Jack The Ripper’s Victims

Date post added: 27th April 2026

A few years ago I came across the wedding photograph of one of Jack the Ripper’s victims, Annie Chapman. And a later photograph of her 12-year-old daughter, Emily Ruth. The photos showed a Victorian British normality. And yet, months after that photo, Emily Ruth had died of meningitis. Her distraught parents turned to alcohol. That paved the way for everything that followed.

I was stopped in my tracks by those two photographs. It dawned on me that we focus on Jack the Ripper. But the human beings that were his victims are somewhat written off. Those poor women tend to be dismissed. “They were just riff-raff, down-and-out, drink-sodden prostitutes – the lowest of the low.” [where is this quote from?]

Instead, let’s look at their lives in their entirety. What led them to be in Victorian London East End? Why was it these women that met their grisly end at the hands of Jack the Ripper? Let’s remember their names and their stories.

Walk the East End streets of Jack the Ripper’s victims

Let’s think about Dorset Street – it’s no longer there – in Spitalfields. Miller’s Court was down a passageway off Dorset Street. And Mary Jane Kelly, the last victim of Jack the Ripper, the most horribly mutilated victim, was killed.

Dorset Street was short, not even the length of a football field. The houses – approximately 30 of them – were ramshackle, jerry-built, crammed together three- and four-storey affairs. Three of them were “Common Lodging Houses.” Let’s visit them 23 years after the event. In 1911 No. 9-10 had 97 lodgers in 12 rooms. Its near-neighbour – No. 15 -20 – had 138 lodgers in 17 rooms. No. 28-30 – right next door to Mary Jane Kelly’s closet-sized single room – had 59 lodgers in 13 rooms. No. 28-30 housed couples. In 75 “cubicles” (the census return’s phrase, not mine). The other two were for single men.

Picture that. Think about living like that. Imagine that lived experience. To bring that and more into focus, walk their walk and hear their stories.

Nightly Jack the Ripper walking tour

Every evening, our Ripperologists go where those victims walked. We explore the alleyways and dark streets of Whitechapel and Spitalfields. We go where something very bad happened. And we remember the women that met a grisly end at his hands.

Jack The Ripper’s Whitechapel Walk

This one’s the high-end Ripper Walk hosted by Richard. It’s a VIP, small group tour accompanied by impressive audio equipment. And not forgetting, an incredibly knowledgeable guide who brings the stories to life.

“With an emphasis on the victims, Richard relayed details that would inspire any Ripperologist to reexamine all that you think you know,” Carl Ryker.

Women of the Abyss – The Jack the Ripper tour

This monthly tour du jour, hosted by Ulrike, focuses on the other side of the story. Her tour through Whitechapel tells the stories of the five female murder victims. The focus isn’t on their deaths, but their difficult lives in Victorian London.

How many confirmed victims did Jack the Ripper have?

Let’s introduce you to the women who lost their lives to Jack the Ripper. Here we briefly tell the tales of the five canonical victims.

First Victim – Mary Ann Nichols (Polly)

Born in 1845.

Died in August 1888

Blacksmith’s daughter.

Printer’s wife (married Frederick at St. Bride’s in Fleet Street).

Five children.

Her story:

Mary Ann was known as Polly. She was small, dark-haired, brown-eyed.  Aged barely seven years old, her mother died of tuberculosis.

With husband, Frederick, they had five children. She may well have suffered from post-natal depression. They lived in a three-room Peabody estate near Waterloo. But her marriage turned toxic with endless rows. She left Frederick and the children in 1880. Frederick “turned nasty” said her father. Frederick blamed Polly as “She turned to drink.”

There’s another factor. Their next-door neighbour and Polly’s helpmate with the children was Rosetta Walls. Ten years younger, Rosetta wasn’t exhausted by looking after four children and a new-born. Guess what? Husband Frederick’s believed to have taken a shine to the young neighbour.

All alone, Polly gravitated to the East End. Her appointment with Jack the Ripper was on Bucks Row in 1888. Polly was Jack the Ripper’s first victim. It was the duty of her father, Edward, and son (also Edward) to identify her mutilated body. Her throat had been cut and her abdomen slashed open.

