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- [00:03]
Genevieve Manion
Hello, and welcome to My Victorian Nightmare. I'm your host, Genevieve Manion, and I'm here to talk about mysterious deaths, morbid fascinations, disturbing stories, and otherwise spooky events from the Victorian era. Because to me, there's just something especially intriguing, creepy, and oddly comforting about horror and mayhem from the 19th century. So listener discretion is advised. Hello, friends, and welcome to this, my 32nd episode and the second part of my Jack the Ripper back to back episode extravaganza.
- [00:51]
Alonzo
I have to admit, I am very relieved to be done with it after today. Spending two solid weeks with Jack the Ripper can really take a toll on.
- [01:01]
Genevieve Manion
A delicate, rickety, gossamer thin constitution such as my own.
- [01:07]
Alonzo
I haven't decided what topic my next.
- [01:09]
Genevieve Manion
Episode will be yet, but I think.
- [01:10]
Alonzo
I'm gonna take it easy on all of us. Less murdery, more ooggity boogity. I say this now, but if I.
- [01:17]
Genevieve Manion
See something fun and murdery, I will be right back at it.
- [01:20]
Alonzo
The world is our spooky Victorian oyster, as it were. But before I get to the second.
- [01:26]
Genevieve Manion
Half of the Ripper case, I have.
- [01:29]
Alonzo
Some things that I am very excited.
- [01:31]
Genevieve Manion
To talk to you about.
- [01:32]
Alonzo
First of all, I did something very fun and very courageous this week.
- [01:37]
Genevieve Manion
I had some big girl professional promotional photos taken by my dear friend Alonzo. Courageous because I really, really hate being on camera in general.
- [01:47]
Alonzo
As I've mentioned before, I'm working on it. I just feel like I never look like me in photos or videos. I always look like a. Like a TJ Maxx mannequin that's been propped up in a fashion adjacent pose, but with like scoliosis or scurvy or whatever is up with how they pose those mannequins, you know what I mean? I just don't feel right on camera.
- [02:10]
Genevieve Manion
So that took some bravery.
- [02:11]
Alonzo
But it was fun. It was a fun cemetery shoot. It reminded me of the time that.
- [02:16]
Genevieve Manion
I did a naked goth girl in.
- [02:18]
Alonzo
The cemetery shoot when I was like 18, as you do, and a gigantic stone cross fell on me and gave me a concussion. There's a picture of that, by the way, on the Instagram that was taken about a minute before that happened. I was still dressed at that point.
- [02:34]
Genevieve Manion
For the love of.
- [02:35]
Alonzo
Anyway, so ghosts were understandably very unhappy with me dramatically draping myself on their graves. We did go back, though, the next day and brought flowers and apologized for the shoot.
- [02:47]
Genevieve Manion
The other day though, I preemptively brought.
- [02:49]
Alonzo
Flowers to leave on all the graves.
- [02:52]
Genevieve Manion
And said thank you all along the way. As such, I left Greenwood Cemetery unscathed this time.
- [02:58]
Alonzo
Really excited to see how those photos come out. I also saw an amazing spooky movie.
- [03:05]
Genevieve Manion
So before we begin, allow me to.
- [03:08]
Alonzo
Share with you a fairly coherent spooky movie review. Oh, boy. Spooky movie fans. Have I got a real treat for you. And I don't mean that ironically. Stephen King's the Monkey out in theaters now is a movie that I cannot wait to see again. I usually am not at all into like super gory movies, but I was in this 100% of the seconds of this film, it has the most simple.
- [03:35]
Genevieve Manion
Moral to the story.
- [03:37]
Alonzo
We're all gonna die, some of us in comically terrible ways.
- [03:41]
Genevieve Manion
So we better do our best to.
- [03:42]
Alonzo
Enjoy ourselves while we're here and be present with those we love. That's all there is to it. But it's about a maniacal toy monkey that kills people. And people keep thinking that they can use it to kill people that they don't like, but the monkey just. It just kills whoever it wants to kill and no one seems to pick up on this. They never learned their lesson. And it's very funny. Stunt doubles definitely worked overtime for this. We've got some heads on fire. There's a 90s flame graphic shirt that every 11 year old boy wore in school made into a grown man's cummerbund corset. A woman explodes when she jumps into a pool. And I literally cried in the end after laughing the entire time through the whole movie and then instantly started laughing again.
- [04:28]
Genevieve Manion
I can't remember if I've ever even.
