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Adam Went
Inspector
Username: Adamw
Post Number: 294
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Friday, July 29, 2005 - 6:07 am: | 
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Hi all,
I wrote this story for a study assignment about 3 months ago, and thought it turned out pretty well, despite perhaps sounding a bit childish (!), but it's been sitting on my computer doing nothing since then, so I thought I'd share it with you all.
Just one thing, I wanted to say that this is, of course, a fictional story, and while some of the places, occupations, names, circumstances, etc may be factual, it's a fictional story built off that, so please don't mistake my saying things like, for example, Aaron Kosminski was at Polly Nichols' funeral for being factual.
It was just a bit of an amateur story I wrote for something to do, which is fictional, but built off the Ripper case.
Aside from that, I hope you enjoy it, and any comments, positive or negative, are welcome and appreciated!
Cheers,
Adam. 
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BOOM! Inspector Frederick Abberline stormed into his Commercial Street office, slamming a bundle of paperwork down on his desk as he went. His offsider, Sergeant George Godley, followed in warily behind him. "What kind of person would do something like this?" asked Abberline, putting his head in his hands.
"It's a rough murder, that's for sure" added Godley.
The victim was 42 year old Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols, who was killed in Buck's Row, Whitechapel, London in the early hours of the morning of August 31, 1888.
Abberline and Godley attended the autopsy on the body, conducted by doctor Rees Ralph Llewellyn. Even he was astounded by the severity of the crime.
The crime-hardened detectives dropped their jaws as Llewellyn explained what had happened to the victim.
"As you can see, the killer has severed her neck very deeply. Almost decapitated her. Then he removed her uterus, and sliced up her abdomen. She wasn't just murdered, she was ripped to pieces. Only a medical man accustomed to the autopsy room could do a thing like this, I can assure you of that..."
"We've got to find the killer, George" said a still shaken Abberline as they left the mortuary. "Before he strikes again."
Enter the local hairdressers, the next day, at 6 AM.. Severin Klosowski, A.K.A. George Chapman, a Polish immigrant to London, has just opened up his shop in Whitechapel, and is shaving someone's hair. A lady walking past, Sally Young, hears an important piece of discussion between the hairdresser, and his male customer. "So it was you, then?" asked the customer.
"Yes."
"God Sev, what if they find out?"
"They won't. Nobody will ever know the truth."
Not paying much attention to this, the young lady continued on her way down the road. But as she walked past the local newsagents, she noticed a frenzy on the streets. Excited chatter. Men in suits and top hats reading the newspaper, shaking their heads. Women crying. Then she saw the headlines. "Brutal Murder in Whitechapel!! Fiend Unknown."
Stunned for a moment, she suddenly remembered the conversation she had overheard. Knowing what this could mean, she instantly ran for the Commercial Street police station.
"Calm down, Miss!" said the deskman. Abberline walked out to the front desk. "What is it?", Abberline asked the deskman.
"This young lady just walked in, I don't know what for, Sir."
"Follow me", said Abberline, beckoning her to come forward. In his office, the young lady re-told the story of what she'd seen, to a very interested Abberline. "Thank you for telling me, Miss" he said at the finish of the interview, and she was allowed to go.
Abberline then called Godley into his office. After telling Godley the entire story of the woman and what she'd seen, Godley asked "Do you want me to bring him in?" Abberline replied, "No, we haven't got enough on him yet."
"But if he's the killer."
"We can't know that, George. Not yet. It's way too early, and that is absolutely no indication that it was him."
"I know, Fred." Godley left Abberline's office, and both of them wondered how long it would be before the man they were hunting was, if he ever would be, brought to justice.
Three days later, on September 4, 1888, Coroner Wynne E. Baxter opened the inquest into the death of Polly Nichols. One of the jury men was so outraged at the crimes, and the polices' inability to capture the murderer, that he personally offered 30 pounds to the person who could come forward with a description of the murderer, which would bring him, eventually, to justice.
Dr. Llewellyn made the startling announcement that the Ripper was most likely a doctor or surgeon himself, and Wynne Baxter agreed, saying that the Ripper must have been a man himself, accustomed to the post-mortem room. Not only was there a serial killer in the area now, but he may also be the man who was treating these people as their trusted doctor! Panic turned to outrage very quickly.
