The Times (London).
4 July 1889
Yesterday afternoon Mr. Wynne E. Baxter, Coroner for South east Middlesex, resumed his adjourned inquiry at the Vestry hall, Wapping, respecting the finding of a portion of the remains of a human body, supposed to form part of the limbs of a woman named Elizabeth Jackson, which were found in the river Thames on the 4th ult. Detective Inspector Tonbridge (Scotland Yard) and Detective Inspector Regan watched the case for the Criminal Investigation Department.
On the last occasion a witness proved having his attention drawn to something wrapped in a portion of a pair of woman's drawers, which some boys were throwing stones at while it was floating in the water near the foreshore off Wapping. The witness got it ashore, and, finding the parcel to contain the remains of a human body, he called the attention of the Wapping police to the discovery, and they took charge of the portions and removed them to the mortuary, where they were seen by the divisional surgeon.
Dr. Michael M'Coy, of 300 Commercial road, assistant divisional surgeon, said on Tuesday the 4th of June last, he was called to the Thames police station, Wapping, where he was shown a portion of a human body. He found it to be two pieces of flesh of the front of a woman's abdomen and the uterus. Witness should say the woman had been pregnant about eight months.
Inspector J. Tonbridge stated that the portion of a woman seen by the jury was taken after the inquest to the Battersea Mortuary. Other portions were subsequently found in the Thames - the whole body, with the exception of the head, a hand, and some internal organs. An inquest had been held at Battersea, and Dr. Bond had proved that all the portions, including the part in question, belonged to the same body. The latter had been recognized by the clothing and marks as that of Elizabeth Jackson, aged 24 years, a single woman, of no occupation, whose last known address was 14 Turk's road. The medical evidence proved that the cutting up took place after death, and there was nothing to show what was the cause of death. There was no evidence as to how the parts got into the river.
The Coroner said that was all the evidence he proposed to receive. Other portions of the body had been found at the West end, and an inquest had been held and adjourned at Battersea. He suggested that the jury should return a formal verdict.
The jury returned a verdict to the effect that the portion of the body found at Wapping was part of the body of Elizabeth Jackson, but how she came by her death or how the parts got into the water there was no evidence to show.
