The canonical five Jack the Ripper victims
Mary Ann Nichols
Annie Chapman
Elizabeth Stride
Catherine Eddowes
Mary Jane Kelly

Mary Jane Kelly (c. 1863 - November 9, 1888) is widely believed to be the fifth and final victim of the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper, who killed and mutilated prostitutes in the Whitechapel area of London during the late summer and autumn of 1888. She was about twenty-five and in poverty at the time of her death. A hand held magnifying glass This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Jack the Ripper is the pseudonym given to an unidentified serial killer active in the largely impoverished Whitechapel area of London, England in the second half of 1888. ... Mary Ann Polly Nichols is widely believed to be the first victim of the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper, who killed and mutilated prostitutes in the Whitechapel area of London during the late summer and autumn of 1888. ... Annie Chapman (September 1841 - September 8, 1888) is widely believed to be the second victim of the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper, who killed and mutilated prostitutes in the Whitechapel area of London during the late summer and autumn of 1888. ... Elizabeth Stride (Elisabeth Gustafsdotter) is believed to be the third victim of the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper, who killed and mutilated prostitutes in the Whitechapel area of London during the late summer and autumn of 1888. ... Catharine (Kate) Eddowes (often spelled Catherine) is widely believed to be the fourth victim of the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper, who killed and mutilated prostitutes in the Whitechapel area of London during the late summer and autumn of 1888. ... Year 1863 (MDCCCLXIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... is the 313th day of the year (314th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1888 (MDCCCLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... Serial killers are individuals who have a history of multiple slayings of victims who were usually unknown to them beforehand. ... Jack the Ripper is the pseudonym given to an unidentified serial killer active in the largely impoverished Whitechapel area of London, England in the second half of 1888. ... Prostitution is the sale of sexual services (typically manual stimulation, oral sex, sexual intercourse, or anal sex) for cash or other kind of return, generally indiscriminately with many persons. ... Whitechapel is a place in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, United Kingdom. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Year 1888 (MDCCCLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ...

Reports of the time estimated her height at 5 feet and 7 inches (1.70 metres). Her hair colour is somewhat uncertain although she was nicknamed Ginger. She has been variously reported as being a blonde or redhead. Her reported eye colour was blue. Sir Melville Macnaghten (1853 - 1921) of the Greater London Metropolitan Police Service reported that she was known to have "considerable personal attractions" by the standards of the time. She was said to be fluent in the Welsh language. A foot (plural: feet or foot;[1] symbol or abbreviation: ft or, sometimes, ′ – a prime) is a unit of length, in a number of different systems, including English units, Imperial units, and United States customary units. ... An inch (plural: inches; symbol or abbreviation: in or, sometimes, ″ - a double prime) is the name of a unit of length in a number of different systems, including English units, Imperial units, and United States customary units. ... The metre (American English:meter) is a measure of length. ... Human beings have many variations in hair color and texture. ... One of the worlds most famous blondes Marilyn Monroe, who was in fact a natural brunette Blond (feminine, blonde) is a hair colour found in certain mammals characterised by low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin and higher levels of the pale pigment phæomelanin, in common with red... Woman with red hair Teenager with red hair Red hair (also referred to as auburn, ginger, titian) varies from a deep red through to bright copper. ... This article is about the geographical distribution and social connotations of eye color in humans. ... The term blue may refer to any of a number of similar colours. ... Sir Melville MacNaghten Sir Melville Leslie MacNaghten CBE, CB (June 16, 1853-May 12, 1921) was Assistant Commissioner (Crime) of the London Metropolitan Force from 1903-1913. ... 1853 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Year 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ... Greater London is the top-level administrative subdivision covering London, England. ... The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) is the name currently used by the territorial police force which is responsible for Greater London other than the City of London (the responsibility of the City of London Police). ... Welsh redirects here, and this article describes the Welsh language. ...

Early life

Compared with other Ripper victims, Mary Kelly's origins are obscure and undocumented, and much of it is possibly embellished. According to Joseph Barnett, the man she had most recently lived with, Mary had told him she was born in Limerick, Ireland — although whether it was the county or the city is not known — around 1863, and her family moved to Wales when she was young. WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: , Irish Grid Reference R574572 Statistics Province: Munster County: Area: 20. ... Year 1863 (MDCCCLXIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... This article is about the country. ...