The jury's verdict was that Mary Ann Nichols was murdered by "Some person or persons unknown." The inquest closed, without bringing an answer any closer to who the killer was
September 6, 1888. A wet, gloomy morning. And also the morning of Polly Nichols' funeral. Dozens of mourners followed the horse and cart carrying her coffin from the mortuary towards the graveyard, grieving for the woman who died at the hands of this killer. Dozens more stood around her burial spot as the cart arrived with her coffin, and she was prepared for burial.
Flowers were laid on her coffin by friends and mourners alike. And as the service by the Priest closed, and her coffin was lowered slowly into the pauper's grave plot, a young man stepped up to the side of the burial hole and looked down at the coffin. Everyone expected him to be simply another mourner paying his respects to the dead woman. But then, the unthinkable happened. He burst out laughing and cursing at the woman and her coffin as it was lowered into the ground! Falling to his knees, he yelled out "You deserved every last slice, you stupid whore!" . Everyone else was astounded. Fortunately 3 policemen who had brought the body from the mortuary were there, and the man was instantly arrested by the policemen.
"I'm not telling you nuffin'" he said in a slum tone at the station, as he was being interrogated by Abberline . "Oh yes you are - unless you want to end up on trial for multiple murder." There was a pause. The man was clearly not all there, and Abberline suspected he may have been in the early stages of insanity, simply by his demeanour and body language. "Fine. I was in Aldgate."
"Where in Aldgate?"
"Near Kearly & Tonge Buildings."
"Can anyone prove that?"
"Of course not!"
"And why were you there?"
"I sleep there."
"You're homeless?"
"Yes."
"Do you see the doctor?"
"No."
"What's your name?"
"Aaron."
"Aaron who?"
"Aaron."
"Don't play games with me, or you'll find yourself in deeper trouble than your little legs could handle."
"My name is Aaron Kosminski, alright!?" Abberline, satisfied, finished the interview, by asking Kosminski to sign a form for his release. "I can't write!" he yelled. After all of that, he even turned out to be illiterate. Abberline, frustrated, simply told him to get out.
September 8, 1888. The terrible Autumn weather of London continued, with non-stop rain and occasional thunder all day. 46 year old Annie Chapman had been out all day earning what little bit of money she could, but business was scarce, and by the time of nightfall, she still only had 3 pence on her. After spending some time in her lodging house in the suburb of Spitalfields, Chapman had been asked for her doss by the lodging house deputy, Ted Stanley. After revealing she didn't have enough, Chapman was kicked out of the lodging house by Stanley, but not before she told him what she thought of him. Alone on the cold, dark, wet night, Chapman began patrolling the streets hoping to earn enough money to pay for her bed at the lodging house. It definitely wasn't a night she wanted to stay outside.
After patrolling the streets of Whitechapel and Spitalfields all night without any success, Chapman had all but given up hope of returning to her lodging house. Turning into Hanbury Street, she was heading round the block again, just as the first rays of sunlight started to break the darkness. The weather had finally cleared up.
Then, just after she had passed her lodging house and was moving down Hanbury Street, she saw a man, alone, walking in the opposite direction to her.
Hoping to finally pick up some business, she hurriedly caught him and said "Hello there, Sir." Turning toward her, the man said "Hello, my dear. Are you on the rounds?" Chapman, knowing that she had finally picked up a prospective customer, said "Yes, I have been all night", just as she saw a middle-aged woman approaching them, in her direction. As the woman passed her, the man indicated the back yard of the house they were in front of, 29 Hanbury Street, and asked her "Will you?" Chapman replied "Yes." The witness was Mrs. Elizabeth Long, and she would be the last person to see Annie Chapman alive.
At 5:45 AM, John Richardson entered the back yard of 29 Hanbury Street, and the site he was confronted with was one that would never leave him. Lying parallel to the steps into 29 Hanbury Street, in between the steps and the wooden fence, was the body of Annie Chapman. Her head had been almost completely severed, and he immediately thought she was entirely decapitated. Her skirts were rolled up around her waist, and there was blood all around. There was a small pile of belongings next to her lifeless body. Horrified and scared, Richardson immediately ran for the police, and it was only minutes before the usually quiet Hanbury Street was filled with police, curious neighbours, and mobs. Once the full force of what had happened fit, neighbours began renting out their rooms for 1 penny to anyone who wanted to take a look at the body and the murder scene, and they made a lot of money.
