August 31st 2013 marks the 125th anniversary of the first Jack the Ripper murder and yet still the case remains unsolved. Whitechapel Real Time aims to portray Victorian society during 1888 in an accurate and engaging way, placing this tragic series of events in a wider context.
Over the next ten weeks, Peter Thurgood will be placing himself in the shoes of Chief Inspector Abberline to imagine how he would have felt and reacted as the Ripper investigation progressed.
Sunday September 30 1888
It was quite a pleasant day for this time of year, so much so that I decided to walk to the station this morning and take in the autumn sunshine. It’s surprising what a bit of sunshine can do to people, even my leg wasn’t playing up, and I felt happy and relaxed by the time I arrived, and by the looks on the faces of my officers, they felt the same way too.
What a difference half an hour can make. A messenger arrived from Scotland Yard, telling me to get over to Dutfield’s Yard, Whitechapel, straight away; another woman, presumed to be a prostitute had been found murdered.
I took two men with me and got there within twenty minutes, but was surprised to see the usual crowd of onlookers were already there, along with several police officers from another station, who looked like they were searching the yard.
“Who’s in charge here?” I demanded to know, but all I got from these morons were blank expressions. “Where is the damn body then?” I shouted, “at least you must know that?” One officer replied in a weak voice that the body had been taken away hours ago, after Doctor Blackwell and Doctor Phillips had finished examining her.
It took me over half an hour to establish that the body was that of local prostitute, Elizabeth Stride, and that she had been discovered by a local man at approximately one o’clock that morning.
I was absolutely fuming; it was by now nearly 9 a.m. and from what I could see, I was the first senior detective on the scene and this was eight hours after the poor wretch had been slain. As for the inexperienced officers who were supposed to be searching the yard for clues, I can’t imagine what damage they must have done. I dismissed them immediately and set my men to work, in the hope that it wasn’t too late. Nothing much on the ground in the way of evidence, but for once, quite a number of possible witnesses.
I was beginning to calm down, and was in the process of talking to one of the members of the social club, which is on the corner of Dutfield’s Yard when I felt a tug on my coat sleeve. I looked around and was surprised to see my sergeant, who, as far as I was concerned, should be hard at work back at the station. “They’ve just found another one sir,” he said. “Another one? I clamoured, “what do you mean, who has and where?
The sergeant explained to me that the City of London Police had just contacted him and told him that yet another prostitute had been found murdered on their patch, in Mitre Square.
I could hardly believe my ears, two in one day, or night, as I was soon to find out. The latest victim’s name was Catherine Eddowes, or Kate, as she was known on the streets. She had been found mutilated at about 1.45 a.m., by a police officer patrolling the square, which comes under their jurisdiction.
The press would have a field day with this, I could almost feel them breathing down my neck now as I visualised the headlines, ‘Inspector Abberline lies in bed while two more murders are committed’ and questions such as, “Do you think that maybe a younger man should take over the investigation Mr Abberline?”
I left two men at Dutfield’s Yard, while my sergeant and I made our way over to Mitre Square. As with Dutfield’s Yard, the body had long since been removed from the scene, leaving me feeling not much more than an onlooker.
I did manage to question PC Watkins, who actually discovered the body. He was not exactly a young man and had many years experience in the force, but he told me that when he first saw the body, he almost fainted, so horrific were her injuries. “Catherine Eddowes”, he said, “was lying on her back in a pool of blood; her throat had been cut open, almost from ear to ear, her clothes were up above her waist, exposing all the lower half of her body. Her stomach had been slashed and ripped open, leaving her intestines and bowels protruding”
The day however, was far from over, for within a short while Inspector Daniel Halse of the City of London Police arrived on the scene and informed that an important piece of evidence had been found in Goulston Street, Spitalfields.
The important piece of evidence, he informed me, was a piece of material with bloodstains on it, which had been found lying on the floor, close to the entrance to a block of flats called Wentworth Model Dwellings. The material, he told me, matches exactly the apron that Catherine Eddowes had been wearing when she was found dead in Mitre Square earlier on.
“And it’s been lying there all night?” I asked. “Oh no” he told me, “it was found just before three this morning”
Just before three – that is over seven hours ago, and this was the first I had heard of it. What is wrong with these people, don’t they know I am supposed to be in charge of this case?
I left my sergeant there and hurried over to Goulston Street without delay. Just as I expected, the piece of bloodstained apron was not there, as the PC who had found it, had taken it to Commercial Street Police Station, but I was shown something else, which was a message, written in chalk, on the wall just above where the piece of apron had been found. The message stated, ‘The Jewes are the men that will not be blamed for nothing’
I thought this rather strange, and definitely not written by the murderer himself, as he would hardly have stopped in the entrance to the flats, thrown down the piece of apron, and started writing on a wall, whilst in all probability, having bloodstains still upon himself.
My main concern however, was that Wentworth Model Dwellings, not only stood in a largely Jewish locality but was also inhabited almost exclusively by Jews, and within a few short hours would also see the opening of the vast Wentworth Street, and Petticoat Lane markets, which were run almost entirely by Jews.
There have been a number of attacks on Jews in this area since the Leather Apron scare, and I am sure there will be more if this graffiti is left for everyone to see. The graffiti must be erased from the wall immediately.
As usual, they all think they know more than me. Well I certainly don’t think so, and I will fight them tooth and nail to get my point across; this is my case and I intend to keep it that way.
Inspector Halse? What’s he doing here now? I left him at Mitre Square, and now he follows me here and puts his two penneth in. “You are on my territory now Inspector” I shouted at him, “and that if that graffiti is not removed within the next five minutes, it will almost certainly lead to a full scale riot against the Jews, and I promise you that I will hold you personally responsible.
Sir Charles Warren has just arrived at the scene; thank God for common sense. The graffiti has now been removed!
I spent the rest of the day running back and forth between Dutfield’s Yard, Mitre Square, and Goulston Street. I finally got home just before 11 p.m. My wife, God bless her, asked if I had had a nice day!
Thursday October 4 1888
Mr busybody George Lusk and his Whitechapel Vigilance Committee have been at it again. According to Lusk, we are doing absolutely nothing to apprehend the killer. He has asked none other than the Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury himself to put up a reward for the capture of the murderer, whom he is now calling Jack the Ripper.
Peter Thurgood is the author of Abberline: The Man Who Hunted Jack the Ripper, the first and only biography of Frederick George Abberline, the man who led the hunt for Jack the Ripper.