Speaker 1: Please be advised the following episode contains scenes of an
Speaker 1: extremely graphic nature that may be distressing for some listeners.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Unexplained with Me Richard McClane Smith, Season three,
Speaker 1: episode twelve, The Square, Part two. Although the disturbing Dear
Speaker 1: Boss letter, as it will come to be known, was
Speaker 1: received at the Central News Agency on September twenty seventh,
Speaker 1: it is a further two days before it is passed
Speaker 1: on to the police, who swiftly dismiss it as a hoax.
Speaker 1: Later that evening, back in the Whitechapel district of East London,
Speaker 1: p C. Lewis Robinson is patrolling Aldgate High Street when
Speaker 1: he sees a crowd of people gathered around something on
Speaker 1: the ground. Drawing near, he realizes it is a woman
Speaker 1: sprawled out on the pavement drunk. PC Robinson pulls her
Speaker 1: up and implores her to stand, but as soon as
Speaker 1: he lets her go, she slumps against the wall and
Speaker 1: slides down slowly back to the ground. Half an hour later,
Speaker 1: with the help of a colleague, Robinson takes the woman
Speaker 1: to Bishopsgate Police station and places her in a cell
Speaker 1: for the evening. When they ask her name, she tells
Speaker 1: them only it is nothing. Minutes later, she is fast asleep.
Speaker 1: It has just gone midnight when station jailer George Hutt
Speaker 1: here's the unknown woman, singing softly from her cell. When
Speaker 1: he checks on her, she asks to be released, but
Speaker 1: Hut insists that she remained there until she is able
Speaker 1: to take care of herself. Outside, a storm is brewing
Speaker 1: above the streets of Whitechapel shortly before one am, As
Speaker 1: a heavy rain starts to fall, local resident Israel Schwartz
Speaker 1: turns into Berner Street, just south of Whitechapel Road. Up ahead,
Speaker 1: he notices a couple standing outside the entranceway to Dutfield's Yard,
Speaker 1: overlooked by the International working Men's Educational Club next door.
Speaker 1: One of the pair is a man roughly five and
Speaker 1: a half feet tall, with dark hair and a small
Speaker 1: brown mustache, wearing a black felt hat with a wide brim.
Speaker 1: He is standing in front of a woman who he
Speaker 1: tries to pull into the street, but she resists. Enraged,
Speaker 1: he throws her onto the pavement and she lets out
Speaker 1: three short screams. Schwartz, who had seen the whole incident,
Speaker 1: responds by crossing the road and walking away. Hearing the
Speaker 1: man calling out to someone on the other side of
Speaker 1: the road. Schwartz turns to find a second man is
Speaker 1: now following him. He breaks into a run, making a
Speaker 1: sharp exit from the scene. Back at Bishopsgate Police Station Hut,
Speaker 1: the jailer has been instructed to make more room in
Speaker 1: the cells. Deciding the unknown woman is now sober enough
Speaker 1: to be released, he agrees to let her go in
Speaker 1: return for her giving him her name. She replies it
Speaker 1: is Mary Anne Kelly, though in truth it is Kate Edos.
