Tweet
Courtesey of Dusty Miller (drstrange169), I've transcribed the Sunderland Daily Echo of the day following the murder of Mary Ann Nichols:
Sunderland Daily Echo, Saturday, September 1, 1888
THE WHITECHAPEL MURDER
THE BODY IDENTIFIED.
CIRCUMSTANTIAL ACCOUNT.
The Star reporter says: - The horrible brutality of the murder increases as the circumstances which attended it are developed. Everything indicates that it is the work of a fiend who was in murderous frenzy. The murdered woman and the murderer were evidently chance acquaintances, as she had every appearance of a street wanderer, and neither by her looks nor her circumstances seems likely to have inspired a premeditated crime. No one is missing in the neighbourhood so far as discovered, and the general supposition is that wandering the streets at three o’clock yesterday morning she met in Brady Street
THE GHOUL THAT CUT HER TO PIECES.
It was evident yesterday morning that the murder was committed some distance from the place where the body was found. This was in Buck’s-row, about midway down its length. Buck’s-row is a short street, occupied half by factories and half by dwellings. Half-way down the street is the house or Mrs Green. Next to it is a large stable yard, whose wide closed gateway is next to the house. In front of this gateway the woman was found by two men, who at first supposed her to be drunk, but closer inspection showed first a pool of blood in the gutter just before her, and then the deathly whiteness of the woman’s face stained with blood. One of them remained by her, while the other found Constable Neil. Constable Neil immediately woke the Green family, and asked them if they had heard any unusual noise. Neither Mrs Green, her son, nor her daughter, all of whom were sleeping within a few feet of where the body lay, had heard any outcry. All agreed that
THE NIGHT WAS UNUSUALLY QUIET.
“I should have heard it had there been any, I think,” said Mrs Green, “for I have trouble with my heart and am a very light sleeper. My son went down as soon as the body was taken away, and washed away the blood stains on the pavement. There was quite a little pool, though I understand most of it soaked into the woman’s dress. I looked out and saw the body as it lay there. It was lying straight across the gateway, its head towards me. It was not lying in a heap as if it had fallen, but on its back, and straight,
AS IF IT HAD BEEN LAID THERE.
I could not tell at first whether it was a man or a woman, but James, my son, who went down stairs, returned and told me it was a woman. This was four o’clock in the morning.”
Across the street lives a Mr Perkins, whose wife is not very well. They sleep in the front room, and either Mr Perkins or his wife was awake at short intervals up to four o’clock yesterday morning. Neither heard the slightest sound in the street, and both agreed that it was an unusually quiet night, and there are sometimes brawls and fights or drunken men passing the house which disturb their sleep. They were sure that there was no outcry loud enough to be heard a few feet away.
THE WATCHMAN IN SCHNEIDER’S FACTORY,
just above the Perkin’s, heard nothing. The watchman in the wool depot just below made the same statement, and it may be accepted as certain that the poor murdered and mangled victim was taken to the place where she was found after life was extinct.
The detectives yesterday morning searched the stable yard, and every vacant space in the vicinity, in the hope of discovering some clue. None appeared, however. They kept a sharp look out for the knife with which the deed was done, but found no trace of it. Everything seemed to indicate that the scene of the murder was some distance away. Meanwhile, the people in Brady-street were in a high state of excitement. Brady-street is a long thoroughfare that runs to the left from the bottom of Buck’s-row. Early yesterday morning
FRESH BLOOD STAINS
were observed for quite a distance along the side walks. There would be drop after drop two or three feet and sometimes six feet apart for a distance, and then a large pool or splash. As soon as the murder became known a lively interest was taken in these blood stains, and they began to be traced. They were soon found to be on both sides of the street, and it was some time before it was seen that the bleeding person had travelled or been carried in a zigzag line.
THE TRAIL WAS EASILY FOLLOWED
down Brady-street for 150 yards to Honey’s Mews. In front of this gateway there was a large stain, looking as if the bleeding person had fallen against the wall and lain there. From here to the foot of Buck’s-row, in which the body was found, the trail of blood is clearly marked. It was wet yesterday morning, and at noon, although the sun had dried it, it was still plainly discernible. The zig-zag direction it took, crossing and recrossing the street, was, and is, a matter of mystery. In the space of a hundred yards the woman crossed the street twice, and, whenever she crossed, a larger stain of blood, in place of the line of drops, indicated that she had stopped.
