by Ivor Edwards
From 1885 to 1888 she lived with Michael Kidney. Press reports relating to Kidney’s inquest testimony placed him as living in Dorset Street. Most authors have given his address as 33, Dorset Street. In a statement to the Central News Agency his address was down as 35, Devonshire Street, Commercial Road. In 1886 Stride applied for aid from the Swedish Church and gave her address as Devonshire Street.
What is known with certainty is that Stride was living at 32, Flower and Dean Street in September at the time of her murder. The coroner, in his summing up at the inquest, mentioned that she had stayed in Devonshire Street, Commercial Road, supporting herself by sewing and cleaning. She had stayed at 32, Flower and Dean Street at varying intervals since 1882. Long Liz, as she was known, spoke English without a Swedish accent.
On 29 September 1888, she was cleaning at 32, Flower and Dean Street. At 6.30pm she left for the Queen’s Head Pub, returning at 7.00pm. At 11.00pm two men, J. Best and John Gardner saw her in the Bricklayers Arms Pub in Settle Street. She was in the company of an Englishman, 5ft 5in tall with weak, sandy eyelashes and a black moustache, wearing a morning suit and a billycock (bowler) hat. The man with Stride was of ‘clerkly’ appearance and well dressed. This man was not her killer. Jack the Ripper would not wish to be seen in a public house with any victim prior to murdering them.
Best and Gardner began to lark about, saying to Stride, ‘That is Leather Apron getting around you.’ Leather Apron was the nickname for Ripper suspect John Pizer. The couple left the pub in the pouring rain after being jibed by Best and Gardner. They were seen walking down Settle Street towards Commercial Road in the direction of Berner Street.
Stride was next seen by William Marshal in Lower Berner Street at 11.45pm. This witness stated that he was standing in his doorway at No. 64 for 10 minutes around 11.45pm. He saw a lady he later identified as Stride on the pavement opposite No. 58 talking to a man. The man was 5ft 6in tall, stout, middle-aged, educated, decently dressed in a small black coat, dark trousers and a ‘peaked sailor’s cap’. His voice was mild and English; he was heard to say to Stride, ‘You would say anything but your prayers.’
The pair were then seen to walk in the direction of Matthew Packer’s shop at 44, Berner Street. The Evening News, 4 October, reported Packer selling fruit from his house and that Stride was in company with a man who stopped at his premises at 11.45pm. Packer stated that the man was 5ft 7in tall, wearing a wide-awake hat, dark clothes, a long black coat and that he had a sharp commanding manner being rather quick in speaking. He was of ‘clerkly’ appearance.
Packer’s statement (considered to be suspect by police) asserted that he sold the man half a pound of black grapes for 3d. The couple then crossed over the road opposite the International Working Men’s Educational Club and Dutfield’s Yard. According to Packer they stood there eating grapes for about half an hour.
The entrance to the yard was flanked by two gates, which stood open. Inside the entrance to Dutfield’s Yard a narrow court led to the printing offices of the Yiddish journal Der Arbeter Fraint. To the right of the court stood the club which was a two-storey building at 40, Berner Street. To the left of the court was No. 42 and, behind that, a row of cottages.
At 12.30am PC Smith saw Stride and a male companion standing on the spot where Packer alleged he saw Stride with a man. PC Smith had instructions to stop and question any male in company with a female after midnight. PC Smith chose to ignore this order. Why? Maybe he thought that the man with Stride looked too respectable to fit in with his idea of what Jack the Ripper looked like.
PC Smith stated that the man was 5ft 7in tall, aged about 28 and respectable looking. He was wearing dark clothes and a deerstalker hat. He later identified the woman as Stride. Joseph Lave, a printer visiting London from America, had temporary lodgings at the club. He came out of the club at 12.30am to get some fresh air. He passed into the street, remaining outside until 12.40am. He did not see anything unusual and all was quiet.
