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As there was some interest in the inquest report in The Scotsman, I thought the following might be worth posting:
The Scotsman
10 November 1888
ANOTHER ATROCIOUS MURDER IN WHITECHAPEL
HIDEOUS MUTILATIONS
ARREST ON SUSPICION
Yesterday morning, in the midst of the popular demonstration connected with the Lord Mayor's show, the tens of thousands of persons who had assembled along the line of the route from the City to the West End to watch the civic pageant were startled and horrified by the cries of the street newspaper vendors, announcing the perpetration of another terrible murder in Whitechapel. The news received speedy confirmation and even the meagre particulars immediately obtainable left no doubt that this, the latest of the series of crimes which has for months past kept the East of London in a state of fear almost amounting to panic, exceeded in its fiendish atrocity any that have preceded it. In one most important circumstance this murder differs in a startling manner from all that have gone before it. It was committed, not in the open air, but in a house into which the murderer had taken his victim.
The scene of the murder is Miller Court, Dorset Street, Commercial Street - a district composed of large warehouses. squalid streets, and, in a striking degree, of registered lodging houses. Dorset Street is a fairly wide thoroughfare, and at night, owing to the lamps in the windows and over the doors of the numerous lodging houses, it may be described as well lighted. Miller Court is approached by an arched passage not more than three feet wide, which is unlighted and from this passage open two doors leading into the houses on either side. The house on the left hand is kept as a chandler's shop by a respectable man named M'Carthy, to whom also belongs the house in the court in which the crime was committed. The court is a very small one, about thirty feet long by ten broad. On both sides are three or four small houses, cleanly whitewashed up to the first floor windows. The ground floor of the house to the right of the court is used as a store, with a gate entrance, and the upper floors are let off in tenements, as is the case also with M'Carthy's house. Opposite the court is a very large lodging house. This house is well lighted and people hang about it nearly all night. There is another well frequented lodging house next door to M'Carthy's, and within a yard or two of the entrance to the court is a wall lamp, the light from which is thrown nearly on to the passage. The murder was committed at No. 2 Miller Court some time after midnight. The murdered woman is not particularly well known even to her neighbours, as is customary amongst persons of her class. She had several nicknames, including "Mary Jane" and "Fair Emma," but the name by which she was known to her landlord, and which has been proved to be correct, was Mary Jane Kelly. She had been married for some years, or, at any rate, had lived regularly with a man named Kelly. But, after separating from her husband, chiefly on account of her drunken habits and quarrelsome disposition, she took to the streets. Almost the only friend she is known to have had was a woman named Harvey, who used to sleep with her occasionally. Kelly went out as usual on Thursday evening, and was seen in the neighbourhood about ten o'clock in company with a man of whom, however, no description can be obtained. She was last seen, as far as can be ascertained, in Commercial Street about half past eleven. She was then alone, and was probably making her way home. It is supposed that she met the murderer in Commercial Street, and he probably induced her to take him home without indulging in more drink. At any rate, nothing was seen of the couple in the neighbouring public houses nor in the beer house at the corner of Dorset Street. The pair reached Miller Court about midnight, but they were not seen to the house. The street door was closed, but the woman had a latchkey, and as she must have been fairly sober she and her companion would doubtless reach the woman's door without making a noise.
A light was seen shining through the window of the room for some time after the couple must have entered it, and one person asserts positively that the woman was heard singing the refrain of a popular song as late as one o'clock yesterday morning. But here, again, there is a conflict of testimony which the police are now engaged in endeavouring to reconcile. That which follows is beyond doubt: About ten o'clock, Mr M'Carthy sent a man who works for him to the house with orders to see Kelly and obtain from her some money, on account of the rent of which she was largely in arrears. The man went and knocked at the door, but received no answer. He had assumed that the woman would be up, because not unfrequently she made purchases in M'Carthy's shop before that hour. He listened, but heard no sound, and then, becoming alarmed, tried the door. It was quite fast, and seemed to have been locked from the outside. Determined to find out what was wrong, the man went to the window commanding as view of the whole room with the intention of entering if necessary. One glance into the room, however, was sufficient. He saw on the bed the body of a woman dead and mutilated in such a ghastly manner that the observer nearly fainted from horror. He rushed affrighted out of the court and into M'Carthy's shop, begging him for God's sake to come and look. M'Carthy, hardly less horrified, returned to the house with his man and both looked into the room. The place looked like a shambles. Blood was everywhere, and pieces of flesh were scattered about the floor, while on the little table, in full view of the window, was a hideous heap of flesh and intestines. M'Carthy sent his man for the police, and Inspector Back (sic), of Commercial Street Station, and Inspector Abberline, of the Criminal Investigation Department, stationed at Leman Street, arrived within ten minutes. A strong squad of police were also