- [04:30]
Alonzo
Had this reaction to a movie. I was just so touched by the simple message in the end and thought it was so sweet and expertly crafted. I just burst into tears. And then within 10 seconds something disgustingly hilarious happened. So I just started choking, laughing on my sobs. It will warm your heart through and through, I promise. I did have my face buried in Chrissy's shoulder for a good amount of the goopier scenes, though she didn't mind. Stephen, the King yet again did not disappoint. The man is a national treasure. Okay, like last week, we are going to race through Haunted Housekeeping because I've got a lot to discuss.
- [05:10]
Genevieve Manion
We are making our way back to Whitechapel.
- [05:13]
Alonzo
Although, don't worry, I am not going to be bringing you to another terrible murder scene.
- [05:18]
Genevieve Manion
We are going somewhere more spooky today. Although, like last week, today's episode will include very graphic descriptions of murders. So please be aware that those will be discussed. All right. Before we begin.
- [05:34]
Alonzo
Thank you for rating the podcast on Spotify. Thank you for rating it on Apple Podcasts. You guys brought me to 4,005 stars on Spotify the other day and I also laugh cried into my coffee when I saw that.
- [05:50]
Genevieve Manion
It has been an emotional roller coaster the last two weeks. So thank you. Please continue to leave me comments there. Also on Instagram at myvictorianightmare and Blue.
- [06:01]
Alonzo
Sky where I'm just victorianightmare, I don't think you can. You're not allowed to make it any longer than that.
- [06:07]
Genevieve Manion
So it's just Victorian nightmare over there. You can email me@myvictorianightmaremail.com you can listen to the show ad free on my.
- [06:17]
Alonzo
Patreon, which you will find a link.
- [06:19]
Genevieve Manion
To@Myvictoriannightmare.Com and spring into spring with some precious all black Victorian nightmare merch that you'll find at the store on the site.
- [06:30]
Alonzo
Okay, intro complete.
- [06:33]
Genevieve Manion
Let's begin. My main references for today's episode are multiple articles From Jack the Ripper.org Written by By Richard Jones, as well as Wikipedia articles on all of the victims. All of my references can be found in the show Notes in our previous episode, I discussed the murders of Emma Smith, Martha Tabram, Mary Nichols and Annie Chapman. Nichols and Chapman being the first and second undoubted victims of Jack the Ripper. Suspect John Peiser, otherwise known as Leather Aproned local sex workers, had been ruled out in the case and hopefully took the experience as a lesson not to threaten women with violence and steal their money after the ordeal. And we left off with an ominous letter arriving at the Central News Agency on September 27, 1888, addressed to Dear Boss and signed Jack the Ripper. At first the news agency paid no mind to it, but decided maybe they should pass it on to the police after the death of Annie Chapman. This letter read, quote, I keep on hearing the police have caught me, but they won't fix me just yet. I have laughed when they look so clever and talk about being on the right track. That joke about leather apron gave me real fits. I am down on whores and I shan't quit ripping them until I do get buckled. Grand work. The last job was I gave the lady no time to squeal.
- [08:13]
Alonzo
He goes on about how he thirsts.
- [08:15]
Genevieve Manion
For more blood, how he finds it funny that they call him a doctor. He says, quote, my knife's so nice and sharp, I want to get to work right away if I get a chance. Good luck. End quote. He signs it Yours truly, Jack the Ripper. When the police saw this letter, they initially believed it to be a hoax. And they were likely right. It is believed that possibly this and all of the Jack the Ripper letters were fakes. The Dear Boss letter is believed to have been written by a journalist named Fred Best. And another of the famous letters, signed Saucy Jackie, is believed to be written by by his colleague Tom Bollen at the Star newspaper. This one was written in red ink and smeared with what appeared to be blood. In 1931, Fred Best confessed that he and Tom wrote those letters to drum up interest in the case. He said they both chose the name Jack the Ripper together. Over the next few months, hundreds of letters just like this would be received by police, narrative newspapermen and private citizens, adding more and more chaos to the investigation. But they didn't allow this first Jack the Ripper letter to be published in newspapers until three days after it was received. Because in that time, both the bodies of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes would be found. Before we speak about the lives and deaths of both Elizabeth and Catherine, would you follow me up these stairs here, up to this modest home in Bolton, Manchester. We're quite a ways away from Whitechapel at the moment. It is October 8, 1888, close to midnight. Catherine and Elizabeth were both found 10 days ago. And apart from police who are still desperately trying to find their killer, there are some other folks who have been trying as well. And we've been invited to this home to help. This is the home of Madame Stravinsky and her cult is preparing to perform a seance in the hopes of engaging the spirits to help them find the killer. Hello, darling. Oh, madam, thank you for having us. Come on in. We're just about ready to start. Right this way. We are being led to the dining room where there are four folks seated at the table.