There is a number of people who early yesterday morning heard the screams of the victim. None of them paid any particular attention to them, however, except Mrs Colwell, who lives midway between Buck’s-row and the next turning. She said, “I was awakened early by my children, who said someone was trying to get into the house. I listened, and heard screams. They were in a woman’s voice, and though frightened, were faint-like, as would be natural if she was running. She was screaming, ‘Murder, police ! murder, police ! murder, police !’ She screamed this five or six times, and seemed to be getting further and further away (toward the bottom of Buck’s-row) all the time.
I HEARD NO OTHER VOICE
and no other steps. She seemed to be all alone. I think I would have heard the steps if anybody had been running after her, unless they were running on tiptoe.”
This is the clearest account of the outcry furnished in Brady-street. It seems to make it evident that the murder was committed there. How any person gashed as the deceased had been could have run or walked any distance at all, much less a hundred yards, is a mystery, as the loss of blood must have been immediate and exhausting. That the murderer had only partially completed his work and followed her up to finish it is a possibility. One fact is certain, however, that the woman could not have reached the gateway in Buck’s-row herself, and must have been
CARRIED OR DRAGGED THERE.
That she was carried is more likely, as dragging her would have left more stains than appear on the Buck’s-row pavement.
All day long the streets which were the scene of the murder have been crowded. The horrible atrocity of the deed following so quickly upon the equally horrible tragedy of a few weeks ago has alarmed all the women in the neighbourhood. The excitement was great, and the more the crowds of women looked at the bloodstains the more excited they became. There was yesterday a general cry for better police protection, and the statement was everywhere made that a policeman is as rare as a wild duck in that district, and somehow is never at hand when anything happens.
THE ONLY CLUE
to the direction taken by the murderer was discovered shortly after noon. While there are plenty of bloodstains in the direction from which the woman was brought, none were found elsewhere. At one o’clock, however, some men searching the pavement at Buck’s-row, above the gateway, found two large spot of blood, and each about the size of a shilling. The first was about 25 feet from the gateway, and the second 10 feet beyond. Both were a few inches from the kerb in the roadway, and clearly defined. It is believed that they came either from the hands or
THE CLOTHING OF THE MURDERER
as he went away, and the drops are so large without any others near them that they seemed to have resulted from the squeezing-out of some blood-soaked clothing.
The watchman at the wool factory, whose doorway is a few feet below the gateway where the woman was found, and on the other side of the street, says that at exactly three o’clock he spoke to two men who stopped just outside his gate, and they moved on without any trouble. He says that there was no body lying in the stable gateway at the time, and no one in the street. Moreover, he heard no noise from time forth, and he was wide awake all the time until the police in the street attracted his attention. His statement only emphasises
THE EXTREME STEALTH AND CARE,
with which the murderer must have acted.
A photograph of the woman was taken. A large bruise was noticed under the left cheek, and a slight blackness under the left eye. These seem to indicate the she was first struck a heavy blow and knocked down before the knife was used.
THE CLOTHING SHE WORE
came from a workhouse, but may have been given out any time in the last three or four years, and may have been given to some other person before she obtained it. Inspector Nelson has the case in charge.
Several persons have called at the mortuary to identify the body. Some women in the neighbourhood knew her as a person called “Polly,” who lived at a single women’s lodging-house for the past five or six weeks.
Last night she engaged a bed at this house at a late hour, but, of course, never returned. She was seen by a woman called “German Moggy” at about half-past two this morning, and was speaking to her. The deceased had no money for a lodging, and “German Moggy” had no money either, so the unfortunate woman had to patrol the streets till she met her sad end.
The woman in a position similar to that of the deceased allege that there is
A MAN KNOWN AS “LEATHER APRON,”
who has more than once attacked unfortunate and defenceless women. His dodge is, it is asserted, to get them into some house on the pretence of offering them money. He then takes whatever little they have and “half kills” them in addition. The woman told her companions that she had been married, but her husband had left her some time ago. She is described as having been quiet for the life she followed.
A later account says: - The body of the deceased has been identified as that of a married woman named Mary Ann Nichols, who has been living apart from her husband for some years. She has been an inmate of Lambeth Workhouse on and off for seven years. She was discharged from the workhouse a few months ago, and went into domestic service at Wandsworth, suddenly leaving her situation under suspicious circumstances seven weeks ago. Since that time she had frequented the locality of Whitechapel, and was seen in the Whitechapel road on the morning of the murder at half-past two, under the influence of drink.
