Location of Annie Millwood's attack

[John Malcolm]

Jeff, thanks for the link to the article. The very well-researched article Who Was Annie Millwood? by Mark Ripper (The Whitechapel Society Journal #22, 2008 - also reprinted in the book 21 Years of Jack the Ripper and the Whitechapel Society) is worth a look. The answer as to where her attack occurred still seems to be a mystery though.

[JeffHamm]

Oh, just to add, the Keppel et al, 2005 article doesn't mention the learning to "clean up" aspect of the progression (just something I thought of, and it could be wrong as there is evidence that JtR looked through Chapman's posessions so maybe he was looking for something to do the same then, but that's speculation on my part). Also, the article also considers the Smith murder (earlier), and the Pinchin Street torso murder, Mylett, McKenzie, and Coles and all of these they dismiss as part of the series. They didn't, however, consider Millwood.

you can find their publically available article here: https://rdcu.be/blxik

[JeffHamm]

The reason I'm asking is I'm considering how her case might fit into the pattern. I know there is lots of room for debate concerning what victims should be grouped as JtR, and those that should be set aside as "murder by someone else". Also, while I do not have any strong stance on this (I can see the logic behind including or excluding Stride, and for including or excluding Tabram, etc). For the purpose of my thinking here, I'm considering the implications that follow if includes Tabram.

Then, what we see is an evolving killer, learning from prior crimes, and an escalation in the amount of mutilation. Tabram appears to have been strangled (silenced; nobody in the building heard anything;etc) and then repeatedly stabbed in the breasts, stomach, and genital regions. One wound much larger than the rest (so, if that's the first wound, then we have strangulation -> major injury designed to kill -> additional injuries designed to satisfy some need to mutilate). Stabbing would result in a fair amount of blood on the killer (even if not from arterial spray, from the repeated drawing and stabbing motion there would be cast off, etc). Nichols, we see a change to strangulation -> throat cutting -> cutting mutilations of abdominal regions; then with Chapman, Eddowes, and Kelly there's a progression to organ harvesting (womb, kidney, and heart, respectively), with Eddowes we see the first signs of taking clothing from the victim to clean up (learning to reduce his risk while in public), and with Kelly a move to an indoor location. All of these suggest a progression in terms of learning how to change his behaviours to increase his ability to engage in satisfying a need to mutilate/destroy his victims. (yes, this presentation can be argued against, but I'm just setting the premises here, and ones that while not agreed upon by all, are not novel either). (This progression isn't mine, but comes from The Jack the Ripper Murders: A Modus Operandi and Signature Analysis of the 1888-1891 Whitechapel Murders" - Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling 2: 1-21 (2005) - Robert D. Keppel, Joseph G. Weis, Katherine M. Brown and Kristen Welch).

So, if JtR is learning how to commit his crimes more effectively as the series progresses (and that's going to happen; criminals learn from their past crimes), then if Tabram was part of the series, but not his first attack, we would expect to find an earlier attack that is a less skillfully committed version. And to me, Annie Millwood's injuries (what little we know of them) could fit the bill.

She was stabbed in the legs and around her groin, by a man she did not know, etc. She escaped without being killed, however, and would have screamed and called for help, he would have gotten blood on his clothes as he stabbed her while she was standing (I'm assuming she was). So, if that were JtR's first attack, then Tabram's assault is JtR's "improvement" version. He realizes he has to silence the victim first, so he strangles her and then makes sure she's dead. And while he is then able to engage in his sexualiaed attacks on her, he still gets more blood on him than he wants (increases his risk of detection), and switches to cutting rather than stabbing.

His fear of getting caught after Millwood survived her attack would be very high, hence the long delay between her attack and that on Tabram (and that gives him the time to work out how to improve his technique).

So, there is a line of reasoning one could follow that suggests that if you include Tabram, you have to seriously consider the possibility that Millwood should be included as well (but of course, one has to be cautious as we know so little about her case).

Finally, one of the areas that I am doing research in (in my real job), is geographical analyses of crime locations. The first step, of course, is knowing what crimes to link. But, even if we link Millwood to the series, which one could argue for (as per above - note again, arguing for doesn't mean you're right, just that there are reasons to consider the possibility as a reasonable one), then it becomes important to know where the crime took place. It's not enough to know where the victim lived if the attack didn't take place there, it's where the attack occurred that is the geographical location of interest.

But if this information is lost to us, or is at least unknown to us, I would really like to know that. Even better would be finding out that the attack location has been discovered, of course.

- Jeff

[JeffHamm]

Hi,

Annie Millwood lived at 8 White's Row, which is the next street south of where Mary Kelly was killed. However, I can find nothing with respect to where she was at the time she was attacked? Has this information ever been recorded? If so, could you please let me know both the location and where that was documented? I'm assuming this has been lost to us as it doesn't appear in Sudgen or A-Z, both of which are pretty thorough, but I'm hoping something has been uncovered since my copies were published (both from the mid 1990s). Thanks.

- Jeff