Speaker 1: The forty six year old Edos was originally from Wolverhampton
Speaker 1: in the Midlands of England, but had spent the last
Speaker 1: seven years living at Cooney's lodging house in Flower and
Speaker 1: Dean Street, where she later met and fell in love
Speaker 1: with a man called John Kelly. Only the previous day,
Speaker 1: Edos and Kelly had been forced to pawn a pair
Speaker 1: of Kelly's boots to afford their last meal. I should
Speaker 1: get a damn fine hiding when I get home, says
Speaker 1: Edo's as she leaves the police station and steps into
Speaker 1: the night. Good Night. Old cock Hut watches as she
Speaker 1: heads off in the direction of Aldgate High Street, where
Speaker 1: she had been found earlier. Minutes later, back on Berna Street,
Speaker 1: twenty six year old Lewis Deemschutz, an educated immigrant from
Speaker 1: Russia forced to flee from the recent pogrums, now working
Speaker 1: as a part time jeweler, rides his cart into Burna Street,
Speaker 1: with voices of song drifting down from the working Men's
Speaker 1: club above. He turns through the open gates into the
Speaker 1: pitch black of Dutfield's yard for his pony to rear up. Unexpectedly,
Speaker 1: something was lying on the ground just in front of
Speaker 1: the cart. Probing at it with his whip, he found
Speaker 1: it to be soft and lumpen, before realizing it was
Speaker 1: a woman lying unresponsive and probably drunk, he thought. Jumping
Speaker 1: down from the cart, he lit a match and held
Speaker 1: it into the gloom, having just enough time to confirm
Speaker 1: it was indeed a woman lying there before the wind
Speaker 1: blew it out. After unsuccessfully trying to rouse her, Louis
Speaker 1: grabbed a couple of members from the club to give
Speaker 1: him a hand. Stepping back into the yard a moment later,
Speaker 1: Lewis is a little surprised to find the woman exactly
Speaker 1: as he had left her. One of the men took
Speaker 1: another match, lighting it before holding it down to the
Speaker 1: woman's face and dropping it with a scream. The flame
Speaker 1: flickered gently on the ground, illuminating the horrific glistening tear
Speaker 1: across the throat, from which her blood was still oozing
Speaker 1: out onto the road. They also saw a black crepe
Speaker 1: bonnet lying in the mud beside her, and a bunch
Speaker 1: of grapes clutched in her hand, before a sudden wind
Speaker 1: snuffed out the match and restored the darkness, lighting another
Speaker 1: They checked for any signs of life, but found none,
Speaker 1: though the body was still warm, suggesting death had occurred
Speaker 1: only minutes before A doctor arriving minutes later, pronounces the
Speaker 1: woman dead at the scene, having suffered two deep cuts
Speaker 1: to her throat, similar to Polly Nichols and Annie Chapman,
Speaker 1: but something of the scene suggest the killer might have
Speaker 1: been disturbed before they had completed what they had started.
Speaker 1: Policeman arriving soon after, waste little time in corralling all
Speaker 1: members of the nearby working Men's Club into Dutchfield's yard
Speaker 1: and ordering them to stay put until they were satisfied
Speaker 1: they had not been involved. That the members of the
Speaker 1: club were largely Jewish, Socialist or Irish did little to
Speaker 1: dampen police suspicions of their possible guilt. Meanwhile, a mustachioed
Speaker 1: man late thirties to early forties, wearing a loose fitting
Speaker 1: pepper colored jacket and a peaked gray cloth cap, is
Speaker 1: walking swiftly through the streets of the East End, moving
Speaker 1: west from the vicinity of Berners Street toward Duke Street.
Speaker 1: Just after one thirty three, men stepping out at the
Speaker 1: Imperial Club on Duke Street, barely ten minutes walk from
Speaker 1: Bishopsgate Police Station, spot the man with the gray cloth
Speaker 1: cap talking to Kate Edo's before they disappear together into
Speaker 1: the shadows towards Mita Square. Only fifteen minutes later, p C.
Speaker 1: Edward Watkins, walking his usual beat, steps into the darkness
Speaker 1: of Mita Square and shines his light into it, angling
Speaker 1: the beam into the far corner. He is moving it
Speaker 1: slowly from one side to the other when he picks
Speaker 1: up the body of Kate Edos. The body was lying
Speaker 1: on its back, the clothes having been thrown up, and
Speaker 1: the upper part of a dress being ripped open. Like
Speaker 1: all the other victims, there was little blood on their clothes,
Speaker 1: suggesting she had been bled to death before she was mutilated.
Speaker 1: Edoes had been disembowed, while her uterus and a kidney
Speaker 1: had also been completely removed. Both her eyelids had been
Speaker 1: cut through and the right ear partially amputated. As had
Speaker 1: been predicted in the Dear Boss letter. An incision had
Speaker 1: been made in each side of the cheek, which peeled
Speaker 1: up the skin and created a triangular flap. It seemed ritualistic.
