WEBVTT - S03 Episode 12: The Square (Pt.1 of 2) 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:03.520 Please be advised the following episode contained scenes of an 0:00:03.520 --> 0:00:07.040 extremely graphic nature that may be distressing for some listeners. 0:00:07.720 --> 0:00:20.680 As the flames rolled ever higher into the night sky, 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:24.440 the thick clouds that had been so gray only hours 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:28.360 before were now lit up, turning a strange shade of 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:33.040 sanguine in the process. It gave the impression, if only 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:36.040 just for a moment, that it wasn't drops of rain 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:41.960 that were falling, but drops of blood. As the merciless 0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:46.680 downpour continued, mixed with flashes of lightning and eruptions of thunder, 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:50.440 it was as if everything had been turned on its head, 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:56.800 the heavens above replaced by the bowels of hell. But 0:00:56.960 --> 0:01:02.120 where heaven had gone to exactly none could say. For surely, 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:07.399 wherever it was, it certainly wasn't down here. The East 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:13.080 end of London, eighteen eighty eight. The fires had begun 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:16.720 sometime in the evening, the first having broken out at 0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:21.000 the South Key warehouses. A scent of charcoal had blown 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:25.319 softly through the streets before the fire announced itself with 0:01:25.400 --> 0:01:30.119 an immense explosion from out of the dockyard. Before long, 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:34.080 two hundred yards of warehouse stuffed with the dubious spoils 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:38.840 of colonial practices were ablaze under that reddening August sky, 0:01:39.480 --> 0:01:44.600 flashing with electricity, each jagged discharge appearing like rips in 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:48.360 the air, cracks that might at any point be opened 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:56.520 up for something abominable to come through. Three hours later, 0:01:56.840 --> 0:02:00.080 with the help of twelve steam pumper fire engines and 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:04.720 almost a hundred firefighters, the flames were subdued and the 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:09.639 men able to return to their beds. But chaos will 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:14.800 not be stilled at Shortly before one o'clock, another call 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:18.960 came in. A second fire had broken out at Ratcliff 0:02:19.040 --> 0:02:24.120 dry Dock, even more devastating than the first. A large 0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:28.560 two story warehouse was soon consumed. The flames then danced 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:31.600 on the wind across the yard and set light to 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:35.359 a sailing ship fresh in for repairs, before making their 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:38.920 way to the mother load, a one hundred and twenty 0:02:38.919 --> 0:02:42.440 foot long warehouse stuffed with eight hundred tons of coal. 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:48.560 Hundreds of nearby residents crammed into the surrounding tenements, now 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:52.520 threatened by the flames, poured into the street fearing for 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:57.720 their lives. Others drawn in by the strange confluence of chaos, 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:03.000 beauty and destruction, came simply to watch the ominous spectacle. 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:07.760 One face among them was fifty year old Emily Holland, 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:11.840 a long time resident of the East End's Whitechapel district, 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:15.919 a woman for whom the spectacle was a welcome respite 0:03:16.000 --> 0:03:18.880 from the hellish existence of a life spent on the 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:23.280 margins of society, doing anything to stay afloat in the gutter, 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:26.799 where any distraction from the sheer truth of it all 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:31.919 was about as much as you could hope for. You're 