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Hi All,
Here is a question—
Could Elizabeth Stride have committed suicide?
Dr. Blackwell [recalled] to the Inquest on Elizabeth Stride—
" . . . I do not think that I made myself quite clear as to whether it was possible for this to have been a case of suicide. What I meant to say was that, taking all the facts into consideration, more especially the absence of any instrument in the hand, it was impossible to have been a suicide. I have myself seen many equally severe wounds self-inflicted. With respect to the knife which was found, I should like to say that I concur with Dr. Phillips in his opinion that, although it might possibly have inflicted the injury, it is an extremely unlikely instrument to have been used. It appears to me that a murderer, in using a round-pointed instrument, would seriously handicap himself, as he would be only able to use it in one particular way. I am told that slaughterers always use a sharp- pointed instrument."
The Coroner: "No one has suggested that this crime was committed by a slaughterer."
Dr. Blackwell: "I simply intended to point out the inconvenience that might arise from using a blunt-pointed weapon."
The Coroner [summing up]: "Had some sharp instrument been found near the right hand of the deceased this case might have had very much the appearance of a determined suicide. But no such instrument was found, and its absence made suicide an impossibility. The death was, therefore, one by homicide, and it seemed impossible to imagine circumstances which would fit in with the known facts of the case, and which would reduce the crime to manslaughter."
According to Wynne Baxter, suicide was an impossibility, and Dr. Blackwell agreed that "the knife which was found" was "an extremely unlikely instrument to have been used."
These, then, are the facts as reported at the inquest into the death of Elizabeth Stride.
If we are to ignore Israel Schwartz and instead believe the 1.00 am murder-interruptus scenario, are we to conclude that "the Ripper" dropped "the knife which was found" or that another knife was discovered somewhere near her body?
That Stride may have committed suicide gained no traction in the popular Victorian mind.
I have absolutely no idea whether or not suicide may have been the case—that perhaps Stride had been cruelly spurned by her lover and decided to end it all—but it is certainly worth considering.
What led me to pose the question was the instance of a woman found by a beat constable lying in a pool of blood with her throat cut at 2.00 am on 31st March 1868 in Amherst Street, Calcutta, India.
The unknown woman, who had a small pointed supernumerary tooth between the middle incisors of her upper jaw, was eventually identified through the use of photography as Rose Brown, a prostitute. It was her death which led Commissioner of Police Sir Stuart Hogg to establish Calcutta's first detective department.
Here is Rose Brown's 1868 mortuary photograph—
And here is a newspaper cutting from Allen's Indian Mail, 9th July 1868—
Although there was a suspect in her death, there was also considerable medical disagreement as to whether she may have committed suicide.
There are certain similarities between the deaths of Rose Brown and Elizabeth Stride, but I shall leave the rest to recorded medical testimony and allow you to arrive at your own conclusions—
A Manual of Medical Jurisprudence [1870], by Norman Chevers, M.D., Surgeon, H. M. Bengal Army; Principal of the Calcutta Medical College, Professor of Medicine, and Senior Physician in the College Hospital; President of the Bengal Social Science Association.
"In 1868, there occurred in Calcutta a case which was, for months, known in the public prints as the "Amherst Street Murder;" but in which, although rather strong circumstances of doubt intervened, the evidence, to my mind, was very much more in favor of suicide.
"The body of Rose Brown, a healthy young East Indian woman, was found lying in the street, at daybreak, with the throat cut. My friend Dr. Colles found a very deep wound in the neck, beginning, in his opinion, about one hand's-breadth below the angle of the jaw on the left side, and passing across the throat upwards, and ending towards the right side. It divided the great vessels of the neck on the left side, and also the principal cartilage at the top of the windpipe. The vessels on the right side had escaped injury. The wound in the centre had extended to the spinal column, which was slightly marked. The length of the wound was about four or five inches, and the deepest part was about one inch and a half.
