Visit to Millers Court by Phillips and McDonald

[alex]

Hi All

This is how the Daily Telegraph, 12th Nov. 1888 reported this search:

“A somewhat important investigation was made on Saturday in the room in Miller’s-court in which the crime was perpetrated. There was reason to believe that the murderer had burnt something before leaving the place after the deed, and accordingly the ashes and other matter in the grate were carefully preserved. On Saturday afternoon Dr. Phillips and Dr. Macdonald, M.P., the coroner for the district, visited Miller’s-court, and after the refuse had been passed through a sieve it was subjected to the closest scrutiny by the medical gentlemen. Nothing, however, was found which is likely to afford any assistance or clue to the police. The doctors were engaged some hours at the Mortuary, Shoreditch-churchyard, in making a post-mortem examination. Every portion of the body was fully accounted for, and at the conclusion of the investigation the various portions were sewn together and placed in a coffin. … A most minute search has been conducted by the police and medical gentlemen in the room where the crime was perpetrated, but practically nothing in the nature of a clue has been obtained. The man’s coat discovered there belonged to Mrs. Harvey, who had lived with the woman Kelly; whilst the ashes, which have been carefully sifted, reveal no traces of burnt human flesh.”


Best wishes
alex chisholm

[Dan Norder]

Hi Tom,

We had plenty of reports that they searched the fireplace, but we never knew for sure what they were looking for. Some people thought it had something to do with clothing. This article points more toward a missing body part, which probably means the heart (even if the reporter wasn't sure which part it was) since that's the only one that was listed as absent.

[Tom_Wescott]

Other reports like this had been discussed before (though perhaps not mentioning McDonald). Didn't Stewart Evans publish a contemporary drawing of the doctors searching the fireplace?

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Dan Norder]

Aha... I had speculated that they sifted the ashes looking for the heart based upon earlier reports, but this story seems to all but confirm it.

This is especially interesting when coupled with the Sept. 12th, 1888, report in the Star that a man with his "imagination fired by Hanbury-street" threatened to cut out his wife's heart and burn it.

[claire]

Blimey, Mike, what do you think might have been missed on the first sift? An intact aorta or vena cava? The whole organ? Do you reckon Abberline thought he might have just come across some tubing?! Sorry, it was just the way you phrased it (I had an image of, 'was there a heart, Abberline?' 'I don't know, but then again, I wasn't looking for one.' 'Ah, then, lets go back and see if it's there after all.' Tee hee. ) I think they knew that most organs would not survive a harsh fire. But if the rumour had gone out that MJK was pregnant, then a missing uterus would be a whole different thing.

[Mike Covell]

I get the feeling that the ashes were searched, but after finding the heart missing were searched again. It is easier to find something if you know what your looking for.

[Chris Scott]

Hi Stephen
That is how I read it
I had not seen any reference to McDonald visiting Millers Court before the inquest. Of course it should not be a surprise that he did but i had not seen mention of it before.
The "something missing" referred to could be just a straightforward way of saying that the writer, as he says at the end, had no idea which bodily part was under investigation, as only the doctors knew ans they were saying nothing
However it is also possible that it was assumed, in the light of the Chapman and Eddowes killings, that the organ in question was the uterus which in many press accounts is only hinted at or mentioned euphemistically.
If there is any credibility in this account, and if we are reading it right, it would suggest the following sequence of events:
Abberline, as he reported, carefully sifted and examined the contents of the fireplace. Presumably this was on 9th
In the light of the post mortem it was established that a bodily part was missing, i.e. the heart
On the following day, the 10th, Phillips and McDonald go to Millers Court to re-examine the contents of the fireplace in the light of the postmortem findings

Chris

[Stephen Thomas]

Hi Chris

Possibly they were trying to find evidence that the heart had been burnt in the fire and not carried away by the murderer.

[Chris Scott]

The section below refers to an incident I don't remember seeing before. This claims that Dr Phillips and McDonald, the coroner, visited Millers Court on 10 November and examined the "refuse" in detail. The preceding section suggests that this "refuse" means the ashes from the fire, but this is not entirely clear.
Chris

Lloyds Weekly
11 November 1888

A very singular investigation was in progress yesterday with respect to something missing. It was thought the murderer had burnt the thing in question before leaving the scene of the crime. Accordingly the ashes and other matter in the fireplace of the room in Millers Court were carefully taken up, sifted, and examined. Dr Philiips and Dr McDonald, M.P., the coroner for the district, visited the house and subjected the refuse to the closest scrutiny. It is understood, however, that nothing was discovered, leaving it to be assumed, therefore, that the murderer took away a part of his victim's body, though what portion is for the present a secret known only to the doctors.