Annie Chapman - Wife, Mother, Victim: The Life & Death of a Victim of Jack The Ripper

by Covell, Mike

  The Daily Telegraph, a London based newspaper, featured the following, dated September 10th 1888,

  The first portion of this issue's reporting of Whitechapel murder is reproduced in “News from Whitechapel” pages 37 - 45. Immediately following that portion the Telegraph reported: Mrs. Fiddymont, wife of the proprietor of the Prince Albert public-house, at the corner of Brushfield and Stewart streets, half a mile from the scene of the murder, states that at seven o'clock yesterday morning she was standing in the bar talking with another woman, a friend, in the first compartment. Suddenly there came into the middle compartment a man whose rough appearance frightened her. He had on a brown stiff hat, a dark coat, and no waistcoat. He came in with his hat drawn over his eyes, his face being partly concealed, and he asked for “half a pint of four ale.” She drew the ale, and meanwhile looked at him through the mirror at the back of the bar. As soon as he saw the woman in the other compartment watching him he turned his back, and got the partition between himself and her. It struck Mrs. Fiddymont particularly that there were blood-spots on the back of his right hand. This fact, taken in connection with his appearance, caused her uneasiness. She also noticed that his shirt was torn. As soon as he had drunk the ale, which he swallowed at a gulp, he went out. Mrs. Mary Chappell, a friend, who lives at 28, Stewart-street, near by, corroborates Mrs. Fiddymont. When the man came in the expression of his eyes caught her attention, his look was so startling and terrifying. It frightened Mrs. Fiddymont so that she requested her to stay. The man wore a light-blue check shirt, which was torn badly, into rags in fact, on the right shoulder. There was a narrow streak of blood under his right ear, parallel with the edge of his shirt. There was also dried blood between the fingers of his hand. When he went out she slipped out the other door, and watched him as he went towards Bishopsgate-street. She called Joseph Taylor's attention to him, and Taylor followed him. Taylor is a builder, of 22, Stewart-street, and states that as soon as his attention was attracted to the man he followed him. He walked rapidly, and came alongside him, but did not speak to him. The man was rather thin, about 5 ft. 8 in. high, and apparently between forty and fifty years of age. He had a shabby-genteel look, wore pepper-and-salt trousers which fitted badly, and a dark coat. When Taylor came alongside him the man glanced at him, and Taylor's description of the look was, “His eyes were as wild as a hawk's.” The man walked holding his coat together at the top. He had a nervous and frightened way about him. He wore a ginger-coloured moustache and had short sandy hair. Taylor ceased to follow him, but watched him as far as Halfmoon-street. A number of sensational stories are altogether without corroboration, such, for instance, as the tale that writing was seen on the wall of No. 29: “I have now done three, and intend to do nine more and give myself up.” One version says some such threat as “Five - Fifteen more and I give myself up,” was written upon a piece of paper that was picked up. There has also been a good deal said about “Leather Apron,” a man who is known as a blackmailer of women. The police have some particulars of this man which it is not to the public interest to divulge, but it is stated that the description which has been published of him is misleading. He is reported to have been seen in various places, and in South London. So much has been said of “Leather Apron” that, when it became known that a leather apron had been discovered in the yard, the people immediately associated it with the supposed culprit. There were three aprons, in fact, and they belonged to workmen, who have no connection with the case. With regard to the bright farthings found on the deceased, a woman has stated that a man accosted her on Saturday morning and gave her two “half-sovereigns,” but that, when he became violent, she screamed and he ran off. She discovered afterwards that the “half-sovereigns” were two brass medals. It is said that this woman did accompany the man, who seemed as if he would kill her, to a house in Hanbury-street, possibly No. 29, at 2.30 a.m. On Saturday there were many exciting scenes in the neighbourhood; but yesterday, although occasion was taken to preach sermons upon the subject, and to deliver speeches condemnatory of the police, the perturbation had visibly calmed down. Inspectors Abberline and Helson are pursuing their inquiries, and measures have been taken narrowly to watch every street lest any fresh crime should be attempted. On Saturday a woman raised a cry against a man that he was the murderer, and he was thereupon pursued by a crowd. Fortunately the police were enabled to give him protection. The arrest of a man who had cut a woman in Spitalfields Market with a knife, also caused commotion, and led to the report that another murder had occurred. More than one person was detained on suspicion; one at Limehouse, another at Bethnal-green, and a third at Deptford, but in each case no tangible result followed. A crowd collected about the Commercial-street Police-station yesterday morning, but it is a customary pastime on Sunday mornings to watch for prisoners who are brought in. It is stated that the post-mortem examination has shown that a portion of the flesh is missing from the stomach. The inquest, which is to be opened this morning at the Working Lads' Institute, Whitechapel-road, will elicit the official facts as regards the condition of the body. At eight o'clock last night the Scotland-yard authorities had come to a definite conclusion as to the description of the murderer of two, at least, of the hapless women found dead at the East-end, and the following is the official telegram despatched to every station throughout the metropolis and suburbs: “Commercial-street, 8.20 p.m. - Description of a man wanted, who entered a passage of the house at which the murder was committed with a prostitute, at two a.m. the 8th. Aged thirty-seven, height 5 ft. 7 in., rather dark, beard and moustache; dress, short dark jacket, dark vest and trousers, black scarf and black felt hat; spoke with a foreign accent.” Terrible as is the story, told above, of the murder of Annie Chapman, it is made all the more painfully significant when considered in the light of recent records of capital crimes committed in the same locality. Within less than twelve months four women have been done