"The wound was quite straight, and this means that it was made by one pass of the knife. About an inch on the right extremity was a little tear or laceration which had been caused by a gap on the edge of the knife, or a stroke over the beads, or a sudden lunge of the head. The knife (produced) has no gap, but the would could have been caused by it.
"Dr. Colles mentioned to me a suspicious circumstance, viz., that there were no particular marks of blood on the right hand. " The wound might," Dr. Colles considered, " have been inflicted either by the woman herself, or by the hand of a second person. The inference against suicide is that the wound was "lower down the neck [than is usual in suicide]," and the force required to cut through the cartilage and down to the spinal column was greater than suicides generally show."
"The back of the left hand and outside of the left arm and forearm were covered with clay and blood." From the state of the body generally and that of the left arm, I am of opinion that the wound was inflicted while she was in an erect position, and that she almost immediately fell over on her left side." There was grave suspicion against one Madhub Chunder Dutt, who was proved to have been with her that night. The facts in favor of suicide were that Dr. Colles found "no other marks of violence on the body". It appears that there were no decided marks of struggling or scattering of blood on the road. Dr. Colles told me that her hair and dress were not disarranged. To his reasons against the suicidal appearance of the wound, Dr. Colles added, "but, at the same time, a determined suicide might inflict such a wound. I did express my opinion that the wound was probably suicidal, on account of the absence of any wound on the hand, thus showing that the woman had not put up her hand to save her throat.
"It was never hinted that the accused had accomplices who held the woman. If she had been held by one or two persons, would not the road and her hair and dress have borne evidences of a violent struggle, and would she not probably have aroused the neighbours by her shrieks before the division of the larynx could have been accomplished?"
"If," said Dr. Colles, "the wound had been inflicted by a second person, it might have been done from behind." Possibly, but then we have the question, whether the woman could well have been taken so much unawares as to fall dead under such a wound, without time for an instinctive raising of the hands to protect the throat, and also whether so deep and clean a cut could have been inflicted, at one stroke, from behind. Under such doubts as these the accused escaped. The knife was a long sailor's knife, moderately sharp."
Regards,
Simon
Here is a question—
Could Elizabeth Stride have committed suicide?
Dr. Blackwell [recalled] to the Inquest on Elizabeth Stride—
" . . . I do not think that I made myself quite clear as to whether it was possible for this to have been a case of suicide. What I meant to say was that, taking all the facts into consideration, more especially the absence of any instrument in the hand, it was impossible to have been a suicide. I have myself seen many equally severe wounds self-inflicted. With respect to the knife which was found, I should like to say that I concur with Dr. Phillips in his opinion that, although it might possibly have inflicted the injury, it is an extremely unlikely instrument to have been used. It appears to me that a murderer, in using a round-pointed instrument, would seriously handicap himself, as he would be only able to use it in one particular way. I am told that slaughterers always use a sharp- pointed instrument."
The Coroner: "No one has suggested that this crime was committed by a slaughterer."
Dr. Blackwell: "I simply intended to point out the inconvenience that might arise from using a blunt-pointed weapon."
The Coroner [summing up]: "Had some sharp instrument been found near the right hand of the deceased this case might have had very much the appearance of a determined suicide. But no such instrument was found, and its absence made suicide an impossibility. The death was, therefore, one by homicide, and it seemed impossible to imagine circumstances which would fit in with the known facts of the case, and which would reduce the crime to manslaughter."
According to Wynne Baxter, suicide was an impossibility, and Dr. Blackwell agreed that "the knife which was found" was "an extremely unlikely instrument to have been used."
These, then, are the facts as reported at the inquest into the death of Elizabeth Stride.
If we are to ignore Israel Schwartz and instead believe the 1.00 am murder-interruptus scenario, are we to conclude that "the Ripper" dropped "the knife which was found" or that another knife was discovered somewhere near her body?
That Stride may have committed suicide gained no traction in the popular Victorian mind.
I have absolutely no idea whether or not suicide may have been the case—that perhaps Stride had been cruelly spurned by her lover and decided to end it all—but it is certainly worth considering.
