MARY ANN NICHOLS, JACK THE RIPPER'S FIRST VICTIM

Today, The Fosters and The Grandma have remembered Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols, who was the first victim of Jack The Ripper.

 

Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols (26 August 1845-31 August 1888) was one of the Whitechapel murder victims. Her death has been attributed to the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack The Ripper, who is believed to have killed and mutilated at least five women in the Whitechapel area of London from late August to early November 1888.

Mary Ann was born to locksmith Edward Walker and his wife Caroline on 26 August 1845, in Dean Street in London. On 16 January 1864 she married William Nichols, a printer's machinist, and between 1866 and 1879, the couple had five children: Edward John, Percy George, Alice Esther, Eliza Sarah, and Henry Alfred. Their marriage broke up in 1880 or 1881 because of disputed causes. Her father accused William of leaving her after he had an affair with the nurse who had attended the birth of their final child, though Nichols claimed to have proof that their marriage had continued for at least three years after the date alleged for the affair. He maintained that his wife had deserted him and was practising prostitution. Police reports say they separated because of her drunken habits.

More information: Casebook: Jack the Ripper

Legally required to support his estranged wife, William Nichols paid her an allowance of five shillings a week until 1882, when he heard that she was working as a prostitute; he was not required to support her if she was earning money through illicit means. Nichols spent most of her remaining years in workhouses and boarding houses, living off charitable handouts and her meagre earnings as a prostitute. She lived with her father for a year or more but left after a quarrel; her father stated he had heard she had subsequently lived with a blacksmith named Drew in Walworth. 

In early 1888, the year of her death, she was placed in the Lambeth workhouse after being discovered sleeping rough in Trafalgar Square, and in May left the workhouse to take a job as a domestic servant in Wandsworth.

Unhappy in that position, she was an alcoholic and her employer, Mr Cowdry, and his wife, were teetotallers, she left two months later, stealing clothing worth three pounds ten shillings.  At the time of her death, Nichols was living in a Whitechapel common lodging house in Spitalfields, where she shared a room with a woman named Emily "Nelly" Holland.

At about 23:00 on 30 August, Nichols was seen walking the Whitechapel Road; at 00:30 on 31 August she was seen to leave a pub in Brick Lane, Spitalfields.

More information: Historical Events

An hour later, she was turned out of 18 Thrawl Street as she was lacking the fourpence required for a bed, implying by her last recorded words that she would soon earn the money on the street with the help of a new bonnet she had acquired.

She was last seen alive standing at the corner of Osborn Street and Whitechapel Road at approximately 02:30, one hour before her death, by her roommate, Emily Holland. To Holland, Nichols claimed she had earned enough money to pay for her bed three times that evening, but had repeatedly spent the money on alcohol.

A meat cart driver named Charles Allen Lechmere, who also used the name Charles Cross, claimed to have discovered Mary Ann Nichols lying on the ground in front of a gated stable entrance in Buck's Row, since renamed Durward Street, Whitechapel at 3:40 AM, about 150 yards from the London Hospital and 100 yards from Blackwall Buildings. Her skirt was raised.
 

Another passing cart driver on his way to work, Robert Paul, approached and saw Lechmere kneeling over the body. Lechmere called him over. He expressed his opinion that she was dead, but Paul was uncertain and thought she might simply be unconscious.

They pulled her skirt down to cover her lower body, and went in search of a policeman. Upon encountering PC Jonas Mizen, Lechmere informed the constable: She looks to me to be either dead or drunk, but for my part, I believe she's dead. The two men then continued on their way to work, leaving Mizen to inspect Nichols' body.

As Mizen approached the body, PC John Neale came from the opposite direction on his beat and by flashing his lantern, called a third policeman, PC John Thain, to the scene.

More information: Huffington Post

As news of the murder spread, three horse slaughterers from a neighbouring knacker's yard in Winthrop Street, who had been working overnight, came to look at the body. None of the slaughterers, the police officers patrolling nearby streets, or the residents of houses alongside Buck's Row reported hearing or seeing anything suspicious before the discovery of the body.

PC Thain fetched surgeon Dr Henry Llewellyn, who arrived at 04:00 and decided she had been dead for about 30 minutes. Her throat had been slit twice from left to right and her abdomen mutilated with one deep jagged wound, several incisions across the abdomen, and three or four similar cuts on the right side caused by the same knife, estimated to be at least 15–20 cm long, used violently and downwards.  

