Ripper Live

1.30pm

Welcome back to Whitechapel. Two and a half hours ago, Thomas Bowyer made a terrible discovery when collecting rent. At Miller's Court, when there was no answer at the door, he looked through the window and saw the bloody body of a woman. The police were fetched, then a doctor, and all have been standing around awaiting the head of police to deploy blood hounds. Superintendent Thomas Arnold arrives and announces that the bloodhounds are not coming. Their boss has resigned.

This is where they stand, outside the room of Mary Jane Kelly.

1.40pm

Arnold orders there to be no more delay, and that the door should be opened immediately. The door is locked. Landlord John McCarthy arms himself with a pickaxe and strikes a blow, smashing the door open. McCarthy steps aside, and allows Dr. Phillips to come forward. He pushes the door back and it bangs against the table.

The room is sparse. Opposite the door is a fireplace. To the left, the broken window; and, to the right, the table and bed. A painting called "The Fisherman's Widow" hangs over the mantlepiece. A cupboard is in the corner. At the foot of the bed there is a chair upon which lie folded clothes. A woman's body is sprawled on the bed.

The body has a thin chemise. The head is turned, facing people entering the room. A deliberate gesture by the killer perhaps? The right arm lies across the body with the right hand in the abdomen. The legs are spread apart. The nature of the wounds is so extreme, it is hard to comprehend. The woman has been butchered horrifically. Her body has not just been "ripped", but stripped of its flesh. Her face and the lower part of her body are barely human. Parts of the poor girl are on the table, by her head, between her feet. It is the most gruesome scene imaginable. The security offered by the room has apparently allowed the full expression of the killer's desires. All the efforts to put more police on the street, and to improve street lighting, were completely in vain.

All the efforts to put more police on the street, and to improve street lighting, were completely in vain. Police search the room for clues, but the scene is such a mess than a proper investigation is difficult. Insp Abberline takes an inventory of the room's contents. He notes that a fire has burned in the grate. Taking a closer look at the remains, the policeman finds part of a hat brim was in the grate. Why would someone burn a hat? Perhaps the killer was exhausting fuel in an attempt to illuminate his terrible deeds. Could it be his own hat? It must have been quite a decent fire, because a near-by kettle has a melted spout and handle. The ashes are still warm.

The doctor examines the body. Much of the flesh and organs have been removed and placed around the room, or under the body. With so much time, the killer has performed a dissection. His cutting of muscle, bone and skin suggesting a sick fascination. Although scattered, the organs seem accounted for – with one exception. The victim's heart is not in the room.

The bed clothing and the right corner of the bed are saturated with blood. Below the bed is about two square feet of blood. The wall on the right has splashings of blood. She seems to have had her throat cut first, then he moved her to the centre.

3.00pm

A photographer arrives to document the scene. It will be the first ever use of crime scene photography. A picture is taken of the outside of the building, although through the dark panes nothing is visible of the body. Next, he goes inside and sets up the tripod with his back to the window, taking in a clear shot of the entire scene.

A sketch for the Illustrated Police news would later produce this representation.

3.30pm

Next, the photographer moves to the other side of the room, to try to get a different angle, but conditions are cramped. With the help of a police officer, the room is rearranged slightly. The table by the bed is moved further towards the foot. A board is positioned between the table and bed, raising Mary Jane's left leg higher, and blocking the view from the window. Two pieces of rough carpet are draped over the pile of organs on the bedside table, stopping light falling on them - but this wasn't the only thing on that table.

The next task was to document the most grotesque and disturbing aspect of the scene. Readers are warned as to the extreme horrors of the rest of the paragraph. The killer had cut all soft tissue from the Mary's inner thighs and groin, in one single piece. This length of skin and muscle which stretched from one knee to the other had been placed on the table next to her head. The table was dragged down the bed so that, in one single shot, the photographer was able to show her splayed legs with missing flesh in the foreground and, in the background, the detached chunk of flesh that had been removed, with her sexual organs plainly visible in the middle.

4.00pm

A carriage arrives at Miller's Court and, with some unpleasant difficulty, men lift Mary Jane Kelly inside. Her body parts had to be collected up separately. An empty bed was left, saturated in blood, and still a shocking scene.

The carriage heads off to the mortuary for further examination.

4.05pm

The windows of 13 Miller's Court are boarded up. A padlock is then attached to secure the door. There is a frenzy of interest, and two policemen are left stationed at the entrance to stop people getting in.

And so we leave 1888 for today. London gripped by fear – the killer is still at large, and more cunning and brutal than ever.

8.35pm

Good evening from Whitechapel on November 10th 1888. "ANOTHER CRIME BY THE MURDER-MANIAC. MORE REVOLTING THAN EVER. A Woman is Found in a House in Dorset-street Decapitated and with Her Body Mutilated in a Manner that Passes Description. Whitechapel is seething with excitement. Cordons of police are drawn up at all the entrances to Dorset-street. A woman was found murdered, with her head nearly cut off, in a room in a house in a court, a turning out of Dorset-street. The street in which the lodging-house is situated where the Hanbury- street victim slept occasionally. There seems little doubt that the murderer is the man who has given Whitechapel a regular succession of horrors. From the startled inhabitants of the lodging-houses in Dorset-street, the victim is a woman who went "Mary Jane." She lived in the room in which she has been murdered, with a man and her little son - about 10 or 11 years old. After daylight, she took a man home to her own room, presumably for an immoral purpose. At a quarter to eleven, found murdered. Details in respect of the mutilation of the body reveal a more horrible state of things than anything yet recorded."

