Crimes of Jack the Ripper
Page 20
Of the nine victims nominally credited to the Ripper, he probably killed only three, maybe four, the others being attributable to endemic street crime and perhaps even a copycat killer anxious for notoriety. Had it not been for an enterprising but irresponsible journalist who sent a series of hoax letters to the Central News Agency signed ‘Jack the Ripper’, the Whitechapel murderer would be no more than a postscript in the chronicle of crime filed away under the anonymity of his original nickname, ‘the knife’. As it is, the real murderer remains anonymous to this day despite attempts by professional criminologists and amateur armchair detectives alike to put a face to the fiend who held London in fear during the ‘Autumn of Terror’.
The simple fact is that no one knows the identity of Jack the Ripper, not even those who investigated the case at the time, and the chances are that we will probably never learn the truth.
It is entirely possible that Jack the Ripper as we envisage him never existed but was a composite created by the press who knew that one lone psychopath makes a better story than several insignificant individuals who happen to be operating within the same locality. A guardsman is the most likely killer of Martha Tabram, Michael Kidney probably murdered Elizabeth Stride, Joseph Barnett may have killed Mary Kelly and Jacob Levy very likely accounted for Nichols, Chapman and Eddowes.
Nevertheless the man the press tagged Jack the Ripper continues to hold a grim fascination for successive generations because he remains in the shadows and as such can be whoever we want him to be. He is the one that got away, the bogeyman of our nightmares and the central figure in the most tantalizing whodunnit in the history of crime.
THE WHITECHAPEL MURDERS – SIGNIFICANT EVENTS
1887
26 December ‘Fairy Fay’ found dead near Commercial Street.
1888
25 February Annie Millwood survives stabbing with a clasp knife.
28 March Ada Wilson survives serious neck wounds after stabbing.
5 April Emma Smith dies in the London Hospital from peritonitis after attack by three men.
7 August Martha Tabram found murdered in George Yard Buildings.
31 August Polly Nichols killed in Bucks Row; Robert Anderson appointed Assistant Commissioner for Crime; Donald Swanson charged with investigating Whitechapel murders.
1 September Mrs Colwell claims to have discovered blood in Brady Street, indicating that Nichols might have been killed elsewhere.
4 September ‘Leather Apron’ named as suspect by press.
6 September Polly Nichols interred at Little Ilford Cemetery.
7 September John Pizer named as ‘Leather Apron’ by police.
8 September Annie Chapman killed in Hanbury Street; Henry James spotted outside the Forrester’s Arms with a large knife; Mrs Fiddymout reports seeing a bloodstained man in the Prince Albert pub who is later identified as Jacob Isenschmid. Isenschmid is taken into custody and accused by Dr Cowan and Dr Crabb of being the Ripper.
10 September John Pizer arrested and accused of being ‘Leather Apron’.
13 September Edward McKenna is arrested in connection with the Ripper murders, but is released soon after.
14 September Annie Chapman is laid to rest at Manor Park Cemetery.
17 September Isenschmid is committed to Fairfield Row Asylum, Bow, but the killings continue.
18 September Charles Ludwig is arrested after threatening two women with a knife.
19 September At the inquest into the murder of Annie Chapman, Dr Phillips raises the possibility that her uterus might have been removed for sale to a medical student who had expressed interest in obtaining specimens.
27 September Prince Albert Victor leaves for Scotland; the ‘Dear Boss’ letter is received at the Central News Agency, the first mention of the name ‘Jack the Ripper’.
30 September Elizabeth Stride murdered at 1am in Berner Street; Catherine Eddowes murdered approximately 45 minutes later at Mitre Square. ‘The Juwes’ graffiti discovered at Goulston Street but erased under orders from Sir Charles Warren. Prince Albert Victor seen in the company of Queen Victoria in Abergeldie, Scotland.