What led me to pose the question was the instance of a woman found by a beat constable lying in a pool of blood with her throat cut at 2.00 am on 31st March 1868 in Amherst Street, Calcutta, India.
The unknown woman, who had a small pointed supernumerary tooth between the middle incisors of her upper jaw, was eventually identified through the use of photography as Rose Brown, a prostitute. It was her death which led Commissioner of Police Sir Stuart Hogg to establish Calcutta's first detective department.
Here is Rose Brown's 1868 mortuary photograph—
And here is a newspaper cutting from Allen's Indian Mail, 9th July 1868—
Although there was a suspect in her death, there was also considerable medical disagreement as to whether she may have committed suicide.
There are certain similarities between the deaths of Rose Brown and Elizabeth Stride, but I shall leave the rest to recorded medical testimony and allow you to arrive at your own conclusions—
A Manual of Medical Jurisprudence [1870], by Norman Chevers, M.D., Surgeon, H. M. Bengal Army; Principal of the Calcutta Medical College, Professor of Medicine, and Senior Physician in the College Hospital; President of the Bengal Social Science Association.
"In 1868, there occurred in Calcutta a case which was, for months, known in the public prints as the "Amherst Street Murder;" but in which, although rather strong circumstances of doubt intervened, the evidence, to my mind, was very much more in favor of suicide.
"The body of Rose Brown, a healthy young East Indian woman, was found lying in the street, at daybreak, with the throat cut. My friend Dr. Colles found a very deep wound in the neck, beginning, in his opinion, about one hand's-breadth below the angle of the jaw on the left side, and passing across the throat upwards, and ending towards the right side. It divided the great vessels of the neck on the left side, and also the principal cartilage at the top of the windpipe. The vessels on the right side had escaped injury. The wound in the centre had extended to the spinal column, which was slightly marked. The length of the wound was about four or five inches, and the deepest part was about one inch and a half.
"The wound was quite straight, and this means that it was made by one pass of the knife. About an inch on the right extremity was a little tear or laceration which had been caused by a gap on the edge of the knife, or a stroke over the beads, or a sudden lunge of the head. The knife (produced) has no gap, but the would could have been caused by it.
"Dr. Colles mentioned to me a suspicious circumstance, viz., that there were no particular marks of blood on the right hand. " The wound might," Dr. Colles considered, " have been inflicted either by the woman herself, or by the hand of a second person. The inference against suicide is that the wound was "lower down the neck [than is usual in suicide]," and the force required to cut through the cartilage and down to the spinal column was greater than suicides generally show."
"The back of the left hand and outside of the left arm and forearm were covered with clay and blood." From the state of the body generally and that of the left arm, I am of opinion that the wound was inflicted while she was in an erect position, and that she almost immediately fell over on her left side." There was grave suspicion against one Madhub Chunder Dutt, who was proved to have been with her that night. The facts in favor of suicide were that Dr. Colles found "no other marks of violence on the body". It appears that there were no decided marks of struggling or scattering of blood on the road. Dr. Colles told me that her hair and dress were not disarranged. To his reasons against the suicidal appearance of the wound, Dr. Colles added, "but, at the same time, a determined suicide might inflict such a wound. I did express my opinion that the wound was probably suicidal, on account of the absence of any wound on the hand, thus showing that the woman had not put up her hand to save her throat.
"It was never hinted that the accused had accomplices who held the woman. If she had been held by one or two persons, would not the road and her hair and dress have borne evidences of a violent struggle, and would she not probably have aroused the neighbours by her shrieks before the division of the larynx could have been accomplished?"
"If," said Dr. Colles, "the wound had been inflicted by a second person, it might have been done from behind." Possibly, but then we have the question, whether the woman could well have been taken so much unawares as to fall dead under such a wound, without time for an instinctive raising of the hands to protect the throat, and also whether so deep and clean a cut could have been inflicted, at one stroke, from behind. Under such doubts as these the accused escaped. The knife was a long sailor's knife, moderately sharp."
Regards,
Simon
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