- [10:50]
Alonzo
Excuse me.
- [10:50]
Genevieve Manion
Oh, hello, Jimmy. Madam will join them as the fifth. There are about 20 folks packed in around the room. We'll stay back here and watch from the shadows. Gas lamps are now being extinguished. Candles are being lit around the table. The group around the table are taking hands and it is quiet as the grave here. Step back with me further into these curtains and I will tell you about one of the women that they are hoping to contact on September 30th. Elizabeth Stride had spent the afternoon cleaning the rooms of her lodging house at 32 Flower street, for which she was paid sixpence. And then she left for a night out at 7.30pm Long Liz, as she was otherwise known, was Born in Sweden in 1843. In 1865, she gave birth to a stillborn child. She will later say that she had nine children that all died in the sinking of the Princess Alice ship in the River Thames, although it's not clear if this was actually true. And it's also unclear exactly why she chose to emigrate to London. She claimed that she had family there, but also told others that she came to be employed by a man as a domestic servant. She learned to speak both English and Yiddish. She married in 1869aman named John Thomas Stride, and they opened a coffee shop together. Although their relationship deteriorated, for the next few years, he sold the shop and they went their separate ways. Elizabeth took up residence in different workhouses and a few Years later, in 1884, her ex husband died of tuberculosis in the Poplar and Stepney Sick Asylum. After the death of her ex husband, she became involved in an abusive relationship with a man named Michael Kidney. She had filed assault charges against him, although she failed to pursue them in Court. At 12:30am on the evening of September 30, a policeman, PC William Smith, saw Elizabeth with a man approximately 28 years old, dark complexion, with a small dark mustache. He was about 7ft tall. He had a dark overcoat and a hard felt dark deerstalker hat. This is like the one that you often see Sherlock Holmes wearing. They were simply talking. Nothing appeared suspicious. Elizabeth had a flower pinned to her coat. She would be found just 30 minutes later at 1am by a man named Louis Deemshutz. He found Elizabeth laying against the outside wall of the International Working Men's Educational Club. It was a moonless black night and he didn't recognize her as a body at first. He prodded her with a whip, lit a match, which blew out instantly in the cold wind. But in that instant he could see that it was a woman. He would call for others to bring a candle and that's when they saw the blood. They winced in horror, seeing that her throat had been cut. Some members ran for the police, but word was spreading fast. There had been another murder. A crowd began to gather. At 1:16am she was pronounced dead by Dr. Blackwell, the coroner. She was wearing a silk scarf that he believed could have been used to grab her from behind before her throat was slashed, cutting completely through the windpipe. This would have prevented her from screaming and she would have died within a minute and a half. She still clasped a packet of cashews, confirming that it would have been a quick killing. She was not mutilated. Like the other women. But it is believed that the killer saw a man who briefly saw him and ran off. A witness named Israel Schwartz said that he had seen a man at that time in that place as he walked by, hurriedly walking ahead of him. But this man that he saw did not fit the description of the man who the policeman had seen seen Elizabeth with earlier. So the man who the police saw may not have been Jack. And only a short while later the body of Catherine Eddowes would be found. But come back with me to Madame Stravinsky's seance. Madame has since excreted some ectoplasm onto her chest. It seems her head is drooped back, her mouth is wide open, and that's her making that terrifying sound. Everyone in the room is humming. She's taking a pen in her hand and is now quickly writing onto a large piece of paper something. Okay, let's step back again into the shadows. Here it appears Madame Stravinsky has made contact with Elizabeth Stride. And tomorrow will deliver her message to the Star newspaper about the identity of the killer, which will read as follows. Quote. He has the appearance of a farmer, but is dressed as a navvy. He wears a dark mustache and has a scar behind the ear besides several other marks. When arrested, the police will be surprised as to the individual. He has a strap around his waist and peculiar pockets. He will be caught shortly. And that when in the act of committing another murder. After quoting the medium, the reporter of.