dispatched from Commercial Street Station to assist the regular patrol men in maintaining order. A large crowd had already assembled, and Inspector Back's first care was to clear Dorset Street of idlers, to close the entrance to the court with two policeman, and then to draw a cordon across each end of Dorset Street. From that time forward only authorised persons were permitted in Dorset Street. The constables in charge of the entrance to Miller Court allowed no one to pass in or out, not even the inhabitants of the place. Meanwhile no attempt had been made to force an entrance to the room, the two inspectors had looked through the window, and had seen sufficient to prove that an atrocious crime had been committed, but neither officer seemed to care to undertake responsibility, and it was not until some twenty minutes after the first alarm had been given that Superintendent Arnold, the officer in charge of the Division, arrived on the scene and at once took charge of the case. By his direction M'Carthy obtained a pickaxe and the door was forced open, and the police officers entered the room. They did not care to remain longer than was necessary to note accurately the position of the body, the general appearance of the apartment, and the character of the principal mutilations. The pieces of flesh which had been dimly seen through the windows proved inexpressibly more ghastly at a close view. Large pieces of the thighs had been cut off and thrown about with brutal carelessness. Both breasts of the victim had been removed. One of them lay on the table alongside a confused and horrible mass of intestines; the throat had been cut with such thoroughness that the head was almost severed from the trunk. The body, which was almost naked, had been ripped up, and literally disembowelled. It is stated, upon authority which should be trustworthy, that the uterus, as in the case of the Mitre Square victim, had been removed and taken away by the fiend, but upon this important point the police officers and surgeons refuse, in the most emphatic manner, to give the slightest information.
Dr. Duke, the police surgeon of the H Division, was the first medical man to arrive on the spot, and he at once undertook a preliminary examination. Half an hour later he was joined by Dr. Bond, the chief surgeon of the Metropolitan Police, and together they commenced a post mortem examination on the spot as soon as the requisite authority had been obtained. Sir Charles Warren arrived at Miller Court at a quarter to two o'clock, having been driven from Scotland Yard. He viewed the room, and received from Superintendent Arnold a report of what had been done. The Commissioner remained on the spot until the completion of the post mortem examination at a quarter to four, and then returned to Scotland Yard, taking Dr. Bond with him. Previous to the post mortem examination, a photographer who was brought on the scene, after considerable difficulty and delay, was set to work in the court and house with a view to obtaining permanent evidence as to the state of the room and the condition of the body. The state of the atmosphere was, unfortunately, not favourable to good results. A slight drizzling rain was falling, and the air was dusky. Even in the open thoroughfares, and in the little court it was at times almost dark, especially inside the houses. The photographer, however, did his best, and succeeded in securing several negatives, which he hopes will be useful. The post mortem examination lasted just two hours and was of the most thorough character. Every indication as to the manner in which the murderer conducted his horrible work was carefully noted, as well as the position of every organ and the larger pieces of flesh. The surgeons' report will in consequence be of an unusually exhaustive character, but it will not be made public until the surgeons give their evidence at the coroner's inquest. Sufficient is known, however, to place the crime beyond doubt in the same category as those perpetrated in George Yard, Bucks Row, Berner Street, Hanbury Street, and Mitre Square. At ten minutes to four o'clock, a one horse carrier's cart, with an ordinary tarpaulin cover, was driven into Dorset Street and stopped opposite Miller Court. From the cart a coffin was taken into the house, and the remains put into it. The news that the body was about to be removed caused a great rush of people from the courts running out of Dorset Street, and there was a determined effort to break the police cordon at the Commercial Street end. The crowd which pressed round the van was composed of persons of the humblest class, but the demeanour of the poor people was all that could be desired. The remains were taken to the Shoreditch mortuary, where they will lie until they have been viewed by the Coroner's jury. The inquest will open on Monday morning.
Telegraphing late last night, the Central News states "upon indisputable authority" that no portion of the murdered woman's body was taken away by the murderer. As already stated, the post mortem examination was of the most exhaustive character, and the surgeons did not quit their work until every organ had been accounted for and placed as closely as possible in its natural position. The most unaccountable feature of the case is the manner in which the murderer mutilated the face of his victim, as if to make identification difficult or, perhaps, impossible. In the case of the Mitre Square victim, a woman picked up in the street and murdered in the open air, the murderer's motive in endeavouring to render the features unrecognisable can readily be understood, but he could scarcely suppose that the identity of the woman, renting her room as regular lodger and well known in the immediate locality of the crime, would be fail to be capable of comparatively easy proof. It is, therefore, assumed by experts that the cutting off of the nose and ears and the slashing of the cheeks in this case were done in a transport of mad ferocity to which monomaniacs are notoriously subject.
