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Most Recent Blogs:
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August 27, 2008, 9:59 am.
Casebook Blotter: New Book: Elizabeth Stride and Jack the Ripper
August 22, 2008, 6:58 am.
Casebook Blotter: Remake of “The Lodger” in stores February 2009
August 20, 2008, 3:56 pm.
Rob Clack: Durward Street August 1956
August 12, 2008, 6:46 pm.
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Witnesses

Below is a table of witness descriptions pertaining to the murderer.

Witness Scene Time

Appearance

Diction

Patrick Mulshaw

Polly Nichols

4:00 A.M.

Suspicious

"Watchman, old man, I believe somebody is murdered down the street."

Emily
Walter (?)

Annie Chapman

2:00 A.M.

Foreigner aged 37, dark beard and moustache. Wearing short dark jacket, dark vest and trousers, black scarf and black felt hat.

Asked witness to enter the back-
yard of 29 Hanbury Street.

Elizabeth Long

Annie Chapman

5:30 A.M.

Dark complexion, brown deerstalker hat, possibly a dark overcoat. Aged over 40, somewhat taller than Chapman. A foreigner of "shabby genteel."

"Will you?"

J. Best
and John Gardner

Elizabeth Stride

11:00 P.M.

5'5" tall, English, black moustache, sandy eyelashes, weak, wearing a morning suit and a billycock hat.

(none)

William Marshall

Elizabeth Stride

11:45 P.M.

Small, black coat, dark trousers, middle aged, round cap with a small sailor-like peak. 5'6", stout, appearance of a clerk. No moustache, no gloves, with a cutaway coat.

"You would say anything but your prayers." Spoken mildly, with an English accent, and in an educated manner.

Matthew Packer

Elizabeth Stride

12:00 - 12:30 P.M.

Aged 25-30, 5'7", long black coat buttoned up, soft felt hawker hat, broad shoulders. Maybe a young clerk, frock coat, no gloves.

Quiet in speaking, with a rough voice

P.C. William Smith

Elizabeth Stride

12:30 A.M.

Aged 28, cleanshaven and respectable appearance, 5'7", hard dark felt deerstalker hat, dark clothes. Carrying a newspaper parcel 18 x 7 inches.

(none)

James Brown

Elizabeth Stride

12:45 A.M.

5'7", stout, long black diagonal coat which reached almost to his heels.

(none)

Israel Schwartz

Elizabeth Stride

12:45 A.M.

First man: Aged 30, 5'5", brown haired, fair complexion, small brown moustache, full face, broad shoulders, dark jacket and trousers, black cap with peak.

"Lipski!"

Second man: Aged 35, 5'11", fresh complexion, light brown hair, dark overcoat, old black hard felt hat with a wide brim, clay pipe.

(none)

Joseph Lawende

Catharine Eddowes

1:30 A.M.

Aged 30, 5'7", fair complexion, brown moustache, salt-and-pepper coat, red neckerchief, grey peaked cloth cap. Sailor-like.

(none)

James Blenkinsop

Catharine Eddowes

1:30 A.M.

Well-dressed.

"Have you seen a man and a woman go through here?"

Mary Ann Cox

Mary Kelly

11:45 P.M.

Short, stout man, shabbily dressed. Billycock hat, blotchy face, carroty moustache, holding quart can of beer

(none)

George Hutchinson

Mary Kelly

2:00 A.M.

Aged 34-35, 5'6", pale complexion, dark hair, slight moustached curled at each end, long dark coat, collar cuffs of astrakhan, dark jacket underneath. Light waistcoat, thick gold chain with a red stone seal, dark trousers and button boots, gaiters, white buttons. White shirt, black tie fastened with a horseshoe pin. Dark hat, turned down in middle. Red kerchief. Jewish and respectable in appearance.

(George Hutchinson's original testimony - Adobe PDF, 247KB)
PDF courtesy of Thomas Schachner

(none)


Related pages:
  Witnesses
       Dissertations: The Witness: How Well Do We Know Him?