- [16:42]
Alonzo
That article writes, the medium might have.
- [16:44]
Genevieve Manion
Asked the spirit for the name and address of the next intended victim in order that she might be warned of her impending doom. There are several other little items of interest that appear to be omitted, such as, for instance, the farmer Navi's present location, also the nature of the contents of his peculiar pockets. We can readily imagine that the police will be surprised when they arrest him. So, shall we?
- [17:13]
Alonzo
Doesn't sound like the reporter took that lead very seriously.
- [17:17]
Genevieve Manion
I mentioned what a navi was in episode 27. These were men who were working on building the train systems through London. There were a number of other spiritualists, seers and dreamers that tipped off the police during their investigation. At this time, I do need to note, though, they didn't mention the medium's.
- [17:36]
Alonzo
Name in that paper I just mentioned, so I just. I gave her the name Madame Stravinsky.
- [17:40]
Genevieve Manion
That's the name of a medium in my favorite Stephen King series from the 90s, Rose Red.
- [17:45]
Alonzo
I just added the name for theatrical purposes.
- [17:48]
Genevieve Manion
But like I said, that seance and many other Seances did occur and delivered endless dead ends to police of the time, who were barraged with fake leads in every direction throughout the entire investigation, both before and after the deaths of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes. Catherine was born in Grazeley Green, one of 12 children, although only 10 would survive, which is actually very high for this time period. But her mother would die of tuberculosis in 1855 and her father also died by the time she was only 15 years old. She and her siblings were split up and she went with three other siblings to a workhouse as orphans. She was eventually able to move back in with family and an aunt and secured a job as a tin plate stamper, although she was fired not too long after, possibly for stealing. This caused a rift between she and her aunt. She moved in with an uncle, then a grandfather. She would come to meet a former soldier named Thomas Conway, who she would have three children with. There is no record that she and Thomas were ever married, but she had a tattoo of his initial initials done in blue ink on her arm. In 1873, Catherine began drinking, which her husband, a teetotaler, had no tolerance for. Fights between them were becoming violent, and she was often seen by friends with bruises on her face and black eyes. In 1880, Catherine left Thomas, leaving the younger children behind with him. Her oldest was already moved out and on her own. She moved to Spitalfields, where she would take up work as a domestic worker and occasionally hop picking. She began another relationship with a man named John Kelly, a fruit salesman, and they stayed together, and sometimes separately, at different lodging houses around London. Two nights before her murder, she stayed at the Mile End casual Ward lodging house. In making small talk with the deputy of the lodging house, she quipped that she was on the lookout for the Whitechapel murderer and intended to claim the reward for his arrest, telling him she thought she personally knew him. Whether this was just a joke or not is unclear, although it very likely was and just a terrible coincidence that she would make the joke at all. The next night, Catherine would be leaving Bishops Gate Police station in the City of London at the same time that Elizabeth Stride's body was being found. At 8:30 the night before, Catherine had given a drunken performance for a gathered street crowd, where she did a lively interpretation of a fire engine. She took a bow, laid down on the street and decided to take a nap. A policeman wandered by and asked if anyone knew her. No one did, so he and a fellow policeman decided to collect her and usher her down to the police station to sleep it off. When asked what her name was at the station, she replied nothing. They placed her on a bed in one of the cells and she fell into a deep sleep. When she woke up, she began singing to herself in her cell. The jailer came by to make sure that she was sober enough to leave and she was on her way out the door. At the 12:55am she said to him, good night, old cock. She then headed down to Mitre Square and at this time Elizabeth Stride's killer would be making his way down the square from the other direction. At about 1:30am Three men say that they saw a woman and a man together in this area. Although it was very dark, one of the men was able to provide the police with a description of the man that he saw with the woman. He said he had the appearance of a sailor and was about 30 years old, five nine, medium build. He had a small fair mustache. He had a small red neckerchief and a salt and pepper colored loose fitting jacket and he had a gray peaked cloth hat. However, despite this fairly detailed description, he maintained that he wouldn't be able to identify the man in a lineup. He could only remember his clothes, but not exactly what his face looked like. Fifteen minutes after these men saw who was believed to be Catherine Eddowes with this man, she was found in a pool of blood in Mitre Square at 1:44am By Police Constable Edward Watkins. Upon finding her, he ran to a nearby warehouse where he would find another policeman, George Morris, and cried, for God sakes mate, come to my assistance. Here is another woman cut to pieces. They both stormed back in her direction, blowing their whistles as they ran. Other policemen nearby ran to the scene hearing the whistles blaring. Catherine's mutilated disemboweled body was found laying on on her back with her head turned to the left in the southwest corner of Mitre Square. Her arms lay by her sides, palms up. A thimble was on one of her fingers. Her dress was pulled up over her abdomen. Her eyes and face had been slashed as well as her throat. The tip of her nose was cut clean off. Her intestines had been pulled out and drawn up to her right shoulder. A piece of the intestines was cut and placed between the left arm and the body. The right ear was slashed. A small bruise was found on her hand after the body was washed down. Luckily, it was determined that like the other victims, her throat was slashed first, rendering deep death almost instantaneous. Before any other mutilations could occur, it was determined by the coroner that the act would have taken about five minutes and was the work of only one person. Police fanned out and stopped every man that they saw in the square. All were released. But close to Catherine's body, the murderer left two clues. A blood and feces stained apron that appeared appeared to have been used to wipe the blade of a knife was found close by on a neighboring street. And above it, scrolled in chalk on the wall, were the words the Jews are the men that will not be blamed for nothing.