Barnett reported that Kelly had told him her father was named John Kelly and worked in iron works; his county of employment was reported as being either Caernarfonshire or Carmarthenshire. Barnett recalled Kelly mentioning having six or seven brothers and at least one sister. One brother named Henry Kelly supposedly served in the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards. She once stated to her personal friend Lizzie Albrook that a family member was employed at the London theatrical stage. Her landlord John McCarthy (1851 - June 16, 1934) claimed that Kelly received infrequent correspondence from her mother in Ireland as late as 1888. However, Barnett denied this. Iron Works was a name applied in the 19th century to heavy industrial manufactories whose output products were primarily built of iron and/or steel. ... Caernarfonshire, also known as Carnarvonshire or, in Welsh, as Sir Gaernarfon, is a maritime traditional county of Wales, bounded N. by the Irish Sea, E. by Denbighshire, S. by Cardigan Bay and Merionethshire, and W. by Caernarfon Bay and the Menai Straits, which separates it from Anglesey. ... Carmarthenshire (Welsh: ) is a one of thirteen historic counties and a principal area in Wales. ... Scots Guards drummer, piper, bugler and bandsman, about 1891 Pre-Napoleonic Wars History See Scots Guards. ... 1851 (MDCCCLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... is the 167th day of the year (168th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1934 (MCMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display full 1934 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Correspondence may refer to: In the theology of Emanuel Swedenborg, correspondence is the relationship between spiritual and physical realities. ... Year 1888 (MDCCCLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ...

Both Barnett and a reported former roommate named Mrs. Carthy claimed that Kelly came from a family of "well to do people". Carthy reported Kelly being "an excellent scholar and an artist of no mean degree". A scholar is either a student or someone who has achieved a mastery of some academic discipline, perhaps receiving financial support through a scholarship. ... The definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of activities to do with creating art, practising the arts and/or demonstrating an art. ...

Around 1879, Kelly was reportedly married to a collier named Mr. Davies who was killed two or three years later in a mine explosion. No researcher has yet been able to trace the accuracy of this statement. 1879 (MDCCCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Look up collier in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

A report of the 1888 London press of Kelly being a mother has led a minority of Ripperologists to suggest the birth of a younger Davies between 1879 and 1882. The story contains several factual errors, however, including the claim that she supposedly lived on the second floor. Year 1882 (MDCCCLXXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ...

Kelly reportedly stayed for a while with a cousin in Cardiff. She is considered to have started her career as a prostitute there. There are no contemporary records of her presence in Cardiff. Kelly herself claimed to have spent much of her stay in an infirmary. Cardiff (English:  , Welsh: ) is the capital, largest and core city of Wales. ...

Kelly apparently left Cardiff for London in 1884 and found work in a brothel in the more affluent West End of London. Reportedly, she was invited by a client to France but quickly returned, disliking her life there. Nevertheless she liked to affect the name of "Marie Jeanette" Kelly after this experience. Year 1884 (MDCCCLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... The interior of Covent Garden Market in the West End The West End of London is an area of central London, containing many of the citys major tourist attractions, businesses, and administrative headquarters. ...

Return to London

By some, Kelly had been known as "Fair Emma", although it is not known whether this applied to her hair colour, her skin colour, her beauty, or whatever other qualities that she had. Some newspaper reports claim she was nicknamed "Ginger" after her allegedly ginger-coloured hair (though sources disagree even on this point, thus leaving a large range from ash blonde to dark chestnut). Another paper claimed she was known as "Mary McCarthy", which may have been a mix up with the surname of her landlord at the time of her death. Gravitating toward the poorer East End, she reportedly lived with a man named Morganstone near the Commercial Gas Works in Stepney and later, with a mason's plasterer named Joe Flemming. Young Northern European man with naturally blond hair. ... Woman with red hair Teenager with red hair Red hair (also referred to as auburn, ginger, titian) varies from a deep red through to bright copper. ... a young man with brown hair Brown hair (also referred to as chestnut, cinnamon, dark) varies from light brown to almost black hair. ... The East End of London, known locally as the East End, is an area, with no formal authority or boundaries, that spans a number of administative districts of London in England. ... Stepney is a place in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. ...