Llewellyn expressed surprise at the small amount of blood at the crime scene, about enough to fill two large wine glasses, or half a pint at the most. His comment led to the supposition that Nichols was not killed where her body was found, but the blood from her wounds had soaked into her clothes and hair, and there was little doubt that she had been killed at the crime scene by a swift slash to the throat. Death would have been instantaneous, and the abdominal injuries, which would have taken less than five minutes to perform, were made by the murderer after she was dead. 

When a person is killed, further wounds to their body do not always result in a large amount of blood loss. When the body was lifted a mass of congealed blood, in PC Thain's words, lay beneath the body.

As the murder had occurred in the territory of the Bethnal Green Division of the Metropolitan Police, it was initially investigated by the local detectives, inspectors John Spratling and Joseph Helson, who had little success. 

More information: All That's Interesting

Elements of the press linked the attack on Nichols to two previous murders, those of Emma Elizabeth Smith and Martha Tabram, and suggested the killing might have been perpetrated by a gang, as in the case of Smith. The Star newspaper instead suggested a single killer was the culprit and other newspapers took up their storyline. Suspicions of a serial killer at large in London led to the secondment of Detective Inspectors Frederick Abberline, Henry Moore and Walter Andrews from the Central Office at Scotland Yard.

Although Llewellyn had speculated that the attacker could have been left-handed, he later expressed doubt over this initial thought, but the belief that the killer was left-handed endured.

Rumours that a local character called Leather Apron could have been responsible for the murder were investigated by the police, even though they noted there is no evidence against him. 

Imaginative descriptions of Leather Apron, using crude Jewish stereotypes, appeared in the press, but rival journalists dismissed these as a mythical outgrowth of the reporter's fancy. John Pizer, a Polish Jew who made footwear from leather, was known by the name Leather Apron and was arrested despite a lack of evidence. He was soon released after the confirmation of his alibis. Pizer successfully obtained monetary compensation from at least one newspaper that had named him as the murderer.

After several adjournments, to allow the police to gather further evidence, the inquest concluded on 24 September. On the available evidence, Coroner Baxter found that Nichols was murdered at just after 3 a.m. where she was found.

More information: PRI

In his summing up, he dismissed the possibility that her murder was connected with those of Smith and Tabram since the lethal weapons were different in those cases, and neither of the earlier cases involved a slash to the throat. However, by the time the inquest into Nichols' death had concluded, another woman, Annie Chapman, had been murdered, and Baxter noted The similarity of the injuries in the two cases is considerable. The police investigations into the murders of Chapman and Nichols were merged.

The subsequent murders of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes the week after the inquest had closed, and that of Mary Jane Kelly on 9 November, were also linked by a similar modus operandi, and the murders were blamed by the press and public on a single serial killer, called Jack The Ripper.

More information: History

 

All English people have a fascination 

with Jack The Ripper. 

I don't know why, 

because it's so dreadful, 

but such a strange, 

endearing part of our culture. 

Morbid fascination sums it up.

Jane Goldman

MARY ANN NICHOLS, JACK THE RIPPER'S FIRST VICTIM

Today, The Weasleys and The Grandma have talked about Mary Ann Nichols, the first victim of Jack The Ripper.

Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols (26 August 1845-31 August 1888) was one of the Whitechapel murder victims. Her death has been attributed to the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack The Ripper, who is believed to have killed and mutilated at least five women in the Whitechapel area of London from late August to early November 1888.

Mary Ann was born to locksmith Edward Walker and his wife Caroline on 26 August 1845, in Dean Street in London. On 16 January 1864 she married William Nichols, a printer's machinist, and between 1866 and 1879, the couple had five children: Edward John, Percy George, Alice Esther, Eliza Sarah, and Henry Alfred. Their marriage broke up in 1880 or 1881 because of disputed causes. Her father accused William of leaving her after he had an affair with the nurse who had attended the birth of their final child, though Nichols claimed to have proof that their marriage had continued for at least three years after the date alleged for the affair. He maintained that his wife had deserted him and was practising prostitution. Police reports say they separated because of her drunken habits.

More information: Casebook: Jack the Ripper

Legally required to support his estranged wife, William Nichols paid her an allowance of five shillings a week until 1882, when he heard that she was working as a prostitute; he was not required to support her if she was earning money through illicit means. Nichols spent most of her remaining years in workhouses and boarding houses, living off charitable handouts and her meagre earnings as a prostitute. She lived with her father for a year or more but left after a quarrel; her father stated he had heard she had subsequently lived with a blacksmith named Drew in Walworth. 

