Friday 28th Sep 1888 - Meet Catherine Eddowes who says she knows the killer
8.00pm
Good evening from Whitechapel on Friday 28th September 1888. Tonight there's someone you need to meet. She's just got home. Catherine Eddowes born 1842 in Graisley Green, Wolverhampton. She's a very jolly woman, often singing, usually of sober habits. Others describe her as an intelligent, scholarly woman but one who was possessed of a fierce temper.
Here's a picture of Catherine as she looks today. Catherine and her man John Kelly have been to Hunton near Maidstone in Kent for hop-picking. They've been there all month. They've been returning with another couple who parted from them at Cheltenham as they turned off towards London. The woman, Emily Birrell, gave Catherine a pawn ticket for a flannel shirt, saying it may fit her old man.
They reached London today. John managed to earn 6d. Cathering took 2d and told him to take the 4d and get a bed at Cooney's. She's said she would get a bed at the casual ward in Shoe Lane. These are the lives of the poor. Transient and uncertain. Catherine is well known at the casual ward but hasn't been for a while. She's been moving around the country for some time.
But as she talks to the superintendent of the casual ward, she reveals a startling fact about her return to Whitechapel. Catherine says: "I have come back to earn the reward for the apprehension of the Whitechapel murderer. I think I know him." Whether she's joking or not is uncertain. But Whitechapel would be a dangerous place for someone who knew the killer.