- [24:31]
Alonzo
Bit of a confusing double negative there.
- [24:33]
Genevieve Manion
Implying that the Jews will be blamed for something. Soon more officers noticed the graffiti and became very nervous. There had already been a swell of anti Semitism and threats of violence against the Jews when John Pyzl was being hunted as a suspect. And anti Jewish sentiment had already been stirring in the area for some time. They were beginning to fear that they may have a riot on their hands. The more people saw that graffiti and were anxious to erase was too dark to photograph so they couldn't record it for a few more hours. At 5.30am, Sir Charles Warren, the head of the London Metropolitan Police, ordered the message erased. The acting City Police Commissioner was infuriated at this, understandably. But many who saw the graffiti noticed that it appeared to be faded, old perhaps, that it had been there for a long time and had nothing to do with the case. So it's possible that Sir Charles Warren's decision did lead to the prevention of more bloodshed that day. At Catherine's funeral there was a crowd of hundreds. The man whom she had been living with off and on. John Kelly, attended the funeral beside Catherine's sisters and nieces. The Croydon's Weekly Standard described her funeral as such. Quote the footway was lined on either side side of the road with persons who were packed in rows five deep, the front row extending into the roadway. Manifestations of sympathy were everywhere visible, many among the crowd uncovering their heads as the hearse passed. The sympathy shown here was more marked than at any other point of the route, the majority of the women having no covering to their heads, whilst a number of roughly looking laboring men removed their caps. As the body passed opposite Whitechapel Parish Church, a number of policemen were drawn up, it being rumored that a demonstration might be attempted, end quote. It's unclear exactly what kind of demonstration may have been attempted, but public sentiment against the police and their inability to catch the killer was growing. Police at this time time in Whitechapel had never had to contend with a killer like this before and Forensic technology like fingerprint analysis and crime scene photography were not yet used in all crime scene investigations. They had very little at their disposal, apart from witness statements and coroner's reports, to go on. Police also at this time did not trust the press to accurately describe, describe the case and they were right not to trust them. This was the golden age of yellow journalism, where exaggerated and at times entirely bogus facts, quote, unquote, were published in the many tabloids of the time. The press didn't appreciate the tight lips of law enforcement so they often smeared them in daily papers, subjecting the police to a barrage of criticism. Police morale was low. More and more Jack the Ripper letters were arriving at newspapers, police precincts and private homes, including the infamous From Hell letter which was sent to a man named George Lusk, who was the president of the Mile End Vigilance Committee set up to help police find the Ripper. He had already received a few frightening letters that appeared to be written in the same same hand as the original Dear Boss letter. But this one that began From Hell, contained what appeared to be a human kidney. The letter, in very poorly written English, stated that the killer preserved the kidney for him. He ate the other and he may send the bloody knife he used to get it to him. He signed it, quote, catch me if you can. Mr. Lusk. Mr. Lusk. Lusk just believed that this was a sick prank, but he still brought the kidney to a doctor to confirm if it was in fact human. It was.
- [28:42]
Alonzo
But even still, it was the opinion.
