Whitechapel which lay on the East
end Of London, England was becoming place of horrors in the fall of 1888. On
August 31st, 1888 the body of Mary (Polly) Nichols had been found in
the street, mutilated. It would not be long before another victim was found.
Annie Chapman
Annie Chapman was Born Eliza Ann
Smith in 1841 to parents George Smith and Ruth Chapman. George was a soldier
who would later become a domestic servant. Annie grew up outside of London.
On May 1st, 1869 Annie
married one of her maternal relatives, John Chapman. They moved to the west end
of London where John worked as a carriage driver. Together they had three
children, Emily, Annie and John.
When little John was born in 1880
they discovered that he was disabled. In 1882 thier oldest daughter Emily
contracted Meningitis and passed away. This caused both Annie and John to spiral
out of control emotionally. They drank heavily causing a wedge between them. In
1884 Annie and John separated. Annie sent her son to a special school and her surviving
daughter left to work in the circus.
In 1886 Annie moved to Whitechapel,
London. Her estranged husband sent her a stipend of 10 shillings a week. Annie
moved in with another man at the time. At the end of 1886 Annie stopped
receiving her stipend. She discovered after inquiring that her husband had died
of an alcohol related illness. With no money to support them, the man she was
living with abandoned her. Annie fell into a deep depression.
Annie tried to survive by selling
crochet and paper flowers however she succumbed to prostitution on occasion to
survive. She began to stay in a common lodging house and continued to drink
heavily. People who knew her believed that she was a sweet and quiet woman when
she was sober, however she could be known to be violent when she had been
drinking.
A few days before her murder, Annie
had been involved in a fist fight with another prostitute by the name of Eliza
Cooper. Eliza claimed that the fight started over a bar of soap that Annie had
borrowed days before and never returned. Others claimed that the two women were
fighting over a man. Regardless, Annie walked away from the fight with a black
eye and a large bruise on her chest. She became ill after the fight and spent a
night in the hospital.
When she left the hospital she
headed straight over to the lodging house. She pleaded with the landlord to
allow her to sleep there but he turned her out in the street because she didn’t
have any money. It was 1:30 am on September 8th 1888 when Annie took
to the streets to try and earn some money to pay the landlord.
At roughly 5:30 that morning, a
woman by the name of Elizabeth Long was walking down Hanbury Street to buy
breakfast when she saw a woman fitting Annie’s description talking with a man
in the doorway of 29 Hanbury. It appeared that it was a friendly conversation,
and nothing seemed out of place. The man that Elizabeth described was of foreign
extraction, average height and wearing a deerstalker hat. It is believed that
the man Annie was speaking with was Annie’s murderer. Elizabeth was the last
person to see Annie alive.
There were few people that had
passed by 29 Hanover around the estimated time of Annie’s murder. The first was
a gentleman by the name of John Richardson who came by 29 Hanover on his way to
work every morning. His mother lived in the building and had recently been
burgled. He made it a habit to check the building out every morning. He did not
see anything unusual the morning. He stopped to cut a piece of loose leather
off of his shoe but didn’t hear or see anything. A neighbor, Albert Cadosch who lived in the building next door went to his back
garden to relieve himself at roughly 5:45 am. He did hear what he believed to
be a woman whispering on the other side of the fence and then something heavy
hit the fence. He did not investigate the sounds.
John Davis, an elderly man who
worked as a market porter and who lived at 29 Hanover went out to the back
garden at 6 am. He looked down and saw the body of Annie Chapman lying on the
ground between the garden fence and the back door. He darted around to the
front and began calling for help. Two construction workers walking along the
street came to the man’s aid. The three of them immediately went in search for
a police officer.
The following is an excerpt from the
coroner’s report describing Annie Chapman’s body when it was discovered:
The left arm was placed across the left
breast. The legs were drawn up, the feet resting on the ground, and the knees
turned outwards. The face was swollen and turned on the right side. The tongue
protruded between the front teeth, but not beyond the lips. The tongue was
evidently much swollen. The front teeth were perfect as far as the first molar,
top and bottom and very fine teeth they were. The body was terribly
mutilated ... the stiffness of the limbs was not marked, but was evidently
commencing. He noticed that the throat was dissevered deeply; that the incision
through the skin were jagged and reached right round the neck ... On the
wooden paling between the yard in question and the next, smears of blood, corresponding
to where the head of the deceased lay, were to be seen. These were about 14
inches from the ground, and immediately above the part where the blood from the
neck lay. ...
The instrument used at the throat and
abdomen was the same. It must have been a very sharp knife with a thin narrow
blade, and must have been at least 6 to 8 inches in length, probably longer. He
should say that the injuries could not have been inflicted by a bayonet or a
sword bayonet. They could have been done by such an instrument as a medical man
used for post-mortem purposes, but the ordinary surgical cases might not
contain such an instrument. Those used by the slaughtermen, well ground down,
might have caused them. He thought the knives used by those in the leather
trade would not be long enough in the blade. There were indications of
anatomical knowledge ... he should say that the deceased had been dead at
least two hours, and probably more, when he first saw her; but it was right to
mention that it was a fairly cool morning, and that the body would be more apt
to cool rapidly from its having lost a great quantity of blood. There was no
evidence ... of a struggle having taken place. He was positive the
deceased entered the yard alive ...
A handkerchief was round the throat of the deceased when
he saw it early in the morning. He should say it was not tied on after the
throat was cut.[
Although the Corner’s personal
opinion at the time that the murderer was more likely a professional, possibly
a Doctor or maybe a butcher, researchers
dismiss his theories based on the injuries inflicted. Most researchers do
not believe that the cuts made to Annie Chapman were indicative to a surgeon’s cut;
however the wounds themselves are not conclusive enough to indicate one way or
another.
On the list of items that were found
on the scene, one seemed to stick out considerably to investigators at the
time. A leather apron was discovered lying near Annie’s body in the garden. Immediately
people in the area began to point fingers at a man they believed it may have
belonged to. A young immigrant Jew by
the name of John Pizer went by the nickname Leather apron. He was known around
the area as a strange and quick to anger man who had a hatred for women. The
local newspapers caught wind of this and began to tarnish the man’s name.
Tensions began to mount in Whitechapel between the immigrant community and
native Londoners, causing issues for the police. John Pizer was arrested and questioned
regarding his whereabouts. They were able to confirm his alibies and released
him. Later they were able to determine who the apron belonged to. John
Richardson claimed the item, stating that his mother had washed the garment for
him and had left it outside to dry. He also had an alibi and was released.
Due to the media frenzy that was
covering every aspect of the gruesome murders happening in Whitechapel, Annie’s
family requested that her funeral be kept secret. She was buried on September
14th, 1888 in a public grave that has since been covered over. By
the time she was buried Jack the Ripper had been given his nickname in the media,
striking fear all over London.
No comments:
Post a Comment