Mrs Fanny Mortimer who lived at 36, Berner Street, several houses from the crime scene, was standing in her doorway for 10 minutes between 12.30am and 1.00am. She neither saw nor heard anything to arouse her suspicions and all appeared normal until the body was found. However, she stated that she did see a young man carrying a black shiny bag, walking very fast down the street from Commercial Road. He looked up at the club, then went round the corner by the board school.
This man was Leon Goldstein of 22, Christian Street, a member of the International Working Men’s Club. After Mrs Mortimer had made her original statement, on the day of the murder, Goldstein went to Leman Street Police Station to eliminate himself from the enquiries. His black shiny bag contained nothing more than empty cigarette boxes. However, this incident, widely publicised, was partly responsible for the birth of yet another Ripper myth. This time it involved the fairy tale about Jack the Ripper carrying a black, shiny Gladstone bag.
At 12.45am James Brown saw Stride with a man in Fairclough Street. Stride had her back to the board school and was talking to a stout man, about 5ft 7in tall, wearing an overcoat that almost reached his heels. He had his arm on the wall as if to stop her from leaving. Brown heard her say, ‘No, not tonight, maybe some other night.’ Why did Stride turn down a client, if he was a client? Did she have more important business to attend to or was she just very wary of this character? About 15 minutes later Brown heard a cry of ‘Murder’ while indoors at No. 35, Fairclough Street.
Israel Schwartz, a resident of 22, Ellen Street, stated that he turned into Berner Street from Commercial Road at about 12.45am. The Star published an interview with Schwartz on 1 October 1888 which stated:
Information which may be important was given to the Leman Street police yesterday by an Hungarian concerning the murder. The foreigner was well dressed, and had the appearance of being in the theatrical line. He could not speak a word of English, but came to the police station accompanied by a friend, who acted as interpreter. He gave his name and address, but the police have not disclosed them. A Star man, however, got wind of his call and ran him to earth in Backchurch Lane. The reporter’s Hungarian was quite as imperfect as the foreigner’s English, but an interpreter was at hand, and the man’s story was retold just as he had given it to the police. It is to the effect that he saw the whole thing.
It seems that Schwartz had gone out for the day and his wife had expected to move, during his absence, from their lodgings in Berner Street to others in Backchurch Lane. When he first came homewards about 12.45am, he walked down Berner Street to see if his wife had moved. As he turned the corner from Commercial Road he noticed, some distance in front of him, a man walking as if partially intoxicated.
He walked on behind him and presently he noticed a woman standing in the entrance to the alleyway where the victim was later found. The half-tipsy man halted and spoke to her. Schwartz saw him put his hand on her shoulder and push her back into the passage, but feeling rather timid of getting mixed up in quarrels, he crossed to the other side of the street.
Before he had gone many yards, however, he heard the sound of a quarrel, and turned back to learn what was the matter, but just as he stepped from the kerb a second man came out of the doorway of a public house a few doors off and, shouting out some sort of warning to the man who was with the woman, rushed forward as if to attack the intruder. Schwartz stated positively that he saw a knife in the second man’s hand, but he waited to see no more. He fled incontinently to his new lodgings.
Schwartz gave information to police on 30 September 1888, taken down by Chief Inspector Swanson. This statement read:
12.45am. 30th. Israel Schwartz of 22, Helen Street, Backchurch Lane, stated that at this hour, on turning into Berner Street from Commercial Street (sic Road), and having got as far as the gateway where the murder was committed, he saw a man stop and speak to a woman, who was standing in the gateway. The man tried to pull the woman into the street, but he turned her round and threw her down on the footway and the woman screamed three
times, but not very loudly. On crossing to the opposite side of the street, he saw a second man standing lighting his pipe.
The man who threw the woman down called out, apparently to the man on the opposite side of the road, ‘Lipski,’ and then Schwartz walked away, but finding that he was followed by the second man, he ran so far as the railway arch, but the man did not follow so far. Schwartz cannot say whether the two men were together or were known to each other.
Israel Lipski (1865-88) was an alleged murderer whose name was used in 1888 as an anti-Semitic insult. He lodged at 16, Batty Street (adjacent to Berner Street) and worked as an umbrella-maker. During June 1887 he was alleged to have poisoned Miriam Angel, a fellow lodger. He was hanged in 1888.