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:46.520 listening to Unexplained and I'm Richard mc lane Smith. Having 0:03:46.560 --> 0:03:50.920 seen enough of the fire, Emily set off back towards Wilmot's, 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:54.480 a roughly twenty minute walk away, where she shared one 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:58.840 room with five other women. Framed by the deep red 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:02.040 sky above, she made her way west along the main 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:06.240 thoroughfare of Commercial Road, careful to stay away from the 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:10.080 many narrow roads and unlit alleyways, but branched off it, 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:13.560 for she was only too aware of what horrors might 0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:18.480 await women who walk through such places alone. No doubt 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:25.200 each of them had a story. Five months previously, forty 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:29.279 five year old local resident Emma Smith was brutally raped 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:32.320 and beaten on an unlit corner of near by Brick 0:04:32.400 --> 0:04:36.560 Lane by four young men who finished their assault by 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:40.400 jabbing a blunt object into her vagina, ripping through the 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:46.040 internal wall. After the assault, Smith had stood up and 0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:50.479 walked alone back to her lodgings against her will. The 0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:54.120 lodgings manager helped her to a nearby hospital, where she 0:04:54.200 --> 0:05:00.400 later succumbed to her injuries. Only three weeks ago, the 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:04.320 body of thirty nine year old Martha Tabrim was found 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:07.279 in the stairwell of a building on George Yard, which 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:12.039 ran parallel to Brick Lane. Tabrim, who occasionally carried out 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:14.800 sex work, had been last seen heading off with a 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:18.040 client before her body was discovered in a pool of blood, 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:22.080 left displayed in such a way by her killer in 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:26.279 an effort to inflict maximum shame on the woman. She 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:30.880 had been stabbed twenty one times across the body, predominantly 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:36.960 in the breasts and around the groin. Only minutes away 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:40.720 from Wilmot's, Emily turns into Osborne Street at the bottom 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:44.400 of Brick Lane, where she spots her friend and fellow lodger, 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:49.480 Polly Nicholls, stumbling down the road. She didn't recognize her 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:52.480 at first, owing to the new black straw bonnet she 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:57.040 was wearing. It was good to see her, since although 0:05:57.080 --> 0:05:59.480 she had lodged at Wilmot's for the last six weeks, 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:04.239 she had recently been staying somewhere else. As it happened, 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:07.120 Polly had just been back to Wilmot's to ask for 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:09.719 a bed for that night, but had been told to 0:06:09.720 --> 0:06:13.000 come back when she had the money for it. Clearly 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:16.080 a little drunk, she joked about how she had made 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:18.800 three times the amount for a bed already that night, 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:24.000 only to drink it all away. The type of service 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:27.000 that Polly was supplying that evening could be had for 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:30.560 as little as threepence, the price of a large glass 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:36.479 of chin. Worried for her friend, Emily tries to convince 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:39.720 her to come back to Wilmot's. Perhaps they can make 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:44.000 a bargain with the deputy, she says, but Polly refuses, 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:48.279 