I apologise here for the graphic nature of this description, but this is in the daily newspaper for young and old to see... From the Star: "The thick flesh has been literally stripped from the thighs of the victim and placed upon the table in the room. The woman's breasts have also been roughly sliced off. The fleshy parts of the cheeks have also been hacked away. The corpse presents a spectacle more hideous than anything which has presented itself to even the most experienced police. Everyone's feelings are revolted, and it is truth to say that the horrors revealed by the case are simply inexpressible."

This was yesterday's edition, so their details were still sketchy: "The excitement arose in the neighborhood the instant... All kinds of reports are flying as to the nature of the crime. It is certain that the woman's head was nearly severed. The body has been disembowelled. The police guard the entrance to the court where the crime was committed. The court is one miserable little alley where none but those compelled to live in its stifling atmosphere ever enter. The house where the woman spent her last night is in keeping with its surroundings." Today's paper is more analtical ... "ANOTHER murder committed, as we said, when public interest had slackened down, and the Vigilance Committee had ceased to work."

The war of words between the papers and the police continues as the Star looks to ally with its ever-swelling readership. "Police did nothing. They lost the bloodhounds at the moment when they wanted them. They neglected to draw a cordon and search. The Detective Department, deprived of its head and in the hands of a clumsy, ignorant martinet, was helpless and disorganised. Police had orders to refuse the newspapers information. Warren's spite is only equalled by his own incapacity as a detective."

The paper today provides handy hints on how to decide whether to determine if your friend is the killer. For men only, obviously. "Every man ask himself: Has he, among his acquaintance, any man whose movements have been suspicious, and not accounted for? Has he a man in his acquaintance whose history or habits have made him a likely enemy of the class of prostitutes?" Every man should ask himself "Does he know a man who has had attacks of mania of a homicidal kind, or been under confinement? Who knows Whitechapel? Who has a certain amount of anatomical knowledge, in a doctor's practice, or a slaughter-yard?" The Star concludes: "This seventh murder ought to rid us of Mr. MATTHEWS, and also of Sir CHARLES WARREN."

An account of Thursday night: "Women of the unfortunate class paraded the several highways with an unconcernedness. The drafts of auxiliary detectives performed their duties in regulation manner, and nothing existed to denote the crime. Everyone seems to be perfectly certain that the police possess no clue, and will discover no clue to the murderer. The row of policemen who during the greater part of yesterday blocked Dorset-street had been withdrawn last night. The entrance to the court - known as Miller's-court or McCarthy's-court - was vigilantly kept by two constables. One woman stated at two o'clock she heard a cry of "Murder." This story became popular, until half a dozen were retailing it." One witness said of the victim, "I have known her since July - since I came here. She was tall & pretty, & as fair as a lily. She saw the dead and mutilated body through the window of Kelly's room, which it is to be remembered was on the ground floor." She says, "I could not bear to look at it only for a second, but I can NEVER FORGET THE SIGHT of it if I live to be a hundred." A Mrs. Kennedy said "on Wednesday evening on Bethnal-green-road when we were accosted by a very suspicious man. He led the way into a very dark thoroughfare, at the back of the warehouse, & requested to follow him. He acted very strange. He refused to leave his bag and she escaped, at the same time raising an alarm of "Jack the Ripper."

The paper then gives yet another, unpleasantly detailed description of the victim, which we will skip this time. "The sight we saw," says McCarthy who opened the door to the murder scene, "I cannot drive away from my mind." It is hard not to sympathise with these people, as with the Hanbury Street victim which was found by a man in his back yard. The killer's attacks are not just on the people he kills, but on the entire community, as he strikes fear into everyone. The manner of what he does after the killings, and the locations he chooses, have the result of maximising the terror created.

"It looked more the work of a devil than of a man. It is more than I can describe. I hope I may never see such a sight again. I had heard a great deal about the Whitechapel murders, but I declare to God I had never expected to see such a sight. The bedclothes had been turned down, and this was probably done by the murderer after he had cut his victim's throat. A photographer, who, in the meantime, had been sent for, arrived and TOOK PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE BODY, the organs, the room, and its contents. There was no appearance of a struggle having taken place. After the examination of the body it was placed in a shell. The murders have been committed on the later days of the week, and in this connection a somewhat important fact ... The cattle boats bringing live freight to London are in the habit of coming into the Thames on Thursdays or Fridays. An opinion that the murderer is a drover or butcher on one of these boats, and he periodically disappears with the steamers."

A paper last Wednesday: "Sunday the new moon came in. If Jack the Ripper is a lunatic we ought to hear from him in a few days." And with that chilling prophecy, we will leave the cold streets of 1888 for another night, with a devilish killer amongst us.