Below is a reconstruction of the situation in Berner Street as it appeared just prior to the murder of Elizabeth Stride. One suspect is lurking in the doorway of the Nelson Beer Shop. The attacker has thrown Stride to the ground. Schwartz has turned to view the scene
Chief Inspector Donald S. Swanson sent a report to the Home Office dated 19 October 1888, in which he stated: I respectfully submit it is not clearly proved that the man that Schwartz saw is the murderer.
Because the witness Schwartz was at hand when Stride was attacked the events which took place should be simple to clarify. However, Schwartz’s contradictory statements, one to the press and the other to the police, further confuse the issue because they differ in content on several crucial points.
The press report stated that the suspect tried to push Stride into the passage
The police report stated that the suspect tried to pull her into the street and then threw her down on the pavement
The press report does not mention any screaming from the victim
The police report stated Stride ‘screamed three times but not very loudly’
The press report stated that the man in the doorway shouted a warning to the man who was seen to attack Stride
The police report stated that the attacker who threw the woman down called out, ‘Lipski’, apparently to the man on the opposite side of the road
The press report stated that the second man had a knife in his hand
Perhaps the man in the doorway initially stood lighting a pipe. After the attack on Stride commenced he may well have produced a knife, going for Schwartz simply to scare him away from the scene before dealing with the attacker and scaring him away. He is then alone with Stride and she is at his mercy.
The police report stated that the second man stood lighting a pipe.
The Attacker: Age 30, 5ft 5in, complexion fair, dark hair, small brown moustache, full face, wearing a dark jacket and trousers and a black cap with a peak.
The man in the doorway: Age 35, 5ft 11in, complexion fresh, hair light brown, dark overcoat, old black hard felt hat with a wide brim.
We can be certain that it has been incorrectly assumed that the killer was disturbed by Diemschutz at 1.00am and that the former left the scene (going in search of another victim to satisfy his bloodlust!) when the latter went into the club. Diemschutz did not see anyone apart from the victim, neither did he hear anyone and Jack the Ripper did not rush around killing on sheer speculation due to bloodlust.
Two reasons are given for such an ill-founded conclusion. The first being that the horse shied (implying that the killer was present) and refused to move! Many animals will react on coming into contact with a bloody corpse. Horses especially can be very sensitive and highly strung. The second was that the victim was not mutilated. No one can state with any degree of certainty that the killer ever intended to mutilate Stride. The killer may have planned well in advance that he was to kill two victims on 30 September 1888.
If Diemschutz had indeed found Stride at 1.00am then she had been dead for some minutes and the killer was long gone. It is not correct that Stride was attacked by her killer at 12.45am and that he was disturbed by Diemschutz at 1.00am before he had time to mutilate her, yet this is what we are asked to believe.
Let us assume for argument’s sake that Diemschutz had found the body at about 12.53am and he poked about in the yard and calmed down his pony. He then went to check on his wife in the club. At this point someone went upstairs to alert the club members. Diemschutz then returned to the yard. A minute or so must have elapsed by this time making it 12.55am.
Common sense dictates that the killer’s plan was compromised by Schwartz and the attacker. It certainly wasn’t due to Diemschutz, who arrived later. This meant that the killer could not stay on the scene knowing that Schwartz could be back at any moment with help. Therefore, the killer only had enough time to render Stride unconscious before he cut her throat. He would then have left the scene right away even if it were his original intention to mutilate Stride.
Mr Diemschutz discovering the body of Stride lying just inside the entrance to Dutfield’s Yard. Note how the press has put Stride as victim No. 5 and not, correctly, as victim No. 3
More factual reasons exist which can explain why Stride was not mutilated. Berner Street was the most dangerous site of all for the killer. People were coming and going to and from the club during the early hours. One only needs to view all the witness statements to realise the truly precarious nature of the murder site chosen. In fact, events proved this.
