Jack The Ripper Timeline
I narrow a timeline to choose one of the victim to focus my story. There are five victims: Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Kelly. I'll cover the second and third victim for the purpose of planning and storyboarding, as there are police reports and event that I can cover the different documents involve in the whole story.
http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?p=116993
- 3rd of April 1888. A local gang attack Emma Smith, a local prostitute, on the junction of Osborn Street and Brick Lane. Although she definitely was not a victim of Jack the Ripper she is the first name on the Whitechapel Murders file that later included the murders by Jack the Ripper.
- 4th April 1888 Emma Smith dies from the injuries she sustained in the attack. Read more about Emma Smith.
- 7th June 1888. Detective Sergeant William Thicke testifies in court against local burglar George Neighbour. Later that year Thicke will play a major role in the hunt for Jack the Ripper. However, his testimony on this occasion is of interest because it illustrates the harsh realities of policing the district where the murders took place. Read more
- 7 August 1888 another prostitute Martha Turner is found stabbed to death on a landing of George Yard Buildings.
On Bank Holiday Monday, August 6th, Martha went out with Mary Ann Connelly, who was known as "Pearly Poll." They were seen throughout the evening in pubs in the company of a soldier or soldiers. According to Pearly Poll, she and Martha picked up two guardsmen, a Corporal and a Private in the Two Brewers public house and drank with them in several pubs including the White Swan on Whitechapel High Street.
Some time around 11:45 PM Martha and Pearly Poll went separate ways. Martha with the Private into George Yard and Pearly Poll and the Corporal into Angel Alley. Both, obviously, for the purpose of having sex.
1:50 AM: Elizabeth Mahoney returned to her home in George Yard Buildings. At the time that she ascended the stairs to her flat she saw no one or anything unusual in the building.
2:00 AM: PC Thomas Barrett saw a young Grenadier Guardsman in Wentworth Street, the north end of George Yard. Barrett questioned his reason for being there and was told by the Guardsman that he was waiting for a "chum who went off with a girl."
3:30 AM: Alfred Crow returned to his lodging in George Yard Buildings and noticed what he thought was a homeless person sleeping on the first floor landing. As this was not an uncommon occurrence he continued on to bed.
John Reeves left his lodgings in the George Yard Buildings at 4:45 AM. By this time the light was improving inside the stairwell. Reeves also noticed the body on the first floor landing but he was also aware that it was lying in a pool of blood. Reeves went off to find a policeman.
He returned with PC Barrett. Although not yet identified, the body was that of Martha Tabram. The body was supine with the arms and hands by the side. The fingers were tightly clenched and the legs open in a manner to suggest that intercourse had taken place.
Others who testified at the inquest include Francis Hewitt,the superintendent of George Yard Buildings and Mrs.Mary Bousfield (also known as Luckhurst), Martha's former landlady at 4 Star Street.
- 31 August 1888 the body of Mary Anne Nichols, who is commonly held to be Jack the Ripper's first victim, is found at 3.40am in Buck's Row Whitechapel
- 1st-4th September. The police begin questioning the neighbourhood's prostitutes. They learn bout a character who the prostitutes have nicknamed Leather Apron who has been extorting money from them for the past 12 months.
- 5th September. The Star newspaper publishes a write-up on Leather Apron, which causes the first murmurs of anti-Semitism in the district.
- 8 September 1888. The second Jack the Ripper victim, Annie Chapman, was found in the back yard of 29 Hanbury Street.
Thursday, August 30 through Friday, August 31, 1888.
Heavy rains have ushered out one of the coldest and wettest summers on record. On the night of August 30, the rain was sharp and frequent and was accompanied by peals of thunder and flashes of lightning. the sky on that night was turned red by the occasion of two dock fires.
11:00 PM -- Polly is seen walking down Whitechapel Road, she is probably soliciting trade.
12:30 AM -- She is seen leaving the Frying Pan Public House at the corner of Brick Lane and Thrawl Street. She returns to the lodging house at 18 Thrawl Street.
1:20 or 1:40 AM -- She is told by the deputy to leave the kitchen of the lodging house because she could not produce her doss money. Polly, on leaving, asks him to save a bed for her. " Never Mind!" She says, "I'll soon get my doss money. See what a jolly bonnet I've got now." She indicates a little black bonnet which no one had seen before.
