THE VICTIMS
MARY ANNE NICHOLS
"Polly" Nichols as she was known to many, was aged 42 when Jack the Ripper's icy hand took her life. The estranged wife of a printer, Polly had borne five children before husband William eloped with one of her friends in 1877. It was then that she became trapped in the downward spiral of drink and prostitution, her final days spent living in the squalid conditions of the "White House" doss-house on Flower and Dean Street. She was laid to rest at Ilford cemetery on September 6th 1888.
ANNIE CHAPMAN
"Dark Annie" met her death on a foggy night, alone, undernourished and suffering from brain and lung diseases which would soon have claimed her if Jack's Knife hadn't. Aged 7, she wandered the East End Streets penniless following the death of her husband in 1886. Cruelly treated by life, Annie had two daughters, one of which died in 1882, and a son who was crippled. Living off immorla earnings and selling matches and flowers, Annie was a street hardened rogue. She was buried in secret, at Manor Park on Spetember 14th 1888, by her family.
ELIZABETH STRIDE
"Long Liz" was born in Gothenburg, Sweden in November 1843, named Elizabeth Gustafsdotter. After becoming a registered prostitute and giving birth to a still born girl, she moved to London in 1866 and married John Thomas Strise, a carpenter, supposedly living in Gower Street, London. The Strides allegedly kept a coffe shop prior to the breakdown of their marriage in 1882. long Liz was to have had eight convictions for drunkenness before her fatal appointment with Jack the Ripper. Elizabeth Stride was buried in a paupers grave in the East London cemetry aged 44 years.
CATHERINE EDDOWES
Born in 1842, the daughter of a tinplate worker, Catherine Eddowes came to London's Bermondsey district at the age of two. She returned to her native Wolverhampton, with Thomas Conway, a pensioner, who was to father her three children. The couple separated in 1880, victims of habitual drinking. "Kate" left for London once more, where she resided in Flower and Dean Street. Following a hop picking venture in Kent, Kate was sadly to embark on her final tragic journey via Bishopsgate police cells into the clutches of the evil Ripper. She was buried in an unmarked grave in Ilford on 8th October 1888, witnessed by hoards of onlookers, aged 44
MARY JANE KELLY
"Black Mary" was unlike the other victims. At 25 she was young and attractive, and as a prostitute would have better served the prestigious West End clients as opposed to working the grim streets of the East End. Mary was born in Lmerick, Ireland and moved to Wales where she married a collier who was tragically killed in a pit disaster. After turning to prostitution in Cardiff, she moved south to London where she worked in a West End brothel. "Fair Emma" came to lodge at various abodes around Dorset Street, London, the "Wicked Quarter Mile", and it was at Millers Court that she was found brutally murdered. She was buried at Walthamstow R.C. cemetry on 19th November