deciding instead to try the White House, a lodging only 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:51.200 a few minutes away on Flower and Dean Street that 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:56.280 permitted sex workers to use their beds. The pair say 0:06:56.279 --> 0:06:59.640 there goodbyes as a nearby church bell makes the chime 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:06.200 two thirty am Emily watches her friend stumbled down Whitechapel 0:07:06.279 --> 0:07:11.120 Road as the rains continue to fall. She hated to 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:13.960 leave her on her own, especially in such a state, 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:18.280 but reassures herself that at forty four years old and 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:22.760 no stranger to this world, Polly was more than able 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:37.160 to look after herself. An hour later, thirty nine year 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:41.280 old cart driver Charles cross steps into the cool early 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:44.119 morning air and sets off on his way to work. 0:07:45.680 --> 0:07:48.800 Turning into the darkness of Buck's Row, he made his 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:51.840 way hurriedly towards the sanctuary of the soft light of 0:07:51.840 --> 0:07:55.720 a gas lamp. At the far end, he notices what 0:07:55.840 --> 0:07:59.080 looks like a tarpaulin lying on the pavement just ahead 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:03.080 of him, but as he draws closer, he realizes it 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:06.560 is in fact the body of a woman lying unconscious 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:11.040 in the street. Spotting his friend Robert Paul at the 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:15.160 other end, he calls him over. I think she's dead, 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:19.680 he says, as Paul bends down to examine her, checking 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:23.800 her wrist for a pulse. She's breathing, but it's little 0:08:23.840 --> 0:08:29.000 if she is, he says, looking furtively about the street. However, 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:32.040 not wanting to be late for work, the two men 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:35.520 decide to leave her, agreeing only to alert the first 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:42.280 policeman they see. Minutes later, P. C. John Neil, walking 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:46.840 his usual beat turned into Buck's row. Angling his light 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:49.840 into the dimness, he spots the body and hurries over 0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:53.079 to it. He calls out to the woman but gets 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:57.640 no response. Bending down, he holds the light to her 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:01.040 face and recoils in horror at the sight of blood 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:05.480 leaking out of a deep wound around the neck. Her 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:11.480 eyes still open wide frozen in shock, he placed the 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:16.120 lamp on the pavement, illuminating a black straw bonnet left 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:21.000 upturned next to the body. Seeing two colleagues enter the street, 0:09:21.559 --> 0:09:26.079 he calls for them to fetch a doctor immediately. By 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:30.160 the time doctor Llewelyn arrives minutes later, the woman is dead. 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:34.880 Inspecting the body at the scene, it was clear that 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:37.480 she had bled to death due to the severity of 0:09:37.520 --> 0:09:41.920 two brutal cuts to her neck, each reaching from one 0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:45.280 ear to the middle of the throat, cutting all the 0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:49.920 way back to the vertebrae. Since there are no signs 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:53.120 of blood on the woman's clothing, the doctor assumes there 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:58.800 are no other injuries. Noticing a large crowd gathering, Llewellyn 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:01.080 is keen to preserve what he can of the woman's 0:10:01.120 --> 0:10:04.839 dignity and have the body removed to a moutree before 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:11.000 continuing his assessment. The crowd stare aghast as the body 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:13.600 