2:30 AM -- She meets Emily Holland, who was returning from watching the Shadwell Dry Dock fire, outside of a grocer's shop on the corner of Whitechapel Road and Osborn Street. Polly had come down Osborn Street. Holland describes her as "very drunk and staggered against the wall." Holland calls attention to the church clock striking 2:30. Polly tells Emily that she had had her doss money three times that day and had drunk it away. She says she will return toFlower and Dean Street where she could share a bed with a man after one more attempt to find trade. "I've had my doss money three times today and spent it." She says, "It won't be long before I'm back." The two women talk for seven or eight minutes. Polly leaves walking east down Whitechapel Road.
At the time, the services of a destitute prostitute like Polly Nichols could be had for 2 or 3 pence or a stale loaf of bread. 3 pence was the going rate as that was the price of a large glass of gin.
3:15 AM -- PC John Thain, 96J, passes down Buck's Row on his beat. He sees nothing unusual. At approximately the same time Sgt. Kerby passes down Buck's Row and reports the same.
3:40 or 3:45 AM -- Polly Nichols' body is discovered in Buck's Row by Charles Cross, a carman, on his way to work at Pickfords in the City Road., and Robert Paul who joins him at his request. "Come and look over here, there's a woman." Cross calls to Paul. Cross believes she is dead. Her hands and face are cold but the arms above the elbow and legs are still warm. Paul believes he feels a faint heartbeat. "I think she's breathing," he says "but it is little if she is."
The two men agree that they do not want to be late for work and after arranging Nichols' skirts to give her some decency, decide to alert the first police officer they meet on their way. They eventually meet PC Jonas Mizen at the junction of Hanbury Street and Baker's Row and tell him of their find.
In the meantime, Nichols' body has been found by PC John Neil, 97J. He signals to PC Thain who then joins him and the two are soon joined by Mizen. Thain calls for Dr. Rees Ralph Llewellyn, who resides nearby. The two return a few minutes later (around 3:50 A.M.) and Dr. Llewellyn pronounces life to have been extinct "but a few minutes."
Buck's Row is ten minutes walk from Osborn Street. The only illumination is from a single gas lamp at the far end of the street.
Polly's body is found across from Essex Wharf and the Brown and Eagle Wool Warehouse and Schneiders Cap Factory in a gateway entrance to Brown's stableyard between a board school (to the west) and terrace houses (cottages) belonging to better class tradesmen. She is almost underneath the window of Mrs. Emma Green, a light sleeper, who lives in the first house next to the stable gates. Her house is called the 'New Cottage'. She is a widower with two sons and a daughter living with her. That night, one son goes to bed at 9:00 PM, the other follows at 9:45. Mrs. Green and her daughter shared a first floor room at the front of the house. They went to bed at approximately 11:00 PM. She claims she slept undisturbed by any unusual sound until she was awakened by the police.
Opposite New Cottage lives Walter Purkiss, the manager of Essex Wharf with his wife, children and a servant. He and his wife went to bed at 11:00 and 11:15 respectively. Both claimed to have been awake at various times in the night and heard nothing.
Friday, September 7, Saturday, September 8th:
5:00 PM: Amelia Palmer again sees Annie in Dorset Street. Chapman is sober and Palmer asks her if she is going to Stratford (believed to be the territory where Annie plied her trade). Annie says she is too ill to do anything. Farmer left but returned a few minutes later only to find Chapman not having moved. It's no use my giving way," Annie says "I must pull myself together and go out and get some money or I shall have no lodgings."
11:30 PM: Annie returns to the lodging house and asks permission to go into the kitchen.
12:10 AM: Frederick Stevens, also a lodger at Crossingham's says he drank a pint of beer with Annie who was already slightly the worse for drink. He states that she did not leave the lodging house until 1:00 AM.
12:12 AM: William Stevens (a printer), another lodger, enters the kitchen and sees Chapman. She says that she has been to Vauxhall to see her sister, that she went to get some money and that her family had given her 5 pence. (If this is so, she spent it on drink.) Stevens sees her take a broken box of pills from her pocket. The box breaks and she takes a torn piece of envelope from the mantelpiece and places the pills in it. Chapman leaves the kitchen. Stevens thinks she has gone to bed.
It appears obvious that she did pick up medication at the casual ward. The lotion found in her room may have brought up there at this time. This would re-enforce Stevens' impression that she had gone to bed. She certainly shows every sign of intending to return to Crossingham's.
