Ripper Live

Good afternoon and welcome to Whitechapel on Fri 7th September 1888. It is seven days since Polly Nichols was brutally killed. There has been occasional newspaper coverage through the week, and Polly's death is considered the third by the same person. Many regional papers took several days to pick up the case. "Brutal Murder in Whitechapel" proclaimed one, just two days ago. Most papers in the week have reported the fact that the police claim to be very close to a breakthrough.

"Authorities investigating this mysterious case assert they have a clue but are not permitted to make the faintest allusion. The chain of evidence is being fast drawn round the persons impliated - for it is believed there are more than one. But the persons watched will not at present be arrested unless they make an effort to leave the district. No steps are being neglected by Inspector Abberline. It is not improbable that one man may make a confession."

The recent victim was an impoverished woman, described as an "unfortunate" and her murderer used a knife to rip her open. Many women out on the streets of Whitechapel are concerned, as it's being noted as the 3rd violent killing in six months.

One similar unfortunate is Annie Chapman who this week has been attacked by an acqaintance & visited the casual ward for pills.

5.00pm

Annie Chapman is wandering through Whitechapel, still feeling very ill. Aside from her injuries she is not a well woman. Amelia Palmer meets Annie Chapman in Dorset Street. Annie is sober and Amelia asks her, "Are you going to Stratford to-day?" Stratford was where Annie Chapman went to sell her wares, or herself. Annie answers, "I feel too ill to do anything."

Amelia leaves Annie and heads off.

5.15pm

Amelia comes back down the road and finds Annie in the same spot on Dorset Street. She asks if she's going up town. Annie says, "It's no use my going away. I shall have to go somewhere to get some money to pay my lodgings." They part company. We'll leave Annie Chapman on the streets of Whitechapel for now. But be sure to keep an eye out later to check she's safe ...

8.00pm

We last caught Annie Chapman about 5pm today when she met her friend Amelia. Now she's out in Whitechapel, having a drink. She'll be dropping in on various beer-shops and possibly finding a client for more money. We'll see her again nearer midnight.

11.18pm

Annie Chapman heads back through Whitechapel, having dropped in on a couple of beer-shops, and is no longer sober.

11.30pm

Annie returns to the lodging house and asks permission to go into the kitchen. It's clear she's already been drinking.

12.10am - (Saturday 8th September)

Frederick Stevens is a lodger at Crossingham's and he sits down with Annie Chapman for a drink. She's quite drunk by now.

12.15am

Another lodger called William Stevens enters the kitchen and sees Chapman. He talks with her a while. Annie says she's been to Vauxhall to see her sister, and her family had given her 5 pence. She seems to have drunk the money. Annie fishes a box of pills from her pocket which she picked from the casual ward. The box breaks and the pills go everywhere. She takes a torn piece of envelope from the mantlepiece and scoops the pills inside it. She says her good-nights to the gents. Leaving the kitchen, she goes up to her room briefly before going back out onto the streets of Whitechapel.

1.30am

Annie Chapman buys a baked potato and begins to eat it as she heads back to her lodging house.

1.35am

Annie enters the lodging house eating her take-away food where she meets with John Evans who has been sent to collect bed money. She goes upstairs to see Donovan in his office. "I haven't sufficient money for my bed," she tells him. "But don't let it. I shall not be long before I'm in." Donovan chastises her, annoyed that she's drunk her money. Donnovan remarks, "You can find money for your beer and you can't find money for your bed." But Annie is not bothered.

She turns and stands for a moment, commenting, "Never mind, Tim." she states, "I'll soon be back. I won't be long, Brummy. See that Tim keeps the bed for me." She's confident she'll make her money by meeting a man.

1.45am

She leaves the loding house and enters Little Paternoster Row heading for of Brushfield St, then towards Spitalfields Market. And so Annie Chapman disappears into the warren of Whitechapel Streets and pubs for hours. We'll see her again at dawn.

5.30am

The clock on the Black Eagle Brewery, Brick Lane, strikes the half hour just Elizabeth Long turns onto Hanbury Street. Elizabeth Long sees Annie Chapman with a man, hard against the shutters of 29 Hanbury Street. They are talking.

Long hears the man asked Annie "Will you?" and Annie replies "Yes." And the pair of them start to move off. Annie Chapman opens the unlocked gate to the passage at 29 Hanbury Street which leads to the back yard. The couple go through.

5.32am

Albert Cadosch is a carpenter living at 27 Hanbury Street. He's woken in the night and goes out into his back yard. A 5-foot tall wooden fence separates his yard from next door. He hears voices quite close on the other side of the fence.

Returning to his back door, Albert hears the sound of a woman saying "No!". It is coming from the yard next door.

Albert goes back in and then emerges from his house to hears something falls against the fence separating the two properties. Assuming it's just packing-case makers, and thinking about his own job, Albert doesn't look over the fence and goes to work.

5.36am

But in the other yard, Annie Chapman's unconcious body is lowered to the floor by her attacker and he produces a long knife. Annie's attacker is wearing a brown, low-crowned felt hat and dark coat. He stands over her and puts the knife to her throat. The man cuts her throat, deeply, fiercely in a nasty jagged cut across Annie's neck. Kneeling between her splayed legs, he wrenches her clothing open and tears into her body, ripping at her with his blade.

5.45am

Spitalfields church strikes the quarter hour and wakes John Davies, a carman living inside 29 Hanbury Street. John gets up and makes himself a cup of tea.

5.50am

John goes downstairs and out into the back yard. The scene that greets him outside on his own doorstep is one of butchery. John sees a woman lying to the left between the stone steps and the fence. She is on her back, her legs towards the shed. The woman's clothes are up to her groins. John immediately leaves the house by the front door and calls to two men. The two men go into the passage and see the sight. None go into the yard, but run to find a policeman.

6.10am

Joseph Chandler, Inspector H Division Metropolitan Police is on duty in Commercial-street. At the corner of Hanbury-street he sees several men running and beckons them over.

One of them says, "Another woman has been murdered." and together they go at once to 29, Hanbury-street.

Inspector Chandler enters the yard and sees the body, face turned to the right, left arm was resting on the left breast. A portion of the intestines, still connected with the body, are lying above the right shoulder, with some pieces of skin. There were also some pieces of skin on the left shoulder.

Inspector Chandler sends for the divisional surgeon, Mr. Phillips, and for the ambulance and for further assistance. He asks someont to fetch some sacking to cover the body before the arrival of the surgeon.

6.30am

Dr. George Baxter Phillips arrives and exmaines the body which he finds is terribly mutilated, the throat deeply cut. Baxter notes the face is swollen and turned on the right side, and the tongue protruded between the front teeth. The small intestines and other portions were lying on the right side of the body above the right shoulder, but attached. There is a large quantity of blood, with a part of the stomach above the left shoulder. They search and find a small piece of coarse muslin, a small-tooth comb, pocket-comb, in a paper case, near the railing. The items have apparently been arranged there next to her feet, deliberately. He finds the throat dissevered deeply. The incision of the skin is jagged, and reached right round the neck. On the back wall of the house there are about six patches of blood and on the wooden fence there are smears of blood. Dr. Phillips directs that the body should be removed to the mortuary.