is lifted from the pavement and placed in the back 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:17.280 of a police wagon as all about the surrounding streets 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:22.600 workers from the nearby slaughterhouses in blood spattered overalls lend 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:28.640 a further macabre edge to the proceedings. With the body 0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:33.439 having finally been taken away, local resident James Green steps 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:36.560 forward into the space and throws a bucket full of 0:10:36.559 --> 0:10:40.800 water onto the ground, before sweeping the resultant bloody wash 0:10:41.160 --> 0:10:54.760 into the gutter. An hour later, Llewellyn, who is now 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:58.119 back at home, receives a call from the police inspector 0:10:58.480 --> 0:11:02.280 with a hint of grave concern in his voice. They 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:07.600 had discovered something else. Soon after, Llewellyn is led into 0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:11.400 the morgue and toward the body, now lying prostrate on 0:11:11.480 --> 0:11:17.520 an autopsy table. He gasps at the sight of it. 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:21.000 It was like nothing he had ever seen before. Three 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:23.480 inches from the left side, at the lower part of 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:28.559 the abdomen ran a very deep, jagged wound. It was 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:31.680 only one of four similar cuts that ran downward on 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:35.320 the right hand side, as if centered on the woman's womb. 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:39.440 All the cuts appeared to have been made with the 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:45.080 same long bladed knife and inflicted with a very deliberate brutality. 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:51.320 At the Wilmot lodging House, Emily Holland wakes to the 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:56.120 devastating news that yet another woman had been murdered. For 0:11:56.160 --> 0:11:59.679 a moment, she sees Polly's face as it disappears into 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:04.400 the sheds of Whitechapel Road. A short time later, she 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:07.720 learns the news from Mary Anne Monk, another friend of 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:12.000 Polly's whom she had met at Lambeth Workhouse, that the 0:12:12.040 --> 0:12:18.840 dead woman was indeed Polly. A devastated Emily will later 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:22.280 travel to the mark herself that day to identify her 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:26.920 friend at the inquest to Polly's death. On being asked 0:12:26.960 --> 0:12:28.960 if he knew anyone who might have done this to 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:33.080 his daughter, her father will reply, I don't think she 0:12:33.160 --> 0:12:42.400 had any enemies. She was too good for that. Are 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:45.319 you always taking care of your family? Do you often 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:48.440 take care of others and not yourself? Now it's time 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:51.680 to take care of yourself. To make time for you 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:54.480 you deserve it. Tell a doc gives you access to 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:57.440 a licensed therapist to help you get back to feeling 0:12:57.440 --> 0:13:01.720 your best, to feeling like yourself again. With teledoc, you 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:04.559 can speak to a licensed therapist by phone or video. 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:08.360 Therapy appointments are available seven days a week from seven 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:11.080 a m. To nine p m. Local time. If you 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:16.199 feel overwhelmed sometimes maybe you feel stressed or anxious, depressed 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:19.120 or lonely, or you might be struggling with a personal 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:23.520 or family issue, teledoc can help. Teledoc is committed to 0:13:23.559 --> 0:13:27.240 facilitating great therapeutic matches, so they make it easy to 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:32.119 change counselors if needed. For free. Teledoc therapy is available 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:36.080 through most insurance or employers. Download the app or visit 0:13:36.200 --> 0:13:40.160 teledoc dot com Forward Slash Unexplained podcast to Day to 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:44.320 Get Started. That's t e l a d oc dot 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:56.120 com slash Unexplained podcast. Annie Smith was twenty eight when 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:59.880 she met and married John Chapman in eighteen sixty nine. 