1:35 AM: Annie returns to the lodging house again. She is eating a baked potato. John Evans, the night watchman, has been sent to collect her bed money. She goes upstairs to see Donovan in his office. "I haven't sufficient money for my bed," she tells him, "but don't let it. I shall not be long before I'm in." Donovan chastises her, "You can find money for your beer and you can't find money for your bed." Annie is not dismayed. She steps out of the office and stands in the doorway for two or three minutes. "Never mind, Tim." she states, "I'll soon be back." And to Evans she says, "I won't be long, Brummy (his nickname). See that Tim keeps the bed for me." Her regular bed in the lodging house is number 29. Evans sees her leave and enter Little Paternoster Row going in the direction of Brushfield Street and then turn towards Spitalfields Market.
4:45 AM: Mr. John Richardson enters the backyard of 29 Hanbury St. on his way to work, and sits down on the steps to remove a piece of leather which was protruding from his boot. Although it was quite dark at the time, he was sitting no more than a yard away from where the head of Annie Chapman would have been had she already been killed. He later testified to have seen nothing of extraordinary nature.
5:30 AM: Elizabeth Long sees Chapman with a man, hard against the shutters of 29 Hanbury Street. they are talking. Long hears the man say "Will you?" and Annie replies "Yes." Long is certain of the time as she had heard the clock on the Black Eagle Brewery, Brick Lane, strike the half hour just as she had turned onto the street. The woman (Chapman) had her back towards Spitalfields Market and, thus, her face towards Long. The man had his back towards Long.
A few moments after the Long sighting, Albert Cadosch, a young carpenter living at 27 Hanbury Street walks into his back yard probably to use the outhouse. Passing the five foot tall wooden fence which separates his yard from that of number 29, he hears voices quite close. The only word he can make out is a woman saying "No!" He then heard something falling against the fence.
Annie's body was discovered a little before 6.00am by John Davis, a carman who lived on the third floor of No.29 with his family. After alerting James Green, James Kent and Henry Holland in Hanbury Street, Davis went to Commercial Street Police Station before returning to No.29.
- 10 September 1888. Mr George Lusk, together with several other local business men, founds the Mile End Vigilance Committee, hoping to assist the police with their endeavours to catch the murderer.
- 10 September 1888. John Pizer, whom Sergeant Thick maintains is recognized as "Leather Apron," is arrested. He can provide alibis for the two recent murders and is released.
- 27 September 1888. A missive addressed to ‘Dear Boss” arrives at the Central News Agency. It is signed JACK THE RIPPER, a name which will turn the unknown miscreant into a world famous legend.
- 30 September 1888. The killer commits two murders in under 1 hour. At 1am the body of Elizabeth Stride’s is found in Berner Street, off Commercial Road; then at 1:45am the body of Catherine Eddowes is discovered in Mitre Square in the City of London. This means that another Police force, the City Police, now join into the search for Jack the Ripper.
September 30th, 1888
6:30 PM: Tanner sees her again at the Queen's Head Public House. They drank together and then walked back to the lodging house.
7:00-8:00 PM: She is seen leaving the lodging house by Charles Preston and Catherine Lane. She gives Lane a large piece of green velvet and asks her to hold it for her until she returns. She ask Preston to borrow his clothes brush but he has mislaid it. She then leaves passing by Thomas Bates, watchman at the lodging house who says she looked quite cheerful. Lane will later state that "I know the deceased had 6d when she left, she showed it to me, stating that the deputy had given it to her."
11:00 PM: Two laborers, J. Best and John Gardner were going into the Bricklayer's Arms Public House on Settles street, north of Commercial Road and almost opposite Berner Street. As they went in Stride was leaving with a short man with a dark mustache and sandy eyelashes. The man was wearing a billycock hat, mourning suit and coat. Best says "They had been served in the public house and went out when me and my friends came in. It was raining very fast and they did not appear willing to go out. He was hugging and kissing her, and as he seemed a respectably dressed man, we were rather astonished at the way he was going on at the woman." Stride and her man stood in the doorway for some time hugging and kissing. The workmen tried to get the man to come in for a drink but he refused. They then called to Stride. "That's Leather Apron getting 'round you." The man and Stride moved off towards Commercial Road and Berner Street. "He and the woman went off like a shot soon after eleven."
11:45 PM: William Marshall, a laborer, sees her on Berner Street. He is standing in the doorway of 64 Berner Street on the west side of the street between Fairclough and Boyd Streets. He notices her talking to a man in a short black cutaway coat and sailor's hat outside number 63. They are kissing and carrying on. He hears the man say "You would say anything but your prayers."
