The Big Book of Jack the Ripper

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The Big Book of Jack the Ripper Page 11

by The Big Book of Jack the Ripper (retail) (epub)


  There was on each side of cheek a cut which peeled up the skin, forming a triangular flap about an inch and a half.

  On the left cheek there were two abrasions of the epithelium…under the left ear.

  The throat was cut across to the extent of about six or seven inches. A superficial cut commenced about an inch and a half below the lobe below (and about two and a half inches below and behind) the left ear, and extended across the throat to about three inches below the lobe of right ear. The big muscle across the throat was divided through on the left side. The large vessels on the left side of the neck were severed. The larynx was severed below the vocal chord. All the deep structures were severed to the bone, the knife marking intervertebral cartilages. The sheath of the vessels on the right side was just opened. The carotid artery had a fine hole opening. The internal jugular vein was opened an inch and a half—not divided. The blood vessels contained clot. All these injuries were performed by a sharp instrument like a knife, and pointed.

  The cause of death was haemorrhage from the left common carotid artery. The death was immediate and the mutilations were inflicted after death.

  We examined the abdomen. The front walls were laid open from the breast bone to the pubes. The cut commenced opposite the ensiform cartilage. The incision went upwards, not penetrating the skin that was over the sternum. It then divided the ensiform cartilage. The knife must have cut obliquely at the expense of the front surface of that cartilage.

  Behind this, the liver was stabbed as if by the point of a sharp instrument. Below this was another incision into the liver of about two and a half inches, and below this the left lobe of the liver was slit through by a vertical cut. Two cuts were shewn by a jagging of the skin on the left side.

  The abdominal walls were divided in the middle line to within a quarter of an inch of the navel. The cut then took a horizontal course for two inches and a half towards right side. It then divided round the navel on the left side, and made a parallel incision to the former horizontal incision, leaving the navel on a tongue of skin. Attached to the navel was two and a half inches of the lower part of the rectus muscle on the left side of the abdomen. The incision then took an oblique direction to the right and was shelving. The incision went down the right side of the vagina and rectum for half an inch behind the rectum.

  There was a stab of about an inch on the left groin. This was done by a pointed instrument. Below this was a cut of three inches going through all tissues making a wound of the peritoneum [sic perineum] about the same extent.

  An inch below the crease of the thigh was a cut extending from the anterior spine of the ilium obliquely down the inner side of the left thigh and separating the left labium, forming a flap of skin up to the groin. The left rectus muscle was not detached.

  There was a flap of skin formed from the right thigh, attaching the right labium, and extending up to the spine of the ilium. The muscles on the right side inserted into the frontal ligaments were cut through.

  The skin was retracted through the whole of the cut in the abdomen, but the vessels were not clotted. Nor had there been any appreciable bleeding from the vessels. I draw the conclusion that the cut was made after death, and there would not be much blood on the murderer. The cut was made by someone on right side of body, kneeling below the middle of the body.

  I removed the content of the stomach and placed it in a jar for further examination. There seemed very little in it in the way of food or fluid, but from the cut end partly digested farinaceous food escaped.

  The intestines had been detached to a large extent from the mesentery. About two feet of the colon was cut away. The sigmoid flexure was invaginated into the rectum very tightly.

  Right kidney pale, bloodless, with slight congestion of the base of the pyramids.

  There was a cut from the upper part of the slit on the under surface of the liver to the left side, and another cut at right angles to this, which were about an inch and a half deep and two and a half inches long. Liver itself was healthy.

  The gall bladder contained bile. The pancreas was cut, but not through, on the left side of the spinal column. Three and a half inches of the lower border of the spleen by half an inch was attached only to the peritoneum.

  The peritoneal lining was cut through on the left side and the left kidney carefully taken out and removed. The left renal artery was cut through. I should say that someone who knew the position of the kidney must have done it.

  The lining membrane over the uterus was cut through. The womb was cut through horizontally, leaving a stump of three quarters of an inch. The rest of the womb had been taken away with some of the ligaments. The vagina and cervix of the womb was uninjured.

  The bladder was healthy and uninjured, and contained three or four ounces of water. There was a tongue-like cut through the anterior wall of the abdominal aorta. The other organs were healthy.

  There were no indications of connexion.

  I believe the wound in the throat was first inflicted. I believe she must have been lying on the ground.

  The wounds on the face and abdomen prove that they were inflicted by a sharp pointed knife, and that in the abdomen by one six inches long.

  I believe the perpetrator of the act must have had considerable knowledge of the positions of the organs in the abdominal cavity and the way of removing them. The parts removed would be of no use for any professional purpose. It required a great deal of medical knowledge to have removed the kidney and to know where it was placed. Such a knowledge might be possessed by some one in the habit of cutting up animals.

  I think the perpetrator of this act had sufficient time, or he would not have nicked the lower eyelids. It would take at least five minutes.

  I cannot assign any reason for the parts being taken away. I feel sure there was no struggle. I believe it was the act of one person.

