Download The funerals of the victims of Jack the Ripper, PART 2 and more Schemes and Mind Maps Criminology in PDF only on Docsity!
28 | FUNERAL DIRECTOR MONTHLY
THE FUNERALS
O F T H E
VICTIMS
THE RIPPER
BY TODD W. VAN BECK
PART 2
O F J A C K
In December’s edition of this magazine, we began the tale of the funerals of five tragic victims of Victorian serial killer Jack the Ripper.
The ceremonies that were afforded these unfortunate human beings tells the stories of the care and sympathy that was extended to each woman by the funeral profession. In a few instances when no-one came forth to help, the funeral professional assumed the entire expenses of these ceremonies.
Here we conclude the article, by regular contributor Todd W. Van Beck, with the stories of Catharine Eddowes and Marie Kelly.
FUNERAL DIRECTOR MONTHLY | 29
Catharine Eddowes, the fourth Ripper victim, was the daughter of a tinplate worker. Sometime around 1862, she struck up a friendship with a man named Thomas Conway, by whom she bore three children. By 1880, the relationship was over and Catharine began drinking habitually. By September 1888, Catharine was in London sleeping in workhouses. Catharine Eddowes is the only Ripper victim whose identity as a prostitute is unclear and unproven.
At the time of her death, Catharine Eddowes was 46 years-old. At 1:35am on 30 September 1888, witnesses saw Catharine talking to a man by the entrance to Mitre Square. Very shortly after, a police constable passed by on his beat and saw or heard nothing unusual. At 1:45am, another police constable entered the square from the opposite side and found the body. The police found three boot buttons, a thimble and a mustard tin by the body.
The body was then transferred to the Golden Lane Morgue. The police had not yet put together the fact that Elizabeth Stride had been murdered within minutes of Catharine Eddowes. At the Golden Lane Morgue, Dr Frederick Gordon Brown and Dr Bagster Phillips conducted the post mortem examination. It was clear from Dr Brown's notes that the Ripper had more time to spend carving up Catharine Eddowes than he had with Elizabeth Stride.
The Doctor made this statement: "I believe the perpetrator of the act must have had considerable knowledge of the positions of the organs in the abdominal cavity and the way of removing them. The parts removed would be of no great use for any professional purpose. It required a great deal of medical knowledge to have removed the kidney and to know where it was placed. Such a knowledge might be possessed by someone in the habit of cutting up animals."
This statement gave rise to the once common suspicion that the Ripper was
either a physician, anatomist, animal butcher or even an embalmer. Over the years this theory has been roundly discounted as being credible.
The funeral for Catharine Eddowes on Monday, 8 October 1888, was just the opposite. It was a social and media sensation, generating some of the excitement and emotion of a state funeral.
George C Hawkes, the undertaker at 41a Banner Street, was engaged to oversee the funeral and burial for Catharine Eddowes. At 1:30pm on 8 October, the funeral procession for Catharine Eddowes left the morgue on Golden Lane. First, in an open glass hearse drawn by a pair of horses, rode the undertaker George F Hawkes. Catharine’s body laid in a handsome coffin of elm with oak molding. One of the sisters of Catharine Eddowes laid a beautiful wreath on the casket as it was placed in the funeral coach and, at the graveside, another wreath was placed. Then, in a mourning coach, rose the chief mourners, all neatly attired in black. They included John Kelly and four of Kate's sisters - Harriet, Emma, Eliza, and Elizabeth. Bringing up the rear in a brougham were representatives of the national and local press.
At the end of the procession came a group of women dressed very poorly and riding in a large wagon. If they could be identified, they were almost certainly Catharine’s comrades in prostitution, clothed in the only garments they had. The press was quick to report that “the majority (of these women) were attired in a style not at all befitting the occasion.”
VICTIM IV
CATHARINE EDDOWES
1842-
The crowds of spectators, swollen by workers taking their dinner hour, were prodigious. In the vicinity of the morgue on Golden Lane the people filled windows and clambered about the roofs of the adjoining buildings as well as choked the route of the procession. With police clearing the way, the funeral procession rumbled slowly along Old Great Eastern and Commercial Streets and turned into Whitechapel High Street. There, lining the route on both sides as far as St Mary's Church, was another dense crowd. All men removed their caps as the hearse passed by.
Shortly before 3:30pm, Catharine Eddowes' body reached its final resting place - the City of London Cemetery at Ilford. The remains were interred in the Church of England section of the cemetery with nearly 500 people already waiting at the cemetery. Hundreds more people, many of the women carrying infants in their arms, gathered about the grave to see her burial. In the cemetery chapel and at the gravesite the funeral service was performed by the Rev Thomas Dunscombe, the cemetery chaplain.
The city authorities who owned the cemetery furnished the grave and undertaker George C Hawkes paid for the funeral expenses.
THE CROWDS OF SPECTATORS,
SWOLLEN BY WORKERS TAKING
THEIR DINNER HOUR, WERE
PRODIGIOUS. IN THE VICINITY
OF THE MORGUE ON GOLDEN
LANE THE PEOPLE FILLED
WINDOWS AND CLAMBERED
ABOUT THE ROOFS OF THE
ADJOINING BUILDINGS
"
"
