The Worst Street in London: Foreword by Peter Ackroyd (18 page)

At 10.45am, McCarthy gave up on Mary Kelly delivering her night’s earnings personally and sent one of his rent collectors, a man named Thomas Bowyer, into Miller’s Court to find her. Bowyer made his way through the narrow archway that ran between numbers 26 and 27 Dorset Street, into the mean little court. He turned and knocked on the door of number 13. There was no answer and no sign of movement inside the room. Bowyer knocked again, then walked around the side of the building to peer through the window. The view through the first window was obscured by a thick, heavy piece of material so Bowyer put his hand through the pane of glass that had been broken some weeks previously and pulled it aside.

The cold November light fell into the ancient, squalid room and illuminated a small table upon which there seemed to be lumps of meat. Bowyer’s natural impulse was to draw back. He let go of the makeshift curtain, and prepared to take a closer look. As he pulled back the curtain for a second time, the full horror of the contents of the room was revealed. The floor and walls were stained a deep, dark, blood red. Lumps of flesh and internal organs were strewn around the room, as if cast aside by some maniacal butcher.

On the ancient, vermin-infested bed lay what remained of Mary Jane Kelly. Unrecognisable now for her face had been mutilated with such ferocity that it was hard to believe that it had once represented youth and beauty. Her throat had been slit and her torso ripped open. Her breasts had been sliced off. A portion of her leg had been skinned. In a final sick, demented act, her butchered frame had been arranged in an appalling death-pose, the mutilated face turned towards the window with a blank, lifeless stare.

Bowyer drew back from the horrifying scene and ran to get Jack McCarthy who, after taking a cautious look through the window himself, sent Bowyer to the police station on Commercial Street. After composing himself (and possibly arranging for someone to stand guard lest Joe Barnett or one of Kelly’s friends should return to the room), he followed Bowyer to the police station. Once at the station, McCarthy and Bowyer were seen by Inspector Beck, who immediately returned with them to Miller’s Court.

Once the three men had arrived outside number 13, Inspector Beck sent for Dr George Bagster Phillips. The doctor duly arrived and attempted to enter the room, but found the door was locked. One would assume that as landlord, Jack McCarthy would have possessed a key, but if he did have one, he certainly did not reveal its whereabouts to the police. This led to the rather farcical situation of Dr Phillips having to look through the broken window to assess whether Mary Kelly required any medical assistance. However despite only being able to view the body from several feet away, the visible mutilations inflicted on Kelly were enough to convince Dr Phillips that she was dead.

Showing great presence of mind, Dr Phillips sent for a photographer so that the crime scene could be accurately recorded before being trampled over by the police. The four men then waited in the court for further instructions from more senior police officers. As more police arrived at the scene, word got around that two bloodhounds had been sent for. Dr Phillips rightly suggested that it was best to wait until the dogs arrived before attempting to gain access to the room. However, the dogs never materialised. Two hours passed before word came from Superintendent Arnold that since the key was still unforthcoming, McCarthy would have to break the door down.

Jack McCarthy went off to find the necessary tools for the job and soon returned with an axe. He set about chopping through the lock and the door fell open, revealing the full carnage inside the room. As the door swung ajar, it knocked against a small table that stood beside the bed. Dr Phillips entered the room and approached the corpse. He saw that Mary Kelly was dressed in her undergarments. Her throat had been slit. Thankfully, Dr Phillips believed the dreadful mutilation to her body had taken place after Mary was dead. He also noticed that the body had been moved after death so that it was lying on the left-hand side of the bed, facing out into the room.

Once Dr Phillips had completed his examination of the body, Inspector Abberline of the CID took an inventory of what was in the room. He noticed that a fire had been raging in the grate and had created such intense heat that the spout of a kettle had melted off. He also saw that articles of women’s clothing had been burnt and assumed that this had been done to light the room as there was only one candle to be found.

By now, news of the latest murder had spread through Spitalfields like wildfire. Miller’s Court had been sealed off and no residents were allowed in or out unless cleared by the police. Residents of nearby houses craned their necks out of windows to try and get a look at the court. Journalists rushed to the scene and began their own enquiries. Once again, the police were baffled. No clues had been left at the scene. None of the residents of Miller’s Court had seen anything suspicious. Only two had heard a cry of ‘murder’ the night before and had thought nothing of it. A large crowd gathered outside McCarthy’s shop. By the time Mary Kelly’s body was removed to the mortuary, the crowd had become so large and boisterous that a police cordon had to be formed before the flimsy, temporary coffin could be loaded on to the ambulance.

As he watched the melee, Jack McCarthy knew that he was now embroiled in the most notorious murder enquiry the East End had seen for decades, perhaps ever. What he didn’t realise was that over 100 years in the future, the mystery surrounding the deaths of Emma Smith, Martha Tabram, Polly Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly would still be discussed and ruminated over by thousands, perhaps millions of people, the world over.

The police never brought Mary Kelly’s killer to justice. Her name was added to the list of the other women that had been killed and mutilated on the streets surrounding Spitalfields Market during the year 1888. After Kelly’s dreadful death, the killings seemed to come to an abrupt halt, as though the perpetrator’s mission was accomplished. This did not mean there were no more murders in the area. On the contrary, Spitalfields continued to be one of the roughest areas of London for nearly a century. But no more women were slain in such a brutal, shocking method.

