2 Sep 1888 - Reynolds Newspaper (London, England)
No 1,986 - Page 1, Column 4 - Sunday
A tragedy, even more revolting in its details than that of George-yard, and surrounded apparently with circumstances fully as mysterious, occurred early on Friday morning at Buck's-row, a low-class neighbourhood adjoining Whitechapel-road. Passing the Essex Wharf, in Buck's-roaw, at about 4.30 in the morning, Constable Neale, 97 J, found lying on the pavement there the dead body of a woman. On further examination, her head was found to have been very nearly severed from her body - a horrible gash, fully an inch in width, extending from one side of the neck to the other, completely severing the windpipe. The lower portion of the abdomen also was completely ripped open, causing the bowls to protrude. The woman was apparently about five-and-thirty years of ago, with dark hair, of medium height, and with small features.
When the body of the unfortunate creatre was taken to the mortuary a more minute exmamination showed that the actual wounds were of a character too horrible to described or even to hint at. A Criminal Investigation officer remarked, "The injuries are such taht they could only have been inflicted by a madman." A comb and a piece of soap were found in one of the pockets, and hte only clue as to her previous place of abode was found on her garments, one of which showed that she had, at some time or other, been a workhouse inmate.
The deceased was lying just inside the gateway of the wharf, at the corner of Buck's-row, where there is a night watchman, who heard nothing unnatural in the neighborhood during the night. It is believed the woman was murdered some little distance off, and that her body was then taken to Buck's-row and thrown inside the gateway. The police officers and the whole of the available detective force in the East-end are marking a search for the slightest possible clue to the tragedy.
It is surmised by the detective authorities that several of the undiscovered cimres of a hideous character have been inflicted by one person, whom they think is a madman. A feature incomprehensible to the medical man and police engaged in the case, and one only to the accounted for by classing her murderer as a maniac, is the fact that the wounds in the woman's throat were alone sufficient to cause death. Yet there were various injuried ot her boyd, which could only have been perpetrated for purposes of mutilation. It is this which makes the police think that the deceased was the victim of a criminal who has, while suffering from some special form of madness, been wandering about London and committing crimes of a mysterious nature.
In addition to the throat being cut by two gashes, the body was ripped upwards, two wounds having been inflicted. These are thought to have been committed before the injuries to the throat were inflicted, but the precise fact cannot be ascertained until the inquest, when the medical man is exmained. The first cut in the body was probably the earliest wound inflicted, and the wretched victim probably started form her murderer, causing the knife to penetrate the groin, and slip across the left hip. In all probability, the woman then fell, when her assailant, with one desperate cut upward, opened the boyd from groin to breast bone. Then the wounds were inflicted in the throat. Here, again, there were two cuts, one reaching from the left ear to nearly the middle of the throat, and th eother a separate and distinct gash, passing from ear to ear. There are blood stains in the street showing that the deceased was probably carried some distance before being laid where she was found. This fact adds consdierably to the mystery which envelopes the whole affair. The ferocious character of the wounds certainly justify the belief that the poor woman was attacked by a maniac. They could not have been inflicted by the victim, nor are they likely to have been the work of several hands. With regard to the weapon used, the current belief is that the murder must have been committed with a butcher's knife. This is the third murder of a woman which has taken place in Whitechapel within twelve months. In each case the victim was put to death by stabs or cuts, and when found was either dead or so near death as to be incapable of viving any clue as to who had attacked her.
Dr. Ralph Llewellyn, who was called to see the murdered woman, said that the injuries on the throat were not clean cut, but jagged, which showed that there must have been great force used. He did not think the weapon used was a razor. It was most likely a knife of a large description. He observed, "I hae never seen so horrible a case. She was ripped open just as you see a dead calf at a butcher's shop. The murder was done by someone very hadn with the knife."