In early 1888, the year of her death, she was placed in the Lambeth workhouse after being discovered sleeping rough in Trafalgar Square, and in May left the workhouse to take a job as a domestic servant in Wandsworth.

Unhappy in that position, she was an alcoholic and her employer, Mr Cowdry, and his wife, were teetotallers, she left two months later, stealing clothing worth three pounds ten shillings.  At the time of her death, Nichols was living in a Whitechapel common lodging house in Spitalfields, where she shared a room with a woman named Emily "Nelly" Holland.

At about 23:00 on 30 August, Nichols was seen walking the Whitechapel Road; at 00:30 on 31 August she was seen to leave a pub in Brick Lane, Spitalfields.

More information: Historical Events

An hour later, she was turned out of 18 Thrawl Street as she was lacking the fourpence required for a bed, implying by her last recorded words that she would soon earn the money on the street with the help of a new bonnet she had acquired.

She was last seen alive standing at the corner of Osborn Street and Whitechapel Road at approximately 02:30, one hour before her death, by her roommate, Emily Holland. To Holland, Nichols claimed she had earned enough money to pay for her bed three times that evening, but had repeatedly spent the money on alcohol.

A meat cart driver named Charles Allen Lechmere, who also used the name Charles Cross, claimed to have discovered Mary Ann Nichols lying on the ground in front of a gated stable entrance in Buck's Row, since renamed Durward Street, Whitechapel at 3:40 AM, about 150 yards from the London Hospital and 100 yards from Blackwall Buildings. Her skirt was raised.
 

Another passing cart driver on his way to work, Robert Paul, approached and saw Lechmere kneeling over the body. Lechmere called him over. He expressed his opinion that she was dead, but Paul was uncertain and thought she might simply be unconscious.

They pulled her skirt down to cover her lower body, and went in search of a policeman. Upon encountering PC Jonas Mizen, Lechmere informed the constable: She looks to me to be either dead or drunk, but for my part, I believe she's dead. The two men then continued on their way to work, leaving Mizen to inspect Nichols' body.

As Mizen approached the body, PC John Neale came from the opposite direction on his beat and by flashing his lantern, called a third policeman, PC John Thain, to the scene.

More information: Huffington Post

As news of the murder spread, three horse slaughterers from a neighbouring knacker's yard in Winthrop Street, who had been working overnight, came to look at the body. None of the slaughterers, the police officers patrolling nearby streets, or the residents of houses alongside Buck's Row reported hearing or seeing anything suspicious before the discovery of the body.

PC Thain fetched surgeon Dr Henry Llewellyn, who arrived at 04:00 and decided she had been dead for about 30 minutes. Her throat had been slit twice from left to right and her abdomen mutilated with one deep jagged wound, several incisions across the abdomen, and three or four similar cuts on the right side caused by the same knife, estimated to be at least 15–20 cm long, used violently and downwards.  

Llewellyn expressed surprise at the small amount of blood at the crime scene, about enough to fill two large wine glasses, or half a pint at the most. His comment led to the supposition that Nichols was not killed where her body was found, but the blood from her wounds had soaked into her clothes and hair, and there was little doubt that she had been killed at the crime scene by a swift slash to the throat. Death would have been instantaneous, and the abdominal injuries, which would have taken less than five minutes to perform, were made by the murderer after she was dead. 

When a person is killed, further wounds to their body do not always result in a large amount of blood loss. When the body was lifted a mass of congealed blood, in PC Thain's words, lay beneath the body.

As the murder had occurred in the territory of the Bethnal Green Division of the Metropolitan Police, it was initially investigated by the local detectives, inspectors John Spratling and Joseph Helson, who had little success. 

More information: All That's Interesting

Elements of the press linked the attack on Nichols to two previous murders, those of Emma Elizabeth Smith and Martha Tabram, and suggested the killing might have been perpetrated by a gang, as in the case of Smith. The Star newspaper instead suggested a single killer was the culprit and other newspapers took up their storyline. Suspicions of a serial killer at large in London led to the secondment of Detective Inspectors Frederick Abberline, Henry Moore and Walter Andrews from the Central Office at Scotland Yard.

Although Llewellyn had speculated that the attacker could have been left-handed, he later expressed doubt over this initial thought, but the belief that the killer was left-handed endured.

Rumours that a local character called Leather Apron could have been responsible for the murder were investigated by the police, even though they noted there is no evidence against him. 

