Complete History of Jack the Ripper (85 page)

1
Summing up by George Collier, Tabram inquest, 23 August 1888,
DT
24 August;
The Illustrated Police News
, 18 August 1888;
ELO
, 11 August 1888. Cries of murder, as Francis Hewitt and his wife observed, may have been commonplace in the East End but murder itself evidently was not. It is interesting that Superintendent Thomas Arnold, Head of H Division, noted that although Whitechapel had a considerable population of ‘low and dangerous classes’ that frequently indulged in rowdyism and street offences, ‘with the exception of the recent murders crime of a serious nature is not unusually heavy in the district.’ See, report of Supt. Arnold, 22 October 1888, MEPO 3/141, ff. 164–5. Cf. Cullen,
Autumn of Terror
, p. 32.

2
DT
, 4 September 1888. After an investigation by Wilton Friend, the manager of the Foresters’ Music Hall, the journalist who sent the report to the news agency confessed that he ‘had absolutely no foundation for the story . . . that, in fact, it existed only in his own imagination.’ See,
ELO
, 6 October 1888.

3
DN
, 1 September 1888.

4
Star
, 31 August and 1 September 1888.

5
ELO
, 8 September 1888.

6
DN
, 5 September 1888.

7
T
7 September 1888;
ELA
8 September 1888; burial register, City of London Cemetry, Little Ilford, GL, MS. 10445/33.

8
L. & P. Walter & Son, 31 August 1888, to Matthews, and E. Leigh-Pemberton, 4 September 1888, to Messrs. Walter & Son, HO 144/220/A49301B.

9
For general accounts of Warren’s career, see
T
, 24 January 1927;
Dictionary of National Biography
, 1922–30, pp. 889–891; Watkin W. Williams,
The Life of General Sir Charles Warren
(Oxford, 1941).

Warren’s commissionership of the Metropolitan Police is treated in Sir Charles Warren, ‘The Police of the Metropolis,’
Murray’s Magazine
, Vol. IV, No. 23, November 1888, pp. 577–594; Charles Clarkson & J. Hall Richardson,
Police
! (London, 1889), ch. vi, ix, xv; George Dilnot,
The Story of Scotland Yard
(London, 1926), pp. 95–105, 261–4; Sir John Moylan,
Scotland Yard and the Metropolitan Police
(London, 1934), pp. 48–52; Douglas G. Browne,
The Rise of Scotland Yard
(London, 1956), pp. 201–211; Paul Begg and Keith Skinner,
The Scotland Yard Files
(London, 1992), pp. 111–36. On public order, see Lisa Keller, ‘Public Order in Victorian London,’ Ph.D. thesis, Cambridge University, 1976.

10
Williams,
Life of Warren
, pp. 216, 218.

11
On the search, see Warren’s press notice, 17 October 1888,
DT
, 18 October; minute of Robert Anderson, 23 October 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C/8a;
DN
, 19 October 1888.

12
For good examples of press criticism, see
DN
, 31 August 1888;
PMG
8 October 1888.

13
The best account of the Warren–Monro feud is Bernard Porter,
The Origins of the Vigilant State
(London, 1987), pp. 82–7; there is a good assessment of Monro in Begg, Fido & Skinner,
Jack the Ripper A to Z
, pp. 190–1.

14
Sir Robert Anderson, ‘The Lighter Side of My Official Life,’
Blackwood’s Magazine
,
Vol. CLXXXVII, No. 1132, February 1910, pp. 250–1;
T
, 16 November 1888.

15
Anderson, ‘Lighter Side of My Official Life,’
Blackwood’s Magazine
, Vol. CLXXXVII, No. 1133, March 1910, p. 356. A. P. Moore-Anderson,
Sir Robert Anderson, KCB, LLD, and Lady Agnes Anderson
(London & Edinburgh, 1947) is an indifferent biography.

16
Warren, 15 September 1888, to Assistant Commissioner A. C. Bruce, in private hands.

17
Anderson, ‘Lighter Side of My Official Life,’ February 1910, p. 251;
Star
, 4 October 1888.

18
Quoted by John J. Tobias,
Crime and Industrial Society in the Nineteenth Century
(Pelican edition, Harmondsworth, 1972), p. 148.

