Explore JTR - Time Lines Mary Jane Kelly The Fifth and Final Canonical Victim

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[1863-1888] [Jan-30 Oct 1888] [30 Oct-8 Nov 1888] [8-9 Nov 1888] [10-23 Nov 1888] [Discovery of Body] [Body in Situ] [Description of Mary] [Autopsy] [Funeral] [Death Certificate] [Inquest - Only Day] [Pardon] [Lord Mayor's Parade] [Dorset St] [References]

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Dorset St ran east-west from Commercial St to Crispin St. At the Commercial St end it faced the churchyard of Christ Church, Spitalfields an area sometimes known as Itchy Park. Opposite the western end stood the Providence Row Night Refuge and Convent at 50 Crispin St, Dorset St was quite a narrow thoroughfare and was about 130 yards long. It was flanked by old, brick-built properties, probably dating from the early eighteenth century, whose doors opened directly to the street.
click [here] for area map.

Dorset St's properties were numbered consecutively along the south side from west to east (1-20) and back along the north side from east to west (21-39). Guarding either end on the north side were 2 pubs. The 3-story Britannia (aka Ringer’s after its landlady, Matilda Ringer) was actually #87 Commercial St, at the eastern end, whilst the similarly imposing Horn Of Plenty, (officially #5 Crispin St, landlord Christopher Brown) was at the western end. 3 alleyways ran out of the northern side of Dorset St: Paternoster Row, which lay between #35 & #36 ran all the way into Brushfield St, exiting alongside the Oxford Arms pub. It contained several common-lodging houses. The others were New Court and Miller's Court, both of which contained low-grade housing. New Court was almost mid-street, its narrow entry located between #33 & #34. The narrow entrance to Miller's Court was about a quarter of the way along the street from the eastern end, nestling between #26 & #27, both of which were owned by a grocer and slum property landlord, John McCarthy. Whilst McCarthy resided at #27 and carried on his chandler's business from its ground floor shop, #26 was being used as a storeroom at the time of the murder.

A pub called the Blue Coat Boy (William James Turner) stood at #32. 2 other chandlers provided competition to McCarthy, Barnett Price at #7 and Alfred Coates at #36. A feature of the locality was the 'slum landlord' who owned or rented a number of cheap properties. Coates, for instance, also had a common lodging house in Flower & Dean St. In addition to his shops, John McCarthy was also the landlord of the properties in Miller's Court (aka McCarthy's Rents or McCarthy's Court). In 1890, his brother Daniel took over the shop at #36. Eventually John McCarthy acquired the common lodging house at #30, one of many such houses in Dorset St.

Two large lodging houses were known as Crossingham's after their owner, William Crossingham; namely #35 where Annie Chapman had lodged and #17 opposite the entrance to Miller's Court. Other known lodging houses at the time were nos. 9, 10, 11-12 and 28-29. In all about 750 beds were provided in Dorset St, officially (though the rules were flouted widely and in practice there would have been many more).

Most of the properties that were not registered lodging houses were rented out to tenants on a room by room basis. There is little evidence of other businesses being conducted from Dorset St. in the 1880s, but in the years following we see two milk contractors listed (at #13A & #14A by Messrs William Wright & Amos Payne) and a coal dealer, Mrs Jane Brooks from #39. Since the Brooks family was resident at #39 by 1881 there is a good chance that the business was operational much earlier than its listing in Kelly’s Directory.

Dorset Street possessed a bad reputation. It was renowned for its poverty and crime. Being part of what the Rev. Barnett called the "wicked quarter mile", it fell within H-Division of the Metropolitan Police and was one of the streets that was double patrolled. Charles Booth, an early sociologist who surveyed London, produced his poverty map in 1887, colour coding the different streets of the metropolis. Dorset St achieved the lowest ranking, shaded black and described as vicious and semi-criminal.
click [here] for poverty map.

Miller's Court was approached from Dorset St. via a flagged passage that ran under an arch. Little more than a yard wide, it was about twenty feet long. The door to Room 13 was the last on the right before the passage opened out into a yard about fifteen feet square. The yard contained a water tap and a communal dustbin. There was no other access to #13, which had been partitioned off from the back of 26 Dorset St. The two windows of #13 looked out into the yard. Along the left-hand side of Miller's Court the passage extended beyond the yard for a further forty feet, here being about ten feet wide. It was flanked by lines of two-story, 'one up, one down' slum houses, built of brick. Miller’s Court had 2 units on the left, (the last not being used as accommodation) and 3 on the right. Numbering started with #1, downstairs on the left, with #2 above it, running down the left side and back up on the right such that #12 was upstairs, nearest to Mary's window. The houses were all whitewashed at ground floor level. Light was provided by a gas lamp mounted on the wall outside #1.²¹

The man was 27-28, had a dark moustache and "very peculiar" eyes. He had a very smart appearance and was noticeable, because of his very white cuffs and somewhat long white collar. The collar ends came down over his coat.³⁷

