The Whitechapel Murders & Mary Jane Kelly

Database: The Murder of Mary Jane Kelly

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Her experiences with the East End appears to have begun with a woman according to press reports a Mrs. Buki who resided in one of the thoroughfares off Ratcliffe Highway, known as St. This person appears to have received Kelly direct from the West End home, for she had not been there very long when, it is stated, both women went to the French lady's residence and demanded the box which contained numerous dresses of a costly description.

Kelly at last indulged in intoxicants, it is stated, to an extant which made her unwelcome. George's Street she went to lodge with a Mrs. Carthy at Breezer's Hill. This place she left about 18 months or two years ago and from that time on appears to have left Ratcliffe all together. Carthy said that Kelly had left her house and gone to live with a man who was in the building trade and who Mrs.

Carthy believed would have married Kelly. Kelly leaves Carthy's house to live with a man in the building trades. Barnett says she lived with a man named Morganstone opposite or in the vicinity of Stepney Gasworks. She had then taken up with a man named Joseph Fleming and lived somewhere near Bethnal Green. Fleming was a stone mason or mason's plasterer. He used to visit Kelly and seemed quite fond of her. She thought he was a costermonger and sometimes visited and gave money to Kelly. Joseph Barnett is London born of Irish heritage. He is a riverside laborer and market porter who is licensed to work at Billingsgate Fish Market.

Mary Jane Kelly’s Murky Begginings

He comes from a family of three sisters and one brother who is named Daniel. Barnett was born in and dies in Julia Venturney says that Joe Barnett is of good character and was kind to Mary Jane, giving her money on occasion. Barnett and Kelly are remembered as a friendly and pleasant couple who give little trouble unless they are drunk.

Good Friday, April 8, He takes her for a drink and arranges to meet her the following day. At their second meeting they arrange to live together. They take lodgings in George Street , off Commercial Street. They are evicted for not paying rent and for being drunk. Next they move to Brick Lane. Here they occupy a single room which is designated 13 Miller's Court. August or early September, Barnett loses his job and Mary Jane returns to the streets. Barnett decides to leave her. October 30, between 5 and 6 PM: Elizabeth Prater , who lives above Kelly reports that Barnett and Kelly have an argument and Barnett leaves her.

He goes to live at Buller's boarding house at New Street, Bishopsgate. Barnett states at the inquest that he left her because she was allowing other prostitutes to stay in the room. She only let them stay there because she was good hearted and did not like to refuse them shelter on cold bitter nights. Harvey afterwards came and stayed there, I left and took lodgings elsewhere. Maria Harvey stayed with Kelly on the nights of November 5 and 6. She moved to new lodgings at 3 New Court, another alley off Dorset Street.

Mary Jane buys a half penny candle from McCarthy's shop. Bowyer states that on Wednesday night he saw a man speaking to Kelly who closely resembled the description of the man Matthew Packer claims to have seen with Elizabeth Stride. His appearance was smart and attention was drawn to him by his very white cuffs and rather long, white collar which came down over the front of his long black coat.

He did not carry a bag. Almost every day after the split, Barnett would visit Mary Jane.

Mary Jane Kelly - Wikipedia

On Friday the ninth he stops between 7: He says she is in the company of another woman who lives in Miller's Court. This may have been Lizzie Albrook who lived at 2 Miller's Court. Albrook says "About the last thing she said to me was 'Whatever you do don't you do wrong and turn out as I did. She told me, too, that she was heartily sick of the life she was leading and wished she had money enough to go back to Ireland where her people lived. I do not believe she would have gone out as she did if she had not been obliged to do so to keep herself from starvation.

Maria Harvey also says that she was woman that Barnett saw with Mary Jane and that she left at 6: Barnett leaves and goes back to Buller's Boarding House where he played whist until Julia Venturney , who lives at 1 Miller's Court goes to bed. There are no confirmed sightings of Mary Jane Kelly between 8: It is said she is in the Britannia drinking with a young man with a dark mustache who appears respectable and well dressed.

It is said she is very drunk. Cox is returning home to warm herself as the night had turned cold. She sees Kelly ahead of her, walking with a stout man. The man was aged around 35 or 36 and was about 5' 5" tall. He was shabbily dressed in a long overcoat and a billycock hat. He had a blotchy face and small side whiskers and a carroty mustache. The man is carrying a pail of beer.

Cox follows them into Miller's Court. Cox passed and said "Goodnight. Cox goes out again at midnight and hears Kelly singing the same song. Catherine Pickett , a flower-seller who lives near Kelly, is disturbed by Kelly's singing.

