Long Description:This is not for the faint hearted, we did this on a dark wet
November evening that was very atmospheric, we scared ourselves
several times during the walk.
At the start of the tour you are given a leaflet, stating what
happened then you can decide if you still want to go....
Jenny was our guide and she was fantastic..
The tour starts at ALDGATE EAST STATION and follows the murders
of ....
Victim 1: Mary Ann Nichols - Bucks Row
Mary Ann Nichols is generally believed to be the first of Jack the
Ripper’s victims. She was murdered on 31 August 1888. On the night
of August 30, the weather was stormy with thunder, flashes of
lightning and fierce rain. The sky was turned red by two dock
fires.
Mary was a prostitute and an alcoholic. She was last seen by Emily
Holland at 2.30 am walking east on Whitechapel Road "looking for
trade". She was discovered dead about 2 hours later in a street
called Buck‘s Row.
Victim No 2: Annie Chapman
Annie Chapman is generally regarded as the second of Jack the
Ripper’s victims. She was murdered on 8 September 1888.
Annie was in her 40s working as a prostitute at the time of her
death. In the early hours of 8 September, she had an argument with
the night watchman at her lodging house in notorious Dorset Street
about the fact she spent her money on drink rather than rent. At
5.30 am Elizabeth Long spotted Annie with a man and overheard him
ask "Will you?" "Yes," Annie was heard to reply... Shortly
thereafter, Albert Cadoch passed the wooden fence which separated
his yard from the murder site. He heard a woman crying "No!" and
something falling against the fence…
Victim 3: Elizabeth Stride, Berner Street
Elizabeth Stride is generally believed to be the third of Jack the
Ripper’s victims and the first of two women to be killed by him on
the night of 30 September 1888.
Lizzie Stride came from Sweden, was in her 40s and lived in meagre
lodgings at Flower and Dean Street (now Lolesworth Close) in
Spitalfields at the time she was killed. Lizzie was frequently
arrested for drunk and disorderly behaviour and worked as a
charlady and, occasionally, as a prostitute when money was
tight.
The weather the night of September 29 was showery and windy.
Throughout the evening, Lizzie was spotted kissing and carousing
with several different men, including, it is sometimes conjectured,
the Ripper himself. At 1am Louis Diemschutz entered Dutfield's Yard
on Berner Street. His horse reared and refused to enter. Diemschutz
suspected something was in the way but could not see because the
yard was pitch black. He probed with his whip and came into contact
with a body. Lizzie’s throat had been cut (newspaper reports
claimed her head was almost severed from her body) and the corpse
was still warm, two flowers pinned to her dress and her hands
clutching some sweets… It is thought that Diemschutz had disturbed
the Ripper at his gruesome work.
Certainly Jack disappeared into the night in the direction of the
City. It would seem his blood lust was not sated by Lizzie‘s death
for the frenzied murder of Catherine Eddowes took place later that
same night.
Victim 4: Catherine Eddowes
Catherine Eddowes is generally believed to be the fourth of Jack
the Ripper’s victims and was the second woman to be murdered on the
night of 30 September 1888. It is thought the Ripper killed her in
a fury following his failure to mutilate the body of victim no 3,
Elizabeth Stride, less than an hour before.
Like all his victims, Catherine was a prostitute and in constant
need of cash. During the early evening of 29 September, she had
been in a drunken state doing fire engine imitations in Aldgate
High Street. Catherine was arrested for disorderly behaviour but
was released from Bishopsgate police station around midnight on 30
September. She was last seen talking to a man in a not unfriendly
way having probably meandered down Houndsditch… Catherine’s
mutilated body was discovered shortly thereafter by a policeman in
the southwest corner of a nearby Mitre square.
Vicitm 5 Mary Kelly
Mary Kelly was a 25 year old prostitute living at 13 Miller’s
Court, Dorset Street; she was the only victim to be killed
indoors.
Dorset Street comprised low-grade buildings and shops with pubs at
either end and along its middle. "It was renowned for its poverty
and crime. Being part of what the Rev. Barnett called the "wicked
quarter mile", it fell within H-Division of the Metropolitan Police
and was
one of the streets that was double patrolled. Charles Booth, an
early sociologist who surveyed London, produced his poverty map in
1887. Dorset St achieved the lowest ranking, shaded black and
described as vicious and semi-criminal). Co-incidentally, Victim
#2, Annie Chapman, also lived in lodgings further along the same
side of Dorset Street.
Kelly was last seen at about 3am on 9 November 1888 entering her
lodgings in the company of a man who wore a felt hat over his eyes
and a massive gold chain in his waistcoat with a large seal with a
red stone hanging from it. Kelly’s mutilated body was discovered
the next morning by the slum landlord who had come for the rent
peering into the window when no answer to his loud knocking came
from within.
Victim 6???: Martha Tabram
Martha Tabram was murdered on 7 August 1888 in George’s Yard,
Whitechapel. Like the "canonical victims" (as they are called),
Martha worked as a prostitute. She was last seen on the night of
her death in the company of two soldiers. Martha was discovered
lying on the first floor of George’s Yard Buildings (a small
tenement at the back of Whitechapel's Toynbee Hall) in a pool of
blood.
"Revisionist Ripperologists" insist that Martha was not one of
Jack’s victims but it is important to note that at that time, many
believed that Tabram was in fact among his tally. The Times of 10
September 1888, for example, referred to "the slayer of TABRAN,
NICHOLS, and CHAPMAN". Tabram is now rarely included in the list of
the Ripper's victims primarly because she was stabbed to death by a
large sharp implement (possibly a bayonet or sword) and she was not
mutilated or disembowelled.
Aside from chronology and vicinity (she was killed less than
half a mile from, and within a month of, Mary Nichols), why should
Martha Tabram be considered as one of the Ripper’s victims? Some
argue the position of her body is a clue: like Nichols, Chapman and
Eddowes, Martha was discovered lying on her back, her clothes
dishevelled around her. The manner of her death is also telling:
the inquest was told that "the bonnet was at the back of the head.
There was great disfigurement of the face. The throat was cut
across and her stomach ripped open".
What cannot be denied is the sad fact that the fate of Jack the
Ripper’s victims was not unique. Many whores working in the East
End at that time were killed in violent circumstances. There were
many poor and destitute women who had no choice but to turn to
prostitution to survive and to pay for the small comfort of a glass
of gin. If it weren't for Jack the Ripper, the tale of Martha
Tabram would be lost forever and no-one would care. Nobody knows
where she is buried and the man who hurt her was never caught.
ENJOY!!
