by Paul Begg
A few weeks after John’s funeral, Elizabeth appeared before Thames Magistrates Court on a charge of being drunk and disorderly and soliciting, for which she received seven days’ hard labour.5 In 1885, she began a stormy relationship with Michael Kidney, a waterside labourer seven years her junior, and together they took up lodgings in Devonshire Road, off Commercial Road. The couple separated frequently, and occasionally Elizabeth would absent herself for days at a time – in the three years they were together, Kidney reckoned they had been apart for a total of five months, and that it was abuse of alcohol that caused the separations.6 There were also suggestions of violence on Kidney’s part, for on 6 April 1887 Elizabeth accused him of assault, only for the case to be thrown out when she failed to turn up at the Magistrates Court. In all fairness, there is little to suggest that Kidney was physically abusive. However their chaotic lives do appear to have been fuelled by alcohol: Kidney himself was sentenced to three days’ hard labour for being drunk and disorderly and using obscene language in July 1888. Elizabeth was also no stranger to the Magistrates Courts during 1887–8, appearing no fewer than seven times for numerous drink and disorder misdemeanours. Financially, things must also have been hard, for she also petitioned twice for monetary assistance from the Swedish church.7
The last time Kidney saw Elizabeth was on Tuesday 25 September 1888 in Commercial Street. She was sober, and the couple parted on good terms, Kidney assuming they would reunite a little later. However, it was not to be.8
Elizabeth returned to 32 Flower and Dean Street, and during the next few days Dr Thomas Barnardo visited the lodging house. The women there complained bitterly of their plight and the threat from the murderer, one exclaiming, ‘We’re all up to no good, and no one cares what becomes of us. Perhaps some of us will be killed next! If anyone had helped the likes of us long ago we would never have come to this.’9 Dr Barnardo later confirmed that one of the women assembled was Elizabeth Stride. She was present at the lodging house on Saturday 29 September and that afternoon earned herself sixpence for cleaning two rooms, paid by Elizabeth Tanner, the deputy, who knew Elizabeth as ‘Long Liz’. Subsequently, both spent some time in the Queen’s Head public house at the corner of Commercial Street and Fashion Street before returning to no. 32, where they parted company.10
Fellow lodger Charles Preston saw Elizabeth between 6.00 and 7.00 that evening in the kitchen of the lodging house, where he claimed she was ‘dressed ready to go out’, and she asked him for the loan of a clothes brush. She was wearing a black jacket trimmed with fur and a coloured silk handkerchief round her neck. He was not told where she was going that evening or what time she would be returning. Catherine Lane was also present, and Elizabeth asked her to look after a piece of velvet while she was away; both Preston and Lane concurred that Elizabeth was sober when she left.11
Shortly before 11.00 p.m., John Gardner and J. Best12 entered the Bricklayer’s Arms at the corner of Fordham Street and Settles Street. As they did so a man and a woman left the pub, having already been served, and, owing to the heavy rain, the couple stood in the shelter of the doorway. The man was of English appearance and respectably dressed in a black morning suit with a morning coat. He appeared to have no eyelashes but was sporting a thick black moustache. He wore a rather tall black billycock hat and had on a collar. The woman, on the other hand, was poorly dressed, with a flower in her jacket, and the fact that the couple hugged and kissed came as some surprise to Best, judging by their outward differences. The two men offered them a drink and suggested that the man treat his woman companion and when they refused said, ‘That’s Leather Apron getting round you,’ at which point, perhaps tired of the two labourers’ jibing, the couple departed ‘like a shot’.13 They later identified the woman as Elizabeth Stride.