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:03.880 The following year, the couple celebrated the arrival of their 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:09.360 first child, Emily, and three years later a second daughter, 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:13.760 Annie was born. They were joined in eighteen eighty by 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:17.800 a brother, John, but the family would soon be torn 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:23.320 apart owing to some form of disability, Annie and John 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:27.520 were forced to send their son to a home. Their 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:32.240 misery was compounded when two years later the couple's first daughter, Emily, 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:38.320 died at the age of twelve from meningitis. John worked 0:14:38.360 --> 0:14:40.640 as a coachman, and though they didn't have a great 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:45.360 deal of money coming in, it was at least stable. However, 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:49.520 both he and Annie struggled with alcoholism that served only 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:54.480 to intensify an increasingly fractious relationship, and by eighteen eighty 0:14:54.560 --> 0:15:00.240 five the pair agreed to go their separate ways. Though 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:04.080 many women worked in those days, sometimes taking on entire 0:15:04.120 --> 0:15:08.360 businesses when their partners died prematurely, the majority of work 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:12.200 available was strictly manual and low paid if you could 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:18.240 get it. The situation owed much to a sexist education system, 0:15:18.280 --> 0:15:21.880 and though some significant changes were around the corner as 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:25.240 the nineteenth century drew to a close, for those like 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:31.280 Annie Chapman, options were few and far between. Girls from 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:34.280 low income households, yet they were lucky enough to get 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:38.680 an education at all, were schooled only in domestic skills. 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:43.640 Even for those from more fortunate backgrounds who might have 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:48.040 been given an academic education comparable to boys, it was 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:51.680 widely deemed unnecessary, since the only role they were considered 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:55.280 destined for was that of a wife and mother whose 0:15:55.320 --> 0:16:00.560 only other occupation would be to supervise domestic staff. For Annie, 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:05.160 there would be no such luxuries. A semi regular payment 0:16:05.240 --> 0:16:08.320 from her husband helped her to just about stay afloat 0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:12.040 and out of the workhouses, and loneliness was kept at 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:15.400 bay in the form of a new boyfriend, John, who 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:18.360 made sieves for a living and with whom she shared 0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:21.360 a room at a lodging house in Spittlefields, just to 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:26.880 the west of Whitechapel. On Christmas Day eighteen eighty six, 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:30.720 Annie is devastated to hear that her ex husband John 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:35.800 has died. She breaks up with her boyfriend soon after, 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:43.200 the summer of eighteen eighty eight sees Annie, now forty seven, 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:47.360 bouncing about from one lodging house to another, before managing 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:51.840 a period of stability settling at Crossingham's lodging house on 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:55.720 Dorset Street in Spittle Fields, home to three hundred or 0:16:55.720 --> 0:17:01.920 so residents of varying itinerancy. In recent months, she had 