The Legend of Jack the Ripper

Ch14; The East Ender

On the morning of June 4, 1889, a group of young boys were playing just near St George's stairs, in Horsleydown. They had been lobbying stones at a parcel that was picking its head outside the water in a playful sense, but when the parcel was recovered it was found to contain a decomposing lower torso of a woman. There were flaps of abdominal skin and the uterus of the victim, complete with cord and placenta, ". The skin was fair, and the mons veneris was covered with light sandy hair. These remains were taken to Wapping police station by Alfred Freshwater of the Thames Police. Several experienced detectives from Scotland Yard and Dr Thomas Bond, the chief surgeon to the Metropolitan police, proceeded to Wapping to commence investigations. Among the first detectives and police at the scene was Melville Macnaghten, the newly appointed Assistant Chief Constable of the Criminal Investigation Department. Dr Bond noticed a slight ooze of blood from the ragged edges of the cut parts of the flesh and stated that the victim wasn't dead for too long.

A few days later near Albert Bridge, Battersea,
Fifteen-year-old Isaac Brett, of 7 Lawrence Street in Chelsea, who earned his living as a woodcutter was walking down the road when he decided to take a bath in the river. Upon submerging he noticed a strange object being nudged by the tide against the muddy foreshore and tied with a bootlace. He took it ashore but didn't open it. Upon the advice of a passing stranger, he took it straight to the Battersea Police Station, where sergeant William Briggs of V division opened it. The assistant divisional surgeon for Battersea, Dr Felix Charles Kempster, was called in. He examined the remains and declared it to be a portion of a human thigh from the hip to knee; his opinion was that the limb had not been in the water above 24 hours. The white cloth was a drawer from the right leg side, and on the waistband was embroidered with the name "L.E. Fisher. Fastened to another portion of the material was a piece of tweed seemingly torn from the right breast area of a lady's long Ulster coat.

The local police immediately alerted Scotland Yard and Inspector John Bennett Tunbridge of the criminal investigation department alerted Dr Bond, who concluded that the two body parts corresponded and there were no doubts that they belonged to the same victim, further proof that backed this up came from the fact the parcel found at Horselydown was wrapped in a portion of underwear identical to the portion found with the thigh section at the Albert bridge and also contained another portion of the bottom left-hand side of a woman's Ulster coat. The whole parcel had been tied up with mohair boot laces and was slightly stained with blood. Further examinations of the thigh, by Dr Kempster and Mr Athelstan Braxton Hicks found it to be the left one, and most likely that of a young woman within the 20 to 30 age range. Bruises made by finger marks were also found on the thigh, and these were concluded to have been made before her death. On Wednesday 5th June 1889, the coroner of East Middlesex Wynne Edwin Baxter, who had presided over the inquests of Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman and Elizabeth Stride, opened an inquest at the Vestry hall, Wapping, into the remains found at Horselydown. He expressed doubts as to whether it was a proper case for an inquiry as it was difficult to draw the line as to what part of a body was sufficient enough to warrant an inquest. However, he had decided that an inquiry should be held and he summoned a jury. John Regan and Alfred Freshwater gave evidence at the inquest and repeated their stories.

On Thursday 6th June, in the afternoon, Joseph Davis a gardener caught sight of an object lapping against the embankment at Battersea Park. The shrubbery was situated about 200 yards from the shore of the Thames and was a place not frequented usually by the public or employed staff at the park. On nearing the bundle, which was ridden with a white Venetian blind cord, he noticed an unpleasant smell emanating from it. Upon opening it, Davis threw the thing in shock and was horrified to discover that it was a human arm, wrapped in a burgundy-coloured skirt.
He wrapped up the arm and off he ran in a desperate dash in search of one of the patrolling park policemen. Luckily, He found police constable Walter Augier of V division and conveyed the parcel to Battersea police station using a garden basket. Dr Kempster, whose surgery was only a few yards from the police station, was alerted to the find by Sergeants Viney and Briggs, Viney being in charge of local inquiries into the case. Telegrams were dispatched to police headquarters describing the remains found as thus: the upper part of a woman's trunk, probably a portion of other human remains found in the Thames. The chest cavity was empty but among the remains were the spleen, both kidneys, a portion of the intestines and a portion of the stomach. There was also a portion of midriff and both breasts present. The chest had been cut through the centre, thought to have possibly been done by a saw. Kempster thought that due to the state of discomposure, they were probably looking at another portion of the same remains previously found in the Thames and that the murder might have taken place as early as June 2nd.