Berner Street was a long but narrow thoroughfare leading from Commercial Road southwards to Ellen Street in the parish of St George-in-the-East. In 1888 Berner Street contained a variety of buildings, most notably a row of houses on the east side, broken by Sander Street and Dutfield’s Yard, which formed a passage between nos. 40 and 42. No. 40 was the International Working Men’s Educational Club, patronized mostly by Jewish workers, a place for socialist political meetings and with a printing works at the rear, the offices of Der Arbeter Fraint (Worker’s Friend), a radical Yiddish newspaper. Opposite was a board school, and at no. 46, on the corner with Fairclough Street, was the Nelson beer house. At 11.45 p.m. William Marshall, a resident of no. 64 Berner Street, was standing at the door of his house and observed a couple standing a few doors away on the opposite side of the road. They were kissing, so Marshall could not see the man’s face clearly, but he was able to note other particulars – he was middle-aged and stout, about 5 feet 6 inches tall, respectably dressed in a small black cut-away coat and dark trousers. He was wearing a small peaked cap, ‘something like a sailor would wear’. All in all, he had the appearance of a clerk. The woman was wearing a black jacket and skirt and a black crape bonnet, but Marshall did not notice if there was a flower pinned to her jacket. Just before the couple walked on, the man was heard to say, ‘You will say anything but your prayers.’14
Matthew Packer, a greengrocer who served from the front window of his home at 44 Berner Street, told police that he had seen nothing unusual that night and had locked up his shop early as trade was slack owing to the heavy rain that had developed by that time. Unfortunately, Packer was approached again twice about that night and on both occasions changed his story, to the effect that he had seen Elizabeth Stride with a man who bought grapes from his shop. His description appeared to fit others that had already been published, leading Donald Swanson, in his official report of 19 October, to declare:
Packer, who is an elderly man, has unfortunately made different statements so that apart from the fact of the hour at which he saw the woman (and she was seen afterwards by the P. C. and Schwartz as stated) any statement he made would be rendered almost valueless as evidence.15
Dr George Bagster Phillips, who was called upon to perform the post-mortem, noted that there was no trace of grapes – pips, skin or otherwise – in Elizabeth’s stomach, a fact which served to give Matthew Packer even less credibility as a witness. The presence of a grape stalk in Dutfield’s Yard had been widely reported after the event, with some press reports even stating that Elizabeth was found holding some grapes in her hand when she was discovered.16 However, the story was soon refuted as, according to those actually there, there was no such thing.
The officer mentioned in Swanson’s report was PC William Smith, who, at 12.30 a.m. on 30 September, saw a man and a woman (whom he later felt certain was Elizabeth Stride) standing on the pavement a few yards up Berner Street, on the opposite side to Dutfield’s Yard. He described the man as being about twenty-eight years of age, 5 feet 7 inches tall, wearing a dark overcoat and trousers. He also wore a hard felt deerstalker hat and was described as ‘respectable’ looking. The man was also holding a newspaper parcel, about eighteen inches in length and six or eight inches wide. He also noticed that the woman had a flower in her jacket. PC Smith heard no conversation, and as the couple appeared sober and were not acting in a suspicious manner, he continued his beat along Berner Street towards Commercial Road.17 Fifteen minutes later, James Brown, a dock labourer on his way to a chandler’s shop, saw a woman with a man in Fairclough Street. The woman had her back to the wall of the board school, facing the man, who had his arm up against it. Brown heard the woman say, ‘No, not tonight, some other night,’ which is what attracted his attention. There was no trace of an accent in the woman’s voice. Brown said the man was about 5 feet 7 inches tall and stoutly built, wearing a long overcoat which went down almost to his heels. He was wearing a hat, but Brown was unable to describe it. It was quite dark, so he could not tell if the woman was wearing a flower on her jacket, but both appeared sober.18
Curiously, the reliability of Brown’s sighting – in terms of timing at least – could be called into question by a remarkab
le incident that also took place at 12.45 a.m. Israel Schwartz, on his way home to Ellen Street, was passing along the western side of Berner Street, having come from Commercial Road. By the entrance to Dutfield’s Yard he had a most curious and alarming experience. Donald Swanson’s official report takes up Schwartz’s story:
he saw a man stop and speak to a woman, who was standing in the gateway. He 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 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 as far as the railway arch, but the man did not follow so far. Schwartz cannot say whether the two men were together or known to each other.
He thus describes the first man, who threw the woman down:– age, about 30; ht, 5 ft 5 in; comp., fair; hair, dark; small brown moustache, full face, broad shouldered; dress, dark jacket and trousers, black cap with peak, and nothing in his hands.
