St. James's Budget
September 8th, 1888
Page 18
The horrible details of the murder that was committed so mysteriously in the
Whitechapel road last week are as gruesome as anything in E. A. Poe's tales of crime. It
is surprising and not at all reassuring to know that a person may be murdered almost in
daylight -- for the body of the murdered woman was still warm when it was found at a
quarter to four in the morning -- in a densely populated district without anybody being the
wiser until the murderer has got a good start. It is little more than three weeks since
another woman was found murdered upon the steps of a lodging house in Whitechapel,
and the police have altogether failed to discover the doer of that deed. It has been
suggested that both crimes are the work of a homicidal lunatic, so utterly causeless and
barbarous do they appear. At present they certainly do seem to have a good deal in
common with those "Murders in the Rue Morgue" which were found to have been
perpetrated by a gorilla.
Page 32
THE MURDER IN WHITECHAPEL.
The body of the woman who was found murdered in Buck's-row,
Whitechapel-road, early on the 31st of August has been identified as that of Mary Ann
Nicholls, also called "Polly" Nicholls. She and a woman named Monk were inmates of
the Lambeth Workhouse together in April and May last, the deceased having been passed
there from another workhouse. On the 12th of May, according to Monk, Nicholls left the
workhouse to take a situation as servant at Ingleside, Wandsworth-common. It
afterwards became known that Nicholls betrayed her trust as domestic servant by stealing
£3 from her employer and absconding. From that time she had been wandering about.
Monk met her, she said, about six weeks ago, when herself out of the workhouse, and
drank with her. At the coroner's inquest, Edward Walker of Maidwell street,
Camberwell, deposed that he had seen the body, and recognized it to be that of his
daughter. He recognized her by her having some teeth out in the front and by a scar on
her forehead. He had not seen her for three years. She was married about twenty-two
years ago. Her husband's name was William Nicholls, and he was still alive. They had
been separated for seven or eight years. She was about forty-two years old. The
deceased and her husband parted when the youngest child was about a year old. Four of
the children are now living at home with their father. The witness heard some time ago
that the deceased was living with a man name Thomas Drew, in York-street, Walworth.
Drew was a master smith and the witness believed that he was living at York-street now.
The deceased was in Lambeth Workhouse in April last, and went from the workhouse to
Wandsworth. After further evidence had been taken, the inquiry was adjourned.
