Jack the Ripper Part 3: Elizabeth Stride

            Jack the Ripper had been splashed across every paper in the Country after the body of Annie Chapman had been discovered mutilated at 29 Hanover in early September 1888. Women were being encouraged to stay indoors at night and the police force had double in Whitechapel, London. Fear was gripping the city as press covered every aspect of the phantom killer that was hiding in the shadows, elusive to capture.

            Almost two weeks had passed before the fateful night that not one, but two murders took place in Whitechapel. It would be a night that would send the city reeling and the story of Jack the Ripper to make international headlines.

 

Elizabeth Stride

 

 

            Elizabeth “Long Liz” Gustofdotter was born in Sweden to Swedish farmer Gustaf Ericson and Beaka Carlsdotter on November 27 1843. Her parents lived in poverty in Sweden, forcing Liz to work as a domestic servant by the time she was a teenager.

            It was reported that she was arrested for prostitution while she worked at a domestic servant and her medical records show that she was treated for two sexually transmitted diseases and gave birth to a still born daughter in 1865.

 

 

            In 1866 Liz moved to London England. She was fluent in Swedish, English and Yiddish and was able to find work easily as a domestic servant.  She met and married John Thomas Stride in that same year. They opened a coffee parlor in 1869 and continued to run the business until 1877 when Liz and her husband lost the business and they separated for the first time.

            Liz worked at the public workhouse for four years when John and Liz decided to give their relationship a go again. They separated once again later that year, leaving Liz to live on the streets.

            Liz fell on the mercy of the Church of Sweden to assist her in staying in a common lodging house. She attempted hawking and domestic servant jobs until finally going back out on the streets as a prostitute. It was at this time that she met her boyfriend Michael Kidney. They lived together off and on over the next ten years.

            A few nights before her death, Liz and Michael got into a fight and decided to call it quits. Michael was devastated and attempted to visit Liz the night of her murder at the common lodging house that she was staying at but she had already left for the evening.

            On September 29^th, 1888 the night of Liz’s murder she had been seen several times with different men. One witness described a woman fitting Liz’s description with a short man with a mustache and a bowler hat at roughly 11:00 pm.  At 11:45 pm she was seen again by another witness, talking with a man in a peaked hat and then again at 12:35 talking with a man in a tall felt hat carrying a package.

            At 1:30 am on September 30^th, Louis Diemschultz, a steward at the local workers club was just leaving a meeting. He was traveling down the street behind the club with his Pony and cart when the pony pulled hard to the right as if it was startled by something. It was so dark in the street that night that Louis could not see what had startled his pony. The pony refused to move any further, so Louis climbed down to see what the matter was. He lit a match, which remained lit for only a moment however it was long enough to see Elizabeth Stride, sprawled on in the middle of the street, blood still flowing from a freshly cut throat. Louis immediately ran back to the club to get help.

            When police arrived they determined that Louis must have come down the street at the time that the murder was being committed. It seemed as though the killer may have been what startled the pony when he ran from the scene. The police immediately began to check the area, positive that the killer was still close, possibly hiding. They began to question anyone that was living, working or hanging around the area.

            One witness by the name of Israel Schwartz a Hungarian immigrant who did not speak English stated through an interpreter that he did see Liz standing in the street with a man at roughly 12:45 am. He could see that they were in a heated argument and watched as the man threw her up against a wall. He assumed that is was a domestic fight and did not want to get involved. The police believed that Israel may have in fact seen Liz with her killer, struggling to get away.  No one else heard or saw anything that night.

                Other than Liz’s throat  cut in the same fashion as the other woman murdered in the area, she did not have any other wounds to her body. The police believed that the killer was interrupted before he could continue his calling card of disemboweling the body. They also looked into the possibility that this was not a victim of Jack the Ripper, but perhaps a lovers quarrel gone wrong and made to look like a murder by the phantom killer.

                Michael Kidney appeared at the police station a few days later, drunk and clearly upset. He demanded to know what was happening with the murder investigation. The police questioned him but released him soon after, determining that he was not Liz’s killer.

 

 

                Elizabeth Stride was buried on October 8^th 1888 in a public plot in East London Cemetery. She would be the first of two that were killed on September 30^th 1888.

                It has been the opinion of many people who have instigated the Ripper murders that Elizabeth Stride was indeed a victim of Jack the Ripper. They believe that he had intended to kill and mutilate her body in the same fashion as his other victims but was interrupted and forced to flee the scene. Disappointed and high on adrenaline, Jack the Ripper quickly searched for his second victim. The woman he found next would be the most violent mutilation yet.