Second Victim – Annie Chapman

Born in 1841.

Died September 1888

Illegitimate daughter of a servant girl and a Life Guards trooper.

Seven siblings.

Her story:

Annie’s parents married after she was born. She had seven siblings. But four of them died of typhus in three weeks when Annie was 12.

“Growing up the child of a soldier in a socially prestigious regiment meant her life was an awkward balance between two disparate worlds… she knew, even from afar, an existence of status, wealth and privilege beyond the daily experience of most working-class children.” With a childhood in Knightsbridge and Windsor, she gave the impression she’d come from a good family.

Annie became a housemaid for a successful architect in Duke Street, Westminster. She married a gentleman’s coachman at All Saint’s Church on Ennismore Gardens in Knightsbridge. All sounds well and good. Except that Annie was an alcoholic. And her first child died of meningitis. Then her second was institutionalised and her third was in a home for cripples.

Annie fought her addiction but lost. She became “a drunken madwoman.” She turned her back on her husband and her family, such as it was. She earned money selling crochet work, flowers and sometimes herself as a prostitute. Annie ended up in “the worst street in the City of London, a cesspit of thieves, prostitutes, bullies, all common lodging houses,” bound for an appointment with Jack the Ripper. Annie Chapman ended up with fatal stab wounds and mutilations in the back yard of 29 Hanbury Street on 8th September 1888. Like Mary Ann Nicholls, some of her internal organs were removed.

Third Victim – Elizabeth Stride

 

Born 1843.

Died on 30th September 1888.

The girl from Torslanda (Norway).

Farmer’s daughter.

Her story:

“Long Liz Stride” lived in Norway as a child. She became a servant. A male living under her master’s roof (it’s not clear who) impregnated her and gave her syphilis. The baby was stillborn.

Elizabeth moved to the east end of London. She worked as a servant for a gentleman living near Hyde Park. She married John Stride at St. Giles in the Fields Church. But the marriage broke up.

Elizabeth had convictions for drunkenness. She lived in a common lodging-house in Flower & Dean Street in Whitechapel.

Shortly before 1am on 30th September, Jack the Ripper murders her in Dutfield’s Yard off Berners Street (now Henriques Street). He was nearly caught in the act. Louis Diemschutz was driving his horse and cart into the yard and found her body. The horse shied out of nervousness at passing the body. And perhaps sensing a tense man hiding in the shadows. This was Jack’s opening act of “the double event.”

Elizabeth was buried in pauper’s grave 15509 in East London Cemetery.  There’s a possibility she may have been attacked twice in the same place in the space of about ten minutes by two different men, only the latter of whom was the Ripper.

On the mortuary slab “traces of prettiness remained in her face…there must have been a time when she was exceedingly proud of her curly black hair.”

Fourth Victim – Catherine Eddowes

Born 1842.

Died on 30th September 1888.

Daughter of a tinplate worker.

Early life in Wolverhampton.

Her story:

Catherine was the liveliest and the oldest of the Ripper’s murder victims. 5 feet tall, dark auburn hair and hazel eyes. She grew up in London.

Catherine was only 13 when her mother died. That led to her spending time in the workhouse. She took up with a soldier, Thomas Conway. His initials were tattooed on her arm. They had three children. She lived by making and selling chapbooks. But then, they separated. The cause? Her “habitual drunkenness” and/or “his occasional drinking and violence.”

Catherine joined an Irish porter in his lodgings in Flower & Dean Street. In September 1888 the couple went hop-picking in Kent but made very little. She took a bed in the casual ward at the Shoe Lane Workhouse. She told the superintendent, “I have come back to earn the reward for the apprehension of the Whitechapel murderer. I think I know him.”

