Jack The Ripper by Mark Whitehead

Author:Mark Whitehead
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781904048695
Publisher: Pocket Essentials
Published: 2011-11-11T05:19:01+00:00

Jack’s Back

‘When the stolid English go in for a scare they take leave of all moderation and common sense. If nonsense were solid, the nonsense that was talked and written about those murders would sink a Dreadnaught.’

Robert Anderson

Following Mary Kelly’s death, Joe Barnett had been interrogated for four hours, his clothing examined for bloodstains and his lodgings searched. He was released, cleared of suspicion. Throughout the winter, the police continued their investigations, although overwhelmed by the size of the task. Despite the arrest of several suspects, none was ever charged with the murders. Kelly’s murder had brought a further flood of letters that had to be investigated. But with no recurrence of the Ripper’s activities, a gradual winding down began to take place towards the beginning of 1889. The amateur patrols and Vigilance Committees gave up due to the long hours.The special plain-clothes patrols were disbanded around February 1889, not so much out of certainty that the Ripper was dead or locked in an asylum, but more from the financial strain of paying the extra night duty allowances. Many of the extra uniformed police drafted from other divisions were kept on, at least until the summer of the same year. There were the occasional scares that the Ripper had returned.

Rose Mylett aka Lizzie Davis

A 26-year-old prostitute, Mylett was found at 4.15am on 20 December 1888 in Clarke’s Yard near Poplar High Street by PC Robert Goulding. Her body was still warm and there was no obvious sign of injury. A post-mortem revealed that there was physical evidence to suggest that she had been strangled from behind by a thin cord. The marks, however, were very faint and only covered a quarter of her neck. Despite one witness claiming Mylett had been drunk that night, no alcohol was found in her stomach. The police doubted the verdict of homicide, and were unable to find any cord near the scene. Dr Thomas Bond was asked to conduct a further post-mortem, he proposed that Mylett had choked to death while drunk, the mark on her neck caused by her stiff velvet collar. Bond’s evidence was thrown out at the coroner’s inquest by Wynne Baxter, who resented the intrusion. The jury brought in the same verdict as for the Ripper’s victims. Robert Anderson would later write that, if not for the Jack the Ripper scare, ‘no one would have thought of suggesting that it was a homicide’.

Alice McKenzie aka Clay Pipe Alice

Alice McKenzie, 40, was a charwoman and occasional prostitute. She lived at a common lodging house at 52, Gun Street with a labourer, John McCormick. On 16 July 1889, McCormick gave Alice their doss money for the night but they had quarrelled that day and Alice took the money and went out drinking. She was last seen some time between 11.30pm and midnight by a friend, Margaret Franklin.

Franklin was sitting with two other friends outside a barber’s shop in Brick Lane when McKenzie hurried past. She chatted briefly but told Franklin that she could not stop.

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