0:17:01.960 --> 0:17:06.040 come into an arrangement with bricklayer Edward Stanley, which covered 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:10.440 the cost of her bed most weekends. However, The arrangement 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:14.600 also complicated matters since Stanley had ordered the lodging house 0:17:14.640 --> 0:17:18.560 Deputy Timothy Donovan not to let her stay if she 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:22.960 ever brought another man back with her, a situation rendered 0:17:22.960 --> 0:17:25.919 all the more fraught. With rumors flying about in the 0:17:25.920 --> 0:17:29.240 wake of Polly's murder that some of the recent murders 0:17:29.240 --> 0:17:45.000 in the area could be linked. London's Metropolitan Police had 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:48.000 been homing in on a suspect over the last few days, 0:17:48.440 --> 0:17:54.000 and by September fifth, the press had a name leather Apron. 0:17:56.080 --> 0:18:00.359 Annie knew of him well. The women all talked about him, 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:04.680 warning each other to stay out of his way. Real 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:08.280 name John Pyser, around five and a half foot, tour 0:18:09.000 --> 0:18:13.000 with dark hair and a mustache, He was said to 0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:16.719 stalk the streets silently, wearing a deer stalker hat and 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:21.520 leather apron, looking for sex workers to extort. He was 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:25.400 said also to carry a sharp leather knife at all times. 0:18:27.080 --> 0:18:30.080 On Friday the seventh, Annie is struggling to get the 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:34.160 money together for a bed. If a roof over your 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:37.320 head was your only concern, there was always the option 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:41.320 of a workhouse, whereby lodging could be sought in return 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:46.240 for a sustained commitment of work. However, it was and 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:50.240 is often still the case that the ruling establishment viewed 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:54.760 low income earners as feckless and lazy, that their predicament 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:58.960 was down to their own ineptitude, and as such were 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:02.359 to be discouraged at all times from leaning on the state. 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:08.400 As a result, workhouses were designed to offer such unfavorable 0:19:08.440 --> 0:19:14.359 conditions that people would be discouraged from using them. A 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:18.480 midway option could be found in the casual ward, a 0:19:18.600 --> 0:19:21.960 small section of the workhouse offering little more than a floor, 0:19:22.480 --> 0:19:25.320 a shared bucket, and some bread to those in need. 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:30.320 Occupants of the casual ward were entitled to spend one night, 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:34.119 after which they were barred from coming back within thirty days, 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:39.480 in return for a day's work breaking rocks or unpicking rope. 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:44.960 Having spent the last few days in a casual ward, Annie, 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:48.399 who struggled with a serious ailment of the lungs, was 0:19:48.480 --> 0:19:51.000 determined not to make it three nights in a row. 0:19:52.560 --> 0:19:55.760 That afternoon, she made a three mile trek to Vauxhall, 0:19:56.119 --> 0:19:59.680 just south of the Thames, where she successfully convinces her 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:02.760 mother to give her fivepence for a bed at Crossingham's. 0:20:04.000 --> 0:20:10.560 By midnight, however, she had spent it all Regardless, Annie 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:13.280 makes her way to the lodging house and shares a 0:20:13.320 --> 0:20:16.480 drink with a friend in the communal kitchen before heading 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:21.199 out again, hoping to sneak back in. Later. At just 0:20:21.359 --> 0:20:25.760 past one thirty a m. Lodging house deputy Timothy Donovan 0:20:26.560 --> 0:20:29.480 is informed that Annie has just been spotted again in 0:20:29.520 --> 0:20:33.960 the kitchen. Moments later, she is at the door of 0:20:34.000 --> 0:20:37.080 Donovan's office, pleading to be allowed to stay the night, 0:20:38.000 --> 0:20:42.960 but Donovan refuses, reprimanding her that if she can find 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:45.960 