At 8.30pm on 29th September she impersonated a fire engine and lay down on Aldgate High Street to sleep. She was arrested and taken to Bishopsgate Metropolitan Police Station. Around 1am, in the early hours, she was released. “I shall get a damn fine hiding when I get home,” she said. And her last recorded words: “Good night, old cock.” But on 30th September, in Mitre Square, the second half of “the double event” took place. She was murdered. Her uterus and left kidney were removed and her face was mutilated. A piece of her apron, the one physical clue left by the Ripper, charted the Ripper’s escape route.

Fifth Victim – Mary Jane Kelly

Born around 1863.

Died on 8th November 1888.

Started life in Ireland (probably Limerick). Moved to Wales.

Married a collier.

Her story:

Mary Jane Kelly was the final victim of the canonical five and the most savagely mutilated. She was frightened by the Ripper murders and contemplated leaving London. The youngest, she was 25, and 5’ 7” tall. Pretty, long blonde hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion.

Mary was born in Ireland. Aged only 16, she married a collier. He was killed in a pit explosion. She moved to Cardiff to live with family. Then in 1884 she moved to London.

She lived in various lodging houses and Worked in a high-class West End brothel. In 1887, she met a Billingsgate porter named Joseph Barnett. They lodged in various places in “the wicked quarter.” Lastly in a single, cramped (12’ x 15’) room in Miller’s Court. They were seven weeks behind on the rent. He left her a week or so before she died.

During what was to be the last 24 hours of her life, several people saw her with different men in the neighbourhood. Shortly after midnight on 8th November 1888, Miller’s Court residents heard her singing “Only a violet I plucked from my mother’s grave.” Three and a half hours later the three women living in the room directly above Mary Kelly heard the scream, “Murder!” Mary was found in her room on 9th November 1888. She had been viciously mutilated. Her throat was slashed. Her face was totally unrecognisable due to her extensive wounds. Her abdomen was slashed open and her organs had been removed. Whilst most organs were scattered around her room, her heart was never found.

Could there be more victims of Jack the Ripper?

There absolutely could. More female murder victims feature in The Whitechapel Murders file of that time. Namely, Martha Tabram, Emma Smith, and Frances Coles. Martha and Emma were both murdered in 1888 and Frances in 1891. Other possible murder victims include Rose Mylett in 1888 and Alice McKenzie in 1889.

What were the common traits among Jack the Ripper’s victims?

They were all women. They were all in Whitechapel. There are common themes of death, trauma, separation and alcohol in their stories.

The coroner’s inquest showed the murderer did not have sex with the victims. They all died in reclining positions. They were all murdered viciously. We could go on…

Why did Jack the Ripper never get caught?

Firstly, remember the crimes took place in 1888. This wasn’t a time of DNA, CCTV or CSI style forensic science. A 19th century crime scene in the east end of London would not be treated as it would now, and as you’re used to seeing in the endless true crime shows you find on TV, in books, on podcasts and so on.

Murder wasn’t a regular occurrence, so the metropolitan police weren’t really equipped to investigate it successfully. Add to that a dose of Victorian prejudice, a splattering of hoaxes to throw them off the scent and it’s not totally surprising that the man who we know as Jack the Ripper remains a mystery.

We explore this in greater, grisly detail in this Jack the Ripper blog.

Are Jack the Ripper cases still open?

These brutal murders have never been solved. We know information about his murder victims, but we still don’t know who England’s most notorious serial killer was for definite.

There are theories on Jack the Ripper suspects. A man called Aaron Kosminski, a Polish barber who wound up in an asylum, was one name cited years later. He remains the prime suspect of the east end murder spree.

That Whitechapel murders file remains closed, but that doesn’t stop people from theorising and speculating to this day.

Walk where they walked in Whitechapel

This fascinating, and gruesome, story is made all the more vivid in situ. Come with us on tours of Jack’s stomping ground in the East End. You’ll hear grisly, historical detail that’ll make you shiver. But you’ll get a real picture of what went on in those Victorian streets.

Hear more of these women’s stories and walk in their footsteps with our Victims of Jack the Ripper walk. There’s also our nightly Jack the Ripper Walk around Whitechapel. And our more exclusive, small group tour – Jack The Ripper’s Whitechapel Walk.