attacked him for not communicating his (correct) diagnosis at once, or returning to the sickbed when there was not a moment to lose, and suggested that his visit had prompted Chapman to administer one more large and fatal dose. The judge was in his stride now and continued his attack on the doctors at Guys Hospital who failed to discover the cause of Maud’s illness, and failed to draw any conclusions when her condition improved whilst in the hospital, but deteriorated when she returned to The Crown.37 After reviewing the four days of evidence presented before the court, the judge asked the jury to retire and consider their verdict in the case of the murder of Maud Marsh. The jury retired at 5 p.m. and in ten minutes had returned with a verdict of ‘guilty’.38

  After his conviction, Chapman was removed to Wandsworth Prison where he was hung, still proclaiming his innocence, on the morning of 7 April 1903. He was thirty-eight years old.

  After Chapman’s conviction, the police reviewed the Jack the Ripper Murders of 1888. Certainly Abberline, from his retirement in Bournemouth, felt strongly that Chapman and the Ripper could be one and the same man and expressed his thoughts in an interview with the Pall Mall Gazette. So other than being a convicted killer, what evidence do we have?

  The exact date of Chapman’s arrival in London is not known. It has to be after March 1887 (his last payment to the Treasury of the Warsaw Society of Assistant Surgeons). At Chapman’s trial, Mrs Radin (wife of Abraham Radin) says that Klosowski (Chapman) worked for her husband for five months and during that time ‘her baby was ill and he helped her in the treatment of it.’39 That baby was Solomon Radin, born 26 May 1887.40 To describe a child as a ‘baby’, it is reasonable to assume that it is under one year old, giving a latest date of arrival as May 1888. We can now say, with confidence, that Chapman was in the East End of London at the time of the Whitechapel Murders.

  Chapman’s frequent change of job, and address, make it difficult to decide where he was living in the Autumn of 1888. From the evidence given during his trial and his marriage certificate of 1889, it seems his most likely address was No.126 Cable Street, St George’s-in-the-East. This is well within striking distance of all the Ripper murder sites.

  The date when Chapman and Lucy Baderski departed for America is hard to pin down. Their baby son had died in March 1891, and they appear on the census of the 5 April. At Chapman’s trial, Lucy Baderski’s sister testified that Lucy returned from America alone in February 1891, and another child was born on 12 May.41 This is, of course, at odds with the April 1891 census, which clearly showed that Chapman was present in the UK, and the birth certificate of that second child clearly shows that she was born on 15 May 1892.4
2 Therefore, given that this evidence was given some ten years later, I believe that Lucy’s sister was mistaken about the year and that Lucy’s return was indeed in February 1892. However, she did say that Chapman returned from America when the baby was two weeks old, therefore putting his return at the end of May 1892, which is consistent with him registering the baby’s birth himself on 20 June. On cross-examination, she said that the couple had departed for America at ‘Whitsuntide’.43 Therefore, I believe that Chapman was in America from late May/early June 1891 to late May 1892. A New York prostitute, Carrie Brown, was found murdered and mutilated in a Ripper-style killing, outside the run-down East River Hotel on 24 April 1891.An Algerian was convicted of her murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. However, this was widely believed to be an unsound conviction and he was released after eleven years. Many have said that this murder could have been the work of George Chapman, but the dates I have outlined above make this unlikely, though not out of the question. However, it would have meant that Chapman only had between 5 (date of the census) and 24 April to depart the UK, sail to New York, select a victim and carry out the murder – so I am inclined to rule out Carrie Brown as being a victim of George Chapman.

  The Hanging of George Chapman. (Illustrated Police News,18 April, 1903)

  However, as well as Chapman being in the locale at the time of the murders of the ‘Canonical 5’, the murder of Martha Tabram (7 August 1888) could well have occurred after Chapman’s arrival in London; and certainly the murders of Annie Farmer (20 November 1888), Rose Mylett (20 December 1888), Elizabeth Jackson (June 1889), Alice Mackenzie (17 July 1889), the Pinchin Street torso (September 1889) and Frances Coles (13 February 1891) occurred when Chapman was in the East End. No further victims have been suggested to have occurred after February 1891, which fits nicely with Chapman’s departure for New York around May/June 1891.