12-year-old girl Murdered in London July 1890?

[robhouse]

Does anyone know anything about this?

July 8, 1890

"The body of a girl of 12 years has been discovered violated and mutilated in the same style as the former victims, attributed to Jack the Ripper."

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=ST18900709.2.9&srpos=5&e=01-06-1890-10-08-1890--10--1-byDA---0ripper-all

[robhouse]

I am just bumping this thread... does no one know anything about this at all?

[Debra A]

Rob, the only murder of a 12 year old girl in london that springs to mind was in the West End of London, but she was found strangled in an uninhabited newly built house, not very Ripper-like, but as the newspaper is an overseas one, it could have been a corruption of that story.
Sorry to be so vague, I'm not even sure of the exact date of that murder, I think it was c 1890, and it's the only one I can think of and was unsolved.

[robhouse]

Thanks Debra,

Do you know anywhere I might find more info on that?

Rob

[Debra A]

Rob,
Here's one of a few articles about the case I mentioned, not Ripper-like as I said, but the location was London, the year was 1890 and the girl was young (14 in this report, 12 in the one you posted) she was also said to be brutally outraged before being strangled, and as far as I can gather the case was never solved.

Birmingham Daily Post Feb 15 1890

[robhouse]

Thanks Debra,

Very interesting. Of course it is some 5 months before the report I found in NZ, but it could probably be the same incident.

Rob H

[Debra A]

That's true, although the British papers were still carrying the story right up until the end of May, and then continued in September. The case actually received some of the most extensive newspaper coverage I have ever seen relating to a single murder. Also, I once saw a Newzealand paper reproduce a story from the British press some 12 months after the actual event, so could be, like you say.

[Debra A]

Interestingly the papers believed the murder of this girl was one in a series in the same area, linked to disappearances of young girls going back a number of years.
Does anyone know if this story appears in any books anywhere? I'd like to be able to read more on this.

[The Good Michael]

This was the Jeffs murder which an inspector Harvey was assigned to. We discussed any relationship to PC Harvey who was dismissed after the Whitechapel murders, but didn't find any connection. It is interesting, however, that PC Harvey was now living in West Ham at least as late as 1889, but maybe later, and that the investigating officer had the same surname. I think the same inspector was involved in the murder (whose name escapes me) that was the subject of a Sickert painting.

Cheers,

Mike

Here's a link with some discussion: http://www.casebook.org/forum/messages/4927/5780.html

It was written about by Colin Wilson

[The Good Michael]

Macnaghten discusses it:

One of the earliest, and one of the strangest,
cases which ever came before me was the murder
of a girl about twelve years of age. The victim's
name was Amelia Jeffs, and the locality was West
Ham.

About the 2gth of January 1890, at eight
o'clock in the evening, a Mr. Jeffs reported to the
police at West Ham station that his daughter
had gone out some two hours before to execute
some small errand and had not returned, and
that he and her mother were very anxious about
her. The usual steps were taken, but day suc-
ceeded day, and no tidings of the missing child
were forthcoming. At this time a severe frost pre-
vailed, and work on buildings came to a stand-
still. Somewhere in the vicinity a row of houses
had just been erected in what was, I think, called



MISSING CHILDREN 125

the Portway, but none of them was suffi-
ciently advanced for habitation. On the I3th of
February, about fifteen days after the disappear-
ance of Amelia Jeffs, a workman had occasion to
go to the top storey of one of these houses, and,
on opening a large fixed cupboard let into the wall
under one of the front windows, was horrified to
find the body of a fully dressed child, which had
evidently been lying there for some days. Police
were at once informed, and in due course the corpse
was identified as that of the ill-starred Amelia
Jeffs.

In company of several local officers I was on
the scene as soon as possible, and if ever a case
repaid local and personal investigation this was
one. The body looked as if it had been " laid out "
by loving hands, as for decent burial, the little
hands were crossed on the bosom, the frock care-
fully pulled down, and the hat, which must have
fallen off in the house, was placed at, but not
on, the head. A medical inspection showed that
the child had been brutally outraged and then
strangled to death by her own comforter, which was
still hanging loose around the neck. From the
surroundings the crime was easy of reconstruc-
tion. Somebody had inveigled the victim into
the empty house, the door of which had, probably



126 DAYS OF MY YEARS

by accident, been left open, and the assault
must have taken place as the last flight of stairs
was being mounted. The screams of the girl
must have alarmed the brutal assailant, who, in
order to stifle them, pulled tight the ends of the
scarf. When he released his hold the child was
dead. Horrified at his deed, and hoping perhaps
to find there was still life in the body, the murderer
carried it to the top landing, and, in the back room,
supported it against the wall : the marks of the
heels of the little boots were plainly discernible
in the thick dust always to be found in newly
built houses. Subsequently the corpse was
carried into the front room and placed, as already
described, in the cupboard under the window.

No one was ever made amenable for this
awful crime. But the difference between the cases
of Mary Bailes and Amelia Jeffs was that, whereas
in the former no clue of any kind was discovered,
in the latter very grave suspicions attached to a
certain individual. Legal proofs were wanting,
and, there being no sufficient evidence to justify
an arrest, it must be classified as an " undis-
covered " crime.

[Debra A]

Thanks for this link, Mike!

[The Good Michael]

Sure thing.

[Rob Clack]

Hi Debs,

I mentioned this case to you a couple of years back, there was a series of disappearances in the West Ham area dating back to 1881 of young children and some teenagers. I'll dig out the details.

The Illustrated Police News, Saturday 22 February 1890





Rob

[Debra A]

Hi Rob,
I didn't realise at the time these were the ones you were interested in, I thought you were on about some other more gruesome child murders related to baby farming, that's why I was put off looking at them. If I'd known then this is what you meant!....

Actually, I thought I mentioned this since then to you (not knowing it was the one you'd mentioned to me ), when we were talking about Anderson interrogating a murder suspect that he said he could tell was guilty just by looking at him.

[Chris]

Does anyone know anything about this?

July 8, 1890

"The body of a girl of 12 years has been discovered violated and mutilated in the same style as the former victims, attributed to Jack the Ripper."

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi...---0ripper-all

Evidently this report was quite widely circulated around this time, but the following from the West Australian of 9 July makes it look as though the crime actually took place in Dusseldorf, and that its location dropped out of most of the subsequent reports: