Murders Info Required

[Uncle Jack]

Good day to you all.

I have just come across a list I made sometime ago. It is a list of women (including Ripper victims) and I am unable to find anything about some of these women and their murders. They are:

Mrs. Woolfe
Mary Ann Johnson (not the recent murder)
Alice Graham
Dora Kiernnike
Estelle Praager

If anyone can throw any light on these, I would be forever grateful.

Thanks

Kind regards,

Adam

[Chris Scott]

There are many accounts of the Woolf(e) case. As I remember she was an elderly German woman and, if I remember rightly, suspicion fell on her son regarding an insurance policy on her
I'll dig out a version and post it
Chris

[Chris Scott]

Middletown Daily Times
Middletown, New York, U.S.A.
8 August 1891

THE POLICE POWERLESS
THEY HAVE NO HOPE OF CATCHING THE RIPPER
DISCREDITING HIS LATEST DEED
London, Aug. 8.
The London police insist on a theory of suicide in the case of the old woman Woolfe found dying from horrible wounds that suggested the work of Jack the Ripper. The police have found that the woman was insured for £30 for the benefit of her son, and they allege that she probably cut herself with the razor in order to give the impression of a Ripper murder and to secure the insurance to her son, she being aged and feeble and with no interest in life.

[Chris Scott]

Stevens Point Daily Journal
Wisconsin, U.S.A.
15 August 1891

JACK THE RIPPER
London Again Shocked by His Villiany - An Aged Woman the Latest Victim of the Fiend - Futile Efforts to Find the Butcher - A Terrible Record of Crime

London, Aug. 8.

Much excitement was occasioned in the Whitechapel district when it was known that the dreaded "Jack the Ripper" had again appeared and had murdered an aged woman named Woolfe. The fiend used his knife with ferocity. He grasped the woman by the head, and drawing her backward he, with one hand across her mouth, silenced the cries she would naturally have tried to make, while with the other hand he drew the keen-bladed knife across her tightly drawn throat, inflicting a terrible wound. Then using the knife as a dagger he plunged it into her body again and again. There is a deep wound on the woman's arm which it is believed was received while she was attempting to ward off the ferocious blows aimed at her body.

When her assailant released her from his grasp she fell upon a doorstep. Despite her terrible injuries she still retained possession of her senses, and though the wound in her throat was bleeding profusely she was able to articulate. Several persons passed while she was lying on the doorstep, and though they endeavored to ascertain what the trouble was, she could not speak English sufficiently well to make them understand that an attempt had been made to murder her.

The woman was taken to a hospital and after a time she recovered sufficiently to tell of the attack upon her. She is German, and unlike the other women murdered and mutilated in Whitechapel, she was not in the company of the man who attacked her, but was passing along the street, when, without warning, the assassin sprung upon her. She saw the glitter of the upraised steel blade, but was unable to escape from the grasp of her assailant. She raised her arm to defend her throat from the sweeping blow aimed at it, and it was through this movement that the wound in her arm was received.

It is understood that the police found a razor covered with blood near the scene of the crime. The wound in the woman's throat could have been caused by a razor, as could also the deep cut in her arm, but from the nature of the other wounds it is believed that they were caused by either a knife or a dagger, as they appear to be stab wounds and not such as would be made with a razor.

One man has been taken into custody on suspicion of being the assassin but the evidence against him is very weak.

[Chris Scott]

Alice Graham was the woman attacked by William Grant Grainger
For details see:

http://www.casebook.org/ripper_media/book_reviews/non-fiction/cjmorley/71.html

[Chris Scott]

Mary Ann Johnson was a prostitute attacked by Albert Hawthorne
The report below is from The Times, 5 December 1892

[Chris Scott]

I think it likely the Estelle Praager you mention refers to Esther Praager, a 17 year old Jewish woman murdered in Bloomsbury in 1908
I have details of this case if you want me to post them
Chris

[Chris Scott]

The "Dora Kiernnike" you refer is probably Dora Piernick, murdered in Whitfield Street in 1904
the extract below is from The Times, 2 February 1904

[Uncle Jack]

I think it likely the Estelle Praager you mention refers to Esther Praager, a 17 year old Jewish woman murdered in Bloomsbury in 1908
I have details of this case if you want me to post them
Chris

That would be fantastic Chris.