To spend time mutilating a victim at Dutfield’s Yard would be to court trouble and risk detection. Jack may well have planned to kill another victim in Mitre Square within the hour. He knew that he could perform any mutilations on that victim if not on Stride. Occult ritual murder dictates that ritual mutilations of the dead can be performed on the next victim if they cannot be performed on the previous one.
Joseph Lave stated at the inquest that he was in the immediate area of Dutfield’s Yard from 12.30am to 12.40am. Stride was not to be seen in the yard or at the entrance to it at 12.40am. Furthermore, Dr William Blackwell arrived on the scene at precisely 1.16am and he stated that the victim had been dead no longer than 20 minutes, at most 30 minutes. This would put the time of death at between 12.46am and 12.56am which is in keeping with the known facts and the realms of reality.
James Brown, of 35, Fairclough Street, stated that he saw Stride in Fairclough Street talking to a man at 12.45am. Lave, Brown, Blackwell and others enforce my belief that Israel Schwartz and Louis Diemschutz got their times wrong. Was the man in the long coat seen by Brown at 12.45am the same man that Schwartz saw wearing a long coat lurking in the pub doorway? There is far more evidence pointing towards Stride being dead by 12.55am than there is to suggest that the killer was disturbed on the job at 1.00am by Diemschutz.
Further evidence that Diemschutz was wrong in his time of 1.00am can be found in the statement made by Morris Eagle at the inquest on Stride. Morris gave evidence to the effect that he left the club to walk his girlfriend home. He returned to the club at 12.35am. At 12.55am members upstairs in the club were alerted to the fact that a dead woman was found in the yard.
The Times, 2 October 1888, reported that Eagle returned to the club at 12.35am and had passed along the alleyway, where Stride’s body was found, and had seen no sign of a body at the time. He had been in the club for 20 minutes when a member reported a dead woman lying in the yard.
The Guardian, 1 October 1888, reported the same story and added that on his return to the club there were plenty of people about, both men and women. The front door of the club was closed when he returned so the only access to the club was through the alleyway where the body was found. He saw nothing amiss. He was in the club for 20 minutes when the steward named Gilleman raised the alarm. The steward of the club was in fact Diemschutz.
The Weekly Herald, 2 October 1888, carried the story that at 12.55am a passer-by named Joseph Koster was accosted by a little boy who came running up to him as he was passing on the opposite side of the road to the yard and told him that a woman was lying on her side in the gateway leading into Dutfield’s Yard.
While certain newspaper stories differ on several points all appear to
agree on the fact that Stride was found at around 12.55am. The Times of Tuesday, 2 October 1888 gave the inquest evidence of Diemschutz after finding the body. He went into the club and saw his wife in the front room on the ground floor. He told his wife, and several members who were in the room, that a woman was lying in the yard, but that he was unable to say whether she was drunk or dead.
He then got a candle and went into the yard. He saw blood but did not touch the body, and went at once to fetch the police. It makes no mention that Diemschutz went upstairs to alert club members.
Caution is required when dealing with Packer, the shopkeeper. Police made house-to-house enquiries on Sunday, 30 September, the day of the murder. Sergeant Stephen White of H Division was the first detective to interview Packer. White in company with another officer called at Packer’s address at 44, Berner Street at 9.00am on 30 September.
Packer informed White that he had closed up his shop at half past twelve, due to the wet weather being bad for business. He informed the detectives that he saw no one standing about the street neither did he see anyone go up the yard. He saw nothing suspicious nor heard the slightest noise.
Two days later on Tuesday two private detectives, Grand and Batchelor, employed by the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee interviewed Packer. On 4 October Grand and Batchelor took Packer to identify Stride at the mortuary in St George’s-in-the-East. They then took him to meet with Warren in person, whereupon Warren took a statement from Packer.
This involved Packer’s story about selling grapes to a suspect who was in company with Stride. The statement he made to Sir Charles Warren differs by a time period of one hour when compared to events which took place in his other statements. He was inconsistent with the age of the suspect. Packer stated that the suspect was middle-aged, then between 30 and 35, changing it again to between 25 and 30.