  The throat had been so instantly severed that no noise could have been emitted. I should not expect much blood to have been found on the person who had inflicted these wounds. The wounds could not have been self-inflicted.

  My attention was called to the apron. It was the corner of the apron, with a string attached. The blood spots were of recent origin. I have seen the portion of an apron produced by Dr. Phillips and stated to have been found in Goulston Street. It is impossible to say it is human blood. I fitted the piece of apron which had a new piece of material on it which had evidently been sewn on to the piece I have, the seams of the borders of the two actually corresponding. Some blood and, apparently, faecal matter was found on the portion found in Goulston Street. I believe the wounds on the face to have been done to disfigure the corpse.

  Mary Jane Kelly

  We would have thought that the facts about Mary Jane Kelly’s death and mutilation were gruesome enough without further ornamentation. Alas, Ripperology attracts ghouls and romancers and only occasionally serious historians. Entrails, we have been assured, were festooned about the room like Christmas decorations and hung upon the pictures on the walls, Kelly was three months pregnant—and so on ad infinitum and ad nauseam.

  The scene in Miller’s Court was grotesque, but the gore was restricted to the bed, the wall beside it and the floor beneath it. For the rest, the room was no messier than a butcher’s shop, for the murderer had, as ever, most definitively killed before he started his work, slashing Kelly’s throat right down to the spinal column, which was notched by the blade. It appears, however, that he was not as humane as was his wont, and that, for a mere second at least, Kelly may have been aware of her impending doom, and raised her arms and the sheet over her head in self-defence. The injuries to the forearms, the chemise which Kelly was wearing (Bond believed that she was naked, but Phillips testified that she was wearing a linen chemise, which is borne out by the photographs), the cut and bloodied sheet, and the locked door of the room all suggest that she may have been asleep until seconds before her death. She had no time to struggle, however, but may have had time to shriek, “Murder!” as he
ard by Prater and Lewis.

  There were further mysteries in Kelly’s room. A fierce blaze in the fireplace had melted the solder on the kettle’s spout. Subsequent theorists have surmised that this may have happened on another occasion, but it seems highly improbable. The police and doctors at the time were convinced that the fire had been burning at the time of the murder, and it is improbable that the kettle would have been left on the hob without spout or handle. Inspector Abberline believed that the fire had been lit in order to provide light for the murderer’s work. It may be so, but there was still a length of unburned candle in the room which must surely have sufficed for a man who had thus far killed in shadow. Initially, the doctors believed that all the body parts were accounted for, but, on Saturday afternoon, Phillips and Dr. Roderick Macdonald returned to sift the ashes from the grate. We now know that the heart at least was missing, but we have no idea whether it was burned or taken away by the murderer. The only identifiable articles in the grate were remnants of women’s clothing, said by The Times to be a piece of burned velvet and the rim and wirework of a woman’s felt hat. Significantly, Walter Dew, who had often seen Kelly “parading” around the area, tells us that Kelly never wore a hat. This gives rise to the improbable supposition that the Ripper, anticipating Psycho, lulled his victims by dressing as a woman, and, having on this occasion lingered way into daylight, had to destroy his disguise. But, whatever his motives, clothing of natural fibres smoulders slowly, so what fuel did he use to generate such heat? After all, the kettle was designed to withstand heat, yet the solder had melted. There were two or three chairs in the room, two tables, one by the bedside, a washstand, and a print over the fireplace. The murderer had used none of these, nor did anyone record the increased heat, the light or the sound of a persistent blaze. Prater, who lived directly above, must have heard the fire in the chimney and felt the warmth which it generated. It seems more likely that this was a sudden intense blaze, generated by an inflammable material such as paraffin or alcohol.

  The sentimentality attached by now to the Ripper’s victims—and, perhaps, the discretion of the police who wished to persuade witnesses to testify—has obscured the nature of “McCarthy’s Rents,” as this set of Miller’s Court rooms were known. John McCarthy must have been aware that Prater and Kelly were “unfortunates,” and the fact that he was prepared to allow Kelly to fall nearly thirty shillings behind with the rent suggests that, informally at least, he might have been a “prosser” as well as a landlord, and able to recoup his money with ease.

  Dr. Bond’s autopsy report:

  Position of body

  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 head was turned on the left cheek. The left arm was close to the body with the forearm flexed at a right angle & lying across the abdomen. The right arm was slightly abducted from the body & rested on the mattress, the elbow bent & the forearm supine with the fingers clenched. The legs were wide apart, the left thigh at right angles to the trunk & the right forming an obtuse angle with the pubes.

  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 viz: the uterus & Kidneys with one breast under the head, the other breast by the Rt foot, the Liver between the feet, the intestines by the right side & the spleen by the left side of the body. The flaps removed from the abdomen and things were on a table.

  The bed clothing at the right corner was saturated with blood, & on the floor beneath was a pool of blood covering about 2 feet square. The wall by the right side of the bed & in a line with the neck was marked by blood which had struck it in a number of separate splashes.