money for her beer, then she can find money for 0:20:46.000 --> 0:20:51.560 a bed. Defeated, Annie asks that Donovan at least save 0:20:51.600 --> 0:20:55.080 her usual bed and that she'll be back soon to 0:20:55.119 --> 0:21:11.360 sleep in it. Four hours later, local resident Elizabeth Long 0:21:12.440 --> 0:21:16.280 is making her way toward nearby Spittlefield's Market when she 0:21:16.359 --> 0:21:21.119 turns into Hanbury Street. It was here only the day before, 0:21:21.480 --> 0:21:25.080 under a bright sun, that a hearse carrying the mutilated 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:29.080 body of Polly Nichols, followed somberly by her father, ex 0:21:29.160 --> 0:21:32.960 husband and son, had begun its four mile journey toward 0:21:33.080 --> 0:21:38.679 Manor Park Cemetery in forest Gate at five thirty am. However, 0:21:39.200 --> 0:21:42.760 the windows of the undertakers are blacked out, and only 0:21:42.800 --> 0:21:46.439 silence and darkness is to be found as Elizabeth hurries 0:21:46.440 --> 0:21:53.040 along the deserted road, passing number twenty nine. However, it 0:21:53.119 --> 0:21:55.840 appears the street is not as deserted as she had 0:21:55.840 --> 0:21:59.359 thought when she spots a man with his back to 0:21:59.440 --> 0:22:02.800 her ending in the shadows. He is roughly five and 0:22:02.840 --> 0:22:06.960 a half feet tall, late thirtieth wearing a dark coat 0:22:07.440 --> 0:22:12.600 and a low crowned felt hat. A moment later, she 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:17.960 realizes he is talking to a woman. As she passes, 0:22:18.400 --> 0:22:24.160 Elizabeth catches the end of their conversation. Will you, asks 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:31.359 the man, to which the woman replies yes. Trying to 0:22:31.400 --> 0:22:34.680 mind her own business, Elizabeth hurries on and out of 0:22:34.760 --> 0:22:38.520 the street, just as Albert Kadosh, who lives at number 0:22:38.520 --> 0:22:43.680 twenty seven, is preparing himself for the working day. Having 0:22:43.680 --> 0:22:46.199 put on some clothes, he makes his way towards the 0:22:46.200 --> 0:22:50.040 outhouse at the back of the property. Stepping into the yard, 0:22:50.280 --> 0:22:53.280 he hears a voice cry out from behind the dividing 0:22:53.320 --> 0:22:57.720 fence to number twenty nine on his right. Moments later, 0:22:58.359 --> 0:23:01.760 he hears something clattering aginst the fence from the other side, 0:23:03.000 --> 0:23:06.120 assuming it to be someone stacking crates for the business 0:23:06.160 --> 0:23:13.800 next door. He heads back inside. Minutes later, John Davis, 0:23:14.160 --> 0:23:17.399 a resident of number twenty nine, steps out the front 0:23:17.400 --> 0:23:20.720 door into a dividing passage between the yard and the street. 0:23:22.440 --> 0:23:25.560 Surprised to find the gate has been left open, He 0:23:25.680 --> 0:23:29.200 watches a few people pass by before turning to open 0:23:29.240 --> 0:23:34.800 the back gate and stepping into the yard. It took 0:23:34.800 --> 0:23:37.919 a moment for Davis to process exactly what it was 0:23:38.000 --> 0:23:41.800 He was looking at the body of a woman left 0:23:41.960 --> 0:23:45.199 lying on her back, her clothes hoisted up to her 0:23:45.200 --> 0:23:48.200 waist and her feet planted on the ground with the 0:23:48.320 --> 0:23:52.639 knees up. The wet lump of material draped over her 0:23:52.680 --> 0:23:56.960 shoulder was comprised of intestines that had been completely severed 0:23:57.000 --> 0:24:00.439 from and lifted out of her stomach, and at the 0:24:00.520 --> 0:24:04.080 neck two jagged wounds where she had been savagely sliced 0:24:04.280 --> 0:24:09.560 from one side to the other. What Davis didn't see, however, 0:24:09.880 --> 0:24:13.880 before he ran screaming from the scene, was how the uterus, 0:24:14.280 --> 0:24:17.280 the upper part of the vagina, and two thirds of 0:24:17.320 --> 0:24:31.840 the bladder had also been entirely removed. An hour and 0:24:31.880 --> 0:24:35.400 a half later, in the Prince Albert Pub, only four 0:24:35.520 --> 0:24:39.159 hundred yards from Hanbury Street, a sandy haired man with 0:24:39.200 --> 0:24:42.920 a large mustache curled at each end, wearing a dark 0:24:43.000 --> 0:24:47.960 jacket and soft felt hat, nervously approaches the bar, ordering 0:24:48.000 --> 0:24:50.600 a half pint of veil, making sure to keep his 0:24:50.680 --> 0:24:56.360 face hidden. Landlady missus Fiddimont, suspicious of his general demeanor, 0:24:56.840 --> 0:24:59.480 pulls his drink while trying to catch the reflection of 0:24:59.520 --> 0:25:03.160 his face in a mirror on the back wall. As 0:25:03.200 --> 0:25:06.960 he takes his glass, she notices blood spatters on the 0:25:07.000 --> 0:25:11.199 back of his hand. Realizing he is being watched, the 0:25:11.280 --> 0:25:17.520 man swiftly finishes his drink and leaps. Later that day, 0:25:17.560 --> 0:25:20.040 the woman found in the yard of twenty nine Hanbury 0:25:20.080 --> 0:25:24.879 Street will be formally identified as Annie Chapman. She is 0:25:24.920 --> 0:25:27.560 the fourth of what the press have taken to calling 0:25:27.800 --> 0:25:33.280 the White Chapel Murders. Chief Suspect Leather Apron John Pyser. 