12:00 AM: Matthew Packer claims to sell Stride and a man grapes. This is a very dubious piece of evidence. See Sugden's The Complete History of Jack the Ripper for the pros and cons of this story.
12:35 AM: Police Constable William Smith sees Stride with a young man on Berner Street opposite the International Working Men's Educational Club. The man is described as 28 years old, dark coat and hard deerstalker hat. He is carrying a parcel approximately 6 inches high and 18 inches in length. the package is wrapped in newspaper.
12:45 AM (approximately): Quoting Home Office File:
"Israel Schwartz of 22 Helen Street, Backchurch Lane, stated that at this hour, turning into Berner Street from Commercial Road, and having gotten 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. 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. Upon being taken to the mortuary Schwartz identified the body as that of the woman he had seen."
Later in the deposition:
"It will be observed that allowing for differences of opinion between PC Smith and Schwartz as to the apparent age and height of the man each saw with the woman whose body they both identified, there are serious differences in the description of the dress...so at least it is rendered doubtful that they are describing the same man.
If Schwartz is to be believed, and the police report of his statement casts no doubt upon it, it follows that if they are describing different men that the man Schwartz saw is the more probable of the two to be the murderer..."
Schwartz describes the man as about 30 years old, 5' 5" tall with a fresh complexion, dark hair and small brown mustache. He is dressed in an overcoat and an old black felt hat with a wide brim.
At the same time, James Brown says he sees Stride with a man as he was going home with his supper down Fairclough Street. She was leaning against the wall talking to a stoutish man about 5' 7" tall in a long black coat that reached to his heels. He has his arm against the wall. Stride is saying "No, not tonight, some other night."
1:00 AM: Louis Diemschutz, a salesman of jewelry, entered Dutfield's Yard driving his cart and pony. Immediately at the entrace, his pony shied and refused to proceed -- Diemschutz suspected something was in the way but could not see since the yard was utterly pitch black. He probed forward with his whip and came into contact with a body, whom he initially believed to be either drunk or asleep.
He entered the International Working Men's Educational Club to get some help in rousing the woman, and upon returning to the yard with Isaac Kozebrodsky and Morris Eagle, the three discover that she was dead, her throat cut.
It was believed that Diemschutz's arrival frightened the Ripper, causing him to flee before he performed the mutilations. Diemschutz himself stated that he believed the Ripper was still in the yard when he had entered, due to the warm temperature of the body and the continuingly odd behavior of his pony.
Dr. Frederick Blackwell of 100 Commercial Road was called; he arrived at 1.16am and pronounced Stride dead at the scene.
Saturday and Sunday, September 29-30:
At 8:00 AM on September 29 she returns to Cooney's Lodging House and sees Kelly. She has been turned out of the Casual Ward for some unspecified trouble. Kelly decided to pawn a pair of boots he had. He does this with a pawnbroker named Jones in Church Street. It was Kate who took them into the shop and pledged them under the name of Jane Kelly. She receives 2/6 for the boots and she and Kelly take the money and buy some food, tea and sugar. Between 10 and 11 AM they were seen by Frederick Wilkinson eating breakfast in the lodging house kitchen.
By afternoon they were again without money. Eddowes says she is going to see if she can get some money from her daughter in Bermondsey. She parts with Kelly in Houndsditch at 2:00 PM, promising to be back no later than 4:00 PM. "I never knew if she went to her daughter's at all," Kelly says at the inquest. "I only wish she had, for we had lived together for some time and never had a quarrel." Kate could not have seen her daughter who had moved since the last time Kate saw her.
8:00 PM: City PC Louis Robinson comes across Eddowes surrounded by a crowd outside 29 Aldgate High Street. She is very drunk and laying in a heap on the pavement. Robinson asks those in the crowd if anyone knew her, no one replied. He pulled her up to her feet and leaned her against the building's shutters but she slipped sideways. With the aid of City PC 959 George Simmons they brought her to Bishopsgate Police Station.Louis Robinson City Police Constable 931 said at Kate's inquest 'On the 29th at 8.30 I was on duty in Aldgate Hight Street, I saw a crowd of persons outside No. 29 - I saw there a woman whom I have since recognised as the Deceased lying on the footway drunk. I asked if there was one that knew her or knew where she lived but I got no answer.'