When drunk, Kelly would be heard singing Irish songs; in this state, she would often become quarrelsome and even abusive to those around her. Barnett first met Kelly on April 8, 1887. They agreed to live together on their second meeting on April 9, 1887. At the beginning of 1888 they both moved into 13 Miller's Court. Barnett worked as a fish porter at the docks, but when he fell out of regular employment and tried to earn money as a market porter, Kelly turned to prostitution again. A quarrel ensued over Kelly's sharing of the room with another prostitute, and Barnett left on October 30, more than a week before her death, while continuing to visit Kelly. April 8 is the 98th day of the year (99th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1887 (MDCCCLXXXVII) is a common year starting on Saturday (click on link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. ... is the 303rd day of the year (304th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Witnesses gave various descriptions of Kelly's activities in Dorset Street during the late hours of November 8 and the early hours of November 9: is the 312th day of the year (313th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

• Barnett visited Kelly for the last time on November 8 between 19:30 and 19:45. He found her in the company of another woman. The latter might have been either Lizzie Albrook or Maria Harvey, both friends of hers. Barnett left at about 20:00 to return to his current residence and play whist. He continued playing until falling asleep at about 00:30.

• Fellow widow and prostitute Mary Ann Cox reported seeing Kelly returning home in the company of a man at about 11:45. Cox wished Kelly goodnight. Kelly replied back and then started singing the song "A Violet I Plucked from Mother's Grave When a Boy." She was still singing when Cox went searching for customers at midnight.

• Her upstairs neighbour Catherine Picket was disturbed when Kelly resumed singing at about 00:30. She wanted to complain, but her husband convinced her to leave her alone.

• Rain began to fall at about 01:00. At this time Mary Ann Cox returned to her Dorset Street lodgings to retrieve an umbrella; Mary could still be heard singing.

• A George Hutchinson reported that Kelly met him at about 02:00 and asked him for a loan. He claimed to be broke and later stated that saw Kelly searching for a customer in a "Jewish-looking man". Hutchinson later gave the police an extremely detailed description of the man right down to the colour of his eyelashes. Kelly and the man headed for her room. Hutchinson claimed to have followed them (yet gave no reason for doing so) and reportedly overheard them talking outside her door. Kelly complained of losing her handkerchief. Hutchinson claimed the man gave her a red one of his own.

• Cox returned home again at about 03:00. She reported hearing no sound and seeing no light from Kelly's room. Cox apparently suffered from insomnia that night. She claimed to have heard people moving in and out of the court throughout the night. She thought she heard someone leaving the residence at about 05:45.

• Elizabeth Prater and Sarah Lewis, two neighbours (one who resided directly above Kelly, another adjoining her) reported hearing a faint cry of "Murder!" at about approximately 04:00. They did not react because they reported that it was common to hear such cries in the East End.

is the 312th day of the year (313th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Whist is a classic trick-taking card game which was played widely in the 18th and 19th centuries. ... The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination... Linen handkerchief A handkerchief or hanky is a square of fabric, usually carried in the pocket, for personal hygiene purposes such as wiping ones hands or blowing ones nose, but also used as a decorative accessory in a suit pocket. ... Red is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 625–750 nm. ... This article is about the sleeping disorder. ...

Murder

The police photograph of the murder scene.

On the morning of Friday, November 9, 1888, the day of the annual Lord Mayor's Day celebrations, Kelly's landlord John McCarthy sent his assistant, Thomas Bowyer, to collect the rent. Kelly was several weeks behind on her payments. Bowyer knocked on her door but received no response. He reached through a crack in a window and pushed aside a coat being used as a curtain and peered inside. What he discovered was a horribly mutilated corpse. Image File history File links MaryJaneKelly_Ripper_100. ... Image File history File links MaryJaneKelly_Ripper_100. ... Lord Mayors Day, in England, the date of the inauguration of the Lord Mayor of London, marked by a pageant known as the Lord Mayors Show. ... With regard to living things, a body is the integral physical material of an individual, and contrasts with soul, personality and behavior. ...