Imaginative descriptions of Leather Apron, using crude Jewish stereotypes, appeared in the press, but rival journalists dismissed these as a mythical outgrowth of the reporter's fancy. John Pizer, a Polish Jew who made footwear from leather, was known by the name Leather Apron and was arrested despite a lack of evidence. He was soon released after the confirmation of his alibis. Pizer successfully obtained monetary compensation from at least one newspaper that had named him as the murderer.

After several adjournments, to allow the police to gather further evidence, the inquest concluded on 24 September. On the available evidence, Coroner Baxter found that Nichols was murdered at just after 3 a.m. where she was found.

More information: PRI

In his summing up, he dismissed the possibility that her murder was connected with those of Smith and Tabram since the lethal weapons were different in those cases, and neither of the earlier cases involved a slash to the throat. However, by the time the inquest into Nichols' death had concluded, another woman, Annie Chapman, had been murdered, and Baxter noted The similarity of the injuries in the two cases is considerable. The police investigations into the murders of Chapman and Nichols were merged.

The subsequent murders of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes the week after the inquest had closed, and that of Mary Jane Kelly on 9 November, were also linked by a similar modus operandi, and the murders were blamed by the press and public on a single serial killer, called Jack The Ripper.

More information: History

 

 

All English people have a fascination 

with Jack The Ripper. 

I don't know why, 

because it's so dreadful, 

but such a strange, 

endearing part of our culture. 

Morbid fascination sums it up.

Jane Goldman

'FROM HELL' LETTER, THE 3RD NOTICE OF JACK THE RIPPER

Today, The Grandma has been reading about one of the most popular serial killers of all time, Jack the Ripper, who sent a letter named From Hell to the investigators, on a day like today in 1888.

 

The From Hell letter, also known as the Lusk letter, was a letter sent alongside half of a preserved human kidney to the chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, George Lusk, in October 1888.

The author of this letter claimed to be the unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, who had murdered and mutilated at least four women in the Whitechapel and Spitalfields districts of London in the two months prior to Lusk receiving this letter, and whose vigilance committee Lusk led in community efforts to assist police in efforts to identify and apprehend the perpetrator.

The letter was postmarked on 15 October 1888 and was received by Lusk the following day.

An examination of the kidney revealed the individual from whom the organ originated had suffered from Bright's disease. The author of this letter claimed to have fried and eaten the other half.

Police, press, and public alike received many letters claiming to be from the Whitechapel Murderer, with investigators at one stage having to deal with an estimated 1,000 letters related to the case. However, the From Hell letter is one of the few articles of correspondence that has received serious consideration as to actually being genuine. Nonetheless, opinions remain divided with regard to the letter's authenticity.

The murders committed by Jack the Ripper have attracted much attention in popular culture for decades, with several factual and fictional works directly making reference to the From Hell letter.

More information: Jack The Ripper 1888

The 31 August 1888 murder of Mary Ann Nichols resulted in increased media attention focusing on the individual known as the Whitechapel murderer and, later, Leather Apron. The grotesque mutilation upon Nichols and later victims was generally described as involving their bodies having been ripped up, and residents spoke of their worries of a ripper or high rip gang. However, the identification of the killer as Jack the Ripper did not occur until after 27 September, when the offices of Central News Ltd received the Dear Boss letter. 

The author of this letter signed the letter Yours truly, Jack the Ripper, vowing to continue ripping [prostitutes] until his arrest. The author of this letter also threatened to remove and post the ears of his next victim to the police.

While newsmen considered this letter a mere joke, they decided after two days to notify Scotland Yard of the matter. The double murder of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes took place the night that the police received the Dear Boss letter.

The Central News people received a second communication known as the Saucy Jacky postcard on 1 October 1888, the day after the double murder, and the message was duly passed over to the authorities. Copies of both messages were soon posted to the public in the hopes that the writing style would be recognized. While the police felt determined to discover the author of both messages, they found themselves overwhelmed by the media circus around the Ripper killings and soon received a large amount of material, most of it useless.

The original letter and the kidney which accompanied it have been lost, along with other contents that were contained in the Ripper police files. The image shown here is from a photograph.

More informatio: All That Is Interesting

Hundreds of letters claiming to be from the killer were posted at the time of the Ripper murders, but many researchers argue that the From Hell letter is one of a handful of possibly authentic writings received from the murderer.