Thanks for all the info mate, you are a star

Kind regards,

Adam

[Chris Scott]

Hi Adam
You're very welcome - glad I could help

The Times
22 Oct 1908

[Chris Scott]

The Times
27 Oct 1908

[Uncle Jack]

I found another name on my list and wondered if anyone can throw light on her. It is Annie Hancock.

Best rgwards

Adam

[Chris Scott]

Hi Adam
Details of the Hancock case below

The Times
20 November 1888

[Uncle Jack]

Chris, mate, you are a star

Best regards,

Adam

[Simon Wood]

Hi Adam,

The Star followed the Florence Hancock story in some depth.

THE STAR 13/11/88

MYSTERY OF A MISTRESS.

A Young Woman Who Lived at Brixton found Drowned in the Thames.
Coroner Baxter held an inquest yesterday at Shadwell, on Florence A. Hancock, aged 26. She was found in the Thames, off Wapping, on Friday last, and her body had been in the water about a week. Up to the opening of the inquest the body remained unidentified, and then a neatly though fashionably dressed young woman came forward and said her name was Maud Jennings, the wife of a ship's steward, and she lived at 13, Puross-road, Brixton, of which house the deceased was the occupier. She had seen a description of the deceased in the newspapers, and identified her by her clothes as well as by a brooch and other articles the deceased was wearing. The deceased was the wife of George Hancock, formerly a bus conductor. She was separated from him, and had since been living under the protection of a gentleman whom witness knew as Mr. Pain, who was connected with the cattle trade. He allowed her £5 per week and usually came to town twice a week. The deceased left home on Monday afternoon, 22 Oct., to go and meet him at King's-cross, and she never returned. Deceased had been seen at Charing-cross, and also at Ludgate-circus, the same evening. She had two children away at school. She had never threatened to commit suicide to witness's knowledge. She was in no trouble, but was of a most lively disposition, and one not at all likely to take her life. The inquest was adjourned.

When the body was found it was fully dressed, with the exception of the hat and boots. On the day since which she was missed she was seen walking along the Strand with a tall, fair gentleman with heavy moustache. She was then wearing a gold necklace. When the body was recovered the necklace was missing. It is expected that the evidence given on the resumption of the inquest will be of a sensational character.

THE STAR 15/11/88

FLORENCE HANCOCK.
THE MYSTERY OF THE DEATH OF THE BRIXTON WOMAN DEEPENS.
Inquiries Tend to Discredit the Theory of Suicide - Her Protector Interviewed - The Police Have at Last Taken Up the Case.

All endeavors to elucidate the circumstances of the death of the poor girl Florence Hancock only draws the folds of mystery more closely around it. It was on Friday last, it will be remembered, that a waterman found a body floating in the river of Shadwell. It was brought ashore and laid in the Wapping Mortuary unidentified. On Monday an inquest was held, and a girl named Maud Jennings came forward in consequence of having seen a description of the body in the newspapers and identified it as that of her friend Florrie Hancock, with whom she lived at 13, Pulross-road, Brixton, and who had been missing since 22 Oct. A Star reporter, in order, if possible, to ascertain something likely to throw light on Hancock's death, has found out all about her. Her mother keeps a lodging-house at Claud-road, Peckham, and she says that her daughter was about 28 years of age, and was the wife of a 'bus conductor named George Hancock, who left her with two children several years ago, and whom his wife supposed to be dead. At all events she seems to have been living a life of "pleasure" for a good many years. For some time she was the mistress of a gentleman named Nash, who was a man of means, but who died some time ago. After that she seems to have descended for a time to promiscuity, and she then made the acquaintance of a man named Frank Pain, a salesman, who set her up in a dairy at Hackney. She still went by

THE NAME OF MRS. NASH.

