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Jack the Ripper is believed to be the most famous serial killer of all time. Most know that he selected prostitutes as his victims and that he used a sharp knife or surgical instrument to mutilate their bodies. Yet his victims – five women living in the destitute East End of London called the Whitechapel district – do not necessarily share the same renown as the man who took their lives. All of these women had lives and families before they were eternally marked as the prostitute victims of Jack the Ripper.
In the early morning of Friday, August 31 1888, the body of Polly Nichols was discovered lying on the ground before a gated stable entrance on Whitechapel’s Buck’s Row – a narrow, dimly lit passage. She suffered a deep slash to her throat and severe cuts to her abdomen and womb. Polly was believed to be the first victim of Jack the Ripper. The daughter of a locksmith, she was born in London on August 1845 and married William Nichols, a printer’s machinist, in 1864. They had five children before their marriage broke up in 1880, some pointing the blame to William, who was said to have had an affair with their nurse during Polly’s last pregnancy, and others to Polly for her heavy drinking and deserting her family on many occasions. Polly spent her remaining years in workhouses and boarding houses, living off her meager earnings as a prostitute. She was a poor, destitute woman that most liked yet pitied.
Annie Chapman, known as "Dark Annie," was a 47-year old destitute prostitute who roamed the streets and moved from one common lodging house to the next when she could afford to pay for a room. On the morning of September 8, 1888 she was thrown out of her lodging house to earn money for her bed. Her body was found several hours later in the backyard of 29 Hanbury Street in the same condition as Polly Nichol’s. At one time Annie’s future must have seemed much more secure when she married John Chapman, a coachman, in 1869. The couple had three children but sadly, her firstborn died of meningitis and her youngest son was born crippled. Likely due to the stress caused by the misfortunes of their children, the couple took to heavy drinking and separated. They lived apart for four years during which time Annie received an allowance from her husband until his death in 1886. Life became much worse after his loss. Suffering from depression and alcoholism, Annie never seemed to recover from the loss of her husband and child and died a homeless prostitute.
Elizabeth Stride was born in Sweden in 1843, the daughter of a farmer, who most likely came to England as a domestic. She married a carpenter by the name of Thomas Stride in 1869, yet little information exists as to if the couple had children or the reason for their separation. It is known that Thomas died in 1884 of heart disease and Elizabeth spent her last three years with a waterside laborer named Michael Kidney. Nicknamed “Long Liz” by her friends, she did occasionally prostituted herself, but earned the bulk of her living as a domestic. She was described by associates as so good-natured that she would “do a good turn for anyone.” Liz, dressed to go out, left her boarding house after 7:00 on the night of September 29,1888. Approximately six hours later her huddled body was discovered in a narrow yard on Berner Street.
Amazingly enough, another woman was murdered by Jack the Ripper on the same night as Elizabeth Stride. Her name was Catherine Eddowes, a friendly woman known for her good spirits. Called “Kate” by her friends and family, she had a problem with drinking and was believed to prostitute herself when under the influence of alcohol. She was born in England in 1842. She met Thomas Conway when she was only sixteen years old and even though they never married, she lived with him for twenty years and produced three children. They eventually separated in 1880 after years of abuse. On the night of the double murder, she told John Kelly, the man she had been living with for the last seven years, that she was off to borrow money from her daughter. Kelly warned her about the Whitechapel killer and asked her to come home early. Kate assured him "Don't you fear for me. I'll take care of myself and I shan't fall into his hands." Kate never arrived at her daughter’s house but instead was arrested by the police for drunkenness. After sleeping it off, she was released at approximately 1:00 am, joking with the sergeant “I shall get a damned fine hiding when I get home them.” Kate never made it home. The woman’s body in Mitre Square was identified as the drunk they had released a few hours earlier.
Nerves were starting to settle in Whitechapel. There had not been a murder for over a month and the streets began to fill again after dark. Mary Kelly was one of the streetwalkers resuming her trade, desperate to make the rent she had fallen several weeks behind on. An Irish girl born in Limerick, she married a collier when she was sixteen but a mine explosion killed him after a mere three years together. In 1884 she came to London and found work at a brothel. Being an attractive woman, she did not have to rely solely on prostitution, for her various lovers often supported her. On the evening of November 8, 1888, Mary’s lover Joe Barnett came to apologize for being out of work and unable to give her any money. When they parted at 8:00 that night, he didn’t realize it would be the last time he would see her alive. The next morning, the landlord’s assistant knocked on the door to Mary’s room at 13 Miller’s Court, planning to ask for the past due rent. When there was no answer, he reached inside a broken window and peered through the curtains. What he saw inside was Mary’s mutilated corpse lying on the bed, her body so viscously mangled that Joe Barnett would only be able to identify her by her hair and eyes.
After the murder of Mary Kelly, Jack the Ripper mysteriously stopped his attacks. The police, regardless of all their investigating, knew little more about him than the public. Their failure to catch the serial killer made the headlines; articles questioned if the crime was unsolved because the victims were mere prostitutes. Because the case was never solved, the mystery surrounding the murders of these five unfortunate women has made it a legend. The names of the Ripper’s victims live on with this captivating puzzle that people still want to solve over a century later – five women recognized not for their lives, but for their brutal deaths under the hands of a vicious killer.
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