Speaker 1: Some have suggested the triangular cuts were reminiscent of compass
Speaker 1: legs or the set square of Freemason symbolism. Curiously, part
Speaker 1: of Edoz's apron, which she wore over her dress, had
Speaker 1: been cut off. An hour later, PC Alfred Long is
Speaker 1: walking down Gholston Street, only five minutes from Miter Square,
Speaker 1: when he notices a scrap of fabric on the ground
Speaker 1: in front of a doorway. Pointing his torch toward it,
Speaker 1: he realizes it is covered in blood. Moving the torch
Speaker 1: to the door, he discovers some graffiti written in chalk
Speaker 1: that he is convinced had not been there when he
Speaker 1: came by thirty minutes ago. It reads, the Jews are
Speaker 1: the men that will not be blamed for nothing. Long
Speaker 1: heads immediately to the nearest station to report his find.
Speaker 1: The scrap of blood stained material is later identified as
Speaker 1: likely being from the apron that Kate Edo's had been wearing.
Speaker 1: Two hours later, Sir Charles Warren, Commissioner of London's Metropolitan
Speaker 1: Police and prominent freemason, is woken up with news of
Speaker 1: two further possible victims of the apparent East London serial killer. Strangely, however,
Speaker 1: rather than head directly to the crime scenes, he heads
Speaker 1: instead to the doorway on Ghulston Street. After taking a
Speaker 1: while to analyze the peculiar message, he orders it immediately
Speaker 1: to be scrubbed off. Shortly after, he has led to
Speaker 1: the scene of the Knight's first murder, where five separate
Speaker 1: witnesses tell him the victim had been holding a bunch
Speaker 1: of grapes when she was murdered. Later that morning, before
Speaker 1: news of the murders has hit the newsstands, a postcard
Speaker 1: arrives at the offices of the Central News Agency, reading,
Speaker 1: I was not kidding, dear old boss when I gave
Speaker 1: you the tip you'll hear about Saucy Jackie's work to morrow.
Speaker 1: Double event. This time number one squealed a bit, couldn't
Speaker 1: finish straight off. Not the time to get ears for belief.
Speaker 1: Thanks for keeping the last letter back till I got
Speaker 1: to work again, Jack the Ripper. Are you always taking
Speaker 1: care of your family? Do you often take care of
Speaker 1: others and not yourself? Now it's time to take care
Speaker 1: of yourself, to make time for you. You deserve it.
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Speaker 1: Unexplained Podcast. The following day, an inquest is held for
Speaker 1: the woman murdered in Dutfield's yard. She is identified as
Speaker 1: forty four year old Elizabeth Stride born Elizabeth Gustaf'sdotter. She
Speaker 1: had moved to England in eighteen sixty six from Sweden
Speaker 1: and married John Stride three years later. The pair successfully
Speaker 1: managed coffee shops for a number of years before the
Speaker 1: marriage fell apart. By the mid eighteen eighties, she was
Speaker 1: struggling to stay afloat, moving from workhouse to lodging house
Speaker 1: when she can afford it. In eighteen eighty five, she
Speaker 1: begins a relationship with Michael Kidney, who worked on the
Speaker 1: docks in the East End, but three years later it
Speaker 1: two is on the rocks, having grown tired of his beatings.
Speaker 1: It was on September twenty fifth, eighteen eighty eight, she
Speaker 1: left their home for good, vowing never to go back.