Its author did not sign it with the Jack the Ripper pseudonym, distinguishing it from the earlier Dear Boss letter and Saucy Jacky postcard, as well as their many imitators. The handwriting is also similar in the earlier two messages but dissimilar in the one From Hell.

The letter was delivered to Lusk personally without reference to the police or to the British government, which could indicate animosity towards Lusk or the local Whitechapel community of which he was a member.

The From Hell letter is written at a much lower level of literacy than other letters purporting to be from the murderer, in that this letter features numerous errors in spelling and grammar.

Scholars have debated whether this is a deliberate misdirection, as the author observed the silent k in knif[e] and h in whil[e]. The formatting of the letter also features a cramped writing style in which letters are pressed together haphazardly; many ink blots appear in a manner which might indicate that the writer was unfamiliar with using a pen.

The formatting of the message might point to it being a hoax by a well-educated individual, but some researchers have argued that it is the genuine work of a partly functional but deranged individual.

More information: Whitechapel Jack

From hell.

Mr Lusk,

Sor

I send you half the Kidne I took from one woman and prasarved
it for you tother piece I fried and ate it was very nise.
I may send you the bloody knif that took it out

if you only wate a whil longer.

Jack The Ripper

'FROM HELL' LETTER, THE 3RD NOTICE OF JACK THE RIPPER

Today, The Grandma has been reading about one of the most popular serial killers of all time, Jack the Ripper, who sent a letter named From Hell to the investigators, on a day like today in 1888.

 

The From Hell letter, also known as the Lusk letter, was a letter sent alongside half of a preserved human kidney to the chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, George Lusk, in October 1888.

The author of this letter claimed to be the unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, who had murdered and mutilated at least four women in the Whitechapel and Spitalfields districts of London in the two months prior to Lusk receiving this letter, and whose vigilance committee Lusk led in community efforts to assist police in efforts to identify and apprehend the perpetrator.

The letter was postmarked on 15 October 1888 and was received by Lusk the following day.

An examination of the kidney revealed the individual from whom the organ originated had suffered from Bright's disease. The author of this letter claimed to have fried and eaten the other half.

Police, press, and public alike received many letters claiming to be from the Whitechapel Murderer, with investigators at one stage having to deal with an estimated 1,000 letters related to the case. However, the From Hell letter is one of the few articles of correspondence that has received serious consideration as to actually being genuine. Nonetheless, opinions remain divided with regard to the letter's authenticity.

The murders committed by Jack the Ripper have attracted much attention in popular culture for decades, with several factual and fictional works directly making reference to the From Hell letter.

More information: Jack The Ripper 1888

The 31 August 1888 murder of Mary Ann Nichols resulted in increased media attention focusing on the individual known as the Whitechapel murderer and, later, Leather Apron. The grotesque mutilation upon Nichols and later victims was generally described as involving their bodies having been ripped up, and residents spoke of their worries of a ripper or high rip gang. However, the identification of the killer as Jack the Ripper did not occur until after 27 September, when the offices of Central News Ltd received the Dear Boss letter. 

The author of this letter signed the letter Yours truly, Jack the Ripper, vowing to continue ripping [prostitutes] until his arrest. The author of this letter also threatened to remove and post the ears of his next victim to the police.

While newsmen considered this letter a mere joke, they decided after two days to notify Scotland Yard of the matter. The double murder of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes took place the night that the police received the Dear Boss letter.

The Central News people received a second communication known as the Saucy Jacky postcard on 1 October 1888, the day after the double murder, and the message was duly passed over to the authorities. Copies of both messages were soon posted to the public in the hopes that the writing style would be recognized. While the police felt determined to discover the author of both messages, they found themselves overwhelmed by the media circus around the Ripper killings and soon received a large amount of material, most of it useless.

The original letter and the kidney which accompanied it have been lost, along with other contents that were contained in the Ripper police files. The image shown here is from a photograph.

More informatio: All That Is Interesting

Hundreds of letters claiming to be from the killer were posted at the time of the Ripper murders, but many researchers argue that the From Hell letter is one of a handful of possibly authentic writings received from the murderer.

Its author did not sign it with the Jack the Ripper pseudonym, distinguishing it from the earlier Dear Boss letter and Saucy Jacky postcard, as well as their many imitators. The handwriting is also similar in the earlier two messages but dissimilar in the one From Hell.

The letter was delivered to Lusk personally without reference to the police or to the British government, which could indicate animosity towards Lusk or the local Whitechapel community of which he was a member.

