The nature of the crimes was also a major factor in increasing attention; all five women were slashed from ear to ear. Three of the women had their skirts lifted up which suggests they were raped as well as murdered. All the bodies were found early morning laying on their backs. Every murder was horrific and gruesome, also most of the victims had their organs ripped out which suggests the murderer had some medical knowledge. The press described the victims in thorough detail , making the public aware and attracting greater attention.
Mary Jane Nicholls or 'Polly' was a prostitute. She lived in Bucks Row, Whitechapel with William Nicholls and had five children. However, her heavy drinking led to the breakage of her marriage, and was forced to enter a workhouse when she had no money. She left the workhouse and found a job as a domestic servant. On the 12th July 1888 she stole clothing from her employer and left her job. She then shared lodgings in Thrawl street which she left a week before her death. She told the lodging housekeeper 'I'll soon get my doss money. See what a jolly bonnet I have.' On Friday 31st August 1888 at 4.00am and she was discovered with her throat being slashed from ear to ear, her clothes were soaked in blood and her skirt lifted above her waist. Polly was five feet two inches, with brown hair, brown eyes and was missing several teeth.
Annie Chapmen was just over a week after Polly, and was found in the backyard of 29 Hanbury street. She was suffering from tuberculosis and syphilis. She was a heavy drinker and was married to a coachman, John Chapmen. She had a daughter at the age of 29 called Emily, however Emily died at the age of twelve from meningitis. John was a cripple and was sent to a home. Annie decides to leave home to work with a travelling circus in France in 1877. By 1888 she leaves her husband and ends up as a prostitute. She was found at 6.00am on the 8th September with her skirt lifted above her waist, stomach ripped open with many organs laying on the right side of her body, part of her stomach was above the left shoulder, throat severed and there was a large quantity of blood. Chapmen was 47 years old, brown hair and had a plump figure.
Elizabeth Stride was born in Sweden in 1843 and by 1860 she started working as a servant in a workhouse/lodging house. She was registered as a prostitute in 1865 and was treated for veneral disease. She was a alcoholic and married, John Thomas Stride, who she later on separates from. In 1882 she moves in with Michael Kidney, who said she was frequently absent when she was drinking and tried to even padlock her in. At 1.00am on September 30th she was discovered covered in blood, throat cut and her legs drawn up. Stride was 45 years old with dark, brown hair.
An hour later, Catherine Eddowes body was discovered. Eddowes was born in Wolverhampton but in 1842 moves to London with her father. Her mother died in 1860, so she decides to move back to Wolverhampton. She leaves for Birmingham selling cheap books between 1861-63 with an old soldier, Thomas Conway. They have three children, Annie, George and another son. She develops a drinking problem, and later moves back to London where she moves in with John Kelly. Eddowes tells Kelly on the 29th September that she is going to visit her daughter. However, instead she ends up drunk and ending up in Bishopsgate Police Station. She was released at 1.00am and was later found at 1.45am 10 minutes away from the station with her skirt lifted above the waist, cut throat, bowels protruding, stomach ripped up, eyelids both cut, intestines cut out along with the kidney and most of the womb, tip of the nose detached , right ear lobe cut off, she was cut open from her breast bone to the lower abdomen and was lying in a pool of blood. Eddowes was 46 years old with dark hair.
By the end of October, things were starting to get back to normal. However, on the 9th November early morining John McCarthy discovered a prostitute named Mary Jane Kelly lying on her bed with the most terrible mutilated body. Kelly was born in Limberick in 1863 but was brung up in Wales. She married a man named Davies in 1879, however he was killed in 1882. Kelly moves to Cardiff to work as a prostitute. She then travels to London to work in a high class brothel in the West End, however she later develops a drinking problem and has to move to Mrs. Carthy's brothel in the East End. In 1888 she ends up back on the streets and was fined 2/6 for being drunk and disorderly. On November 9th Kelly's landlord finds her with her skin removed, lying naked with the shoulders flat but with the body lying to the left side of the bed, abdomen and thighs cut off, internal organs removed, breats cut off with one of the breats laying under her head and the other by her right foot, arms and face face hacked beyond recognition, tissues of the neck were slashed through to the bone, uterus and kidney also found laying under her head, liver by her feet, intestines by her right side and her spleen by her left. Kelly was the youngest of the five by being twenty-five, the final murder done by Jack the Ripper and also the most terribly mutilated. She was tall, pretty and neatly dressed.
This concludes the similarities between these five victims, they were all heavy drinkers which suggests they were serverly depressed with their lives. They were all prostitutes which suggests Ripper knew that they were the easiest people to catch and kill under his own will. All the murders took place within one square mile which implies Jack was a local in the area. The murders took place within three months which suggests why it attracted so much attention as it was so regular prosititutes were to afraid to come out aswell as the locals. All the murders took place between 11pm and 6am therefore suggests Jack must of thoroughly thought this through as he didn't want to get caught, as between those times it was when the prostitutes came out and also it was during the industrial revolution which meant people mainly worked at night. All the prostitutes were seen with men before they were murdered, with all the witnesses all giving a similar description. The prostitutes all had similar ages excluding Mary Kelly. Also, all prostiutes had very similar backgrounds therefore Jack must of had some sort of plan on his victims on who would be the easiest targets to murder and take advantage of.
aimee brophy