Sunderland Daily Echo, Saturday, September 1, 1888
THE WHITECHAPEL MURDER
THE BODY IDENTIFIED.
CIRCUMSTANTIAL ACCOUNT.
The Star reporter says: - The horrible brutality of the murder increases as the circumstances which attended it are developed. Everything indicates that it is the work of a fiend who was in murderous frenzy. The murdered woman and the murderer were evidently chance acquaintances, as she had every appearance of a street wanderer, and neither by her looks nor her circumstances seems likely to have inspired a premeditated crime. No one is missing in the neighbourhood so far as discovered, and the general supposition is that wandering the streets at three o’clock yesterday morning she met in Brady Street
THE GHOUL THAT CUT HER TO PIECES.
It was evident yesterday morning that the murder was committed some distance from the place where the body was found. This was in Buck’s-row, about midway down its length. Buck’s-row is a short street, occupied half by factories and half by dwellings. Half-way down the street is the house or Mrs Green. Next to it is a large stable yard, whose wide closed gateway is next to the house. In front of this gateway the woman was found by two men, who at first supposed her to be drunk, but closer inspection showed first a pool of blood in the gutter just before her, and then the deathly whiteness of the woman’s face stained with blood. One of them remained by her, while the other found Constable Neil. Constable Neil immediately woke the Green family, and asked them if they had heard any unusual noise. Neither Mrs Green, her son, nor her daughter, all of whom were sleeping within a few feet of where the body lay, had heard any outcry. All agreed that
THE NIGHT WAS UNUSUALLY QUIET.
“I should have heard it had there been any, I think,” said Mrs Green, “for I have trouble with my heart and am a very light sleeper. My son went down as soon as the body was taken away, and washed away the blood stains on the pavement. There was quite a little pool, though I understand most of it soaked into the woman’s dress. I looked out and saw the body as it lay there. It was lying straight across the gateway, its head towards me. It was not lying in a heap as if it had fallen, but on its back, and straight,
AS IF IT HAD BEEN LAID THERE.
I could not tell at first whether it was a man or a woman, but James, my son, who went down stairs, returned and told me it was a woman. This was four o’clock in the morning.”
Across the street lives a Mr Perkins, whose wife is not very well. They sleep in the front room, and either Mr Perkins or his wife was awake at short intervals up to four o’clock yesterday morning. Neither heard the slightest sound in the street, and both agreed that it was an unusually quiet night, and there are sometimes brawls and fights or drunken men passing the house which disturb their sleep. They were sure that there was no outcry loud enough to be heard a few feet away.
THE WATCHMAN IN SCHNEIDER’S FACTORY,
just above the Perkin’s, heard nothing. The watchman in the wool depot just below made the same statement, and it may be accepted as certain that the poor murdered and mangled victim was taken to the place where she was found after life was extinct.
The detectives yesterday morning searched the stable yard, and every vacant space in the vicinity, in the hope of discovering some clue. None appeared, however. They kept a sharp look out for the knife with which the deed was done, but found no trace of it. Everything seemed to indicate that the scene of the murder was some distance away. Meanwhile, the people in Brady-street were in a high state of excitement. Brady-street is a long thoroughfare that runs to the left from the bottom of Buck’s-row. Early yesterday morning
FRESH BLOOD STAINS
were observed for quite a distance along the side walks. There would be drop after drop two or three feet and sometimes six feet apart for a distance, and then a large pool or splash. As soon as the murder became known a lively interest was taken in these blood stains, and they began to be traced. They were soon found to be on both sides of the street, and it was some time before it was seen that the bleeding person had travelled or been carried in a zigzag line.
THE TRAIL WAS EASILY FOLLOWED
down Brady-street for 150 yards to Honey’s Mews. In front of this gateway there was a large stain, looking as if the bleeding person had fallen against the wall and lain there. From here to the foot of Buck’s-row, in which the body was found, the trail of blood is clearly marked. It was wet yesterday morning, and at noon, although the sun had dried it, it was still plainly discernible. The zig-zag direction it took, crossing and recrossing the street, was, and is, a matter of mystery. In the space of a hundred yards the woman crossed the street twice, and, whenever she crossed, a larger stain of blood, in place of the line of drops, indicated that she had stopped.