Dr. George Bagster Phillips was the first doctor on the scene, and even he, despite being a doctor for 27 years, had never seen anything quite like this.
The body was carted away to the mortuary, to be prepared for autopsy, but still the crowds gathered in and around the small home.
"She died instantly. It must have been a large knife that she was killed with, for the mutilations to be this severe. My guess is a butchers' knife. Her body was not moved, and she put up no fight. Her uterus has been removed, as well as other smaller pieces of her abdomen. She was also drunk. This really is something else." Dr. Phillips told police officers at the mortuary. This was now the 2nd victim, with the same abdominal mutilations as Polly Nichols. Police now believed that they were killed by one and the same person. A shocking killer was now a shocking serial killer.
St. Jude's College, September 10, 1888. Two days after the murder of Annie Chapman. Teacher and lecturer, who also played with a local cricket club, Montague John Druitt was taking his first class after the weekend. The class mainly consisted of undergraduates who were hoping to become professional anesthetists, but Druitt liked to start the grueling week off on a light note, so he went around asking each student what they had done over the weekend It was just on this particular day that Edwin Brown, a student in the class, asked the question, "What did you do on the weekend, Mr. Druitt?". Druitt was hesitant to answer. "I was in London, Edwin. Staying in the East End." Naturally, the class was interested in the East End murders, too. "Did you see the Ripper?" asked Edwin, half-jokingly. "Edwin, never, ever mention him in this class."
"I was just asking, Sir."
"Then don't. I know things about the Ripper that I'll bet even he doesn't know. Now drop it." With that, Druitt turned around and began writing the class theory for the day on the blackboard, at the front of the room. Edwin slunk back into his chair and silence. But what his teacher had said started to make him wonder in his imaginative mind. Could his very own teacher, Mr. Druitt, be the killer? The thought eventually left his mind.
Everything was silent for the next couple of weeks, and the East End regained a certain degree of calm. People started to believe that the killer had left the area.
That was all changed forever during the early morning hours of September 30, 1888.
Elizabeth Stride was 45 years old, Swedish.and had just had a vicious argument with her lover, Michael Kidney. The argument resulted in Stride storming out of the house, and Kidney vowing never to have her back again. Alone and destitute, Stride roamed the streets, transforming back into her former prostitute self. She decided to head towards a spot where she knew there was a lot of pimps. Perhaps she could pick up her doss money for a lodging house there. As she passed into Berner Street, St. George's-In-The-East, she noticed under a weak gaslight, a second shadow. It wasn't hers. She swung around just in time to see a man wearing nothing but black, lunging at her with a knife. She screamed, and put up her arms in defence. It did no good. The man pinned her down. Just as he did that, the man noticed another man standing on the other side of the street - watching him. Not knowing what to do, he yelled out "Lipski!" . The man had an appearance of being a Jew, and "Lipski" was
a common local insult for Jews at the time. It stemmed from a Jew named Israel Lipski, a murderer who was hanged for killing Miriam Angel, just the year before, in 1887.
The man who was watching him would later become a very important witness - Israel Schwartz.
In the meantime, the attacker dragged Stride into a narrow passageway which lead into a place called Dutfield's Yard. He strangled her, cut her throat, and laid her on the side of the passage, where it was darkest. The Ripper had struck again.
But before the body could be mutilated, the killer heard a noise from just up the street. He recognised the sound as being a horse and cart. He quickly fled the scene, just before the cartman entered the passage. His name was Louis Diemschutz, and he found Elizabeth Stride's body. She was already dead, just in those couple of minutes.
September 30, 1888. 7:30 PM. The second victim for the night, Catherine Eddowes, has just been arrested for public drunkeness. She had wound up imitating a fire engine outside a fire station. She was taken to the police station and locked up, to sober up. At 1 AM, she was released, considered to be sobered enough to go and take care of herself. She would have just been leaving the police station at the same time Elizabeth Stride's body was found.