8:45 PM: Bishopsgate Police Station Sergeant James Byfield notes Eddowes arrival at the station. Supported by PCs Robinson and Simmons, Eddowes was asked her name and she replied "Nothing." At 8:50 PM PC Robinson looked in on her in her cell. She was asleep and smelled of drink. At 9:45 PM The Gaoler, City PC 968 George Hutt, took charge of the prisoners. He visited the cell every half hour during the night upon the directive of Sergeant Byfield.
9:45 PM: City PCs on night beat leave Bishopsgate Station. They are marched behind their Beat Sergeants from Bishopsgate Station to their respective beats. In amongst these men were City PCs Edward Watkins and James Harvey.
Approx 10:00 PM: City PC 881 Edward Watkins commenced his first full round of his beat. This consisted of Duke Street through Heneage Lane, through a portion of Bury Street, then through Creechurch Lane, into Leadenhall Street, along Leadenhall Street into Mitre Street, then into Mitre Square, around the square, back into Mitre Street, then into King Street, along King Street, into St James Place, around St James Place, thence into Duke Street to continue another patrol.
Approx 10:00 PM: City PC 964 James Harvey commenced his beat. From Bevis Marks he moved to Duke Street, into Little Duke Street, to Houndsditch, from Houndsditch back to Duke Street, along Duke Street to Church Passage, back again into Duke Street, to Aldgate, from there to Mitre Street, back again to Houndsditch, up Houndsditch, to Little Duke Street, again back to Houndsditch, to Goring Street, up Goring Street and back to Bevis Marks.
12:15 AM: Kate is heard singing softly to herself in the cell. 12:30 AM: She calls out to ask when she will be released. "When you are capable of taking care of yourself." Hutt replies. "I can do that now." Kate informs him.
12:55 AM: Sergeant Byfield instructs PC Hutt to see if any prisoners were fit to be released. Kate was found to be sober. She gives her name as Mary Ann Kelly, and her address as 6 Fashion Street. Kate is released.
She leaves the station at 1:00 AM.
"What time is it?" she asks Hutt.
"Too late for you to get anything to drink." he replies.
"I shall get a damn fine hiding when I get home." She tells him.
Hutt replies, " And serve you right, you had no right to get drunk."
Hutt pushes open the swinging door of that station.
"This way missus," he says, "please pull it to."
"All right'" Kate replies, "Goodnight, old cock."
"What time is it?" she asks Hutt.
"Too late for you to get anything to drink." he replies.
"I shall get a damn fine hiding when I get home." She tells him.
Hutt replies, " And serve you right, you had no right to get drunk."
Hutt pushes open the swinging door of that station.
"This way missus," he says, "please pull it to."
"All right'" Kate replies, "Goodnight, old cock."
She turned left out the doorway which took her in the opposite direction of what would have been the fastest way back to Flower and Dean Street. She appears to be heading back toward Aldgate High Street where she had become drunk. On going down Houndsditch she would have passed the entrance to Duke Street, at the end of which was Church Passage which led into Mitre Square.
It is estimated that it would have taken less than ten minutes to reach Mitre Square. This leaves a thirty minute gap from the time she leaves the police station to the time she is seen outside of Mitre Square.
1:35 AM: Joseph Lawende, a commercial traveler in the cigarette trade, Joseph Hyam Levy, a butcher and Harry Harris, a furniture dealer leave the Imperial Club at 16-17 Duke Street. At the corner of Duke Street and Church Passage they see Eddowes and a man talking. She is standing facing the man with her hand on his chest, but not in a manner to suggest that she is resisting him. Lawende describes the man as 30 years old, 5 foot 7 inches tall, fair complexion and mustache with a medium build. He is wearing a pepper and salt colored jacket which fits loosely, a grey cloth cap with a peak of the same color. He has a reddish handkerchief knotted around his neck. Over all he gives the appearance of being a sailor. Lawende will later identify Catherine Eddowes clothes as the same as those worn by the woman he saw that night.
Approx 1:45 PM: PC Edward Watkins discovers Eddowes' body in Mitre Square.
- 1st October 1888. The police make the Jack the Ripper letter public.
- 6th October 1888. The Central News Agency receive another letter that is signed Jack the Ripper. The police ask them not make this missive public.
- 16 October 1888 . Mr George Lusk receives a letter that is addressed "FROM HELL." It contains half a kidney. There is press speculation that it belonged to Catherine Eddowes.