- [28:44]
Genevieve Manion
Of both Lusk and the police and a few other medical examiners that this was just a prank perpetrated by a medical student unknown. And this belief is still maintained by historians. About three weeks later, the body of 25 year old Mary Jane Kelly would be found in her room at 13 Miller's Court, Dorset Street, Spitalfields. The last undoubted victim of Jack the Ripper and by far the most brutally mutilated of them all. Details about Mary's life before her murder are much less easy to trace than the other victims. And what is known is perhaps embellished. She went by a number of names, married Jeanette Kelly, fair Emma, Ginger, Dark Mary and Black Mary. She told a man who she had been staying with prior to her murder that she was born in Limerick, Ireland around 1863. But there is no found evidence for this. An acquaintance claimed that Mary had been disowned by her parents, but stayed in close contact with a sister. Mary's landlord, though, would confirm that Mary would serve sometimes receive Correspondence from Ireland. She had asked the landlord John McCarthy to read to her news in the papers about the Jack the Ripper case and so he believed that she was perhaps illiterate. When she was 16 she reportedly married a coal miner with the last name Davis or Davies who was killed in a mining explosion a few years earlier. Although it is said that after this event she became began to do work as a sex worker. There are no police records that she was ever arrested for this. It had been reported, although the source is unclear, that she found work in a high class brothel in the West End of London for a time and traveled to France with a high paying client. Though she returned only after two weeks, she over time gravitated toward the poorer streets of London's Ease East End. She met a man named Joseph Barnet whom she shortly moved in with. They found a single room on Dorset Street. Above the fireplace was a print of the Fisherman's Widow and a small tin bath was beneath the bed. Although at this time a friend of Mary's would say that she was heartily sick of the life that she was living in London and very much wanted to return to Ireland. She drank heavily and would become aggressive when she drank, earning her the nickname Dark Mary. But she would allow other sex workers to spend the night in her room. On cold nights she never refused them shelter. Joseph wasn't very tolerant of this, so he moved out. But he and Mary still stayed close. On the night of November 2, an associate of Mary's who lived in another apartment in her lodgings reported seeing her returning home at approximately 11:45pm with a stout red haired man aged approximately 36 who was wearing a black felt hat, had a thick mustache, blotches on his face and was carrying a can of beer. You may be noticing that all of the suspected men whom people saw with the women were different ages, wearing different kinds of clothes, they had different amounts of facial hair. Very few connections can actually be drawn from witness statements. This neighbor heard Mary close the door, start singing A Violet from mother's grave and she walked out for the night. On the morning of November 9, Mary's landlord sent an assistant to Mary's room to collect rent. She was six weeks behind, behind on her payments, so he knocked on the door but heard nothing. He peered through a broken window pane into the room and saw Mary's horrifically mutilated corpse laying on the bed. He ran for the landlord who came to see if he was telling the truth. Once he saw the carnage, he instructed the assistant to run to the police station. News of the murder was already beginning, beginning to spread and a crowd was beginning to gather outside the lodging house. Over 1,000 people quickly gathered on Dorset street after a few photographs were actually taken of the murder scene. Unlike the others, her body was rushed to a mortuary in Shoreditch and formally identified by Joseph Barnett, who was said to have only been able to recognize her by her ears and eyes. As mentioned, Mary's body was more savagely mutilated than any of the other women to date. Likely, the privacy of the room enabled Jack to take his time. The coroner claimed that it would have taken at least two hours to inflict the amount of damage to Mary's body. She was lying naked on the bed, head turned to the left. One arm flexed across her abdomen. Her fingers were clenched. The legs were posed wide apart. The skin of her abdomen had been completely removed and the inside of her body also removed. Her breasts were cut off, face hacked until almost unrecognizable. Throat slashed deeply. Like the other victims, body parts that were removed were placed around the room and under her body. Luckily, like the other women, the coroner believed that her throat was slashed first, killing her almost instantly before the other mutilations could take place. Detective Walter Dew described the experience of coming upon the body as such. Quote, as my thoughts go back to Miller's Court and what happened there, the old nausea, indignation and horror overwhelm me. Still, my mental picture of it remains as shockingly clear as though it were. But yesterday, no savage could have been more barbaric. No wild animal could have done anything so horrifying. The poor woman's eyes, they were open and seemed to be staring straight at me with the look of terror. End quote. On November 10th, the coroner, Thomas Bond, would officially link Mary's murder to the murders of Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes. Over the next six months, there would be a few more murders of women in Whitechapel. Rose, Milet, Alice Mackenzie, Francis Coles. And one more unknown woman would be added to the Whitechapel murders file. But it is not believed that they are tied to Jack the Ripper. Rose had been strangled. Alice showed a few similar characteristics of other Jack the Ripper victims, but not enough to tie her to the rest. Same for Francis Coles. There were similarities, but not quite enough. In the case of the unidentified woman, only her torso was found in a railway arch in Pynchon street, which was somewhat close to where Elizabeth Stride had been found. But her mutilations bore little similarities to the others, Jack the Ripper suspects climb into the hundreds, but only about 5 are considered somewhat likely. A man named Montague John Druitt was the top suspect, according to Sir Melville MacNaughton. He was the Assistant Commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police, who wrote a major report on the findings of the case. This was a man whose own family believed him to be Jack the Ripper. This man, a barrister, died by suicide not long after the death of Mary Kelly. He was found floating in the River Thames. The main two reasons he was a suspect was that the definitive murders stopped right after his death and his own family believed him to be the killer.
