Mary Anne, the first Five Victims of Jack The Ripper

Mary Anne, the first Five Victims of Jack The Ripper

In 1888 the body of Mary Anne "Polly" Nichols is discovered in the impoverished White Chapel district of London, England. She is considered the first of the 'Canonical Five' victims of Jack the Ripper.

On the 31st of August, 1888, the horrifically mutilated body of a woman was found in a gateway in Buck's Row in Whitechapel.

Later that day, she was identified as Mary Ann Nichols, better known to her family, friends and acquaintances as "Polly" Nichols.

She had separated from her husband and five children in 1880, and thereafter her life became a downward spiral, blighted by poverty and alcoholism.

By the beginning of August, 1888, she had found her way to the East End of London, where she resided at two Spitalfields common lodging houses, Wilmott's, situated at 18, Thrawl Street, and The White House, located on Flower and Dean Street.

The cost of a night's lodging in these establishments was fourpence. But, on the night of the 30th of August, she didn't even have this meager amount and was, therefore, denied a night's doss at Wilmott's common lodging house.

HER "JOLLY BONNETT"

Mary Nichols was what was known at the time as an "unfortunate", a woman who, in the days when there was no welfare system to help those who had fallen on hard times, might turn to casual prostitution in order to raise the money for a bed, a bite to eat, and drink to feed her addiction.

That night Mary was wearing a bonnet that none of the other residents of the lodging house had seen her with before, and, since she was evidently intending to resort to prostitution in order to raise the money for her bed, she felt that this would be an irresistible draw to potential clients, and so, as she was escorted from the premises by the deputy lodging house keeper, Polly laughed to him, "I'll soon get my doss money, see what a jolly bonnet I have now."

So saying, she headed off into the early morning.

THE LAST TIME SHE WAS SEEN ALIVE

At 2.30 on the morning of August 31st, a friend of hers by the name of Emily Holland met her by the shop at the junction of Osborn Street and Whitechapel Road.

Mary was very drunk, and she boasted to Emily that she had made her lodging money three times over, but had spent it.

Concerned at Mary's drunken state, Emily tried to persuade her to come back to Wilmott's with her. Mary refused, and, telling Emily that she must get her lodging money somehow, she stumbled off along Whitechapel Road.

That was the last time that Mary Nichols was seen alive.

HER BODY FOUND IN BUCK'S ROW

At 3.45 a.m. the body of a woman was found lying next to a gateway in Buck's Row, Just off Whitechapel Road, and around ten minutes walk from the corner where Mary had met Emily Holland.

The woman's throat had been cut back to the spine, the wound being so savagely inflicted that, according to some newspaper reports, it had almost severed her head from her body.

THE DISCOVERY AT THE MORTUARY

Within 45 minutes, she had been placed on a police ambulance, which in reality was nothing more than a wooden hand cart, and had been taken to the mortuary of the nearby Whitechapel Workhouse Infirmary.

Here, Inspector Spratling, of the Metropolitan Police's J Division, arrived to take down a description of the, at the time, unknown victim, and he made the horrific discovery that, in addition to the dreadful wound to the throat, a deep gash ran all the way along the woman's abdomen - she had been disembowled.

HER FAMILY VISIT THE MORTUARY

Later that day, the woman's name had been ascertained as being Mary Ann Nichols, and her father, Edward Walker, was traced and taken to the mortuary, where he formally identified the body of the Buck's Row victim as that of his daughter.

With him went Mary's eldest son, also named Edward, who recognised her as his mother.

An hour later, her estranged husband, William Nichols, arrived and went into the mortuary to view her body. Genuinely distressed by what he saw, he shook his head disbelievingly, and whispered to her, "I forgive you, as you are, what you have been to me."

According to one newspaper, he emerged from the mortuary ashy white, and sighed, "Well, there is no mistake about it. It has come to a sad end at last."

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