The Legend of Jack the Ripper

Ch1: Every story has it's beginning

The murderer strikes again. "

This was the headline in almost all the newspapers throughout much of the autumn.

It's been years since the Whitechapel murderer finally ended his atrocity. Living and working at that place in so much proximity to the time was terrifying indeed, even for men.

As a journalist for the East London Observer, I was at the centre of the events, which has caused widespread chaos within my heart. You will find many reports concerned with the horrors of the Whitechapel district, but as they say, every myth and every legend has its origin. However, somehow, the true origin was rarely talked about.

It all began on the morning of September 5th, at exactly 6.30 am in 1873, when a police patrolling unit, who was doing their regular patrolling on the Thames river, without knowing that their regular patrol would turn into something so dreadful that they would remember throughout the rest of their life.

As the patrolling unit was moving through the river, something caught their eye. They were patrolling near the Battersea Pier of Southeast London when they noticed something floating on the water. They went closer to see what it was. And what they saw was so horrifying that they would remember it for years to come. The patrolling unit discovered that it was the left side of a woman's torso. One of the three policemen that was present on the boat, called Constable Richard Fane, picked it out of the water. The remains were immediately taken to the Clapham and Wandsworth Union Workhouse, where Dr Felix Charles Kempster, who was the then, the divisional surgeon at that time, saw them and pronounced that the trunk was dumped in the water, about twelve hours before the discovery was made.

The police at once decided to send a search party to search the river. Henry Locke, a policeman in the employment of the South-Western Railway Company, made another discovery without knowing of the previous event. He discovered the right side of the trunk off Brunswick Wharf near the Nine Elms railway station. This part corresponded with the first part found. It was apparent that it had been severed with some kind of a sharp knife, and a saw had also been used. Inspector Starkey of the Thames Police took custody of these remains. As the search continued, a portion of the lungs was found by Inspector Charles Marley, of the Thames Police, under an arch of the old Battersea bridge, and the other part near the Battersea railway pier.

The search was now continued for the other parts of the body, and on September 6th, the face, with the scalp of a woman still attached to it, was found by PC John Parker off Limehouse. It was evident at a glance that the murderer or murderers had taken revolting precautions to prevent identification of the victim, as the nose was cut from the face, but still hung attached to the upper lip. There was a clear mark of a bruise on the right temple, evidently caused by a blunt instrument, and probably was likely the cause of her death.

As the area was searched thoroughly
several other body parts were found. On September 9, two more portions of the same body were found, the right thigh being picked up in the river off Woolwich, and the right shoulder, with part of the arm, off Greenwich, the latter part being smeared with tar. The left foot, measuring ten inches and three-quarters in length, and ten inches across the instep, has also been picked up near the bank of the Regent's Canal, off Rotherhithe, and the right forearm near the Albert Embankment.

Under the leadership of the Acting Chief Surgeon of Metropolitan Police Dr Thomas Bond, and the divisional police surgeon Dr Kempster, the medical officer Dr Edward Hayden reassembled the body by sewing it together and preserving the other body parts in spirits of wine. They did their best and hung the face on a mechanical frame. They even went so far as to stretch the victim's face over a butcher's block, hoping that it may be recognized by someone whose loved one had gone missing. But they didn't let general people see it. Police only called people whom they genuinely believed could identify this woman. Upon closer inspection, the attending Surgeon Dr Thomas Bond reported that the body was hacked indeed, but he was of the opinion that it wasn't brutal. It was a careful dissection. He theorised that whoever is responsible for the act had to have anatomical knowledge and expertise on the matter in question.