Speaker 1: Five days later she was dead. At the inquest, Thomas Bates,
Speaker 1: the night watchman of the lodging house where Elizabeth had
Speaker 1: been staying on the night of her murder, explained with
Speaker 1: sadness that even when she could get no work, she
Speaker 1: had done the best with her living and anita and
Speaker 1: cleaner woman had never lived. What wasn't mentioned At the inquest, however,
Speaker 1: which was presided over by lawyer and also prominent freemason
Speaker 1: Wind Baxter, were the grapes that had been seen in
Speaker 1: Stride's hand by five different witnesses. It was an admission
Speaker 1: made all the more intriguing since only two doors down
Speaker 1: from where Stride's body had been found off Burner Street,
Speaker 1: was a greengrocer's which coincidentally sold grapes. With the possibility
Speaker 1: that the shopkeeper might have sold the grapes to Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: or more likely whomever had given them to her, there
Speaker 1: was a good chance he had seen the killer. Strangely,
Speaker 1: for some reason, the police seemed little interested in this
Speaker 1: line of inquiry. Two days later, however, an extraordinary story
Speaker 1: as published in the London Evening News. The article owes
Speaker 1: much to the work of two private detectives, who, having
Speaker 1: decided to conduct their own investigations into the crimes, took
Speaker 1: the trouble to interview the greengrocer on Berner Street. What
Speaker 1: he told them was startling. As it turned out, the shopkeeper,
Speaker 1: Matthew Packer, had indeed sold a man and a woman
Speaker 1: a bunch of black grapes at eleven forty five pm
Speaker 1: only a short time before the murder. More to the point,
Speaker 1: he was absolutely convinced that the woman in question was
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Stride. He described the man as being quite well
Speaker 1: to do in his late thirties to early forties, around
Speaker 1: five foot seven, with a mustache, and wearing dark clothes
Speaker 1: and a wide brimmed hat. The police never contacted him
Speaker 1: for a statement. The very next day, as if in
Speaker 1: response to the article, Doctor Phillips, the police surgeon, is
Speaker 1: hurriedly recalled to the inquest to make the claim that
Speaker 1: there was no evidence that the deceased had swallowed either
Speaker 1: the skin or seed of a grape, making no mention
Speaker 1: of the five separate individuals who had seen her dead
Speaker 1: body with a bunch of them clenched in her hand.
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Stride was buried at the East London Cemetery in
Speaker 1: Plistow on Saturday, October sixth. Soon, public anger was growing
Speaker 1: at the apparent ineptitude of the police, seemingly unable to
Speaker 1: stop the murderer, who appears now to be operating in
Speaker 1: plain sight. The publishing of the jack the Rippolettas serves
Speaker 1: only to intensify the fear and anxiety. In early September,
Speaker 1: the White Chapel Vigilance Committee had been formed by a
Speaker 1: small group of East End business men concerned that the
Speaker 1: recent murders were bad for local business. The committee, led
Speaker 1: by George Lusk, would meet at the Crown Pub on
Speaker 1: Mile End Road at nine p m each evening and
Speaker 1: from there begin their patrols of the local streets until
Speaker 1: the early hours of the next morning. On October sixteenth,
Speaker 1: George Lusk received a small cardboard box in the mail.
Speaker 1: He opened it to find half a human kidney preserved
Speaker 1: in wine. A letter accompanying the gruesome gift read from
Speaker 1: hell mister Lusk, Sir, I send you half the kidney
Speaker 1: I took from one woman and preserved it for you.
Speaker 1: The other piece I fried and ate and it was
Speaker 1: very nice. I may send you the bloody knife that
Speaker 1: took it out if you only wait a while longer.
Speaker 1: Signed catch me when you can mis de lust. The
Speaker 1: piece of kidney was taken to nearby London Hospital where
Speaker 1: it was examined by surgeon doctor Thomas open Shore. He
Speaker 1: identified it as human and from the left side of
Speaker 1: the body, similar to the one that had been removed
Speaker 1: from Kate Edoes's body in the weeks that followed, the
Speaker 1: press and police receive a number of letters purportedly written
Speaker 1: by the apparently self styled Jack the Ripper, but few,
Speaker 1: if any, are given any credibility. More importantly, with no
Speaker 1: further attacks recorded throughout the rest of October, it appears
Speaker 1: the supposed serial killer haunting the streets of Whitechapel has
Speaker 1: gone to ground. On November ninth, at two a m.
Speaker 1: In the morning, Whitechapels, George Hutchinson is walking past Flower
Speaker 1: and Dean Street when he is approached by Mary Jane Kelly,
Speaker 1: a young woman he knew from the area. The twenty
Speaker 1: five year old Kelly asks Hutchinson if he can lend
Speaker 1: her some money, but he is unable to spare any,
Speaker 1: saying there goodbyes, he watches her approach a man further
Speaker 1: down the street. He is just over five and a
Speaker 1: half feet tall, in his late thirties, with dark hair
Speaker 1: and a slight mustache turned up at the sides, wearing
Speaker 1: a long dark coat and a soft felt hat pulled
Speaker 1: down over his eyes. Before long, the two are laughing
Speaker 1: together and a moment later, placing a hand on Mary
Speaker 1: Jane's shoulder. The man is leading her off toward Dorset street.
