Mary Kelly facial reconstruction

[DJA]

Big fan!

Had a bigger hit with "Something" than The Beatles.

Got the soundtrack LP of one of Prosector's father's screenplays into the Top 40 Singles Chart.

[RivkahChaya]

I think she looks slightly vapid because she doesn't really have any expression on her face, and because of the original ident-i-kit eyes. Also, because of the upward tilt of the head, that is an artifact of the body having been lying down. Like I said, it's still a work in progress. I need to move the nose up the face, for one thing.

I tried to make the hair a color that some people might describe as "ginger," and other people would just call "brown," while a few people would call "blonde." (I, for example, have very dark hair, so I tend to be very liberal in my use of the word "blonde," calling people who have light brown hair "blonde," while people who have yellow hair would not ever use the term "blonde" for the same shade of light brown.) It took me a long time to settle on a color that was so generic that you might call it just about anything, and not really be wrong.

I'll work on getting her I vivant complexion.

[DJA]

I think she looks slightly vapid because she is dead!

Sorry about that

Amazing picture.

At first I thought it reminded me of an actress,but no.

Had a snooze and I awoke to that image in my mind.

Now listening to Birley Shassey's first recordings.

[Sally]

Here it is:

Hi RivkahChaya,

Thanks for posting your reconstruction. I think your version of Mary Kelly looks similar to a painting by Jane Coram, which you can see here:

http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?t=2757

Post #8 and continuing.

Interesting.

[pinkmoon]

I cant see why such a good looking girl would end up so quickly at the bottom end of the prostitute trade .

[Pcdunn]

I cant see why such a good looking girl would end up so quickly at the bottom end of the prostitute trade .

Maybe because her boyfriend lost his job and cut off her allowance, and she had a tendency to drink up her profits, instead of saving for the rent.

But that is assuming Mary was always a prostitute, isn't it? She claimed to be a lady's maid. Any viewer of "Downton Abbey" could tell you servants can lose their jobs for getting pregnant, stealing (or being suspected of stealing), or being a drunk. (Other reasons, too, I'm sure, but these to be the most likely ones here.) That drinking thing-- it's ruined many men and women before. Mary ends up in Whitechapel, as an unfortunate, and so it goes.

[GUT]

Alcomohol was my guesstimate, thinks might have liked a whittle dinky poo from now and then ... Hic....hic

[Rosella]

Yes, I suppose alcohol WAS Mary's undoing, though considering the life she led who can blame her, really? I can't see her as a former lady's maid, though.

Thanks for posting those paintings by Jane Coram, Sally. I've never really ventured much into the Creative threads, but these paintings are excellent, and very atmospheric. I'm not so sure about Mary's face, though in those. If only an authentic photograph could be found from somewhere.

[GUT]

Yes, I suppose alcohol WAS Mary's undoing, though considering the life she led who can blame her, really? I can't see her as a former lady's maid, though.

Thanks for posting those paintings by Jane Coram, Sally. I've never really ventured much into the Creative threads, but these paintings are excellent, and very atmospheric. I'm not so sure about Mary's face, though in those. If only an authentic photograph could be found from somewhere.

You should have a look around in the creative threads Janes work is just brilliant.

[GUT]

And please I in no way blame her.

Indeed it is a chicken and the egg question I wonder which came first with Mary a sad as life or booze.

[curious4]

The primrose path

Mary seems to have followed the path of many attractive women and was now on a downward spiral leading eventually to either Itchy Park or "employment" watching young prostitutes to see that they didn't run away. After her husband died she moved to Cardiff and was introduced to "a bad life" by her cousin. Then a spell in most probably a tuberculosis ward, and when recovered a move to London, where she worked in a West End brothel where she was (presumably) popular and lived a life of luxury. When she began to lose her freshness she was ousted from the brothel and attached herself to various men, losing their protection because of her drinking and temper. Finally she ended up in Millers Court, supporting herself and earning money for drink by prostitution. Mary as a ladies maid I can't accept. It was a very qualified profession, taking years to learn. I believe she lied about her age and was older than she said. Still attractive, but with signs of drinking and the life she led beginning to show in her face.

My mental picture of her resembles Kay Kendall, descendant of McCarthy. There is a tradition that Mary was related to her landlord and the fact that she was allowed to owe him a sizeable amount could point to this.

Best wishes
C4,

[RivkahChaya]

Hi RivkahChaya,

Thanks for posting your reconstruction. I think your version of Mary Kelly looks similar to a painting by Jane Coram, which you can see here:

-snip-

Interesting.

Wow, it does. That gives me a lot of confidence in it. I'm still working on it, and the version I have now has her with slightly pock-marked skin. Probably everyone back then had had chicken pox, a lot of poor people had survived a bout with the less lethal version of small pox, variola minor, having less access to vaccines, in spite of efforts by the government at universal vaccination (unless there was as outbreak, there usually wasn't door-to-door vaccinations, and so poor people had to make the time to get the vaccination, and the effort to travel by foot to the location) and there must have been acne then as now.

My newer version also has slightly fuller lips, like in the painting.

I cant see why such a good looking girl would end up so quickly at the bottom end of the prostitute trade .

Well, it seems that she had at least one opportunity to work in an upscale brothel, and possibly two, if we believe the Paris story. I'm guessing she got fired from them for drunkenness. Men probably didn't mind prostitutes a little tipsy if it makes them compliant, but women who get drunk and argumentative are a real problem for business.

Besides, she had a room, even if the rent was in arrears, so she was a little better off than the other victims. I mean, she hadn't fallen as low as she could possibly go.

I am no expert on the prostitution profession, but I'm guessing that willingness actually comes before attractiveness on the list of things a John looks for in a woman he wants to hire for the evening-- or even for an hour. I mean, some pretty unattractive women manage to get by on it. It may be that the less attractive you are, the more you have to be willing to degrade yourself with really bizarre fetishists, or bondage freaks (not a judgment on bondage-- not everyone who practices it is a freak-- I'm referring to people who can't find a willing partner without paying for one). Maybe really attractive prostitutes get by with mostly vanilla. Like I said, I'm no expert, just some guesses based on human nature.

I can certainly see her ending up in a mess due to alcoholism. It happens in just about every profession. There are very gifted people who wash out of their profession because of alcohol, while people with less talent, but more drive, better organizational skills, and the ability to drink only socially, become successful. If it happens to doctors, actors, teachers, interpreters, and auto mechanics, why wouldn't it also happen to prostitutes?

[Prosector]

Her family had a history of alcohol problems. Craig's inquest reports also back that up. I think that alcohol may have played a part in her leaving Lady Londonderry's employment and her descent into the stews of the East End in addition to her wish to escape Craig's stalking. She was not a rationale, mature person. She was, in today's terms, a drug (alcohol) addicted young person on a downward spiral. Look around any great city today, there are hundreds of them. I think a big mistake of present day Ripperologists is to view people like MJK, Joe Barnett and many others as normal, middle class, intelligent human beings in control of their own destinies. They were not, they were, sadly, the dregs of society who either through there own doings or through misfortune no longer had control of their lives. I hate to say that about a member of my own family, albeit 130 years ago, but I think that's the fact.
Prosector

[Robert]

I think that if she did go till 1884 in service with the Londonderries, then that would suggest that she kept her nose clean drink-wise during that time. I don't think she'd have been an alcoholic before she entered service, because if she was, her mother would not have got her the job. So that leaves the period late 1884 onwards. To me, drink, rather than Craig's stalking, would explain her extremely fast descent to the east end.