Kelly's body was discovered shortly after 10:45 am. Her body was found lying on the bed in the single room where she lived at 13 Miller's Court, off Dorset Street, London Spitalfields. Neighbours' reports of hearing a solitary scream in the night suggested she may have been killed somewhere around 4:00 in the morning. Reports have it that a woman was heard to shout simply: 'murder!' The former Dorset Street in 2006, with the murder site at left. ... Christ Church, Spitalfields Spitalfields, an area in Tower Hamlets, east London near to Liverpool Street station and Brick Lane which gets its name from a contraction of hospital fields, as there used to be a major hospital in the area. ...

The Manchester Guardian of 10 November 1888 reported that Sgt Edward Badham (they called him 'Betham') accompanied Inspector Walter Beck to the site of 13 Miller's Court after they were both notified of the murder of Mary Kelly by a frantic Thomas Bowyer. It is generally accepted that Inspector Beck was the first police official to arrive at the Kelly crime scene and Badham is believed to have accompanied him, but there are no official records to confirm Badham being with him. The Guardian was also the name of a U.S. television series. ... is the 314th day of the year (315th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Edward Badham (born in 1860 in Barnes, Surrey) was a police sergeant involved in the investigation of the Jack the Ripper murders, particularly those of Annie Chapman, Mary Jane Kelly and Alice McKenzie. ...

A woman named Caroline Maxwell claimed to have seen Kelly alive at about 08:30 on the morning after the murder, though she admits to only meeting her once or twice before; moreover, her description does not match that of those who knew Kelly more closely. Maurice Lewis, a tailor, reported seeing Kelly at about 10:00 that same morning in a pub. Both statements were dismissed by the police since they did not fit the accepted time of death; moreover, they could find no one else to confirm the reports. This contradiction was used as a plot device in the graphic novel From Hell (and subsequent movie adaptation) in which someone else is mistaken for Kelly and murdered in her place. From Hell is a graphic novel by writer Alan Moore and artist Eddie Campbell speculating upon the identity and motives of Jack the Ripper. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

Edward Badham was also on duty at Commercial Street police station on the evening of 12 November 1888. The inquest into the death of Mary Kelly had been completed earlier that day, when around 6pm, a man named George Hutchinson arrived at the station claiming he had seen Kelly with a man of 'respectable appearance' on the night of her death. Badham took Hutchinson's initial statement that evening. is the 316th day of the year (317th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Dr. Thomas Bond and Dr. George Bagster Phillips examined the body. Her death certificate was registered on November 17, naming her "Marie Jeanette Kelly otherwise Davies". 17 November is also the name of a Marxist group in Greece, coinciding with the anniversary of the Athens Polytechnic uprising. ...

The death certificate for Mary "Jeanette" Kelly

Image File history File links MaryKellyDeathCertificate_Ripper_100. ... Image File history File links MaryKellyDeathCertificate_Ripper_100. ... Death Certificate is the second solo album from rapper Ice Cube, released by Priority Records on October 29, 1991. ...

Post-mortem

Dr. Thomas Bond, a distinguished police surgeon from A Division was called in on the Mary Kelly murder. His notes read as follows:

"The body was lying naked in the middle of the bed, the shoulders flat but the axis of the body inclined to the left side of the bed. The head was turned on the left cheek. The left arm was close to the body with the forearm flexed at a right angle and lying across the abdomen.

The right arm was slightly abducted from the body and rested on the mattress. The elbow was bent, the forearm supine with the fingers clenched. The legs were wide apart, the left thigh at right angles to the trunk and the right forming an obtuse angle with the pubes.

The whole of the surface of the abdomen and thighs was removed and the abdominal cavity emptied of its viscera. The breasts were cut off, the arms mutilated by several jagged wounds and the face hacked beyond recognition of the features. The tissues of the neck were severed all round down to the bone.

The viscera were found in various parts viz: the uterus and kidneys with one breast under the head, the other breast by the right foot, the liver between the feet, the intestines by the right side and the spleen by the left side of the body. The flaps removed from the abdomen and thighs were on a table.