Picket's husband stops her from going down stairs to complain. It is beginning to rain. Again, Mary Ann Cox returns home to warm herself. At that time Kelly is still singing or has begun to sing again. There was light coming from Kelly's room. Shortly after one, Cox goes out again. Elizabeth Prater , the wife of William Prater, a boot finisher who had left her 5 years before, is standing at the entrance to Miller's Court waiting for a man. Prater lives in room number 20 of 26 Dorset Street.

This is directly above Kelly. She stands there about a half hour and then goes into to McCarthy's to chat. She hears no singing and sees no one go in or out of the court. After a few minutes she goes back to her room, places two chairs in front of her door and goes to sleep without undressing. She is very drunk. He is walking on Commercial Street and passes a man at the corner of Thrawl Street but pays no attention to him. At Flower and Dean Street he meets Kelly who asks him for money. Hutchinson, can you lend me sixpence? She meets the man Hutchinson had passed earlier. The man puts his hand on Kelly's shoulder and says something at which Kelly and the man laugh.

Hutchinson hears Kelly say "All right. Hutchinson notices that the man has a small parcel in his left hand. He has a pale complexion, a slight moustache turned up at the corners changed to dark complexion and heavy moustache in the press reports , dark hair, dark eyes, and bushy eyebrows. He is, according to Hutchinson, of "Jewish appearance.

He wears dark spats over light button over boots. A massive gold chain is in his waistcoat with a large seal with a red stone hanging from it. He carries kid gloves in his right hand and a small package in his left. He is 5' 6" or 5' 7" tall and about 35 or 36 years old. Kelly and the man cross Commercial Street and turn down Dorset Street.

Kelly and the man stop outside Miller's Court and talk for about 3 minutes. Kelly is heard to say "All right, my dear. You will be comfortable. At this he hands her a red handkerchief. The couple then heads down Miller's Court. Hutchinson waits until the clock strikes 3: Cox returns home yet again. It is raining hard. There is no sound or light coming from Kelly's room. Cox does not go back out but does not go to sleep. Throughout the night she occasionally hears men going in and out of the court.

She told the inquest "I heard someone go out at a quarter to six. I do not know what house he went out of as I heard no door shut. Elizabeth Prater is awakened by her pet kitten " Diddles " walking on her neck. She hears a faint cry of "Oh, murder!

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Sarah Lewis , who is staying with friends in Miller's Court, also hears the cry. Caroline Maxwell , a witness at the inquest and acquaintance of Kelly's, claims to have seen the deceased at around 8: She described her clothing and appearance in depth, and adamantly stated that she was not mistaken about the date, although she admitted she did not know Kelly very well.

Maurice Lewis , a tailor who resided in Dorset Street, told newspapers he had seen Kelly and Barnett in the Horn of Plenty public house on the night of the murder, but more importantly, that he saw her about Like Maxwell, this time is several hours from the time of death, and because of this discrepancy, he was not called to the inquest and virtually ignored by police.

After Bowyer receives no response from knocking and because the door was locked he pushes aside the curtain and peers inside, seeing the body. Several hours later, after waiting fruitlessly for the arrival of the bloodhounds "Barnaby" and "Burgho," McCarthy smashes in the door with an axe handle under orders from Superintendent Thomas Arnold. When police enter the room they find Mary Jane Kelly's clothes neatly folded on a chair and she is wearing a chemise. Her boots are in front of the fireplace.

Thomas Bond , a distinguished police surgeon from A-Division, was called in on the Mary Kelly murder. His report is as follows:. The head was turned on the left cheek. The left arm was close to the body with the forearm flexed at a right angle and lying across the abdomen.

The right arm was slightly abducted from the body and rested on the mattress. The elbow was bent, the forearm supine with the fingers clenched. The legs were wide apart, the left thigh at right angles to the trunk and the right forming an obtuse angle with the pubes. The whole of the surface of the abdomen and thighs was removed and the abdominal cavity emptied of its viscera.

The breasts were cut off, the arms mutilated by several jagged wounds and the face hacked beyond recognition of the features. The tissues of the neck were severed all round down to the bone. The viscera were found in various parts viz: The flaps removed from the abdomen and thighs were on a table. The bed clothing at the right corner was saturated with blood, and on the floor beneath was a pool of blood covering about two feet square.

The wall by the right side of the bed and in a line with the neck was marked by blood which had struck it in a number of separate splashes. The face was gashed in all directions, the nose, cheeks, eyebrows, and ears being partly removed. The lips were blanched and cut by several incisions running obliquely down to the chin. There were also numerous cuts extending irregularly across all the features. The neck was cut through the skin and other tissues right down to the vertebrae, the fifth and sixth being deeply notched.