- [36:52]
Alonzo
That's literally it.
- [36:54]
Genevieve Manion
So there's really not much to go on there. There was Carl Feigenbaum, a German merchant and sailor. This man murdered a woman named Juliana Hoffman in 1890, and her murder included striking similarities to the murders of old Jack the Ripper victims. He was also discovered to have been working as a merchant on a ship that was docked near Whitechapel at the time of the murders. Records show that he was working in Whitechapel on every single date. Of the five confirmed victims, he was sent to the electric chair for the murder of Juliana Hoffman. There was, of course, Aaron Kosminski, still just a suspect today, but in the top three of Sir MacNaghten's list. He was known to have a pathological hatred of women, specifically sex workers, and was committed to a lunatic Asylum in 1889, one year after Mary Kelly's murder. Very little is known about Kosminski, though, other than medical records which state his occupation as a hairdresser and that he lived in London. He would be transferred to Leavesden Asylum in 1894 and live the rest of his life there. He was described there as being extremely deluded and morose, rather difficult to deal with on account of the dominant character of his delusions. Incoherent, apathetic, excitable, indolent, but quiet and clean in habits dull and vacant. However, there was a special note that he was not violent or considered any danger to others, apart from the fact that McNaughton and two other police officers who worked on the case believed Kosminski to be the most likely suspect. There frankly, isn't much to connect him to the case other than he was there in the area at that time and he didn't go to an Asylum until 1889, again one year after the murders. So again, not much to connect him, really. There is Charles Cross, the man who found Mary Nichols, or perhaps was found with Mary Nichols. After killing her. There's a theory that he was in fact the killer because his retelling of events and records have a few inconsistencies to the events as taken by the man who came upon him with many Mary, a man named Robert Paul. Also, Charles had allegedly given the police a false name. Researchers maintain that his real name was Charles Lechmere. However, he did give his correct address and showed up to the inquest for Mary as a witness. So there may have been another reason why he gave a different name.
- [39:38]
Alonzo
There are a few more pieces of somewhat circumstantial evidence.
- [39:42]
Genevieve Manion
He worked nearby, his mother lived nearby, but to me there just doesn't seem to be any smoking gun here, that's for sure, or anything close. There are other names, Walter Sickert, James Maybrick, Thomas Catbush, and on and on. There is not one name that is universally considered the most likely between Ripperologists or historians. Not even now when it comes to Cosmic Minsky with the DNA matching. And like I said in the last episode, there will likely never be a way to close this case, no matter what evidence is found, scientifically or otherwise, because killers are not found guilty in test tubes, certainly not in 137-year-old circumstantial evidence or even suspicions from family members. They're found guilty in court and there is no one left to put on the stand. After spending the last two weeks with all of these women, I came to see parts of myself in just about all of them. Perhaps for some of them you have too. Maybe in the things that we also wish we didn't have to do to survive in the toxic relationships we found ourselves ourselves stuck in, in the ways that we've numbed ourselves when life was getting too hard. Every woman has walked down the street at night in fear. It's important to remind ourselves when we hear stories like these that we are just as vulnerable, just as imperfect. No one does anything to deserve violence so that we don't close our hearts off to victims or close our eyes when we see someone in need of help. We may never bring justice to these women by revealing the name of their killer to the world, but I really hope that I did them all justice by my telling of their stories here. If you enjoyed this podcast and would like to hear more, please Rate Review Subscribe Please leave me comments. I love them so much. Be kind to yourselves and I will see you in your nightmares.