The From Hell letter is written at a much lower level of literacy than other letters purporting to be from the murderer, in that this letter features numerous errors in spelling and grammar.

Scholars have debated whether this is a deliberate misdirection, as the author observed the silent k in knif[e] and h in whil[e]. The formatting of the letter also features a cramped writing style in which letters are pressed together haphazardly; many ink blots appear in a manner which might indicate that the writer was unfamiliar with using a pen.

The formatting of the message might point to it being a hoax by a well-educated individual, but some researchers have argued that it is the genuine work of a partly functional but deranged individual.

More information: Whitechapel Jack

From hell.

Mr Lusk,

Sor

I send you half the Kidne I took from one woman and prasarved
it for you tother piece I fried and ate it was very nise.
I may send you the bloody knif that took it out

if you only wate a whil longer.

Jack The Ripper

MARY ANN NICHOLS: JACK THE RIPPER'S FIRST VICTIM

A sketch showing the Whitechapel Murders victims

Yesterday, The Grandma finished her Intermediate Language Practice manual but tomorrow, she's going to start a new one: First Certificate Language Practice.

Today, she has done a little pause in her grammar studies but she has remembered the figure of Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols, who was the first victim of Jack The Ripper and was killed on a day like today in 1888.

Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols (26 August 1845-31 August 1888) was one of the Whitechapel murder victims. Her death has been attributed to the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack The Ripper, who is believed to have killed and mutilated at least five women in the Whitechapel area of London from late August to early November 1888.

Mary Ann was born to locksmith Edward Walker and his wife Caroline on 26 August 1845, in Dean Street in London. On 16 January 1864 she married William Nichols, a printer's machinist, and between 1866 and 1879, the couple had five children: Edward John, Percy George, Alice Esther, Eliza Sarah, and Henry Alfred. Their marriage broke up in 1880 or 1881 because of disputed causes. Her father accused William of leaving her after he had an affair with the nurse who had attended the birth of their final child, though Nichols claimed to have proof that their marriage had continued for at least three years after the date alleged for the affair. He maintained that his wife had deserted him and was practising prostitution. Police reports say they separated because of her drunken habits.

More information: Casebook: Jack the Ripper

Legally required to support his estranged wife, William Nichols paid her an allowance of five shillings a week until 1882, when he heard that she was working as a prostitute; he was not required to support her if she was earning money through illicit means. Nichols spent most of her remaining years in workhouses and boarding houses, living off charitable handouts and her meagre earnings as a prostitute. She lived with her father for a year or more but left after a quarrel; her father stated he had heard she had subsequently lived with a blacksmith named Drew in Walworth. 

Whitechapel, London, 1888

In early 1888, the year of her death, she was placed in the Lambeth workhouse after being discovered sleeping rough in Trafalgar Square, and in May left the workhouse to take a job as a domestic servant in Wandsworth.

Unhappy in that position, she was an alcoholic and her employer, Mr Cowdry, and his wife, were teetotallers, she left two months later, stealing clothing worth three pounds ten shillings.  At the time of her death, Nichols was living in a Whitechapel common lodging house in Spitalfields, where she shared a room with a woman named Emily "Nelly" Holland.

At about 23:00 on 30 August, Nichols was seen walking the Whitechapel Road; at 00:30 on 31 August she was seen to leave a pub in Brick Lane, Spitalfields.

More information: Historical Events

An hour later, she was turned out of 18 Thrawl Street as she was lacking the fourpence required for a bed, implying by her last recorded words that she would soon earn the money on the street with the help of a new bonnet she had acquired.

She was last seen alive standing at the corner of Osborn Street and Whitechapel Road at approximately 02:30, one hour before her death, by her roommate, Emily Holland. To Holland, Nichols claimed she had earned enough money to pay for her bed three times that evening, but had repeatedly spent the money on alcohol.

A meat cart driver named Charles Allen Lechmere, who also used the name Charles Cross, claimed to have discovered Mary Ann Nichols lying on the ground in front of a gated stable entrance in Buck's Row, since renamed Durward Street, Whitechapel at 3:40 AM, about 150 yards from the London Hospital and 100 yards from Blackwall Buildings. Her skirt was raised.
 

Jack The Ripper in the press

Another passing cart driver on his way to work, Robert Paul, approached and saw Lechmere kneeling over the body. Lechmere called him over. He expressed his opinion that she was dead, but Paul was uncertain and thought she might simply be unconscious.

