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Authors: Russell Edwards
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age as forty, and said he was wearing a dark overcoat and a deerstalker hat. But he had his back to her, so she got no look at his face.
At about the same time, Albert Cadosch, who lived next door to No. 29, went out to the yard at the back of the house, probably to relieve himself, and heard voices in the adjoining yard. He
heard a woman’s voice saying ‘No!’, and then the sound of something falling against the five-foot-high fence which separated the two yards. Like everyone living in the area,
Cadosch was used to drunks and prostitutes in the yards, and took little notice. It is more than possible that he heard the murder of Annie Chapman taking place, and had he peered over the fence he
may have witnessed it.
Half an hour later, John Davis stumbled on the body. In a state of shock, having glimpsed the horrific injuries, he ran out into Hanbury Street and came across Henry Holland, who was on his way
to work. Nearby were two other men, James Green and James Kent, standing outside the Black Swan pub at 23 Hanbury Street, waiting to go to work at the packing case manufacturer’s at the
rear.
‘Men, come here!’ Davis shouted. ‘Here’s a sight, a woman must have been murdered!’
After seeing the body for themselves, the men spread out looking for assistance; at the end of Hanbury Street was Inspector Joseph Chandler who accompanied them back to No. 29. Chandler
immediately sealed off the passageway leading from the front of the house to the back yard and sent for police reinforcements and for the divisional surgeon, DrGeorge
Bagster Phillips, who lived at Spital Square close by.
In his initial examination of Annie’s corpse, Dr Phillips noted the obvious injuries to her body, as well as the bruising to her chest and eye from the fight a few days earlier. Removed
from, but still attached to her body and placed over her right shoulder, were her small intestines and a flap of her abdomen. Two other portions of the abdomen were placed above her left shoulder
in a large quantity of blood. The uterus, the upper part of the vagina and the greater part of the bladder had been removed and were missing.
There were also abrasions on the fingers which indicated that the two brass rings Annie always wore had been forcibly removed. Dr Phillips also noted that despite the massive injuries to her
neck and torso, there was not a significant amount of blood loss from the body, and that her tongue was left protruding from her swollen head, indicating that she was strangled before being
mutilated.
Dr Phillips said that he himself, a surgeon, could not have carried out such a mutilation in less than a quarter of an hour.
The style of Annie’s murder was clearly similar to that of Mary Ann Nichols, eight days before. Dr Phillips did not give too much away at the inquest regarding the injuries to Annie
Chapman, but his findings were published in the medical journal the
Lancet
a few weeks later. He stated that the murderer would have had to possess some form of medical or anatomical
knowledge: ‘Obviously the work was that of an expert – of one, at least, who had such knowledge of anatomical or pathological examinations as to be enabled to secure the pelvic organs
with one sweep of a knife.’ The autopsy also revealed the reasons for Annie’s apparent illness: she was suffering from advanced disease of the lungs which had begun to affect the
membranesof the brain; in other words, she was already terminally ill. She would have died soon, just not so gruesomely.
The inquest, as always, generated new information and brought forward more witnesses. A piece of leather apron was found in the back yard, leading to a minor flurry of sensation in that it was
somehow linked to the mysterious ‘Leather Apron’ character. It was soon realized that it had no genuine significance as it was left there by Amelia Richardson, a resident who ran her
own packing case business from the house. Testimony from her son, John,
At about the same time, Albert Cadosch, who lived next door to No. 29, went out to the yard at the back of the house, probably to relieve himself, and heard voices in the adjoining yard. He
heard a woman’s voice saying ‘No!’, and then the sound of something falling against the five-foot-high fence which separated the two yards. Like everyone living in the area,
Cadosch was used to drunks and prostitutes in the yards, and took little notice. It is more than possible that he heard the murder of Annie Chapman taking place, and had he peered over the fence he
may have witnessed it.
Half an hour later, John Davis stumbled on the body. In a state of shock, having glimpsed the horrific injuries, he ran out into Hanbury Street and came across Henry Holland, who was on his way
to work. Nearby were two other men, James Green and James Kent, standing outside the Black Swan pub at 23 Hanbury Street, waiting to go to work at the packing case manufacturer’s at the
rear.
‘Men, come here!’ Davis shouted. ‘Here’s a sight, a woman must have been murdered!’
After seeing the body for themselves, the men spread out looking for assistance; at the end of Hanbury Street was Inspector Joseph Chandler who accompanied them back to No. 29. Chandler
immediately sealed off the passageway leading from the front of the house to the back yard and sent for police reinforcements and for the divisional surgeon, DrGeorge
Bagster Phillips, who lived at Spital Square close by.
In his initial examination of Annie’s corpse, Dr Phillips noted the obvious injuries to her body, as well as the bruising to her chest and eye from the fight a few days earlier. Removed
from, but still attached to her body and placed over her right shoulder, were her small intestines and a flap of her abdomen. Two other portions of the abdomen were placed above her left shoulder
in a large quantity of blood. The uterus, the upper part of the vagina and the greater part of the bladder had been removed and were missing.
There were also abrasions on the fingers which indicated that the two brass rings Annie always wore had been forcibly removed. Dr Phillips also noted that despite the massive injuries to her
neck and torso, there was not a significant amount of blood loss from the body, and that her tongue was left protruding from her swollen head, indicating that she was strangled before being
mutilated.
Dr Phillips said that he himself, a surgeon, could not have carried out such a mutilation in less than a quarter of an hour.
The style of Annie’s murder was clearly similar to that of Mary Ann Nichols, eight days before. Dr Phillips did not give too much away at the inquest regarding the injuries to Annie
Chapman, but his findings were published in the medical journal the
Lancet
a few weeks later. He stated that the murderer would have had to possess some form of medical or anatomical
knowledge: ‘Obviously the work was that of an expert – of one, at least, who had such knowledge of anatomical or pathological examinations as to be enabled to secure the pelvic organs
with one sweep of a knife.’ The autopsy also revealed the reasons for Annie’s apparent illness: she was suffering from advanced disease of the lungs which had begun to affect the
membranesof the brain; in other words, she was already terminally ill. She would have died soon, just not so gruesomely.
The inquest, as always, generated new information and brought forward more witnesses. A piece of leather apron was found in the back yard, leading to a minor flurry of sensation in that it was
somehow linked to the mysterious ‘Leather Apron’ character. It was soon realized that it had no genuine significance as it was left there by Amelia Richardson, a resident who ran her
own packing case business from the house. Testimony from her son, John,
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