Jack the Ripper Part 4: Catherine Eddows

On September 30^th 1888, Police in Whitechapel were already investigating the murder of Elizabeth Stride, which had occurred at roughly 1 am. With the area already in the grips of fear due to the recent gruesome murders of two other women, both prostitutes’ investigators were working diligently to find the killer that they believed to be still in the immediate area. It was assumed since Stride had not been mutilated after her throat had been cut that her killer had been interrupted when a man with his Cart and Pony came down the street where Stride’s body was discovered. What the police did not take into account was that the killer was still on the hunt, looking for someone else to satisfy his bloodlust.

 

Catherine Eddows

Catherine Eddows was born in Graisly Green, Wolverhampton on April 14^th, 1842.  She was one of ten children born to a Tin plate stamper. When she was a child her family moved to London, England however she returned to her hometown to become a tin plate stamper like her father.

After she lost her job, she met ex-soldier Thomas Conway and moved in with him. They moved back to London soon after and had three children together. At that time she called herself Kate Conway, although she and Thomas never married.

Soon after having her third child, Catharine began to drink heavily. In 1880 she abandoned her family and moved to Whitechapel. Thomas refused to help her financially and did not want her to have anything to do with her sons, so he changed his last name so she couldn’t find them.

In 1881 Catherine met John Kelly and lived with him at a common lodging house in Spitalfields, an area known for crime and poverty adjacent to Whitechapel. She began prostitution as a means to pay rent.

Catherine’s friends described her as a very intelligent woman, scholarly and very friendly but with a vicious temper when angered. She was known to drink quite a bit and sing and dance in the streets.

On the morning of September 29^th, 1888 both Catherine and John found themselves unable to pay for a bed at the lodging house. John decided to head to a local pawn shop to sell his boots and Catherine stated that she would go to her daughter’s house to borrow money. John returned to the lodging house around 8 pm, barefoot and rented a bed for the night, where he remained for the rest of the evening.

At 8:30 pm Catherine was picked up by police for public intoxication. She had been found lying in the street, drunk and singing. She refused to give her name to the police so they took her to Bishopsgate Police station and let her sleep it off in a jail cell. At 1 am she was sober enough to be released.

At 1:45 am beat police officer PC Edward Walkins was making his rounds when he saw a body lying in the square. He found the body of Catherine Eddows, extremely mutilated. He quickly called for a night watchman, who also patrolled the area to stay with the body while he went for help.

Eddows was killed and mutilated in the square between 1.35 and 1.45 a.m. Police surgeon Dr. Frederick Gordon Brown, who arrived after 2:00 a.m., said of the scene:

 

The body was on its back, the head turned to left shoulder. The arms by the side of the body as if they had fallen there. Both palms upwards, the fingers slightly bent. A thimble was lying off the finger on the right side. The clothes drawn up above the abdomen. The thighs were naked. Left leg extended in a line with the body. The abdomen was exposed. Right leg bent at the thigh and knee.
The bonnet was at the back of the head—great disfigurement of the face. The throat cut. Across below the throat was a neckerchief. ... The intestines were drawn out to a large extent and placed over the right shoulder—they were smeared over with some feculent matter. A piece of about two feet was quite detached from the body and placed between the body and the left arm, apparently by design. The lobe and auricle of the right ear were cut obliquely through. There was a quantity of clotted blood on the pavement on the left side of the neck round the shoulder and upper part of the arm, and fluid blood-coloured serum which had flowed under the neck to the right shoulder, the pavement sloping in that direction.
Body was quite warm. No death stiffening had taken place. She must have been dead most likely within the half hour. We looked for superficial bruises and saw none. No blood on the skin of the abdomen or secretion of any kind on the thighs. No spurting of blood on the bricks or pavement around. No marks of blood below the middle of the body. Several buttons were found in the clotted blood after the body was removed. There was no blood on the front of the clothes. There were no traces of recent connection.

Brown conducted a post-mortem that afternoon, noting:

After washing the left hand carefully, a bruise the size of a sixpence, recent and red, was discovered on the back of the left hand between the thumb and first finger. A few small bruises on right shin of older date. The hands and arms were bronzed. No bruises on the scalp, the back of the body, or the elbows. ... The cause of death was haemorrhage from the left common carotid artery. The death was immediate and the mutilations were inflicted after death ... There would not be much blood on the murderer. The cut was made by someone on the right side of the body, kneeling below the middle of the body. ... The perinatal lining was cut through on the left side and the left kidney carefully taken out and removed. ... I believe the perpetrator of the act must have had considerable knowledge of the position of the organs in the abdominal cavity and the way of removing them. The parts removed would be of no use for any professional purpose. It required a great deal of knowledge to have removed the kidney and to know where it was placed. Such knowledge might be possessed by one in the habit of cutting up animals. I think the perpetrator of this act had sufficient time ... It would take at least five minutes. ... I believe it was the act of one person.

            Police physician Thomas Bond, disagreed with Brown's assessment of the killer's skill level. Bond's report to police stated: "In each case the mutilation was inflicted by a person who had no scientific nor anatomical knowledge. In my opinion he does not even possess the technical knowledge of a butcher or horse slaughterer or any person accustomed to cut up dead animals."

            At 3 am, while police were still investigating the area one officer found in a passage doorway a ripped piece of Catherine’s apron, covered in blood. On the wall was a note written in chalk “ The Juwes are the men that will not be blamed for nothing”. The lead investigator demanded that the graffiti be removed immdiatly in fear that it would create potential anti Jew riots in the streets. To this day they are not sure who wrote those words on the wall and if they are relevant to the murders.

            Catherine Eddows was buried on October 8^th, 1888 in a public grave in The City of London cemetery.

            Now that the phantom killer had claimed the lives of two women in one night, letters were written to the Queen Victoria to do something in regards to the state of Whitechapel. They begged that police do more to curb prostitution. The west end of London began to fear that Jack the Ripper wouldn’t be satisfied with just killing woman in Whitechapel and feared that their own streets were no longer safe. It was widely known that police did not have a clue who this phantom killer was and didn’t know where he would strike next.