Second man: age, 35; ht., 5 ft 11 in; comp., fresh; hair, light brown; dress, dark overcoat, old black hard felt hat, wide brim; had a clay pipe in his hand.19
‘Lipski’ was a direct reference to the notorious case of Israel Lipski, convicted of the murder of Miriam Angel at 16 Batty Street in 1887 and who was hanged at Newgate for the crime. Since then the word had been used ‘by persons as mere ejaculation by way of endeavouring to insult the Jew to whom it has been addressed’.20 Schwartz, a young Hungarian immigrant, was of decidedly Jewish appearance. The Star was the only newspaper to cover the incident in any depth, interviewing Schwartz with the aid of an interpreter. Their report21 added other details, some of which contradicted the original statement, despite the basic story being essentially the same. Schwartz described the attacker as intoxicated in the Star interview. In the police statement, he tried to pull the woman from the passage, whereas in the Star, he tried to push her into the passage. In the Star interview, it was the second man (not the attacker) who yelled ‘a warning’ (as opposed to ‘Lipski!’ in the police statement). In the interview, the second man had a red moustache, but no mention of this is made in Swanson’s report. And, significantly, the Star stated that the second man was holding a knife, not a pipe.
Another intriguing press account came in the form of Fanny Mortimer, a resident of 36 Berner Street, a mere two doors down from Dutfield’s Yard. She stated that she was standing at her door for much of the time between 12.30 and 1.00 that morning. She heard no noise and the only person she saw was a man holding a black bag who walked along Berner Street, looking up at the club as he passed, before turning the corner by the school.22 Moments after going back into her house, she claimed she heard a commotion from the working men’s club. Mrs Mortimer’s account flies in the face of testimony from PC Smith and Israel Schwartz – it raises questions regarding the accuracy of her timekeeping and the duration of her stay at the door. She did see a man with a black bag, a man who was a member of the International Working Men’s Educational Club named Leon Goldstein and who had been encouraged to come forward after the sighting was made public.23 The commotion she heard from the club was not ‘another row’, as she described it, but the activity surrounding the discovery of a dead woman in Dutfield’s Yard.
It was the steward of the club, Louis Diemschitz, who found the body of Elizabeth Stride in the yard at 1.00 a.m. As would be normal after a long day’s work (Diemschitz was a market trader who that day had been working in Sydenham), he was driving his pony and cart into Dutfield’s Yard with the purpose of dropping off some unsold goods before stabling the pony in George Yard, Cable Street. On this occasion the pony stopped at the entrance and pulled to one side. Diemschitz could see something in the way and prodded it with his crop before getting off the cart and striking a match to get a better view in the dark. Before the wind blew the match out, he could see a woman lying on the ground. Initially worried that it was his wife, he went into the club and, finding her safe and well, went back into the yard with Morris Eagle and Isaac Kozebrodsky, at which time he wasn’t sure if the woman was dead. By the light of a candle, the men could see blood on the cobbles near the body. Without touching anything, the men went out into Berner Street and separated, looking for the police. Diemschitz and Kozebrodsky, running towards Fairclough Street and beyond, encountered only Edward Spooner, but Eagle, going north into Commercial Road found PCs Henry Lamb and Henry Collins, who accompanied him back to Dutfield’s Yard.