The man was short, stout, with a blotchy faced. He looked to be in his thirties. He had a short carroty moustache, a billycock hat, a longish dark shabby coat, and a quart pale of beer. Kelly wore a linsey frock and a red knitted crossover shawl.⁵¹

The man was Jewish-looking, respectable appearance, long dark coat with astrakhan collar and cuffs, dark jacket, and trousers, light waistcoat, dark felt hat turned down in the middle, lined collar, black tie with a horseshoe pin, button boots, gaiters with white buttons, thick gold watch chain with a red-stoned seal. He was 34-35, 5'-6", pale complexion, dark hair and eyelashes, slight moustche culred up at each end. (Hutchinson stooped down to see the man's face. The man sternly looked back. Kelly and the man went on into Dorset St, and Hutchinson followed them.)⁶⁴

The room was sparse: Opposite of the door was the fire-grate; to the left, the broken window; and, to the right, the table and bed. The Fisherman's Widow, hung over the mantlepiece. A cupboard was in the corner. At the foot of the bed, a chair upon which lay folded clothes. (some later reports indicate that a hatchet was by the door.) A body lay sprawled on the bed.⁹⁴

The body had a thin chemise and was situated in the middle of the bed; The shoulders lay flat, but the body leaned toward the left side of the bed; The head was turned toward the left shoulder, facing the windows; The right arm lay across the body with the right hand in the abdominal cavity; The left arm was partly removed from the body and lay on the bed, it was bent at the elbow and the fingers were clenched; The legs were spread apart: Left leg lay flat on the bed and the right leg was slightly above the bed, due to the leaning of the body.⁹⁵

The thighs were stripped; the abdomen was removed, abdominal cavity was empty; the breasts were cut off; arms were mutilated; Facial features were removed; the neck was severed down to the spine; left femur split from the hips donward, exposing the marrow cavity.⁹⁶

The uterus, kidneys, and one breast were placed under the head; The other breast was by the right foot; The liver was placed between the feet; Intestines lay by the right side of the body; Flesh removed from the abdomen and thighs were placed on the table; The heart was absent from the room.⁹⁷

Bed clothing and the right corner of the bed were saturated with blood; About two square feet of blood was below the bed; The wall by the right bedstead had several splashings of blood.⁹⁸

Gresham St; St Martin's le Grand; Cheapside; Poultry; Cornhill; Leadenhall St; Billiter St; Fenchurch St; Mincing Lane; Great Tower St; Eastcheap; King William St; Queen Victoria St; Cannon St; St Paul's Churchyard; Ludgate Hill; Fleet St to the Royal Courts of Justice returning by way of Strand; Northumberland Avenue; Victoria Embankment; Queen Victoria St; Queen St; King St to the Guildhall.¹⁰⁰

The face was cut in all directions; Numerous cuts across all features; The neck was cut down to the vertebrae; The cuts showed distinct ecchymosis; The breasts were removed by quasi-circular incisions; Associated muscles attached to the breasts; Thorax visible through the cuts; Abdomen and costal arch to pubes removed; Front right thigh skinned down to the bone; Left thigh stripped of skin and muscle as far as the knee; The left calf had a long incision running from the knee to 5" above the ankle; Both arms and forearms had extensive jagged wounds; The right thumb had a 1" superficial cut, extravasation of the blood in the skin and several abrasions on the back of the hand; Lower part of the right lung was broken and torn away; Left lung intact; Pericardium was open and the heart absent; Partly digested food found in the abdominal cavity and in the stomach remains.¹⁰³

"MURDER,- PARDON,- Whereas on November 8 or 9, in Miller-Court, Dorset-St, Sitalfields, Mary Janet Kelly was murderered by some person or persons unknown : The Secretary of State will advise the grant of her Majesty's gracious pardon to any accomplice not being a person who contrived or actually committed the murder, who shall give such information and evidence as shall lead to the discovery and conviction of the person or persons who committed the murder."¹⁰⁶

Witnesses:

Joesph Barnett¹⁰⁹

Thomas Bowyer¹¹⁰

John McCarthy¹¹¹

Mary Ann Cox¹¹²

Elizabeth Prater¹¹³

Caroline Maxwell¹¹⁴

Sara Lewis¹¹⁵

Dr Phillips¹¹⁶

Julia Venturney¹¹⁷

Maria Harvey¹¹⁸

Insp Beck¹¹⁹

Insp Abberline¹²⁰

References

The following abbreviations apply:
MEPO=Scotland Yard files, KIR=Kelly Inquest Records
DT=The Daily Telegraph, T=The Times
A-Z=The Jack the Rippper A to Z, 2nd ed, (Begg, Fido, Skinner)

Many THANKS to the people who have contributed to this page:
Geographical assistance - Courtesy of The Viper.
Corrected burial information - Courtesy of The Viper.
Mary Jane Kelly image - Courtesy of Stewart P. Evans.
Parade route - Courtesy of Corporation of London Record Office via Janice Wiley.

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