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A Ripperologist Article
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This article originally appeared in Ripperologist No. 6, June 1996. Ripperologist is the most respected Ripper periodical on the market and has garnered our highest recommendation for serious students of the case. For more information, view our Ripperologist page. Our thanks to the editor of Ripperologist for permission to reprint this article.
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Catherine Eddowes: Wolverhampton and Birmingham
by Dave Froggatt
The "Old Hall" building stood
on the site that is now the
Central Library in Wolverhampton. It had been rebuilt
in brick in the 16th century
for the Levesons, Lessee Lords
of Wolverhampton. In the 18th
century, Joseph Turton junior,
an iron factor, purchased the
hall. It later became known
as "Turton's Hall" and it was
here that the Old Hall Tin and
Japan works was situated. This
handsome building was
demolished in 1883.
Catherine was born in Wolver
hampton in 1842, the daughter
of a tinplate worker, George
Eddowes. George had been
apprenticed to the stamping
trade at the Old Hall works.
His father a tinplate worker
also, was the oldest hand in
the employ of the firm. George
married a young woman who had
been engaged as a cook at a
well-known hostelry in the
town, and the pair went to
London to seek their fortunes.
A large family numbering
twelve in all was born to
them, and a few years after
the birth of Kate the mother
died, the father dying a few
months afterwards. Catherine
was brought up by an aunt in
Bilston Street, Wolverhampton
from the age of six years
until she was a grown-up young
woman of 21 or 22. During this
time she was employed as a
colour stover and a grainer at
the Old Hall works.
When about eighteen years old, Mi
she went to stay with an uncle
in Birmingham. His name was
Thomas Eddowes, a shoemaker by trade living on what was known as "The Brick Hill", Bagot Street. She obtained work in the town as a tray polisher, with a firm in Legge Street. She only stayed in Birmingham however for about nine months and then went back to Wolverhampton, where she lived for a time with her grandfather also named Thomas Eddowes. She became associated with an old pensioner named Thomas Conway
(whose initials "T.C." were found tattoed on her arm at death), and left Wolverhampton
with him. She returned to Birmingham but did not live
with her uncle on that
occasion; he saw her frequently however. He denied that it was in Birmingham that she formed the acquaintance of
Thomas Conway. He spoke of Catherine as a "nice looking girl, very warm hearted, and of a lively disposition."
Catherine and Thomas Conway made their living by selling books written by Conway about famous people and hangings. They moved to several Midland towns. In 1880 they separated. In 1881 she joined John Kelly with whom she was living seven years later in his lodgings in Flower and Dean Street, in the East End of London. She met her death at the hands of an unknown assassin in Mitre Square on Sunday 30th September 1888, in the City of London. At the funeral, the mourning cortege had some difficulty in penetrating the large crowd outside, among whom threats against "Jack the Ripper" were loud and frequent.
Main Sources:
The Evening Express and Star, Friday 5th October 1888
The Wolverhampton Chronicle, Wednesday 10th October 1888
