Keith Skinner - The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook

The Ultimate

JACK THE

RIPPER

SOURCEBOOK

An Illustrated Encyclopedia

The Ultimate

SOURCEBOOK

An Illustrated Encyclopedia

STEWART P. EVANS & KEITH SKINNER

ROBINSON
London

Constable & Robinson Ltd
5556 Russell Square
London WC1B 4HP
www.constablerobinson.com

First published in hardback by Robinson, an imprint of Constable & Robinson Ltd, 2000

This paperback edition published by Robinson, 2001

Copyright Stewart P. Evans and Keith Skinner 2000, 2001

The right of Stewart P. Evans and Keith Skinner to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in Publication data is available from the British Library

ISBN 1841194522
eISBN: 9781472107855

Printed and bound in the EU

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For
Don Rumbelow

The invaluable help of the staff at the Public Record Office, Kew, is gratefully acknowledged, as is that of the Corporation of London Record Office, the London Metropolitan Archives (formerly the Greater London Record Office), the Archive and Museum Departments of the Metropolitan Police, The Royal London Hospital Archives and Museum, City of London Police Museum, British Library Newspaper Library, Richard Davie, Paul Mulvey and Mr J. D. Swanson. Acknowledgment is also made to the Controller of Her Majestys Stationery Office, via the above offices, and we are also grateful for the permission of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for the use of material from The Royal Archives.

Between pages 150 and 151

Between pages 300 and 301

Between pages 450 and 451

The main problem encountered in any serious study of the Whitechapel Murders and the subject of Jack the Ripper is the plethora of myth and misrepresentation that surrounds the case. Although some of this obfuscation can be traced back to its contemporary origins, most of it has gradually developed, feeding on itself over the years in books and other media so that any new student of the crimes understandably begins their studies with preconceived ideas, either conscious or subconscious, on the matter.

The huge volume of primary and secondary source material has, over the years, been accessed and plundered by various authors. First came the press reports, then, as they became available, the official records. However, although extensively cited and quoted from, the official papers have never previously been published at length and until now there has been no one book that serves as a source of contemporary evidence, objectively presented in detail and with minimum intrusion from the author. What has been needed is a survey of all the known facts about the murders, free of modern commentary and interpretation, that will provide an essential foundation for further research. This book is a compilation of the major primary sources, indispensable for any writer or researcher tackling this enigmatic series of killings.

Something that struck us in our compilation of the material was that we both experienced a totally new feel for the case and the social conditions of the period. We were also aware of just how much potentially significant detail it is possible to overlook. In some instances this reshaped our thinking on and perception of various aspects of the police investigation. Theories about the murders were expounded at the time, but these were ideas shaped by the contemporary context in which they were set. Some of them were very unlikely, others perhaps not so, but they demonstrate the way in which the great mystery took hold of the intellects of the time, and they reveal the very human desire to find the answers to an unsolved series of murders that was, even then, of international interest. The police were under pressure from Home Office officials who were demanding results from a force already stretched to its limits. Lack of modern forensic science aids was obviously also a telling factor and even the medical experts could not agree.

The extant police and Home Office records on the murders, held at the Public Record Office at Kew (South-West London) and other archives, are vast and impossible to quote in full, as are the newspaper reports. Therefore a degree of selectivity has been imposed, but not in such a way as to affect the value of the relevant source material available: all the main official reports are included in full, for example. These are supplemented by newspaper accounts to provide the details in missing inquest reports. The main arrests made at the time are mentioned, as are the contemporary or near-contemporary suspects. It is left to the reader to interpret the facts and the evidence accordingly.

Transcribing all the handwritten documents has taken many years and has been a difficult task. The reports are of varying quality. Some are damaged. Some are virtually illegible. Some of the handwriting has proved difficult to identify. Often the original documents contain faint annotated marginalia, impossible to detect or discern when examining the files in their preserved microfilmed state. We have, where possible, attempted to include this important detail, by inspecting the original papers ourselves.

This work presents the full factual history of the Whitechapel Murders of 188891, chronologically presented and powerfully told by the people who lived in the shadow of Jack the Ripper. We hope that it will prove a useful and user-friendly companion.

The crimes of Jack the Ripper are so inextricably interwoven with the Whitechapel Murders that often one is mistaken for the other. The reason for this is that the police files on the so-called Whitechapel Murders began with the murder of Emma Smith on 3/4 April 1888, and did not finish until the murder of Frances Coles on 13 February 1891. In all, eleven murders are included in these files and, in the opinion of the authors, as few as three or as many as six may have been the work of a common hand, that of the criminal now known to history as Jack the Ripper. A full and true picture cannot be obtained without looking at the whole series of murders and the relevant facts that have survived the passage of time to reach us in the twenty-first century. Herein may lie the vital clue as to the identity of the killer or it may not. If it is not to be found here, then it is very unlikely that we will ever know the identity of this mysterious killer. Here is the raw material available to the historian and interested reader alike. Here are the known facts.

The first file in the police Whitechapel Murders files was that on the murder of Emma Smith, and it is now missing. This file apparently disappeared from the New Scotland Yard files before they were passed to the Public Record Office. It is therefore fortunate that some of the content of this file remains in the form of notes taken from it by Ian Sharp on behalf of the BBC for their television presentation of the Jack the Ripper story in 1973. The murder of Emma Elizabeth Smith is thus recognized as the first of the Whitechapel Murders, and she was the victim of a gang of three unknown street robbers. Many press reports later in the year listed the murder of an unknown woman in Christmas week 1887 as the first of the murders, but extensive research has failed to find this murder. However, a fellow lodger of Smiths, Margaret Hames, was similarly attacked in the same area on 8 December 1887, and was admitted to the Whitechapel infirmary with chest and face injuries. held at the London Metropolitan Archives, reveal that she was not released until two days after Boxing Day 1887.