This article originally appeared in The Journal of the Whitechapel Society. For more information, view our Journal of the Whitechapel Society page. Our thanks to the Whitechapel Society for permission to reprint this article.
| A Journal of the Whitechapel Society Article |
|
This article originally appeared in The Journal of the Whitechapel Society. For more information, view our Journal of the Whitechapel Society page. Our thanks to the Whitechapel Society for permission to reprint this article.
|
|
Here's a question. What links Mary Kelly to a famous quotation from Winston Churchill? The answer is his description of Russia: "an enigma within a riddle within a mystery". Was she: "tall and pretty and fair as a lily" ( Elizabeth Prater and John McCarthy ), or: "short, stout and dark" with protruding false teeth ( Maurice Lewis and Elizabeth Phoenix )? What was her real name and age, where was she from originally and was she in hiding from someone? Was it even her corpse which was found at Miller's Court?
These are questions which may never be answered, at least not to everybody's satisfaction. And I am about to add another one. But that later. For the moment, we return to a subject which I first broached in my 1995 book: Jack the Ripper: Anatomy of a Myth;-when, on that fateful long ago morning, did Mary meet the man who killed her?
Her body was found at 10.45 a.m. on November 9th, 1888, lying on her bed in the one room hovel which she called home, 13, Miller's Court, a wretched little cul-de-sac running off Dorset street in Spitalfields. The Parish lay within the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Police force. Almost three hours elapsed before they entered no 13. At 2.00 p.m. Dr. Thomas Bond, the Met's special medical consultant on the jack-the-ripper murders, made an initial examination of Kelly's remains. Also present, amongst others, was the local Police Surgeon, George Bagster Phillips, alongside Dr. Frederick Brown who was representing the rival City of London Police service. Dr. Bond concluded that: "1 or 2 in the morning would be the probable time of the murder"
The Metropolitan Police detectives investigating the crime did not altogether go along with their expert on this, favouring between 3.30 & 4.00 a.m., the time-span during which two of Kelly's neighbours heard a cry of "murder". But un-remarked, both at the time, and since, was Dr. Phillips' assessment of 5.00 to 6.00 a.m., a difference of three to five hours with Dr. Bond.
Unfortunately, Dr. Brown's report to the City Police is not available;- their "ripper" files were destroyed during the blitz. But a possible clue to what it contained may be found in a lengthy piece which was published in the "Philadelphia Times" on December 3rd, 1888. A clipping of the article is preserved amongst the Met's files (MEPO 3/140). The Journalist bases his report on what he calls: "a thoroughly reliable source" ( my emphasis), and the contents leave no doubt that that source is a city detective, possibly-given the importance which the Met. clearly attached to it-Inspector James McWilliam, head of the City Detective Department.* What is particularly intriguing are these remarks at the conclusion of the article:
"The last murder, on November 9th, came as a great surprise to them (the city detectives ), but it was skilfully timed, as that being Lord Mayor's day, on which the City is thronged with sight -seers, every available City detective and policeman was on street duty" (my emphasis ).
"Rigor mortis had set in, but increased during the progress of the examination. ( my emphasis ). From this it is difficult to say with any degree of certainty the exact time that had elapsed since death as the period varies from 6 to 12 hours before rigidity sets in. The body was comparatively cold at 2 o'clock..."