They pulled her skirt down to cover her lower body, and went in search of a policeman. Upon encountering PC Jonas Mizen, Lechmere informed the constable: She looks to me to be either dead or drunk, but for my part, I believe she's dead. The two men then continued on their way to work, leaving Mizen to inspect Nichols' body.

As Mizen approached the body, PC John Neale came from the opposite direction on his beat and by flashing his lantern, called a third policeman, PC John Thain, to the scene.

More information: Huffington Post

As news of the murder spread, three horse slaughterers from a neighbouring knacker's yard in Winthrop Street, who had been working overnight, came to look at the body. None of the slaughterers, the police officers patrolling nearby streets, or the residents of houses alongside Buck's Row reported hearing or seeing anything suspicious before the discovery of the body.

PC Thain fetched surgeon Dr Henry Llewellyn, who arrived at 04:00 and decided she had been dead for about 30 minutes. Her throat had been slit twice from left to right and her abdomen mutilated with one deep jagged wound, several incisions across the abdomen, and three or four similar cuts on the right side caused by the same knife, estimated to be at least 15–20 cm long, used violently and downwards.  

Jack The Ripper's victim on The Illustrated Police News

Llewellyn expressed surprise at the small amount of blood at the crime scene, about enough to fill two large wine glasses, or half a pint at the most. His comment led to the supposition that Nichols was not killed where her body was found, but the blood from her wounds had soaked into her clothes and hair, and there was little doubt that she had been killed at the crime scene by a swift slash to the throat. Death would have been instantaneous, and the abdominal injuries, which would have taken less than five minutes to perform, were made by the murderer after she was dead. 

When a person is killed, further wounds to their body do not always result in a large amount of blood loss. When the body was lifted a mass of congealed blood, in PC Thain's words, lay beneath the body.

As the murder had occurred in the territory of the Bethnal Green Division of the Metropolitan Police, it was initially investigated by the local detectives, inspectors John Spratling and Joseph Helson, who had little success. 

More information: All That's Interesting

Elements of the press linked the attack on Nichols to two previous murders, those of Emma Elizabeth Smith and Martha Tabram, and suggested the killing might have been perpetrated by a gang, as in the case of Smith. The Star newspaper instead suggested a single killer was the culprit and other newspapers took up their storyline. Suspicions of a serial killer at large in London led to the secondment of Detective Inspectors Frederick Abberline, Henry Moore and Walter Andrews from the Central Office at Scotland Yard.

Although Llewellyn had speculated that the attacker could have been left-handed, he later expressed doubt over this initial thought, but the belief that the killer was left-handed endured.

The Grandma in Whitechapel, London

Rumours that a local character called Leather Apron could have been responsible for the murder were investigated by the police, even though they noted there is no evidence against him. 

Imaginative descriptions of Leather Apron, using crude Jewish stereotypes, appeared in the press, but rival journalists dismissed these as a mythical outgrowth of the reporter's fancy. John Pizer, a Polish Jew who made footwear from leather, was known by the name Leather Apron and was arrested despite a lack of evidence. He was soon released after the confirmation of his alibis. Pizer successfully obtained monetary compensation from at least one newspaper that had named him as the murderer.

After several adjournments, to allow the police to gather further evidence, the inquest concluded on 24 September. On the available evidence, Coroner Baxter found that Nichols was murdered at just after 3 a.m. where she was found.

More information: PRI

In his summing up, he dismissed the possibility that her murder was connected with those of Smith and Tabram since the lethal weapons were different in those cases, and neither of the earlier cases involved a slash to the throat. However, by the time the inquest into Nichols' death had concluded, another woman, Annie Chapman, had been murdered, and Baxter noted The similarity of the injuries in the two cases is considerable. The police investigations into the murders of Chapman and Nichols were merged.

The subsequent murders of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes the week after the inquest had closed, and that of Mary Jane Kelly on 9 November, were also linked by a similar modus operandi, and the murders were blamed by the press and public on a single serial killer, called Jack The Ripper.

More information: History

All English people have a fascination 

with Jack The Ripper. 

I don't know why, 

because it's so dreadful, 

but such a strange, 

endearing part of our culture. 

Morbid fascination sums it up.

Jane Goldman

ARISTOCRATIC SERIAL KILLERS: THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE

Mariona and Pedro Bond with a voodoo toy

Today, The Bonds are visiting Washington DC. They're interested in the historical buildings and they're comparing them with Comparative. They are also learning how to use the modal verb May and practising some Social English.