- 9th November 1888. 25 year Old Mary Kelly is found dead in Dorset Street Spitalfields. She is believed by many to have been Jack the Ripper's last victim.
Thursday-Friday, November 8-9: Almost every day after the split, Barnett would visit Mary Jane. On Friday the ninth he stops between 7:30 and 7:45 PM. He says she is in the company of another woman who lives in Miller's Court. This may have been Lizzie Albrook who lived at 2 Miller's Court.
Albrook says "About the last thing she said to me was 'Whatever you do don't you do wrong and turn out as I did.' She had often spoken to me in this way and warned me against going on the street as she had done. She told me, too, that she was heartily sick of the life she was leading and wished she had money enough to go back to Ireland where her people lived. I do not believe she would have gone out as she did if she had not been obliged to do so to keep herself from starvation."
Maria Harvey also says that she was woman that Barnett saw with Mary Jane and that she left at 6:55 PM.
8:00 PM: Barnett leaves and goes back to Buller's Boarding House where he played whist until 12:30 AM and then went to bed.
8:00 PM: Julia Venturney, who lives at 1 Miller's Court goes to bed.
There are no confirmed sightings of Mary Jane Kelly between 8:00 PM and 11:45 PM. there is an unconfirmed story that she is drinking with a woman named Elizabeth Foster at the Ten Bells Public House.
11:00 PM: It is said she is in the Britannia drinking with a young man with a dark mustache who appears respectable and well dressed. It is said she is very drunk.
11:45 PM: Mary Ann Cox, a 31 year old widower and prostitute, who lives at 5 Miller's Court (last house on the left) enters Dorset Street from Commercial Street. Cox is returning home to warm herself as the night had turned cold. She sees Kelly ahead of her, walking with a stout man. The man was aged around 35 or 36 and was about 5' 5" tall. He was shabbily dressed in a long overcoat and a billycock hat. He had a blotchy face and small side whiskers and a carroty mustache. The man is carrying a pail of beer.
Mrs. Cox follows them into Miller's Court. they are standing outside Kelly's room as Mrs. Cox passed and said "Goodnight." Somewhat incoherently, Kelly replied "Goodnight, I am going to sing." A few minutes later Mrs. Cox hears Kelly singing "A Violet from Mother's Grave" (see below). Cox goes out again at midnight and hears Kelly singing the same song.
Somewhere in this time period, Mary Jane takes a meal of fish and potatoes.
12:30 AM: Catherine Pickett, a flower-seller who lives near Kelly, is disturbed by Kelly's singing. Picket's husband stops her from going down stairs to complain. "You leave the poor woman alone." he says.
1:00 AM: It is beginning to rain. Again, Mary Ann Cox returns home to warm herself. At that time Kelly is still singing or has begun to sing again. There was light coming from Kelly's room. Shortly after one, Cox goes out again.
Elizabeth Prater, the wife of William Prater, a boot finisher who had left her 5 years before, is standing at the entrance to Miller's Court waiting for a man. Prater lives in room number 20 of 26 Dorset Street. This is directly above Kelly. She stands there about a half hour and then goes into to McCarthy's to chat. She hears no singing and sees no one go in or out of the court. After a few minutes she goes back to her room, places two chairs in front of her door and goes to sleep without undressing. She is very drunk.
2:00 AM: George Hutchinson, a resident of the Victoria Working Men's Home on Commercial Street has just returned to the area from Romford. He is walking on Commercial Street and passes a man at the corner of Thrawl Street but pays no attention to him. At Flower and Dean Street he meets Kelly who asks him for money. "Mr. Hutchinson, can you lend me sixpence?" "I can't," says Hutchinson, "I spent all my money going down to Romford." "Good morning," Kelly replies, "I must go and find some money." She then walks in the direction of Thrawl Street.
She meets the man Hutchinson had passed earlier. The man puts his hand on Kelly's shoulder and says something at which Kelly and the man laugh. Hutchinson hears Kelly say "All right." and the man say "You will be all right for what I have told you." The man then puts his right hand on Kelly's shoulder and they begin to walk towards Dorset Street. Hutchinson notices that the man has a small parcel in his left hand.
