Catherine Eddowes
Killed 30th September 1888
Mitre Square
Mutilated & Body Parts Stolen
Because he was disturbed killin ‘ol Liz and couldn’t finish the job, Jack the Ripper went lookin’ for his second victim of the night. He found one. ‘Er name was Catherine Eddowes.
Poor ol’ Kate was found totally ripped up on the 30th September 1888 in Mitre Square, not 45 minutes after Liz’s body was found.
Catherine Eddowes’ story is same as the others. She moved to London wiv a bloke called Tommy Conway from Wolverhampton where she was born. Sadly she proper loved the drink and Tommy turfed ‘er out in 1881.
She then shacked up at 55 Flower and Dean Street with a porter called John Kelly and stayed with him until the day of her murder seven years later.
On the day of the 29th September, Catherine Eddowes was with John Kelly til 2o’clock. He said that she went to visit her daughter Annie at Bermondsey, her daughter by Conway. He was expecting her back at 4pm but she never returned.
He heard that she had been locked up at Bishopsgate for being drunk. Catherine’s daughter Annie Phillips said that she didn’t even see’er dear ol’ mum on the 29th September.
At 8.30.p.m. PC Robinson found Catherine, surrounded by onlookers, lying drunk in the doorway of No.29 Aldgate High Street. He and PC Simmonds took her to Bishopsgate Police Station where she was placed in a cell to sleep off the booze.
At around 1 o’clock in the mornin of the 30th September 1888, PC George Hutt discharged Catherine as she looked like she was sober. In the office upon her exit, she gave her name as Mary Ann Kelly of 6 Fashion Street, Spitalfields. “This way, Missus” he said to her as he held open the swing door. As she reached the street door she said “Pull to it”. “Alright” she said followed by “Goodnight old cock”. Off she went in the direction of Mitre Square to meet her gruesome and fearful destiny.
At 1.44.in the morning, PC Watkins of the City Police entered Mitre Square from Mitre Street which was his particular beat. It usually took him 14 minutes to patrol. When he passed Mitre Square at 1.30.a.m. there was no-one to be seen. Yet 1.44.a.m. he stepped into the square. In the south west corner, he saw a figure, that of Catherine Eddowes. As he shone his lantern across his grisly discovery, he saw that the woman had been completely mutilated.
PC Watkins ran across the square to Kearly and Tonges Warehouse to get help from the night-watchman, George James Morris who happened to be a retired Metropolitan Policeman. They got some ‘elp and a Dr Brown.
Dr.Brown’s report reads as:
The body was on its back, the head turned towards the left shoulder, the arms were by the side of the body, as if they had fallen there. Both palms were upwards and the fingers were slightly bent. A thimble was lying in the ground near the right hand, the clothes were drawn up above the abdomen, the left leg was extended straight down, in a line with the body, and the right leg was bent at the thigh and knee, there was great disfigurement to the face, the throat cut across, below the cut was a neckerchief, the upper part of the dress was pulled open a little way, the abdomen was all exposed, 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 2 feet was quite detached from the body and placed between the body and the left arm, apparently by design, the lobe and the auricle of the right ear was 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, the 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 one, 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.
Her body was taken to the City Mortuary in Golden Lane. Her face had been horrifically mutilated, a piece of her ear dropped from her clothing when she was undressed at the mortuary, her nose being cut off, and two inverted, “V”, cuts under each eye.
They found that her left kidney and her womb were missing.
Dr.Brown said that someone who knew the position of the kidney must have done it. He also said that the killer must have had “a good deal of knowledge of the position of the organs in the abdominal cavity and the way of removing them”.
As Watkins patrolled the square and saw nothing suspicious at 1.30.a.m, another copper called PC Harvey reached Mitre Square from the opposite direction through Duke Street and Church passage at a time between 1.41.a.m and 1.42.a.m. and saw no-one and did not hear any cries for help.
PC Pearce a City policeman and his wife, who lived in Mitre Square, were not disturbed during their sleep. George Morris was not working far from the front door of Kearley and Tonge’s front door which had been ajar, although he didn’t ‘ear anything in the square either. George Clapp, the caretaker who slept at the back of Heydermanns, overlooking the murder site heard no sound or noise of any kind.
It was as if the Ripper was a ghost. He managed to get his victim into the square, do his dirty deeds, place the body and guts in a specific manner, steal parts of her body, and slip away into the night within 15 minutes. Moreover, right under the noses of the police. Detectives Robert Outram, Daniel Halse and Edward Marriot were called to the scene and from there set out on the hunt for the murderer. They were supported by the City Police.