Mary Kelly - Victim of Jack the Ripper

On 10th November 1888 the East End of London had been shocked by yet another Ripper killing which had occurred the previous day.

At 10.45am on 9th November Thomas Bowyer had called at Mary Kelly's room at 13 Miller's Court to collect her overdue rent. When there was no reply to his repeated knocking on the door he had gone round to a broken window pane and peered into the room through it. He saw her horrifically mutilated body on the bed and ran to fetch her landlord John McCarthy.

Within moment the police were at the scene and word had spread through the neighbourhood that the ripper had returned.

The Morning Advertiser reported on the 10th November 1888 that:-

Yesterday forenoon the inhabitants of the East-end of London were thrown into a state of consternation by the discovery in Whitechapel of another atrocious crime, even more revolting than any of the previous six murders which have recently been committed in the same district. The victim is a woman of the "unfortunate" class, and the murder was committed under her own roof in broad daylight, but notwithstanding the publicity of the movements of the murderer, no reliable clue has been discovered as to the perpetrator of the crime.

Coincidentally it was in Dorset Street that a previous victim Annie Chapman had been lodging at the time of her death on 8th September 1888.

The Advertiser provided its readers with a glimpse of the street in which both murders had occurred:-

Dorset-street, Spitalfields, is a notorious neighborhood. It is filled with lodging-houses, tenanted chiefly by the lowest classes, amongst them some of the most degraded thieves and women of the streets. It was here that Annie Chapman, who was murdered in Hanbury-street on the 8th of September, lived, and the scene of the present crime is a court directly opposite the house to which that unfortunate woman was in the habit of resorting.

Referring to the murder of Mary Kelly the Advertiser informed its readers that:-

A terrible sight presented itself to the police officers when they entered the house. The body of the woman, perfectly naked, was stretched out on the little bedstead, the clothing of which was saturated with her blood.

The newspaper told how medical assistance had been summoned and how police stations across the capital were informed of the latest atrocity by the simple, terse Telegraph message, "The woman is simply cut to pieces."

"Within a very short time," according to the Morning Advertise, "half a dozen cabs arrived in Dorset-street from Whitehall, conveying detectives from the Criminal Investigation Department, among them being Inspector Abberline and Reid. Never before had so many men been dispatched to the scene of a murder from Whitehall."

The newspaper detailed how Miller's Court was soon a hive of activity and of "extraordinary excitement." It told its readers how:-

The whole space was closely packed with detective officers, and quite a small army of plain-clothes constables were within an astonishingly short space of time stationed in Dorset-street. Dr. Phillips, the divisional surgeon of police, soon arrived, and was followed by Dr. Bond, of Westminster, divisional surgeon of the A division, Dr. J. R. Gabe, of Mecklenburgh-square, and two or three other surgeons. They made a preliminary examination of the body and sent for a photographer, who made several photographs of the remains.


Referring to the reaction in the neighbourhood to news of another murder the Advertiser told how:-

the excitement in the neighbourhood...amounted to a perfect frenzy. Women rushed about the streets telling their neighbours the news, and shouting in angry voices their rage and indignation.
It also reported that Joseph Barnet, Mary Kelly's estranged lover was sent for and he "at once identified the body as that of Kelly, or "Ginger," as she was called, owing to the colour of her hair."

The body was removed from the scene and taken to the mortuary at around 4pm. A large mob followed the van to the mortuary, where a crowd was waiting to see the coffin transferred to the building.

The Morning Advertiser concluded its article by informing its readers that:-

The photographer who had been called in to photograph the room and the body removed his camera from the premises at half-past four, and shortly afterwards a detective officer carried from the house a pail with which he left in a four-wheel cab. The pail was covered with a newspaper, and it was stated that it contained portions of the woman's body. It was taken to the house of Dr. Phillips, 2 Spital-square. The windows of the room in which the crime was committed were boarded up, and a padlock was put on the door. The streets were patrolled by the police all the evening, and no one was allowed to loiter near the place.

With regards the photograph taken that day, it is worth noting that Mary Kelly was the only one of Jack the Ripper's victims to be photographed at the scene of the crime and that that photograph survives to this day. It is one of the photographs that we show on our
Jack the Ripper Tour and it really does convey the horror of this particular crime.

What nobody knew that day though was that Mary kelly would be the last victim of Jack the Ripper and that following this killing the Ripper would disapear from the area as suddenly and as mysteriously as he had appeared 3 months before.