0:25:34.440 --> 0:25:38.040 Pyser makes a perfect suspect for the press, not least 0:25:38.040 --> 0:25:40.840 of all because he is believed to be Jewish, a 0:25:41.000 --> 0:25:46.720 cast iron boger man, if ever one was needed. Fears 0:25:46.720 --> 0:25:50.199 and frustrations mount throughout the East End when news of 0:25:50.200 --> 0:25:54.359 Annie's murder sweeps through the streets, and with the fixation 0:25:54.680 --> 0:25:58.399 on Leather apron being a Jew. It isn't long before 0:25:58.440 --> 0:26:02.120 some residents are turning their anger toward the Jewish members 0:26:02.119 --> 0:26:07.080 of their community. But finally, after days spent scouring the 0:26:07.119 --> 0:26:13.560 neighborhood for John Peyser, on September tenth, he is apprehended. Sadly, 0:26:13.640 --> 0:26:16.640 for the police and the women of Whitechapel, he has 0:26:16.680 --> 0:26:19.960 a solid alibi for the night of Annie and Polly's murders. 0:26:21.359 --> 0:26:24.959 On the Friday, four days later, a handful of friends 0:26:24.960 --> 0:26:28.639 and family watch as Annie Chapman's body is buried not 0:26:28.800 --> 0:26:33.679 far from Polly Nichols in Manor Park Cemetery. By the 0:26:33.720 --> 0:26:36.280 time Nichols's inquest has drawn to a close on the 0:26:36.320 --> 0:26:39.560 twenty third, it is clear to the police that although 0:26:39.560 --> 0:26:42.040 the choice of victim is not by any means out 0:26:42.080 --> 0:26:45.240 of the ordinary, the manner in which Nichols and Chapman 0:26:45.280 --> 0:26:48.520 were murdered suggests they are dealing with something that not 0:26:48.680 --> 0:26:53.080 many had seen before. As the coroner noted in his 0:26:53.119 --> 0:26:56.880 summing up, the audacity and daring is equal to its 0:26:56.880 --> 0:27:03.119 maniacal fanaticism and abhorrent wickedness. The suggested motive may be wrong, 0:27:03.880 --> 0:27:07.200 but one thing is very clear that murders of a 0:27:07.280 --> 0:27:20.920 most atrocious character have been committed. Three days later, a 0:27:21.080 --> 0:27:24.280 letter arrives at the front desk of the Central News Agency, 0:27:24.960 --> 0:27:27.959 a news distribution service based in the city of London 0:27:28.400 --> 0:27:32.399 that borders the borough of Whitechapel to the west. On 0:27:32.520 --> 0:27:36.760 the envelope written in red ink, it is addressed only 0:27:36.800 --> 0:27:42.159 to the boss. Inside there is a letter, also written 0:27:42.200 --> 0:27:47.200 in red ink and dated twenty fifth September eighteen eighty eight. 0:27:48.320 --> 0:27:53.040 It reads, Dear Boss, I keep on hearing the police 0:27:53.040 --> 0:27:55.800 have court me, but they won't fix me just yet. 0:27:56.720 --> 0:27:59.040 I have laughed when they look so clever and talk 0:27:59.080 --> 0:28:03.080 about being on the right track. That joke about leather 0:28:03.160 --> 0:28:08.200 apron gave me real fit. I am down on horse 0:28:08.520 --> 0:28:11.400 and I shan't quit ripping them till I do get buckled. 0:28:12.680 --> 0:28:16.000 Grand work. The last job was, I gave the lady 0:28:16.280 --> 0:28:19.680 no time to squeal? How can they catch me? Now? 0:28:20.280 --> 0:28:24.119 I love my work and want to start again. You 0:28:24.160 --> 0:28:26.560 will soon hear of me with my funny little games. 0:28:27.560 --> 0:28:29.840 I saved some of the proper red stuff in a 0:28:29.880 --> 0:28:32.359 ginger beer bottle over the last job to write with, 0:28:32.920 --> 0:28:36.200 but it went thick like glue and I can't use it. 0:28:37.000 --> 0:28:41.720 Red Ink is fit enough. I hope the next job 0:28:41.760 --> 0:28:44.240 I do, I shall clip the lady's ears off and 0:28:44.360 --> 0:28:48.200 send to the police officers just for jolly. Keep this 0:28:48.280 --> 0:28:51.960 letter back, then give it out straight. My knife's so 0:28:52.120 --> 0:28:54.720 nice and sharp. I want to get to work right 0:28:54.760 --> 0:28:59.320 away if I get a chance. Good luck, yours truly, 0:29:00.200 --> 0:29:07.600 Jack the Ripper. Part two of the Square will be 0:29:07.640 --> 0:29:13.600 out Tuesday, October two. If you enjoy listening to Unexplained 0:29:13.840 --> 0:29:16.400 and would like to help supporters, you can now go 0:29:16.480 --> 0:29:21.920 to Unexplained podcast dot com forward slash support. All donations, 0:29:22.080 --> 0:29:27.760 no matter how large or small, are massively appreciated. All 0:29:27.760 --> 0:29:31.000 elements of Unexplained are produced by me, Richard McClain smith. 0:29:31.360 --> 0:29:33.840 Please subscribe and rate the show on night tunes. Feel 0:29:33.840 --> 0:29:36.000 free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas 0:29:36.040 --> 0:29:39.160 regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you 0:29:39.200 --> 0:29:41.160 have an explanation of your own you'd like to share. 0:29:41.920 --> 0:29:44.640