The almost complete lack of clues to the murderer’s identity naturally led to speculation. The first theories on the identity of ‘Jack the Ripper’ were banded about on the streets of Spitalfields even before the series of murders reached their conclusion. Since then, hundreds of theories have been put forward. ‘Jack the Ripper’ has become a man with a multitude of personalities and identities. He has been a poor immigrant, a middle-class school teacher, a wealthy businessman, a member of the Royal Family. He has worked as porter, a doctor, a sailor, a butcher. He has even been a she. His motive for perpetrating the murders has ranged from pure insanity to being part of a convoluted Masonic cover-up on behalf of royalty. The only certainty concerning the mysterious case of Jack the Ripper is that the perpetrator of these most heinous murders has long been dead.

However, his legacy was one of enlightenment within society. The massive amount of press coverage concerning the murders alerted people throughout Britain and abroad to the appalling living conditions residents of places such as Dorset Street had to endure. One might naturally assume that the Ripper’s killing spree would prove to be the catalyst for change. Sadly it was not. If anything, during the years immediately following the murders, conditions in Dorset Street and its surrounds deteriorated even further.

After Mary Kelly’s awful murder, it naturally took some while for Dorset Street and Miller’s Court to return to normal. The police remained in Miller’s Court for ten days after the murder. Initially, their presence was welcomed by the residents, who were understandably traumatised by the horrors that had been perpetrated in their midst. However, after a while, the police presence began to hinder the women’s working practices and pressure was put on Jack McCarthy to get the police out of the court. Nothing would have pleased McCarthy more than seeing the back of them.

The publicity surrounding Mary Kelly’s murder had attracted some very unwelcome attention. Morbid sightseers roamed Dorset Street, hoping to get a glimpse of the now notorious (and aptly numbered) Room 13. Seeing a money-making opportunity, a showman offered McCarthy £25 for the use of the room for one month and another wanted to purchase or even hire the bloodsoaked bed on which Kelly had been mutilated. To his credit, Jack McCarthy rejected both offers.

Wishing to put the whole tragic episode behind him, McCarthy complained to the police about their constant presence in the court and after ten days they left, leaving him to hastily tidy up number 13 in preparation for new tenants. Amazingly, he saw no reason to redecorate the room, despite the wall near the bed being covered with blood stains. Four years after Kelly’s murder, a Canadian journalist named Kit Watkins visited Dorset Street while compiling a feature on the Whitechapel Murders. At Miller’s Court, she met long-term resident Elizabeth Prater who took her to meet Lottie Owen, the room’s current occupant. Lottie, (who was nursing a broken nose, inflicted by her husband’s boot,) apparently showed no repugnance at living in a room with black bloodstains on the walls. Kit Watkins however, was less than impressed and left with the feeling that ‘murder seemed to brood over the place’.

If the atmosphere seemed ‘murderous’ when Kit Watkins visited Dorset Street four years after the killings, tensions during the remaining weeks of 1888 must have been almost unbearable. The population were obviously ignorant of the fact that there were to be no further killings and so were understandably terrified. In the absence of any hard evidence, the press had created their own image of the Ripper as a tall, slim, menacing character wearing a top hat and carrying a black bag containing his weapons of choice. Consequently, any man walking alone in the East End carrying a black bag was regarded with great suspicion by the populace. Just after the Kelly inquest finished, a man carrying such a bag was accosted by a hostile crowd on Tower Street. The police were called and opened the bag, which was found to contain nothing that even vaguely resembled a murder weapon.

Kelly’s funeral, which took place on 19 November turned into an event rarely witnessed in the East End. Since being removed from Miller’s Court, her body had been kept in the mortuary attached to St Leonard’s Church in Shoreditch. As Kelly was Catholic, it was arranged for her body to be buried at St Patrick’s Cemetery some miles away in Leytonstone. The sexton of St Leonard’s Church paid for the funeral with his own money as a mark of respect for those parishioners who lived destitute lives similar to that of Kelly.

As the bell of St Leonards began tolling at noon, a massive crowd assembled at the gates of the church. The coffin was brought out on the shoulders of four men, who loaded it onto an open hearse. Atop the coffin were two wreaths from Mary’s friends and fellow prostitutes and a cross made from heartsease. The appearance of the coffin had a huge effect on the crowd, who surged forward in an attempt to touch it as it went past. Women cried and men bowed their heads as the hearse pulled away on its journey to Leytonstone. Following it were two carriages of mourners. One contained a few of Mary’s friends, the other carried Joe Barnett and an anonymous representative sent by Jack McCarthy (possibly his wife, Elizabeth). The crowd followed the cortege for some distance and then, as the roads became more open, they gradually fell away and returned to the slums and rookeries from whence they came.

Once Kelly’s funeral was over, the press swiftly lost interest in the Whitechapel Murders and moved onto the next big news story. The residents of Dorset Street must have breathed a sigh of relief as they were finally able to return to their regular routines.

Part Four

A FINAL DESCENT

Chapter 18

The Situation Worsens