The skin cuts in the front of the neck showed distinct ecchymosis. The air passage was cut at the lower part of the larynx through the cricoid cartilage.

Mary Jane Kelly

Both breasts were more or less removed by circular incisions, the muscle down to the ribs being attached to the breasts. The intercostals between the fourth, fifth, and sixth ribs were cut through and the contents of the thorax visible through the openings. The skin and tissues of the abdomen from the costal arch to the pubes were removed in three large flaps. The right thigh was denuded in front to the bone, the flap of skin, including the external organs of generation, and part of the right buttock.

The left thigh was stripped of skin fascia, and muscles as far as the knee. The left calf showed a long gash through skin and tissues to the deep muscles and reaching from the knee to five inches above the ankle. Both arms and forearms had extensive jagged wounds. The right thumb showed a small superficial incision about one inch long, with extravasation of blood in the skin, and there were several abrasions on the back of the hand moreover showing the same condition.

On opening the thorax it was found that the right lung was minimally adherent by old firm adhesions. The lower part of the lung was broken and torn away. The left lung was intact. It was adherent at the apex and there were a few adhesions over the side. In the substances of the lung there were several nodules of consolidation. The pericardium was open below and the heart absent. In the abdominal cavity there was some partly digested food of fish and potatoes, and similar food was found in the remains of the stomach attached to the intestines.

George Bagster Phillips was also present at the scene, and gave the following testimony at the inquest:. She had only her chemise on, or some underlinen garment. I am sure that the body had been removed subsequent to the injury which caused her death from that side of the bedstead that was nearest the wooden partition, because of the large quantity of blood under the bedstead and the saturated condition of the sheet and the palliasse at the corner nearest the partition.

The blood was produced by the severance of the carotid artery, which was the cause of death. The injury was inflicted while the deceased was lying at the right side of the bedstead. Her grave was no. The funeral of the murdered woman Kelly has once more been postponed. Deceased was a Catholic, and the man Barnett, with whom she lived, and her landlord, Mr. Carthy, desired to see her remains interred with the ritual of her Church. The funeral will, therefore, take place tomorrow [19 Nov] in the Roman Catholic Cemetery at Leytonstone.

The hearse will leave the Shoreditch mortuary at half-past twelve. The remains of Mary Janet Kelly, who was murdered on Nov. No family member could be found to attend the funeral. The Daily Telegraph, November 19 , page 3, November 20 , page 3. Mary Jane's grave was reclaimed in the s. John Morrison erected a large, white headstone in , but marked the wrong grave.

Morrison's headstone was later removed, and the superintendent re-marked Mary Jane's grave with a simple memorial in the s. Certificate lists name as "Marie Jeanette Kelly," aka "Davies. This page is part of the Wiki: Jack the Ripper project. If you would like to view or make edits to the wiki source, you may view the original wiki page at: Did Kelly Have a Heart?

Did Mary Kelly Survive? Is Truth Stranger Than Fiction? What Happened at Miller's Court? Le Secret de Mary Jane K. Will the Real Mary Kelly?

Kennedy and Lewis - 21 posts. Online newspaper archives Edit: Miscellaneous research resources Edit: She arrives in London in Somewhere in this time period, Mary Jane takes a meal of fish and potatoes. His report is as follows: George Bagster Phillips was also present at the scene, and gave the following testimony at the inquest: He watched her go. Maybe a plan was forming in his head. He knew she had her own accommodation and a kind heart so there was a chance of shelter.

One thing I love about this subject is that you can visit the very places where these seemingly innocuous meetings took place. Here is the approximate location where Mary and George met. Flower and Dean St now Lolesworth Place is the side road on the right. The brown building facing us is where Millers Court was. Hutchinson reduced his walking pace and watched Mary head south. He then saw her pass a well-dressed man who tapped her on the shoulder and said something to her. That meeting took place here. All three of them headed north but Hutchinson stopped under the streetlight outside the Queens Head pub on the corner of Commercial Street and Fashion Street — the pub Liz Stride had visited on the night of her murder — in order to get a good look at the man.

I stooped down and looked him in the face. He looked at me stern. They both went into Dorset Street I followed them. They both stood at the corner of the Court for about 3 minutes. He said something to her. She said alright my dear come along you will be comfortable He then placed his arm on her shoulder and gave her a kiss. She said she had lost her handkercheif he then pulled his handkercheif a red one out and gave it to her. They both then went up the court together.

I then went to the Court to see if I could see them, but could not. I stood there for about three quarters of an hour to see if they came out they did not so I went away. Three quarters of an hour? And a dark jacket under. Light waistcoat dark trousers dark felt hat turned down in the middle. Button boots and gaiters with white buttons. Wore a very thick gold chain white linen collar.

