The Legend of Jack the Ripper

Ch5: Killer at large!

Suspicions of a serial killer at large in London led to the secondment of Detective Inspectors Frederick Abberline, Henry Moore and Walter Andrews from the Central Office at Scotland Yard. Inspector Frederick George Abberline was 45 years old at that time. He was a portly and balding officer who wore a thick moustache and bushy side whiskers. Amberline had already spent fourteen years as a detective with H division and had gained an unrivalled knowledge of the area's streets and criminals. And he was about to play a major role in the years to come.

Meanwhile, police enquiries amongst the local prostitutes had yielded a likely-sounding suspect in the form of a man whom the local streetwalkers had nicknamed "Leather Apron."They reportedly stated that, he sometimes wore a deerstalker hat, and that he was running an extortion racket, demanding money off the prostitutes, and beating up those who refused.

Henry Tomkins was a horse slaughterer, employed by Barber's Knacker's Yard, which was located one street along from Buck's Row, where the murder of Mary Nichols occurred on August 31st, 1888. He and his workmates, Charles Brittain and James Mumford, were at work at the time that the murder occurred, and they were, he said, told of the crime by Police Constable Thain at around 4.15 am on the morning of August 31st.

His evidence suggests that Thain may have been in the habit of taking a break from his beat at their slaughterhouse since he stated that Thain called at that time to "call for his cape"

On Sunday, 2nd September 1888, Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper published an article about the experience of Mrs Green:-

Buck's-row is a short street occupied half by factories and half by dwellings.

Halfway down the street is the house of Mrs Green. Next to it is a large stable yard, whose wide closed gateway is next to the house. In front of this gateway, the woman was found.

Constable Neill, who was the first policeman to see the body, immediately woke the Green family and asked them if they had heard any unusual noise.

Neither Mrs Green, her son, nor her daughter, all of whom were sleeping within a few feet of where the body lay, had heard any outcry.

All agreed that the night was unusually quiet.

"I should have heard it had there been any I think", said Mrs Green, when interviewed, "for I have trouble with my heart and am a very light sleeper.

My son went down as soon as the body was taken away and washed away the bloodstains on the pavement. There was quite a little pool, though I understand most of it soaked into the woman's dress.

I looked out and saw the body as it lay there. It was lying straight across the gateway, its head towards me. It was not lying in a heap as if it had fallen, but on its back and straight as if it had been laid there.

I could not tell at first whether it was a man or a woman; but James, my son, who went downstairs, returned and told me it was a woman. This was four o'clock on Friday morning."

On Monday, 3rd September 1888, the other guy, present on the site that night appeared as a witness on the second day of the inquest and his testimony was reported by The East London Observer on Saturday, 8th September 1888. His name was Charles Cross. In his inquest, he stated that,

On Friday morning he left home about half-past-three to go to work, and passing through Buck's Row he saw on the opposite sound something lying against a gateway. In the dark, he could not tell at first what it was. It looked like a tarpaulin sheet, but walking to the middle of the road he saw that it was the figure of a woman.

At the same time, he heard someone about forty yards away coming up Buck's Row in the direction that the witness had come from.

He stepped back and waited for the newcomer, who started on one side as if he feared that the witness was about to knock him down. He said to the man "Come and look over here. There's a woman."