Mary-Jane Kelly
Miller's Court
There had been a lull in the killing but, the murderer would strike again, and this time he would commit his most horrendous crimes so far. Mary-Jane
Kelly was just 25 years old and lived in a small rented room in Miller's Court, just off Dorset Street. The insalubrious thoroughfare which had once been
home to Annie Chapman.
Neal Sheldon
Neal Sheldon "The stories and myths surrounding Mary-Jane Kelly's life are many, because the name's so, extremely common. Information given is that
she was born in Limerick in Ireland, when she was a small child came across to Wales in Carmarthenshire. Her father was said to be a ganger in an iron
works but, unfortunately, Mary Jane made her way to Cardiff to stay with a cousin where, it was said, she became a prostitute."
Kelly who was reportedly an attractive young woman, eventually came to London and, in her own story, worked for a while in a posh brothel in the
West End. There she had fine dresses and all the trappings that went with catering for a high-class: clientele.
She even claimed to have been taken to France by a gentleman, but if her story was true, something seems to have gone horribly wrong. Because, she made
a swift decline into the stews of Whitechapel.
In April 1887, she met a market porter named Joseph Barnett and they, almost immediately, agreed to live together. The moved from one lodging house to
another but, eventually ended up at 13 Miller's Court.
Joseph Barnett
Miller's court was entered through a narrow arched passageway about 20 feet long and a yard wide which ran between numbers 26 and 27 Dorset Street.
13 Miller's court could only be entered through a door in the passage. It was in the thick of this warren of houses that Jack the Ripper would commit
his most savage of assaults.
Mary Jane and Joseph broke up and Mary Jane had no choice but to go back to selling herself on the street. On the night of her death, Mary was
drinking, and in the course of the evening, met a series of men one of whom could have been Jack the Ripper.
At 11.45, she picked up a man, she was seen by another prostitute Mary-Ann Cox who was a window who lived at number 5 Miller's court. She described
the man as about 36 years old, 5'5" tall with a fresh complexion and blotches on his face. He had a thick carroty moustache and was dressed in shabby
dark clothes and a black felt hat.
Lindsay Sivitar
He was holding a quart can of beer. Mary was still singing at 12:30 AM. Mary Ann Cox had gone out looking for customers, but returned to her
room after half an hour. There was a light on in Mary's room and she was still singing. At about 2 AM, Mary Jane was back on the streets. A man
named George Hutchison spoke to her in commercial Street and, from his account, it would seem she'd sobered up considerably.
Mary walked off and, according to Hutchison she was approached by a man of Jewish appearance, wearing a soft felt hat, he wore a long dark coat and
sported a large gold chain on his waistcoat. He was holding kid gloves and a small package. Hutchison followed the couple and saw them enter Mary
Jane's room. Perhaps hoping that their business would soon be over and that Mary Jane would take pity on him, Hutchison waited for nearly an hour.
His story is lent weight by the testimony of a passer-by saw a man standing where Hutchison claimed to be.
Mary-Jane Kelly, Corpse
At about four o'clock Elizabeth Crater was awakened by her cat Tiddles and heard a faint cry of 'Oh murder'. Such exclamations were fairly common
in the East End and she took no notice. The next morning Kelly's landlord sent an agent to collect some rent money. It was 10.45. There was no reply
to the knock on Kelly's door, so he looked through the window. And in the gloom of that tiny room he saw Mary Kelly on her bed. She had been, quite
literally, butchered. The police were called and when they eventually gained entry to the room they were greeted by a nightmare turned reality.
Lindsay Sivitar "He cuts her throat from left to right, right back to the spinal column. He cuts her from vagina to breastbone, like the other
victims. He takes out her heart, he then cut off her breasts with circular incisions, puts one by her head and one by her feet. He cut off her
stomach flesh in three flaps and put that on the bedside table. Sliced off her chin, her lips, her nose, her eyebrows. Skins her cheek, completely
disfiguring this corpse."
Dr Lars Davidsson "It was an attack on everything, every part of the body was attacked. He had, obviously, time and opportunity to indulge in his wishes"
Dr Thomas Bond
In the wake of the attack, the head of the CID at Scotland Yard, Robert Anderson, asked the highly respected police surgeon Dr Thomas Bond to
undertake the post-mortem and to review the reports of the previous crimes. Dr Bond's report included his opinion of what sort of man the killer
would be. It is generally regarded as being the first attempt at criminal profiling.
Bond carefully sifted through the available evidence from the previous murders studying the medical evidence and the eyewitness statements.
He concluded that at least five of the women had been killed by the same person. Their throats cut from left to right while they were lying
down. He also concluded that none of the women appeared to have struggled from which it was deduced that the attack had been sudden. He described
the killer as a man of physical strength, cool and daring, but in appearance quite likely to be a quiet inoffensive looking man.
Dr Roderick MacDonald
And, unlike some of the previous expert medical witnesses, Bond did not think that the murderer had any anatomical knowledge. Not even that of
a butcher or a horse-slaughterer. Instead, he believed the simple object, as seen in this most extreme form of the murder of Mary Kelly, was
the mutilation.
News of Mary Kelly's death and Jack the Ripper's unparalleled levels of savagery, shocked people around the world. It was compounded by the news
that same day, that the Commissioner of the Metropolitan police, Sir Charles Warren, had resigned.
The inquest into Mary Kelly's death opened on 12 November, this time under a new coroner to the case, Dr Roderick MacDonald. Much to everyone's
surprise he concluded the inquest in a day.