At 1:30 AM, 3 friends, Joseph Lawende, Joseph Hyam Levy and Harry Harris left the Imperial Club in Mitre Street, Aldgate. They saw the victim standing with a man, who was Jack the Ripper, outside Church Passage, which lead into Mitre Square. 15 minutes later, at 1:45 AM, PC Edward Watkins discovered Eddowes body, lifeless and with blood everywhere, in the very darkest corner of Mitre Square. The scene was investigated, but nothing was found, except for a small tin box - which was empty.
More horrifying was a message left by the killer, which was written in white chalk and was found later on, on the opposite side of the wall to where the murder took place. "There will be more like this to come - just you wait. Jack." It was written small, neat and in cursive on the brick wall - but it was scrubbed off instantly once it was found.
The police had only just learned of the murder of Elizabeth Stride, as well. It had been a "Double Event."
Witness descriptions of the night managed to home the investigation in on just the 3 suspects - George Chapman, Aaron Kosminski and Montague John Druitt. Hairdresser, lunatic and teacher. The police had quite a range of people to investigate. Fortunately, they already knew about all 3 of the suspects.
2 days later, Inspector Abberline and his off-sider, George Godley, sat in the Leman Street Police Station, discussing the 3 suspects. Godley asked the question "Who do you think it is, Fred?" Abberline replied
"Well I don't know, but we CAN eliminate one suspect."
Godley, surprised, asked "Who? How?".
Abberline replied, waving his finger at Godley, "I'll tell you."
"We can eliminate Aaron Kosminski. He may be a lunatic, but he's not the killer.
First, Dr. Llewellyn said that only a man with experience could be the killer. Kosminski was a slum, with no medical training at all. The witnesses described a well-dressed man.Kosminski, as we know, had dirty, horrible, old clothes. You can see by looking at the murders that the killer is very focused and knows what he's doing.Kosminski is half-insane, and probably schizophrenic.
But despite all that, most important is this..
There was a message on the wall from the killer at the Eddowes murder scene. We know it was him, because the killer signed it. And we know it can't be Kosminski..because Kosminski is completely illiterate."
Godley, shocked, really didn't know what he should say..
"Wow! Well, he was my favourite suspect, but I see that he couldn't be the killer. Good! But now, the question is this..Whodunnit? Druitt or Chapman?"
Abberline replied by opening a draw in his desk, "Look at this, George.."
It was a photo of George Chapman.
"What about him?"
"He's not the killer."
"What!? So you mean its Druitt!?"
"Yes. Chapman can't be the killer, George.."
"Why not?"
"Again, Chapman was not a medical man. He did not study medicine. Dr. Llewellyn was certain that the killer must have some anatomical knowledge.
Second, Chapman was running a hairdressers shop, in Whitechapel. Therefore, he has an alibi.his shop opens at 6 AM. The second victim, Annie Chapman, was murdered 2 suburbs away, in Spitalfields, at 5:45 AM. It's impossible that he could get back through 2 suburbs, walking, in time to open his shop by the dot of 6 AM. But we know he did.
So he has a logical alibi. He can't be the killer."
Godley, still stunned: "So what makes Montague Druitt the killer?"
"It's easy, when you think about it George.look at it this way.
Druitt was a teacher. But a teacher of what? He taught.."
Abberline paused.
"Medicine.
As a teacher, he would have carried chalk for his blackboards. The message from the killer at the Eddowes murder scene was written in chalk. He had money, which explains why witnesses say he was well-dressed. He worked at the school, on his own, at night - he could have simply walked off and nobody would have known any different.
.And most important, did anyone check the tin box found at the Eddowes murder scene for engravings? No."
Abberline pulled the tin out of his drawer.
"And look at it. In the bottom, you can see, it is marked with initials.M.J.D. He's the killer, George. No doubts anymore."
Godley himself suddenly realized that it all fitted together, and being so relieved that the case was finally solved, he jumped up and down, clapped his hands, and overall, acted very immature. But, understandably immature!
Finally, the words of Sergeant George Godley after all of that echoed what he, and everyone else in London, had been wanting to say for over a month..
"We did it. Now, let's go get him!!"
THE END.
-------------------------------------------------
"...Since then the idea has taken full possession of me, and everything fits in and dovetails so well that I cannot help feeling that this (George Chapman) is the man we struggled so hard to capture fifteen years ago..."
- Inspector Frederick Abberline, March 1903 interview, Pall Mall Gazette .
Hmmm.....
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