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n Wendo not know who he was. We know neither whence he came nor where he went. We donnot know why he did what he did and we are not even sure if it really was himnthat did those things. He may have been one man or he may have been severalnmen. None of us have seen him but we have all heard of him. We do not even knownhis name, so we call him by the name that he may, or may even not, have givennto himself. And that name is Jack –nJack the Ripper.
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nThere have been other Rippers since, little Rippers, lessernrippers differentiated only by the names of places, but only one, only thenfirst, has the name of a man. Jack. All the rest are only jacks. Jacks arensmall things, I’ve said it before; jack sprats, jack rabbits, jack sparrows,njack-a-napes. Jacks and Jakes, and we know what the Jakes are for. Jacks andnJakes and Johns. Jakes and Johns are for shits and for Jack shit. Jack the Lad.nNot a real man, only a lad. A Jack shilling; a sixpence. Half a Jack, half ansixpence. Not even a full shilling. Mad, bad and dangerous to know. Mad Jack Byron. Mad Jack Mytton.
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| Gustav Dore – London Slums |
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nBut Jack the Ripper was a different murder of crows. Anwhole different knot of toads. He jacked up the entire Jack thing; he hijackednthe Jacks, he High-Jacked the Jacks. And one day he took himself to Whitechapel.nBut you didn’t go to Whitechapel; you either stayed in Whitechapel ornyou left Whitechapel and you didn’t go back. It was a rookery, a nesting place,na cluster of wynds and turnings. A refuge for the dispossessed and thendispossessers. Foreigners arrived in Whitechapel only to watch their dreamsnwhither and die. When Hell was full, it spat its superfluous demons intonWhitechapel. And Jack made Whitechapel into a Hell of his own. He came underncover of the night, with his knives and his madness, and even Whitechapel wasnafraid.
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| Contemporary report of the Smith Murder |
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nTherenhad been murders there before. The series of murders that have been linkedntogether and are now referred to as the ‘Whitechapel Murders’ began with thatnof Emma Elizabeth Smith. In the early evening of Easter Monday, April 2ndn1888, Emma Smith went out to look for ‘trade’. She was a widow, aboutnforty-five-years old, and had worked as a prostitute in Whitechapel for annumber of years.
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| Location of attack on Emma Smith (Red Spot) |
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nShe was seen alive at about 12.15 am talking to a darklyndressed man, and later, at about 1.30 am she was walking along Whitechapel HighnStreet, past St Mary’s Church, when she noticed a gang of men coming in thenopposite direction. She crossed the road and turned into Osborn Street, tryingnto avoid the gang, but they followed her and, at the corner of Old MontaguenStreet, they attacked, robbed and raped her.
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| Gustav Dore – London Slums |
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nIn great pain and bleedingnheavily, she staggered back to her lodgings in George Street (underlined on the map) where shencollapsed. She managed to tell Mary Russell, the deputy lodging house keeper,nthat she had been attacked by three or four men, one of whom was about eighteennyears old, and Russell took Smith to the London Hospital, where Dr Haslipnexamined her. In addition to her bruises, her right ear had almost been tornnoff and a blunt object, possibly a stick, had been forced into her vagina,nrupturing the peritoneum. Emma Smith passed into a coma and at 9 am onnWednesday April 4th 1888, she died from peritonitis. Although she isncounted as the first of the Whitechapel Murders, she is no longer considered tonbe a victim of the Ripper.
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| Police Mortuary Photograph of Martha Tabram |
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nThe second of the Whitechapel Murders was that ofnMartha Tabram, thirty-nine years old, an habitual but not perpetual drunk.nMartha was ‘that sort’ of a girl, and on the evening of Bank HolidaynMonday August 6th 1888, she went out with Mary Ann Connolly, anprostitute known as ‘Pearly Poll’, and pretty soon they had picked up ancouple of soldiers. They were seen drinking in several pubs around Whitechapel,nand at about 11.45 pm Pearly Poll and her corporal went into Angel Alley tonconduct business, and Martha and the private went into George Yard, the next,nparallel alley, to do the same, (marked in blue on the map).
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| John Reeves finds Martha Tabram |
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nAt about 4.45 am, John Reeves, a docker, wasnleaving for work when he found the bloody body of a woman on the first floornlanding so he ran for a policeman, PC Barrett. The body was Martha Tabram; shenhad been stabbed thirty-nine times, mainly in the chest and abdomen. DrnKilleen, who carried out the post-mortem, placed the time of death at aboutn2.30 am and said that a right-handed man had inflicted the wounds. The policeninterviewed several soldiers from various nearby barracks, but none matchingnthe descriptions of the two suspects were found. Martha and the private hadngone into the alley at about 11.45, so if she died at about 2.30 am, she had amplentime to find another client.
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| Gustav Dore – London Slums |
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nSome place this as the first Ripper murder, citingnthe frenzy and the slashing as something new, maybe evidence that he was honingnhis technique, and this is why the throat had not been cut, although annunverifiable report in the Illustrated Police Gazette said that therenhad been nine stab wounds to the throat (not mentioned by Dr Killeen).
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nTomorrow – More Murders