The Scotsman
10 November 1888
ANOTHER ATROCIOUS MURDER IN WHITECHAPEL
HIDEOUS MUTILATIONS
ARREST ON SUSPICION
Yesterday morning, in the midst of the popular demonstration connected with the Lord Mayor's show, the tens of thousands of persons who had assembled along the line of the route from the City to the West End to watch the civic pageant were startled and horrified by the cries of the street newspaper vendors, announcing the perpetration of another terrible murder in Whitechapel. The news received speedy confirmation and even the meagre particulars immediately obtainable left no doubt that this, the latest of the series of crimes which has for months past kept the East of London in a state of fear almost amounting to panic, exceeded in its fiendish atrocity any that have preceded it. In one most important circumstance this murder differs in a startling manner from all that have gone before it. It was committed, not in the open air, but in a house into which the murderer had taken his victim.
The scene of the murder is Miller Court, Dorset Street, Commercial Street - a district composed of large warehouses. squalid streets, and, in a striking degree, of registered lodging houses. Dorset Street is a fairly wide thoroughfare, and at night, owing to the lamps in the windows and over the doors of the numerous lodging houses, it may be described as well lighted. Miller Court is approached by an arched passage not more than three feet wide, which is unlighted and from this passage open two doors leading into the houses on either side. The house on the left hand is kept as a chandler's shop by a respectable man named M'Carthy, to whom also belongs the house in the court in which the crime was committed. The court is a very small one, about thirty feet long by ten broad. On both sides are three or four small houses, cleanly whitewashed up to the first floor windows. The ground floor of the house to the right of the court is used as a store, with a gate entrance, and the upper floors are let off in tenements, as is the case also with M'Carthy's house. Opposite the court is a very large lodging house. This house is well lighted and people hang about it nearly all night. There is another well frequented lodging house next door to M'Carthy's, and within a yard or two of the entrance to the court is a wall lamp, the light from which is thrown nearly on to the passage. The murder was committed at No. 2 Miller Court some time after midnight. The murdered woman is not particularly well known even to her neighbours, as is customary amongst persons of her class. She had several nicknames, including "Mary Jane" and "Fair Emma," but the name by which she was known to her landlord, and which has been proved to be correct, was Mary Jane Kelly. She had been married for some years, or, at any rate, had lived regularly with a man named Kelly. But, after separating from her husband, chiefly on account of her drunken habits and quarrelsome disposition, she took to the streets. Almost the only friend she is known to have had was a woman named Harvey, who used to sleep with her occasionally. Kelly went out as usual on Thursday evening, and was seen in the neighbourhood about ten o'clock in company with a man of whom, however, no description can be obtained. She was last seen, as far as can be ascertained, in Commercial Street about half past eleven. She was then alone, and was probably making her way home. It is supposed that she met the murderer in Commercial Street, and he probably induced her to take him home without indulging in more drink. At any rate, nothing was seen of the couple in the neighbouring public houses nor in the beer house at the corner of Dorset Street. The pair reached Miller Court about midnight, but they were not seen to the house. The street door was closed, but the woman had a latchkey, and as she must have been fairly sober she and her companion would doubtless reach the woman's door without making a noise.
A light was seen shining through the window of the room for some time after the couple must have entered it, and one person asserts positively that the woman was heard singing the refrain of a popular song as late as one o'clock yesterday morning. But here, again, there is a conflict of testimony which the police are now engaged in endeavouring to reconcile. That which follows is beyond doubt: About ten o'clock, Mr M'Carthy sent a man who works for him to the house with orders to see Kelly and obtain from her some money, on account of the rent of which she was largely in arrears. The man went and knocked at the door, but received no answer. He had assumed that the woman would be up, because not unfrequently she made purchases in M'Carthy's shop before that hour. He listened, but heard no sound, and then, becoming alarmed, tried the door. It was quite fast, and seemed to have been locked from the outside. Determined to find out what was wrong, the man went to the window commanding as view of the whole room with the intention of entering if necessary. One glance into the room, however, was sufficient. He saw on the bed the body of a woman dead and mutilated in such a ghastly manner that the observer nearly fainted from horror. He rushed affrighted out of the court and into M'Carthy's shop, begging him for God's sake to come and look. M'Carthy, hardly less horrified, returned to the house with his man and both looked into the room. The place looked like a shambles. Blood was everywhere, and pieces of flesh were scattered about the floor, while on the little table, in full view of the window, was a hideous heap of flesh and intestines. M'Carthy sent his man for the police, and Inspector Back (sic), of Commercial Street Station, and Inspector Abberline, of the Criminal Investigation Department, stationed at Leman Street, arrived within ten minutes. A strong squad of police were also dispatched from Commercial Street Station to assist the regular patrol men in maintaining order. A large crowd