19
Charles Booth,
Life and Labour of the People in London
(London, 1902), 3rd Series, Vol. II, p. 7. See also Lloyd P. Gartner,
The Jewish Immigrant in England, 1870–1914
(London, 1973), pp. 41–4; V. D. Lipman, ‘Jewish Settlement in the East End of London, 1840–1940,’ pp. 31–4, in Aubrey Newman (ed.),
The Jewish East End 1840–1939
(London, 1981). For a colourful portrait of East London in the year of the Ripper murders, see William J. Fishman,
East End 1888
(London, 1988).

20
For the full ramifications of this fascinating case, see T. A. Critchley & P. D. James,
The Maul and the Pear Tree
(London, 1971).

21
Quoted by Clarkson & Richardson,
Police!
, p. 280.

22
C. E. Howard Vincent,
A Police Code, and Manual of the Criminal Law
(London, 1881), p. 253.

23
ELA
, 18 August and 8 September 1888.

24
DN
, 3 September 1888;
T
, 4 September 1888.

25
DT
, 24 September 1888.

26
DT
, 6 September 1888.

27
Star
, 5 and 6 September 1888. According to Lincoln Springfield,
Some Piquant People
(London 1924), pp. 45–7, the author of the articles was an American journalist named Harry Dam.

28
Report of Inspector Helson, 7 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, f. 238; report of Inspector Abberline, 19 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, f. 248.

29
Sir Melville Macnaghten,
Days of My Years
(London, 1914), pp. 64–5; Dew,
I Caught Crippen
, p. 102.

30
Nick Ross & Sue Cook,
Crimewatch UK
(London, 1987), p. 159.

31
DN
, 3 September 1888.

32
ELA
, 8 September 1888.

1
For details of Annie Chapman’s background and character, see depositions of Amelia Palmer, Timothy Donovan and John Evans, 10 September 1888, in
DT
and
DN
, 11 September; deposition of Fountain Smith, 12 September 1888, in
DT
and
DN
, 13 September, and
ELA
, 15 September; deposition of Timothy Donovan, 13 September 1888, in
DT
and
DN
, 14 September; depositions of Eliza Cooper and Ted Stanley, 19 September 1888, in
DT
and
DN
, 20 September; report of Inspector Joseph Chandler, 8 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, ff. 10–11; report of Inspector Abberline, 14 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, f. 17; report of Inspector Abberline, 19 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, ff. 250–252; report of Chief Inspector Swanson, 19 October 1888, relating to Hanbury Street murder, HO 144/221/A49301C/8a; registers of births, marriages and deaths, St Catherine’s House; Shelden, ‘Victims of Jack the Ripper,’ pp. 49–50.

T
, 11 September 1888, prints Amelia Palmer’s name as Amelia Farmer. In five other inquest reports checked by the author the name is given as Palmer and this name has been adopted in the present text.

2
Her name is not recorded in the Admissions & Discharge Book of the Whitechapel Workhouse Infirmary, 1888–9, GLRO, StBG/Wh/123/20.

3
Statement of Frederick Simpson,
Star
, 8 September 1888.

4
The times stated are those given by Donovan at the inquest, 10 September, see n. 1. They are consistent with the report of Inspector Chandler, written on the day of the murder, which states that Annie was approached for her lodging money at 1.45. John Evans, testifying on 10 September, said that Annie left the lodging house at about 1.45. Abberline’s report of 19 September makes it later, at about 2.00.

5
Frustratingly, names are often reported differently in different newspapers. Thus Mrs Hardiman’s first name is most commonly given as Harriet but also as Annie and Mary. Tyler is called Francis in some reports and John in others. All the contemporary references I have seen to the residents of the first floor back call them Waker but Begg, Fido & Skinner,
Jack the Ripper A to Z
, enter them under Walker. While the surname of the two unmarried sisters from the second floor back is variously given as Cooksley, Copsey and Huxley. The report in
T
even refers to them (erroneously) as
Mr and Mrs
Copsey.