PC Collins was sent to fetch Dr Frederick Blackwell from his surgery at 100 Commercial Road, but, as he was still in bed, Blackwell’s assistant Edward Johnson went to Berner Street first. PC Lamb sent Morris Eagle to fetch an inspector from Leman Street police station and examined the body, noting there was no pulse and that the face was quite warm. As he did so, people began to enter Dutfield’s Yard, but he told them to keep back, eventually closing the gates to the yard assisted by Edward Spooner, who had followed Diemschitz and Kozebrodsky back to the scene. A constable was put on the gate, allowing nobody to leave or enter, and PC Lamb made an examination of Dutfield’s Yard and the club building. In the club, he checked the hands of attendants for bloodstains.24 Edward Johnson made initial observations on the body before Dr Blackwell arrived at 1.16 a.m. He observed that
The deceased was lying on her left side obliquely across the passage, her face looking towards the right wall. Her legs were drawn up, her feet close against the wall of the right side of the passage. Her head was resting beyond the carriage-wheel rut, the neck lying over the rut. Her feet were three yards from the gateway. Her dress was unfastened at the neck. The neck and chest were quite warm, as were also the legs, and the face was slightly warm. The hands were cold. The right hand was open and on the chest, and was smeared with blood. The left hand, lying on the ground, was partially closed, and contained a small packet of cachous wrapped in tissue paper. There were no rings, nor marks of rings, on her hands. The appearance of the face was quite placid. The mouth was slightly open. The deceased had round her neck a check silk scarf, the bow of which was turned to the left and pulled very tight. In the neck there was a long incision which exactly corresponded with the lower border of the scarf. The border was slightly frayed, as if by a sharp knife. The incision in the neck commenced on the left side, 2 inches below the angle of the jaw, and almost in a direct line with it, nearly severing the vessels on that side, cutting the windpipe completely in two, and terminating on the opposite side 1 inch below the angle of the right jaw, but without severing the vessels on that side. I could not ascertain whether the bloody hand had been moved. The blood was running down the gutter into the drain in the opposite direction from the feet. There was about 1lb of clotted blood close by the body, and a stream all the way from there to the back door of the club. 25
More police officers arrived at the scene, as did Dr George Bagster Phillips. It was not until 4.30 a.m. that the body of Elizabeth Stride was removed to the nearest mortuary, a small brick building within the grounds of St George-in-the-East church at the junction of Cannon Street Road and Cable Street. Within the hour, PC Collins had washed the blood away from the yard. But by this time news was rapidly circulating that another murder had taken place, this time within the bounds of the City of London.
6.
‘Good night, old cock’
At 1.30 a.m., City Police Constable Edward Watkins entered Mitre Square from Mitre Street, something he had done several times since commencing his beat at 10.00 the previous night and, with his lantern turned on and attached to his belt, he examined the various corners and passages. Mitre Square was surrounded mostly by tall warehouses, and there were also two dwelling houses in the north-east side, one of which was unoccupied. Other than the entrance from Mitre Street, the small covered St James’s Passage gave access to St James’s Place (also known as ‘the Ora
nge Market’) and on the opposite corner, narrow Church Passage ran to Duke Street. The south-east corner, at the rear of Tayler’s picture-framing shop in Mitre Street, was the darkest part of the square, gaining little illumination from the two gas lamps which served the immediate area. Satisfied that all was well, PC Watkins continued on his way. He returned at 1.44 a.m., immediately turned right into the dark corner and, on shining his lamp into the darkness, found the body of a woman in a terrible state of mutilation:
I saw the body of the woman lying there on her back with her feet facing the square, her clothes up above her waist. I saw her throat was cut and her bowels protruding. The stomach was ripped up, she was lying in a pool of blood.1
Watkins immediately ran across the square to the warehouse of Kearley and Tonge and alerted the night watchman there, retired Metropolitan Police officer George Morris. On being told that there had been ‘another woman cut to pieces’, Morris fetched his lamp and accompanied Watkins to the body. Being in possession of his old police whistle (City police did not carry them), he blew it and ran into Mitre Street towards Aldgate, whereupon he was approached by two officers, PCs James Harvey and Frederick Holland. Returning with Morris to the scene, Holland immediately went to fetch Dr George Sequeira from his surgery in Jewry Street, and Harvey remained by the body with Watkins. Joining them were Detectives Edward Marriott, Robert Outram and Daniel Halse, who had heard the alarm being raised as they stood talking at the bottom of Houndsditch a few hundred yards away. At Bishopsgate police station, Inspector Collard got word of the murder and sent for Dr Frederick Gordon Brown before rushing to Mitre Square, finding the various police officers by the body with Dr Sequeira, who had arrived at about 1.55 a.m. From then on, officials began to assemble quickly as the small gaggle of men were joined by Dr Brown and Superintendents James McWilliam and Alfred Foster, who set about instructing their men to make a search of the immediate vicinity and surrounding streets.