An unknown female quoted by two sources as having been a Ripper victim in the alleys of Commercial Road on Boxing Night, 1887. The first source was Terence Robertson, who wrote in the October 29, 1950 edition of Reynolds News that "Fairy Fay" was the name given to a woman who was killed while taking a short cut home from a Mitre Square pub (although there was no such pub in Mitre Square). Inspector Reid was supposed to have headed the enquiry for a few weeks until finally frustration set in and, after no information was found, told Scotland Yard he was closing the case.

The second source having quoted "Fairy Fay" was Tom Cullen, who wrote in his Autumn of Terror the same story as did Robertson, including the important fact that she was, in fact, mutilated.^[1]

But that is where the sources end. Scotland Yard has no records of Reid's investigations. No newspapers have been found with any mention of a " Fairy Fay" dying on Boxing Night, 1887, or any other night for that matter. Same goes for the death registers. Even names with minute similarities to "Fairy Fay" were tried, but only three were found: Sarah Fayer, Alice Farber, and Emma Fairy. They all died in either December 1887 or December 1886, but none of them were murder victims.^[2]

It is because of this that the majority of Ripper authors believe "Fairy Fay" to have been a mythical victim, created by an overzealous reporter.

References

1. ↑ Autumn of Terror, Tom Cullen (Bodley Head 1965)
2. ↑ The Jack the Ripper A-Z, Begg, Fido, Skinner (Headline 1991)