1 October The Daily News publishes the ‘Dear Boss’ letter and the myth of ‘Jack the Ripper’ is created. Thomas Coram discovers a bloodstained knife in Whitechapel Road; the
Lord Mayor of London offers £500 reward for the apprehension of the killer; Queen Victoria telephones the Home Office to express her shock at the murders and urge the authorities to intensify their efforts to apprehend him. The ‘Saucy Jack’ postcard is received at the Central News Agency and is published in that evening’s edition of the Star. A deluge of hoax letters follows.
2 October Queen Victoria’s psychic Robert James Lees offers to identify the perpetrator but is dismissed out of hand as a crank.
3 October Woman’s dismembered remains discovered in Whitehall.
4 October Lees repeats his offer to assist Scotland Yard and is again rejected.
6 October Elizabeth Stride is buried at East London Cemetery.
8 October Catherine Eddowes interred at Little Ilford.
16 October George Lusk of the East End Vigilance Committee takes delivery of a package containing half a female kidney and the ‘From Hell’ letter.
7 November Francis Tumblety is arrested for gross indecency but is later released.
9 November Mary Kelly is killed in Miller’s Court. Sir Charles Warren resigns.
12 November Police are given a detailed description of suspect seen with Mary Kelly by witness George Hutchinson.
13 November Edward Larkins informs on Antoni Pricha, who fitted description given by Hutchinson.
19 November Edward Buchan commits suicide but is not named at the time as having been a Ripper suspect. Mary Kelly is buried at Leytonstone Roman Catholic Cemetery.
20 November Annie Farmer attacked, but was it by the Ripper?
24 November Francis Tumblety escapes justice by fleeing to the USA.
30 November Montague Druitt dismissed from his position at a school in Blackheath.
1 December Inspector Walter Andrews ordered to New York to investigate an unnamed suspect.
6 December Joseph Isaacs accused by the press of being the Ripper, arrested but charged only with theft.
7 December David Cohen (aka Nathan Kaminski?) arrested and subsequently confined in Colney Hatch Asylum.
20 December Rose Mylett killed in Clarke’s Yard.
31 December Montague Druitt’s body recovered from
the Thames.
1889
March Whitechapel Vigilance Committee said to have been informed by police that the Whitechapel murderer had drowned in the Thames.
24 April William Henry Bury hanged in Dundee for murdering his wife.
1 June Sir Melville Macnaghten arrives at Scotland Yard in the capacity of Assistant Chief Constable. Dismembered remains of Elizabeth Jackson recovered from the Thames over several dates in mid-June.
17 July Alice McKenzie killed in Castle Alley.
25 July Another ‘Dear Boss’ letter delivered to Scotland Yard, signed ‘Jack the Ripper’.
10 September Torso discovered at Pinchin Street.
20 October David Cohen dies in Colney Hatch Asylum.
1891
7 February Aaron Kosminski admitted to Colney Hatch Asylum.
13 February Frances Coles murdered in Swallow Gardens.
1892
14 January Prince Albert Victor dies; official cause of death – influenza.
1894
23 February Sir Melville Macnaghten writes his memorandum naming main Ripper suspects.
1895
25 April The Chicago Sunday Times-Herald publishes Robert James Lees’ claim to have tracked and identified the Ripper.
6 June Pathologist Dr Thomas Bond, who was involved in the examinations of Mary Kelly, Alice McKenzie and Rose Mylett, commits suicide after suffering a long, painful illness and bouts of depression.
1901
Robert Anderson r
etires and announces that the Ripper’s identity was known.
1902
Norwegian Ripper suspect Fogelma dies in an American asylum.
1903
John Netley, coachman to Sir William Gull, allegedly falls under the wheels of his own carriage and is killed (date unknown).
7 April George Chapman (aka Severin Klosowski) is hanged.
1907
Sir Robert Anderson publishes Criminals and Crime, in which he reasserts that the Ripper’s identity was known.
1913
23 September Chief Inspector Littlechild writes the ‘Littlechild Letter’, naming Tumblety as a prime suspect.