  Postmortem examination

  The face was gashed in all directions, the nose, cheeks, eyebrows and 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 the features.

  The neck was cut through the skin & other tissues right down to the vertebrae the 5th & 6th being deeply notched. The skin cuts in the front of the neck showed distinct ecchymosis.

  The air passage was cut at the lower part of the larynx through the cricoid cartilage.

  Both breasts were removed by more or less circular incisions, the muscles down to the ribs being attached to the breasts. The intercostals between the 4th, 5th, & 6th ribs were cut through & the contents of the thorax visible through the openings.

  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.

  The left calf showed a long gash through skin & tissues to the deep muscles & reaching from the knee to 5 ins above the ankle.

  Both arms & forearms had extensive & jagged wounds.

  The right thumb showed a small superficial incision about 1 in long, with extravasation of blood in the skin & there were several abrasions on the back of the hand moreover showing the same condition.

  On opening the thorax it was found that the right lung was minimally adherent by old firm adhesions. The lower part of the lung was broken & torn away.

  The left lung was intact: it was adherent at the apex & there were a few adhesions over the side. In the substances of the lung were several nodules of consolidation.

  The Pericardium was open below & the Heart absent.

  In the abdominal cavity was some partly digested food of fish & potatoes & similar food was found in the remains of the stomach attached to the intestines.

  Subsequently, Bond wrote a report for Abberline on all five murders:

  I beg to report that I have read the notes of the four Whitechapel Murders, viz:

  1. Buck’s Row

  2. Hanbury Street

  3. Berner’s [sic] Street

  4. Mitre Square.

  I have also made a Post Mortem Examination of the mutilated remains of a woman found yesterday in a small room in Dorset Street—

  1. All five murders were no doubt committed by the same hand. In the first four the throats appear to have been cut from left to right. In the last case owing to the extensive mutilation it is impossible to say in what direction the fatal cut was made, but arterial blood was found on the wall in splashes close to where the woman’s head must have been lying.

  2. All the circumstances surrounding the murders lead me to form the opinion that the women must have been lying down when murdered and in every case the throat was first cut.

  3. In the four murders of which I have seen the notes only, I cannot form a very definite opinion as to the time that had elapsed between the murder and the discovering of the body. In one case, that of Berner’s [sic] Street, the discovery appears to have been made immediately after the deed—In Buck’s Row, Hanbury Street, and Mitre Square three or four hours only could have elapsed. In the Dorset Street Case the body was lying on the bed at the time of my visit, two o’clock, quite naked and mutilated as in the annexed report—

  Rigor Mortis had set in, but increased during the progress of the examination. From this it is difficult to say with any degree of certainty the exact time that had elapsed since death as the period varies from six to twelve hours before rigidity sets in. The body was comparatively cold at 2 o’clock and the remains of a recently taken meal were found in the stomach and scattered about over the intestines. It is, therefore, pretty certain that the woman must have been dead about twelve hours and the partly digested food would indicate that death took place about three or four hours after the food was taken, so 1 or 2 o’clock in the morning would be the prob
able time of the murder.

  4. In all the cases there appears to be no evidence of struggling and the attacks were probably so sudden and made in such a position that the women could neither resist nor cry out. In the Dorset Street case the corner of the sheet to the right of the woman’s head was much cut and saturated with blood, indicating that the face may have been covered with the sheet at the time of the attack.

  5. In the four first cases the murderer must have attacked from the right side of the victim. In the Dorset Street case, he must have attacked in front or from the left, as there would be no room for him between the wall and the part of the bed on which the woman was lying. Again, the blood had flowed down on the right side of the woman and spurted onto the wall.

  6. The murderer would not necessarily be splashed or deluged with blood, but his hands and arms must have been covered and parts of his clothing must certainly have been smeared with blood.

  7. The mutilations in each case excepting the Berner’s [sic] Street one were all of the same character and showed clearly that in all the murders the object was mutilation.

  8. 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.

  9. The instrument must have been a strong knife at least six inches long, very sharp, pointed at the top and about an inch in width. It may have been a clasp knife, a butcher’s knife, or a surgeon’s knife. I think it was no doubt a straight knife.

  10. The murderer must have been a man of physical strength and of great coolness and daring. There is no evidence that he had an accomplice. He must in my opinion be a man subject to periodical attacks of Homicidal and erotic mania. The character of the mutilations indicate that the man may be in a condition sexually that may be called satyriasis. It is of course possible that the Homicidal impulse may have developed from a revengeful or brooding condition of the mind, or that Religious Mania may have been the original disease, but I do not think either hypothesis is likely. The murderer in external appearance is quite likely to be a quiet inoffensive looking man probably middle-aged and neatly and respectably dressed. I think he must be in the habit of wearing a cloak or overcoat or he could hardly have escaped notice in the streets if the blood on his hands or clothes were visible.

 

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