Jack the Ripper: The Hand of a Woman

though into thin air, avoiding police patrols and passing through tight cordons, leaving no trace or clue behind.
     
    The scene of the second murder in Mitre Square could be reached on foot within twelve minutes or so from Berner Street if one walked at a quick pace. The desolate, run-down square was surrounded by abandoned slums, warehouses and derelict tenements, and was accessible only by one of three long, ill-lit passageways. And it was in the darkest corner of this dimly lit square that the butchered body of Catherine Eddowes was discovered by a lone constable patrolling his beat.
    At 1.44 a.m. P.C. Edward Watkins, regarded by his superiors as a reliable and trustworthy officer, turned into the narrow passageway that led to Mitre Square. He was proceeding at the slow, regulation pace of 2½ miles an hour, and passed between the premises of Williams and Co. on his left and Taylor’s shop on his right.
    There were three gas-lamps lighting the square, but the one in Church Passage at the far end was too far away to provide any effective light. Another lamp, near the corner on the opposite side of the square, was defective, and emitted just a feeble orange glow. The only other lamp was at the entrance to the passageway, but the side wall of Taylor’s shop was blocking its light, so the south corner of the square was in almost, though not total, darkness. When P.C. Watkins entered the square and directed the dull yellow beam of his lamp into this corner, a popular spot for prostitutes to conduct their business, he made his gruesome discovery.
    It was the body of a woman lying on her back in a widening pool of blood, her skirts pushed up above her waist, her face a patchwork of lacerated flesh, skin and blood. Her throat had been severed, her abdomen ripped open, and her bowels were in full view. The intestines were drawn out of the body in a manner reminiscent of Annie Chapman’s injuries, and these lay on her chest and over the right shoulder, while a second, detached piece, about two feet long, lay between the body and left arm.
    P.C. Watkins described his find to The Star newspaper later that day: “She’d been ripped up like a pig in the market,” while he told The Daily News , “…the stomach was laid bare, with a dreadful gash from the pit of the stomach to the breast. On examining the body I found the entrails cut out and laid round the throat, which had an awful gash in it, extending from ear to ear. In fact, the head was nearly severed from the body. Blood was everywhere to be seen…. A more dreadful sight I never saw.”
    Inspector Edward Collard was on duty in Bishopsgate Police Station when news of the second murder broke. He immediately sent for Dr Frederick Gordon Brown, the City of London Police Surgeon, who lived in Finsbury Circus, instructing him to go directly to Mitre Square.
    When Dr Brown arrived at 2.18 a.m., he found Dr George William Sequeira, a surgeon who lived in Aldgate, already there, though Dr Sequeira had not examined the body. Dr Brown carried out a thorough examination of Catherine Eddowes’s body, after which he gave his opinion that the victim had died almost instantly when her throat was severed. The cut, which he said had been made from left to right, was so savage and delivered with such force that the victim’s head was almost separated from her shoulders.
    Catherine Eddowes’s face was cut to ribbons but, because of the great amount of blood, it was difficult to discern the extent of her injuries. The eyelids, nose, mouth, cheeks and one ear were all slashed, she had lost the tip of her nose in the attack, and, strangely, a triangular flap of skin, about 1½ inches in height, was cut into each of her cheeks by four oblique incisions, in the shape of what appeared to be the inverted letter V.
    The apron, which was still tied around the victim’s waist, was cut by what appeared to have been the single stroke of a knife. The severed part, about half of the apron, was nowhere to be found. His examination complete, the doctor called for the ambulance and gave instructions for the body to be taken to the City Mortuary.
    Dr Brown gave his view that the deceased had not tried to fight with her attacker, and when her throat was cut, she was already lying down on the wet ground. It had started to rain at 9.05 the previous evening, but ceased soon after midnight. Why Catherine Eddowes had not screamed or cried out, the doctor was quite unable to explain. Either the victim