Black tie with horse shoe pin. Respectable appearance walked very sharp. One thing about him is certain. He was certainly outside Millers Court at one point. We know this because he was seen. She went back to sleep. Mrs Cox was back home at this point but did not sleep. She heard men come and go all night including one at around 5.

She was 29 shillings in arrears — a huge sum. He pulled back the rag and peered inside. I can read books about some of the most horrific atrocities ever inflicted and remain unaffected, but the scene in Millers Court is too much. I was chatting with Inspector Beck, who was in charge of the station, when a young fellow, his eyes bulging out of his head, came panting into the police station. The poor fellow was so frightened that for a time he was unable to utter a single intelligible word.

Mr McCarthy was well known to us as a common lodging house proprietor. It looked more like the work of a devil than of a man. I had heard a great deal about the Whitechapel murders, but I declare to God I had never expected to see such a sight as this. The whole scene is more than I can describe. I hope I may never see such a sight as this again. Even a description of the scene without photographic evidence is still a little hard to take.

The murderer took his time with his victim and indulged his fascination with internal organs to the maximum. The body lay on the bed with the head turned to the window. Her breasts had been sliced off through circular incisions. One had been placed under her head along with her uterus and kidneys, and the other by her right foot.

Her liver sat between her feet while the flesh from the abdomen and thighs were left in piles on a side table. Her right thigh had so much flesh removed that the bone was visible. Her heart was missing entirely. For once, he was uninterrupted. For once, he could do what he wanted with little fear of interruption. The only jeopardy came in his getting away and no one would look twice at a man leaving the room of a prostitute in Dorset Street.

In the end it was decided that this would be impractical and the landlord, John McCarthy, broke down the door with an axe handle. The fire was still burning and had reached a such a temperature that it melted the spout off the kettle. It seemed that clothing had been used to fuel the fire while others were neatly folded nearby. Abberline suspected that the fire was there to give the murderer light. By now a large crowd had formed in Commercial Street and any newcomer examined minutely.

The body was eventually transported to a mortuary in Shoreditch rather than Whitechapel. George Hutchinson, despite being a resident of Commercial Road and was arguably the last person to see her alive other than her killer, did not approach the police with his statement until the following Monday — some three days after the murder.

The most obvious reason stems from the following evidence from a Sarah Lewis. As I said, George had been seen. I am a laundress. I was at her house at half past 2 on Friday morning she lives at No. He was not tall — but stout — had on a black wideawake hat — I did not notice his clothes — another young man with a woman passed along — the man standing in the street was looking up the court as if waiting for someone to come out.

Abberline interviewed him later and thought him a creditable witness. Strange that he could remember everything about him in the darkness of Commercial Street but not in cold daylight. The description of Astrakhan man seems just a little too, well, stereotypical. The likelihood, though, is remote.

The Astrakhan man would be easy pickings for a mugger. He would also have known that the press would pay for his story and easy money should never be avoided. Some have claimed that Hutchinson was the murderer — notably Bob Hinton in his no-nonsense book From Hell: The Jack the Ripper Mystery.

The chances are just that he happened to see her on the night she died and saw an opportunity to make some money. Mary was certainly dead by then and the body was certainly hers no matter what the Johnny Depp film From Hell says! Abberline interviewed Joseph Barnett for four hours as he was clearly a suspect but found his story to be strong and his alibi unbreakable. Once again, the Ripper had struck from under the very noses of the police and, on this occasion, in the busiest street in London. If anything, the case was more hopeless than ever. And yet, the hideous murder of Mary Jane Kelly was the last of the cycle and over the coming weeks and months the East End returned back to normal.

Kelly was buried at Leytonstone Roman Catholic Cemetery. Recently, there has been talk of exhuming her bones to check for any DNA which might lead to the capture of her murderer but the actual location of her grave is unknown. They are compulsive creatures and not governed as we are. Many see capture and imprisonment as unavoidable, even desirable but they listen to their murderous desires first.

Serial murderers tend to stop their work because they have either died, been committed to an asylum without their offences being discovered or arrested and imprisoned for lesser crimes. Jack could also have moved elsewhere. That is certainly the official view. Four more were added.

Not only is this not considered a Ripper murder, it is questionable that it is a murder at all. When coupled with the fact that it occurred in the heart of Ripperland the coincidence seems a little too strong. That said, it is also possible that it was deliberately made to look like his work. The body was never identified though some parts were later found in the Thames.

That file closes with the murder of Frances Coles on 13 th February probably the more interesting of the non-canonical victims as it featured an actual arrest. Thompson could have caught up with the man but, as Frances still had an eye open, he stayed with her in line with police procedure.

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