to death, in streets adjacent to Whitechapel-road, in a manner which has left no room to doubt that resort has been had to foul play of the worst kind. It is a regrettable fact, worthy of the serious attention of residents in this vast metropolis, that vigilant as are the members of the police force, their numbers are not nearly sufficient to enable them, however wisely distributed, to afford a reasonably adequate “safe conduct” to that indefinite and indefinable factor, the “public.” The increase of the police establishment has been often advocated by responsible advisers, but the advice has been in the past, as it still is, regarded with indifference by the statesmen in charge of the exchequer. Notice has already been given that attention will again be called to the matter in the next session of Parliament, and it cannot be doubted that the shocking events which are now engrossing the minds of the people of London will lend a melancholy zest to any discussion that may be raised on the subject in the House of Commons. It is obvious, however, that no augmentation of the police force could supply absolute immunity from crimes of the astounding character recently perpetrated. Prevention is said to be better than cure, and what London seems to want is better means of guarding against crime and of bringing offenders, after detection, home to justice. The first of the series of murders was committed so far back as last Christmas, when the body of a woman was discovered with a stick or iron instrument thrust into her body as if she had been interred under the law until recently applicable to suicides, which required a person found guilty of felo de se to be buried at the four cross-roads with a stake driven through the chest. In this case the woman was never identified, and no particular sensation was caused, the death being generally assumed to be the result of a drunken freak on the part of the nameless ruffians who swarm about Whitechapel. The second noticeable tragedy occurred on Aug. 7 last, when a woman named Martha Turner, aged thirty-five, a hawker, was discovered lying dead on the first floor landing of some model dwellings known as George-yard-buildings, Commercial-street, Spitalfields. The body when found presented a shocking appearance, being covered with stab-wounds to the number of thirty-nine, some
of which appeared to have been caused by a bayonet. At the inquest reference was made to the similarity of this murder to that which had been perpetrated in the same locality at Christmas, and a verdict was returned of “Wilful murder against some person or persons unknown.” Scarcely had the emotion caused by this affair had time to abate when another discovery was made which, for the brutality exercised on the victim, was even more shocking. As Constable John Neil was walking down Buck's-row, Thomas-street, Whitechapel, about 3.45 a.m., on Aug 31, he discovered a woman, apparently between thirty-five and forty years of age, lying at the side of the street with her throat cut right open from ear to ear, the instrument with which the deed had been committed having apparently traversed the throat from left to right. The wound was an inch wide, and blood was flowing profusely. She was immediately conveyed to the Whitechapel mortuary, where it was found that besides the wound in the throat the lower part of the abdomen was completely ripped open, the bowels protruding. The wound extended nearly to the breast, and had evidently been effected with a large knife. Buck's-row, where the deceased was discovered, is described as a narrow passage, running out of Thomas-street, containing a dozen houses, said to be of a very low class. An inquest was opened on Tuesday last, when the body was identified as that of a Mrs. Nicholls, who had been separated from her husband for a period of eight years, and who had of late been leading a disreputable life. The inquiry stands adjourned until Monday next, and its future course will depend upon the statements which the police authorities may then be able to make. Meanwhile there is a general impression that all the outrages described, including that of Saturday, have been conceived and executed by one man, and he in all probability a maniac. With reference to the murder of Mrs. Nicholls in Buck's-row, her husband (Mr. W. Nicholls) writes in regard to a statement that at the funeral of the deceased he did not recognise his own son: “That is not so. He left home of his own accord two years and a half ago, and I have always been on speaking terms with him. Only two or three months ago I saw him, and last week received two letters from him asking me if I knew of any work for him. I did not leave my wife during her confinement and go away with a nurse-girl. The dead woman deserted me four or five times, if not six. The last time she left me without any home, and with five children, the youngest one year and four months. I kept myself with the children where I was living for two and a half years before I took on with anybody, and not till after it was proved at Lambeth Police-court that she had misconducted herself.” Just after eleven o'clock on Saturday morning a woman passing through the Spitalfields Market was suddenly attacked by a man, who, after felling her to the ground with a blow, began to kick her, and then pulled out a knife. Some women who had collected, having the terrible tragedy that brought them there still fresh in their minds, on seeing the knife raised piercing shrieks of “Murder!” that were heard by the enormous crowds in Hanbury-street. There was at once a rush for the market, as it was declared by some that the murderer had been caught. Seeing the immense crowd swarming around him, the man who was the cause of the alarm made furious efforts to reach the woman, from whom he had been separated by some persons who interfered on her behalf. He, however, threw them on one side, fell upon the woman, knife in hand, and inflicted several stabs on her head. When he was again pulled away the woman lay motionless, and the immense crowd took up the cry of “Murder!” and the people outside called “Lynch him!” At this juncture the police arrived, arrested the man, and after a while had the woman conveyed on a stretcher to the police-station in Commercial-street, where she was examined by the divisional surgeon. She was found to be suffering from several wounds, but none of them were considered dangerous. She was subsequently removed to the London Hospital, where she was detained as an in-patient. The affair occurred midway between Buck's-row and Hanbury-street, where the last two horrible murders have been committed.