The bed clothing at the right corner was saturated with blood, and on the floor beneath was a pool of blood covering about two feet square. The wall by the right side of the bed and in a line with the neck was marked by blood which had struck it in a number of separate splashes.

The face was gashed in all directions, the nose, cheeks, eyebrows, and ears being partly removed. The lips were blanched and cut by several incisions running obliquely down to the chin. There were also numerous cuts extending irregularly across all the features.

The neck was cut through the skin and other tissues right down to the vertebrae, the fifth and sixth being deeply notched. The skin cuts in the front of the neck showed distinct ecchymosis. The air passage was cut at the lower part of the larynx through the cricoid cartilage.

Both breasts were more or less removed by circular incisions, the muscle down to the ribs being attached to the breasts. The intercostals between the fourth, fifth, and sixth ribs were cut through and the contents of the thorax visible through the openings.

The skin and tissues of the abdomen from the costal arch to the pubes were removed in three large flaps. The right thigh was denuded in front to the bone, the flap of skin, including the external organs of generation, and part of the right buttock. The left thigh was stripped of skin fascia, and muscles as far as the knee.

The left calf showed a long gash through skin and tissues to the deep muscles and reaching from the knee to five inches above the ankle. Both arms and forearms had extensive jagged wounds.

The right thumb showed a small superficial incision about one inch long, with extravasation of blood in the skin, and there were several abrasions on the back of the hand moreover showing the same condition.

On opening the thorax it was found that the right lung was minimally adherent by old firm adhesions. The lower part of the lung was broken and torn away. The left lung was intact. It was adherent at the apex and there were a few adhesions over the side. In the substances of the lung there were several nodules of consolidation.

The pericardium was open below and the heart absent. In the abdominal cavity there was some partly digested food of fish and potatoes, and similar food was found in the remains of the stomach attached to the intestines."

A bruise or contusion or ecchymoses is a kind of injury, usually caused by blunt impact, in which the capillaries are damaged, allowing blood to seep into the surrounding tissue. ...

Funeral

"Buried: Monday, 19 November, 1888

Mary Jane was buried in a public grave at St Patrick's Roman Catholic Cemetery, Langthorne Road, Leytonstone E11. Her grave was no. 66 in row 66, plot 10.

The funeral of the murdered woman Kelly has once more been postponed. Deceased was a Catholic, and the man Barnett, with whom she lived, and her landlord, Mr. M. Carthy, desired to see her remains interred with the ritual of her Church. The funeral will, therefore, take place tomorrow [19 Nov] in the Roman Catholic Cemetery at Leytonstone. The hearse will leave the Shoreditch mortuary at half-past twelve.

The remains of Mary Janet Kelly, who was murdered on Nov. 9 in Miller.s-court, Dorset-street, Spitalfields, were brought yesterday morning from Shoreditch mortuary to the cemetery at Leytonstone, where they were interred.

No family member could be found to attend the funeral." (The Daily Telegraph, November 19, 1888, page 3; November 20, 1888, page 3)

Mary Jane's grave was reclaimed in the 1950s. John Morrison erected a large, white headstone in 1986, but marked the wrong grave. Morrison's headstone was later removed, and the superintendent re-marked Mary Jane's grave with a simple memorial in the 1990s.

A small minority of modern authors consider it possible that Kelly was not a victim of the same killer as the other Whitechapel murders. At an assumed age of around twenty-five, she was younger than the other canonical victims, all of whom were in their forties. The mutilations inflicted on her were far more extensive than those on other victims, but she was also the only one killed in the privacy of a room instead of outdoors. Her murder was separated by five weeks from the previous killings.

Bruce Paley, in Jack the Ripper: The Simple Truth (ISBN 0-7472-5218-1) proposed that her lover Joseph Barnett may have been the Ripper.

Further reading

The former Dorset Street in 2006, with the murder site at left. Viewed from the west, looking towards Christ Church churchyard.

• The Complete History of Jack the Ripper by Philip Sugden, ISBN 0-7867-0276-1.

Image File history File links DorsetStreet2006. ... Image File history File links DorsetStreet2006. ...

External links

• Casebook: Jack the Ripper