There is a number of people who early yesterday morning heard the screams of the victim. None of them paid any particular attention to them, however, except Mrs Colwell, who lives midway between Buck’s-row and the next turning. She said, “I was awakened early by my children, who said someone was trying to get into the house. I listened, and heard screams. They were in a woman’s voice, and though frightened, were faint-like, as would be natural if she was running. She was screaming, ‘Murder, police ! murder, police ! murder, police !’ She screamed this five or six times, and seemed to be getting further and further away (toward the bottom of Buck’s-row) all the time.
I HEARD NO OTHER VOICE
and no other steps. She seemed to be all alone. I think I would have heard the steps if anybody had been running after her, unless they were running on tiptoe.”
This is the clearest account of the outcry furnished in Brady-street. It seems to make it evident that the murder was committed there. How any person gashed as the deceased had been could have run or walked any distance at all, much less a hundred yards, is a mystery, as the loss of blood must have been immediate and exhausting. That the murderer had only partially completed his work and followed her up to finish it is a possibility. One fact is certain, however, that the woman could not have reached the gateway in Buck’s-row herself, and must have been
CARRIED OR DRAGGED THERE.
That she was carried is more likely, as dragging her would have left more stains than appear on the Buck’s-row pavement.
All day long the streets which were the scene of the murder have been crowded. The horrible atrocity of the deed following so quickly upon the equally horrible tragedy of a few weeks ago has alarmed all the women in the neighbourhood. The excitement was great, and the more the crowds of women looked at the bloodstains the more excited they became. There was yesterday a general cry for better police protection, and the statement was everywhere made that a policeman is as rare as a wild duck in that district, and somehow is never at hand when anything happens.
THE ONLY CLUE
to the direction taken by the murderer was discovered shortly after noon. While there are plenty of bloodstains in the direction from which the woman was brought, none were found elsewhere. At one o’clock, however, some men searching the pavement at Buck’s-row, above the gateway, found two large spot of blood, and each about the size of a shilling. The first was about 25 feet from the gateway, and the second 10 feet beyond. Both were a few inches from the kerb in the roadway, and clearly defined. It is believed that they came either from the hands or
THE CLOTHING OF THE MURDERER
as he went away, and the drops are so large without any others near them that they seemed to have resulted from the squeezing-out of some blood-soaked clothing.
The watchman at the wool factory, whose doorway is a few feet below the gateway where the woman was found, and on the other side of the street, says that at exactly three o’clock he spoke to two men who stopped just outside his gate, and they moved on without any trouble. He says that there was no body lying in the stable gateway at the time, and no one in the street. Moreover, he heard no noise from time forth, and he was wide awake all the time until the police in the street attracted his attention. His statement only emphasises
THE EXTREME STEALTH AND CARE,
with which the murderer must have acted.
A photograph of the woman was taken. A large bruise was noticed under the left cheek, and a slight blackness under the left eye. These seem to indicate the she was first struck a heavy blow and knocked down before the knife was used.
THE CLOTHING SHE WORE
came from a workhouse, but may have been given out any time in the last three or four years, and may have been given to some other person before she obtained it. Inspector Nelson has the case in charge.
Several persons have called at the mortuary to identify the body. Some women in the neighbourhood knew her as a person called “Polly,” who lived at a single women’s lodging-house for the past five or six weeks.
Last night she engaged a bed at this house at a late hour, but, of course, never returned. She was seen by a woman called “German Moggy” at about half-past two this morning, and was speaking to her. The deceased had no money for a lodging, and “German Moggy” had no money either, so the unfortunate woman had to patrol the streets till she met her sad end.
The woman in a position similar to that of the deceased allege that there is
A MAN KNOWN AS “LEATHER APRON,”
who has more than once attacked unfortunate and defenceless women. His dodge is, it is asserted, to get them into some house on the pretence of offering them money. He then takes whatever little they have and “half kills” them in addition. The woman told her companions that she had been married, but her husband had left her some time ago. She is described as having been quiet for the life she followed.
A later account says: - The body of the deceased has been identified as that of a married woman named Mary Ann Nichols, who has been living apart from her husband for some years. She has been an inmate of Lambeth Workhouse on and off for seven years. She was discharged from the workhouse a few months ago, and went into domestic service at Wandsworth, suddenly leaving her situation under suspicious circumstances seven weeks ago. Since that time she had frequented the locality of Whitechapel, and was seen in the Whitechapel road on the morning of the murder at half-past two, under the influence of drink.
. yes well it certainly raises some interesting questions doesnt it ? indeed why was all that information not mentioned ? . 
Comment