had already assembled, and Inspector Back's first care was to clear Dorset Street of idlers, to close the entrance to the court with two policeman, and then to draw a cordon across each end of Dorset Street. From that time forward only authorised persons were permitted in Dorset Street. The constables in charge of the entrance to Miller Court allowed no one to pass in or out, not even the inhabitants of the place. Meanwhile no attempt had been made to force an entrance to the room, the two inspectors had looked through the window, and had seen sufficient to prove that an atrocious crime had been committed, but neither officer seemed to care to undertake responsibility, and it was not until some twenty minutes after the first alarm had been given that Superintendent Arnold, the officer in charge of the Division, arrived on the scene and at once took charge of the case. By his direction M'Carthy obtained a pickaxe and the door was forced open, and the police officers entered the room. They did not care to remain longer than was necessary to note accurately the position of the body, the general appearance of the apartment, and the character of the principal mutilations. The pieces of flesh which had been dimly seen through the windows proved inexpressibly more ghastly at a close view. Large pieces of the thighs had been cut off and thrown about with brutal carelessness. Both breasts of the victim had been removed. One of them lay on the table alongside a confused and horrible mass of intestines; the throat had been cut with such thoroughness that the head was almost severed from the trunk. The body, which was almost naked, had been ripped up, and literally disembowelled. It is stated, upon authority which should be trustworthy, that the uterus, as in the case of the Mitre Square victim, had been removed and taken away by the fiend, but upon this important point the police officers and surgeons refuse, in the most emphatic manner, to give the slightest information.
Dr. Duke, the police surgeon of the H Division, was the first medical man to arrive on the spot, and he at once undertook a preliminary examination. Half an hour later he was joined by Dr. Bond, the chief surgeon of the Metropolitan Police, and together they commenced a post mortem examination on the spot as soon as the requisite authority had been obtained. Sir Charles Warren arrived at Miller Court at a quarter to two o'clock, having been driven from Scotland Yard. He viewed the room, and received from Superintendent Arnold a report of what had been done. The Commissioner remained on the spot until the completion of the post mortem examination at a quarter to four, and then returned to Scotland Yard, taking Dr. Bond with him. Previous to the post mortem examination, a photographer who was brought on the scene, after considerable difficulty and delay, was set to work in the court and house with a view to obtaining permanent evidence as to the state of the room and the condition of the body. The state of the atmosphere was, unfortunately, not favourable to good results. A slight drizzling rain was falling, and the air was dusky. Even in the open thoroughfares, and in the little court it was at times almost dark, especially inside the houses. The photographer, however, did his best, and succeeded in securing several negatives, which he hopes will be useful. The post mortem examination lasted just two hours and was of the most thorough character. Every indication as to the manner in which the murderer conducted his horrible work was carefully noted, as well as the position of every organ and the larger pieces of flesh. The surgeons' report will in consequence be of an unusually exhaustive character, but it will not be made public until the surgeons give their evidence at the coroner's inquest. Sufficient is known, however, to place the crime beyond doubt in the same category as those perpetrated in George Yard, Bucks Row, Berner Street, Hanbury Street, and Mitre Square. At ten minutes to four o'clock, a one horse carrier's cart, with an ordinary tarpaulin cover, was driven into Dorset Street and stopped opposite Miller Court. From the cart a coffin was taken into the house, and the remains put into it. The news that the body was about to be removed caused a great rush of people from the courts running out of Dorset Street, and there was a determined effort to break the police cordon at the Commercial Street end. The crowd which pressed round the van was composed of persons of the humblest class, but the demeanour of the poor people was all that could be desired. The remains were taken to the Shoreditch mortuary, where they will lie until they have been viewed by the Coroner's jury. The inquest will open on Monday morning.
Telegraphing late last night, the Central News states "upon indisputable authority" that no portion of the murdered woman's body was taken away by the murderer. As already stated, the post mortem examination was of the most exhaustive character, and the surgeons did not quit their work until every organ had been accounted for and placed as closely as possible in its natural position. The most unaccountable feature of the case is the manner in which the murderer mutilated the face of his victim, as if to make identification difficult or, perhaps, impossible. In the case of the Mitre Square victim, a woman picked up in the street and murdered in the open air, the murderer's motive in endeavouring to render the features unrecognisable can readily be understood, but he could scarcely suppose that the identity of the woman, renting her room as regular lodger and well known in the immediate locality of the crime, would be fail to be capable of comparatively easy proof. It is, therefore, assumed by experts that the cutting off of the nose and ears and the slashing of the cheeks in this case were done in a transport of mad ferocity to which monomaniacs are notoriously subject.
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