While standing under a street light on outside the Queen's Head Public House Hutchinson gets a good look at the man with Mary Jane Kelly. He has a pale complexion, a slight moustache turned up at the corners (changed to dark complexion and heavy moustache in the press reports), dark hair, dark eyes, and bushy eyebrows. He is, according to Hutchinson, of "Jewish appearance." The man is wearing a soft felt hat pulled down over his eyes, a long dark coat trimmed in astrakhan, a white collar with a black necktie fixed with a horseshoe pin. He wears dark spats over light button over boots. A massive gold chain is in his waistcoat with a large seal with a red stone hanging from it. He carries kid gloves in his right hand and a small package in his left. He is 5' 6" or 5' 7" tall and about 35 or 36 years old.
Kelly and the man cross Commercial Street and turn down Dorset Street. Hutchinson follows them. Kelly and the man stop outside Miller's Court and talk for about 3 minutes. Kelly is heard to say "All right, my dear. Come along. You will be comfortable." The man puts his arm around Kelly who kisses him. "I've lost my handkerchief." she says. At this he hands her a red handkerchief. The couple then heads down Miller's Court. Hutchinson waits until the clock strikes 3:00 AM. leaving as the clock strikes the hour.
3:00 AM: Mrs. Cox returns home yet again. It is raining hard. There is no sound or light coming from Kelly's room. Cox does not go back out but does not go to sleep. Throughout the night she occasionally hears men going in and out of the court. She told the inquest "I heard someone go out at a quarter to six. I do not know what house he went out of (as) I heard no door shut."
4:00 AM: Elizabeth Prater is awakened by her pet kitten "Diddles" walking on her neck. She hears a faint cry of "Oh, murder!" but, as the cry of murder is common in the district, she pays no attention to it. Sarah Lewis, who is staying with friends in Miller's Court, also hears the cry.
8:30 AM: Caroline Maxwell, a witness at the inquest and acquaintance of Kelly's, claims to have seen the deceased at around 8:30 AM, several hours after the time given by Phillips as time of death. She described her clothing and appearance in depth, and adamantly stated that she was not mistaken about the date, although she admitted she did not know Kelly very well.
10:00 AM: Maurice Lewis, a tailor who resided in Dorset Street, told newspapers he had seen Kelly and Barnett in the Horn of Plenty public house on the night of the murder, but more importantly, that he saw her about 10:00 AM the next day. Like Maxwell, this time is several hours from the time of death, and because of this discrepancy, he was not called to the inquest and virtually ignored by police.
10:45 AM: John McCarthy, owner of "McCarthy's Rents," as Miller's Court was known, sends Thomas Bowyer to collect past due rent money from Mary Kelly. After Bowyer receives no response from knocking (and because the door was locked) he pushes aside the curtain and peers inside, seeing the body. He informs McCarthy, who, after seeing the mutilated remains of Kelly for himself, ran to Commercial Street Police Station, where he spoke with Inspector Walter Beck, who returned to the Court with McCarthy.
Several hours later, after waiting fruitlessly for the arrival of the bloodhounds "Barnaby" and "Burgho," McCarthy smashes in the door with an axe handle under orders from Superintendent Thomas Arnold.
When police enter the room they find Mary Jane Kelly's clothes neatly folded on a chair and she is wearing a chemise. Her boots are in front of the fireplace.
- 20th December 1888. 29 year old Rose Mylett (also known as Catherine Millett and Lizzie Davis), 29, was found strangled in Clarke's Yard, off Poplar High Street. Despite the fact that several doctors who examined her body gave it as their opinion that she had been strangled, Robert Anderson was convinced that she had accidentally hanged herself on the collar of her dress whilst drunk. Dr Thomas Bond was, therefore, asked to examine her body and he agreed with Anderson. However, the jury at her subsequent inquest disagreed and returned a verdict of "wilful murder against some person or persons unknown". Her death was, therefore, added to the Whitechapel Murders file
- 17th 1889. The body of Alice McKenzie is found in Castle Alley, off Whitechapel High Street. Despite the fact that her injuries were less savage than those inflicted on previous victims, several detectives believed her to have been a victim of Jack the Ripper.
- 10th September 1888. The mutilated torso of an unknown woman was found beneath a railway arch in Pinchin Street. Although the press at the time noted that the torso bore similar mutilations to those inflicted on his victims by Jack the Ripper, the consensus amongst experts is that this was probably not a ripper killing.
- 13th February 1891. The body of Frances Coles is found beneath a railway arch in Swallow Gardens. St the time there was much speculation that her killing spelt a return for the ripper. A sailor named James Thomas Sadler was arrested, charged and later acquitted of her murder. Today she is not believed to have been a Jack the Ripper victim.
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