6
This account of the discovery of Annie Chapman’s body rests largely upon inquest testimony. See, deposition of John Davis, 10 September 1888, in
DT
and
DN
, 11 September; depositions of Amelia Richardson, Harriet Hardiman, James Kent, James Green and Henry John Holland, 12 September 1888, in
DT
and
DN
, 13 September; summing up of Coroner Wynne E. Baxter, 26 September 1888, in
T
, 27 September. See also, report of Inspector Abberline, 19 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, f. 249.

7
Report of Inspector Chandler, 8 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, f. 9.

8
Dew,
I Caught Crippen
, pp. 115–6.

9
Deposition of Dr George Bagster Phillips, 13 September 1888, in
DT
, 14 September.

10
Report of Inspector Chandler, 8 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, ff. 9–10;
depositions of Inspector Chandler and Dr Phillips, 13 September 1888, in
DT
,
DN
and
T
, 14 September. The date of the postmark, 23 August, is taken from Swanson’s summary report (see n.1). Dates of 3, 20 and 28 August are given in the press.

11
For Chandler’s evidence, see n. 10.

12
Deposition of Dr Phillips, 13 September 1888, in
DT
,
DN
and
T
, 14 September; deposition of Dr Phillips, 19 September 1888, in
DT
,
DN
and
T
, 20 September; ‘The Whitechapel Murders’,
The Lancet
, 1888, Vol. II, 29 September 1888, p. 637; report of Chief Inspector Swanson, 19 October 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C/8a.

13
Endorsement of Acting Superintendent West to report of Inspector Chandler, 8 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, f. 11.

14
For these police activities, see report of Inspector Chandler, 8 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, f. 11; report of Inspector Abberline, 19 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, ff. 252–3; report of Chief Inspector Swanson, 19 October 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C/8a. On the leather apron, see the inquest depositions of Amelia Richardson, 12 September 1888, and Inspector Chandler and Dr Phillips, 13 September 1888, cited in n. 6 and 10.

15
Report of Inspector Chandler, 14 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, f. 16; report of Inspector Chandler, 15 September 1888, MEPO 3/140, ff. 18–20; deposition of William Stevens, 19 September 1888, in
DT
and
T
, 20 September.

16
Deposition of John Richardson, 12 September 1888, in
DT
and
DN
, 13 September; report of Chief Inspector Swanson, 19 October 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C/8a.

17
Deposition of Mrs Elizabeth Long, 19 September 1888, in
DT
,
DN
and
T
, 20 September; report of Chief Inspector Swanson, 19 October 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C/8a.

There are frequent discrepancies between our sources. The only one which concerns the description of the suspect is about his hat. According to
DN
(quoted in the text) and
T
, Mrs Long described it as a brown deerstalker. The
DT
report, however, quotes her as saying that it was a ‘brown, low-crowned, felt hat.’

Mrs Long’s address seems to have been recorded differently by almost everyone who heard it. The main inquest reports print it as Church Row, Whitechapel (
DT
), 3 Church Row (
DN
) and 198 Church Row, Whitechapel (
T
). Baxter, summing up on 26 September, referred to it as Church Street, Whitechapel. And Swanson, reviewing the case on 19 October, gave it as 32 Church Street. There were Church Streets in Bethnal Green, Minories and Spitalfields. Mrs Long could have lived in any one of the three, or in Church Lane, by Whitechapel Church. All these four had house numbers up to or beyond 32 but none as high as 198.

18
The times given in the text follow Cadosch’s inquest deposition of 19 September 1888. See,
DT
,
DN
and
T
, 20 September. Swanson, probably drawing upon a lost statement to the police, gave 5.25 and 5.28 as the times of Cadosch’s experiences in the yard of No. 27.

19
Coroner Baxter’s summing up, 26 September 1888, in
DT
, 27 September.

20
DT
, 10 September 1888.

21
Baxter’s summing up, 26 September 1888,
DT
, 27 September.

22
See,
Star
, 12 September 1888;
DT
,
DN
and
T
, 13 September 1888.

23
T
, 13 September 1888;
DT
and
ELA
, 15 September 1888; for Fountain Smith’s demeanour at inquest,
DN
, 13 September, and
ELA
, 15 September 1888.