Speaker 1: Concerned for his friend, who he knew to be an
Speaker 1: occasional sex worker, Hutchinson followed Mary Jane and the mysterious
Speaker 1: man all the way to Miller's Court, where the woman lived.
Speaker 1: Hutchinson waits there until three am, when he had satisfied
Speaker 1: she was not in any lethal danger, and makes his
Speaker 1: way home. Mary Jane had shared the flat with her
Speaker 1: on off boyfriend Joseph Barnett, but the two had broken
Speaker 1: up recently due to her habit of inviting friends to
Speaker 1: stay when they had nowhere else to go. Mary Jane
Speaker 1: was six weeks behind on the rent and had little
Speaker 1: choice but to work that night. At ten forty five
Speaker 1: the next morning, Thomas Bowyer, assistant to the landlord, arrived
Speaker 1: at Mary Jane's apartment to collect her overdue rent. After
Speaker 1: knocking at the door but getting no response, he reached
Speaker 1: through a crack in a window and pushed aside a
Speaker 1: coat that had been placed there as a curtain, finding
Speaker 1: behind it a scene of unimaginable horror. What was left
Speaker 1: of Mary Jane Kelly's body lay on the bed at
Speaker 1: the back of the small single room, with her clothes
Speaker 1: neatly folded on a chair to the side. The entirety
Speaker 1: of the abdomen and surface of the thighs had been
Speaker 1: carved away, so much as to reveal the thigh bone.
Speaker 1: The muscle and skin that had been removed was piled
Speaker 1: up on a side table. Her uterus, kidneys, and one
Speaker 1: breast had been placed under her head. The other breast
Speaker 1: was cut off and placed at her feet, as was
Speaker 1: her liver. Her intestines and spleen had also been removed
Speaker 1: and placed outside the body. Her face had been entirely
Speaker 1: mutilated beyond recognition, and her heart that was never found
Speaker 1: removed from her chest. At her quest, a devastated Joseph
Speaker 1: Barnett chastised himself for getting annoyed at her for letting
Speaker 1: her friends stay in their apartment, recognizing that she only
Speaker 1: did it because she was goodhearted and did not like
Speaker 1: to refuse them shelter on cold, bitter nights. Mary Jane
Speaker 1: Kelly was buried on nineteenth November in Saint Patrick's Cemetery
Speaker 1: in Leytonstone. No family could be found to attend the funeral.
Speaker 1: Kelly is widely thought to be the fifth and final
Speaker 1: victim of the murders associated with the name Jack the Ripper,
Speaker 1: though many believe a number of attacks prior to the
Speaker 1: murder of Polly Nichols, including the murder of Martha Tabrom
Speaker 1: in August eighteen eighty eight, could well have been perpetrated
Speaker 1: by the same man, the identity of whom remains to
Speaker 1: this day unknown. Next week's episode extra will conclude season
Speaker 1: three of Unexplained. Fear not, however, it will be only
Speaker 1: the briefest of pauses before we return for season four.
Speaker 1: Thank you once again for all your support and encouragement
Speaker 1: for the show, and as ever for taking the time
Speaker 1: to listen. If you enjoy listening to Unexplained and would
Speaker 1: like to help supporters, you can now go to Unexplained
Speaker 1: podcast dot com forward slash support. All donations, no matter
Speaker 1: how large or small, are massively appreciated. All elements of
Speaker 1: Unexplained are produced by me Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe
Speaker 1: and rate the show on iTunes, and feel free to
Speaker 1: get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the
Speaker 1: stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an
Speaker 1: explanation of your own you'd like to share. You can
Speaker 1: reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com or on
Speaker 1: Twitter at Unexplained pod Now. It's time to take care
Speaker 1: of yourself, to make time for you. Teledoc gives you
Speaker 1: access to a licensed therapist to help you get back
Speaker 1: to feeling your best. Speak to a licensed therapist by
Speaker 1: phone or video anytime between seven am to nine pm
Speaker 1: local time, seven days a week. Teledoc Therapy is available
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Speaker 1: teledoc dot com Forward slash Unexplained podcast today to get started.
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