After that, the family is practising some vocabulary about Hotels and Tourism and they're meeting with Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully who are helping The Bonds to know more things about voodoo.

More information: Comparative

The Grandma is remembering some of her favourite singers and Irene Bond is explaining some experiences with one of them. Suddenly, they have received an unexpected visit, M, the partner of MJ, has appeared with some presents for the family. Thanks a lot MJ! We admire you and you know it!

In addition, The Bonds are discovering Ordesa, a beautiful natural reserve in the north of Aragon and they're connecting different stories.

Finally, the family are listening to The Grandma who is explaining some stories about blood and monarchies talking about Jack the Ripper, Vlad Tepes and Enriqueta Martí meanwhile Jaume Bond is adding a new name to this serial killers list: Elizabeth Báthory.

More information: Jack the Ripper

Tomorrow, the family has a meeting in The White House with the new president of the USA, a Juanjo Bond's old friend, and with the Queen Elizabeth II. They're going to talk about Middle Age and literature. 

Be polite and dress elegantly!

 My grandfather was a voodoo priest. A lot of my life dealt with spirituality. I can close my eyes and remember where I come from.
 

Wyclef Jean

EUROPOPPINS: LIVING A CELEBRATION

Today, The Poppins have spent a great day preparing the Eurovision Song Contest. After doing some exercises of vocabulary and thinking in the origins of Friday, 13, they have been talking about some famous people like Vlad Tepes, Jack The Ripper and Enriqueta Martí. Next, they have composed some beautiful songs which have been sung by all the members of the family.

It has been very difficult to choose a winner song but after an amazing re-count, Lulú & Jennifer Poppins have won the Poppins’ Contest. By the way, tomorrow, all members of the family are going to stay in Stockholm defending their songs with all the heart.

More information: Sovereign Order of Malta

The Grandma has decided to follow some important artists and has borrowed some lyrics of her family’s songs to create her own one. Here it is:

If you want a better place…

Ooooh! Help me!

We’re enjoying a lot!

If you're a prisoner of your plans…

Ooooh! I'll be on time.

Life is beautiful.

Well, well, are you happy?

We should loveeeeeeeee

Together, the world is better!

The family is flying tonight from Edinburgh to Stockholm while The Grandma is returning to Barcelona because she has a meeting with her other family, The Holmes, who have an important appointment tomorrow morning.

I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.

George Washington

CARMEN HOLMES & AMIGURUMIS

AMIGURUMI is a Japanese art that consists in knitting in crochet small stuffed objects or toys.

The word AMIGURUMI comes from a combination of two Japanese words: ami (meaning crocheted or knitted) and nuigurumi (that means stuffed doll).

The material, we need to create an AMIGURUMI is: a crochet hook of 2,5 or 3 mm of thickness; cotton or wool yarn in a different colours and a few of synthetic cotton  to fill them (similar at the stuffing of pillows).

AMIGURUMIS are usually worked in spiral rounds, in one or several pieces that then we sew.

This is one of their features. Another is their over-sized round head and a body cylindrical with small extremities.

We start the piece with the magic circle or ring and chain stitch. Then, we crochet increasing and decreasing using the single crochet stitch.

Most popular AMIGURUMIS are animals, but we can do anything we want using this technique: dolls, food, transportation, celebrities....

Internet is plenty of designs and ideas.

The feeling that transmits an AMIGURUMI is affection. They are cute.

Japanese people give a spiritual meaning at this art that takes part of their traditional culture of Kawaii philosophy. They believe these dolls help people to protect their homes. AMIGURUMIS born from the idea of "cheer the heart". The word "kawaii" is a Japanese adjective that can be translated by "beautiful", "sweet" or "lovely".

I can read that AMIGURUMIS also are used as personal amulets, and is super common in Japan seeing them in offices, as an ornament.

You can offer an AMIGURUMI as a toy to children, as a curious gift or as a decoration.

Carmen Holmes @carmenholmes291

Today, The Holmes have worked Present Simple vs. Present Continuous. They’ve continued reading The Canterville Ghost and The Grandma has explained a new bloody story about the relation between legend and real story in the cases of Vlad Țepeș in Transylvania; Jack The Ripper in London, El Chupacabras  in Centre and South America and Enriqueta Martí in Barcelona.

Next, they’ve created a new lullaby taking different themes, mixing them and giving them three important and essential aspects: coherence, cohesion and adaptation. 

"Ninety years ago I was a freak. Today I'm an amateur"

 Jack The Ripper