The dairy apparently did not answer, and she removed to a private house, changing about from quarter to quarter as such girls generally do. About a year ago she took the house at 13, Pulross-road, Brixton, furnishing it on the hire system. Here the girl Jennings came to live with her. She and Jennings had been friends for many years. Pain still made her a weekly allowance, which she boasted of as being £5 a week, but there is reason to believe it was not nearly so large. Now we come to the 22nd . On the night before that day she and her servant-girl sat up to a very late hour finishing a new costume, and her mother understood that she expected Pain was going to take her out of town for a holiday. At all events, about four o'clock in the afternoon she left home dressed in brand new clothes from head to foot. She had to meet her friend soon after five o'clock at Liverpool-street Station. She was never seen alive again at her

[Sketch of Florence]

home. For a day or two not much notice was taken of her absence, as it was thought she had gone to Brighton or elsewhere with her friend, but soon the girl Jennings

BEGAN TO GET ALARMED,

and made inquiries. She found that Florrie had been seen on the same night that she left home, once in Jones's public-house in Ludgate-hill, where at about eight o'clock she was drinking with another woman, and afterwards at the Northumberland in the Strand. At twelve o'clock she went with a girl who is known as Beatrice, and belongs to the Charing-cross division, to have a drink. Beatrice does not think that at that time she had more than a little money - any more, in fact, than the sixpence with which she paid for the drink they had together. But in the Northumberland she met with a man. He was tall and fair, with a heavy moustache, and after talking to him for a minute or two she went away, telling Beatrice that she would see her again. There was nothing in her manner at that time to give the impression that she was in trouble. She was, as far as has yet been ascertained, never seen alive again. In the course of his investigation, The Star man found that shortly before this date she and Mr. Pain had had a tiff. "He had found her out," the girls who knew her say. He discovered her with another man in the King Lud public-house, and they had a quarrel. It was made up, but there seemed a probability that something of a similar nature had happened again, and that Mr. Pain, having broken off the connection, she had in a fit of passion thrown herself into the water. So last night

OUR REPORTER FOUND OUT PAIN,

and had a conversation with him. He knew then for the first time that the girl was dead, and seemed terribly distressed at the news. They parted good friends, he said. She met him on the 22nd at Liverpool-street and saw him off at once by train. They arranged to meet again on the following Wednesday. She did not come, and after that he went out of town for a time. When he returned he called on Monday last at Pulross-road to inquire for her, and then found that she was missing. Neither Pain nor any other of her friends is able to suggest any motive for suicide. Now it was nearly three weeks between her disappearance and the discovery of her body in the Thames. The doctor stated at the inquest that the body had been in the water about a week. If this is to be relied upon there is nearly a fortnight to account for. The portrait we give herewith may enable someone who saw her in the interval to recognise her and throw some light upon her movements. It was at first thought that robbery might have prompted somebody to throw her into the water, since the gold necklace which she was said to be wearing had disappeared when she was found. But the necklace, it now transpires, has been found at her house. Her death is a complete mystery. Maud Jennings, her fiend, refuses to believe she committed suicide.

"THERE WAS SOME FOUL PLAY,"

she maintains, and night and day she is devoting herself to the endeavor to find out how her friend died. Apparently she only has any interest in the matter, for the police have been doing so little that it was not until last night they took the trouble to see Mr. Pain. However, Detective David Francis, of Wapping, now that the authorities perceive there may be something serious in the case, has been entrusted with the investigation, and we shall wait with expectation to see what light he is able to throw on the subject at the adjourned inquest.

The Star
TUESDAY, 20 NOVEMBER, 1888.

WHAT WE THINK.
"The inquest yesterday on the woman Florence Hancock added little or nothing to the facts already made public in The Star. We have an apparently trustworthy description of the man with whom the deceased was last seen as "a tall, fair man, with a heavy moustache;" we have also Mr. Pain's word for it that she had on one or two occasions wished she was dead. This, however, comes to little when taken with the general evidence as to her manner and spirits before her disappearance. Mr. Pain says that he gave her no money when he last met her (though here again there is a contradiction in the evidence), and this coupled with the fact of the gold chain being found on her, throws doubt on robbery as the motive for the crime - if crime there was. We still believe that there was, and that this is probably only one more instance where the helplessness of our detective police will be demonstrated."

Regards,

Simon