Chapters
Shownotes Transcript
Ryan Reynolds here from Intmobile. With the price of just about everything going up during inflation, we thought we'd bring our prices down. So, we're going to talk about how to bring our prices down.
So to help us, we brought in a reverse auctioneer, which is apparently a thing. Mint Mobile, unlimited premium wireless. You better get 30, 30, you better get 30, you better get 20, 20, 20, you better get 20, 20, you better get 15, 15, 15, 15, just 15 bucks a month. Sold! Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. $45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three-month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. Speeds lower above 40 gigabytes in detail. This season, Instacart has your back to school. As in, this.
they've got your back-to-school lunch favorites like snack packs and fresh fruit. And they've got your back-to-school supplies like backpacks, binders, and pencils. And they've got your back when your kid casually tells you they have a huge school project due tomorrow. Let's face it, we were all that kid.
So, first, call your parents to say I'm sorry, and then download the Instacart app to get delivery in as fast as 30 minutes all school year long. Get a $0 delivery fee with your first three orders while supplies last. Minimum $10 in order, additional terms apply. Hey, it's Sharon, and here's where it gets interesting. Raise your hand if you want salon-perfect nails for just $2 a manicure.
Yeah, me too. With the Olive and June Manny System, you can say goodbye to expensive services that take hours and hours and love your nails more than ever. I would know. I've been doing it for years. Get 20% off your first Manny System with code PerfectManny20 at OliveandJune.com slash PerfectManny20. That's PerfectManny20 at OliveandJune.com slash PerfectManny20.
Welcome to the Serial Killer Podcast. The podcast dedicated to serial killers. Who they were, what they did, and how. I am your Norwegian host, Thomas Weyborg Thun, from the blood-soaked path, outside O.J. Simpson's house in California. We travel once more back in time, to Victorian-era England.
the world's most famous serial killer of all time, Jack the Ripper, who roamed the dirty streets of Whitechapel, ripping his bloody path through women of the night. Tonight we continue our journey alongside Old Leather Apron and take a detailed look at his known second victim.
So, please, listen to episode one of this series before you continue to listen to this one. This podcast has in excess of 7 million downloads in total, but both my Patreon page and my Facebook page are only visited by a few thousand.
On my Facebook page at facebook.com slash the SK podcast, you will find bonus content, exclusive Facebook Live videos featuring me, and you can contact me, your humble host, directly, and I always reply in person.
Also, as many of my Facebook listeners know, the Kickstarter project for the exclusive The Serial Killer Podcast coffee mug that changes color as it heats up is now live. We only need 70 more pledges to reach our goal and the mugs will be shipped to, I am sure, very satisfied customers.
Your pledge will make a huge difference. Go to theserialkillerpodcast.com and click on the Kickstarter banner now. Your support means a lot to me, and I hope to continue to bring you high-quality content for a long time to come. I know hundreds of thousands of people listen every single month.
But the Serial Killer Podcast only has 46 active patrons.
It is actually quite expensive to run a podcast every week, and if only 10% of my dear listeners donated $1 each month, the need for additional ads in each episode would drastically decrease. So please, take a moment of your valuable time and go to patreon.com slash the serial killer podcast and consider making a donation.
Any donation, no matter how small, is greatly appreciated. Imagine, if you will, dear listener, that you are once more standing in the thick London smog late at night. You are perhaps wearing a three-piece suit called a ditto suit, consisting of a sack coat with a matching waistcoat and trousers.
To shelter you from the chilly air, you have a proper topcoat covering your suit. Naturally, you complete your attire with either a bowler hat or a proper top hat, as a true Victorian gentleman should. If you're a woman, you might find yourself gasping a bit for breath, as the corset around your midsection is very, very tight.
Your tailored costume consists of a long jacket and skirt, and these were worn with a bustle which is used to expand the fullness of the back of your dress, and perhaps a bonnet. To protect your fine clothing, you probably wear a long coat, to protect from dirt, rain, and soot, all of which are very prevalent in the area we are currently residing in.
The area is Whitechapel, the dirtiest, most crime-ridden and sinful place in all of London. The date is the 8th of September. The year is 1888, the year of the Ripper. As the nearby brewery clock struck 5.30 a.m.,
Elizabeth Long, also known around Whitechapel as Mrs. Durrell, was walking along Hanbury Street when she passed a man and a woman standing against number 29. The man's back was to her, so she couldn't see his face, but he was dressed in a long black coat and was wearing, according to Long, a deerstalker hat. As she passed, she heard the man say,
"'Will you?' The woman, whom Long later identified as Annie Chapman, replied, "'Yes.' Around the same time, a young carpenter who lived at No. 27, Hanbury Street, named Albert Kadosh, went out into his backyard, probably to use the lavatory. He reportedly heard a woman's voice say, "'No.'
and the sound of something falling against the fence connecting the backyards of No. 27 and 29. At 6 a.m., John Davis, the occupant of No. 29 Hanbury Street, prepared to go to his job as a carter for the day. His apartment was at the front of a three-story building that housed multiple families.
It had a small backyard that easily connected to Hanbury Street via a 20-foot passageway, which meant that trespassers, including prostitutes and their clients, were frequent nuisances to the 17 residents of No. 29. When he descended the stone steps into the backyard of No. 29,
He was met with a mutilated female body, sprawled between the steps and the neighboring fence. He noticed that her skirts were pulled up to her groin, and without further investigation ran into the neighboring street to call for help. He flagged down three workmen, James Green, James Kent, and Henry John Holland.
who took one look at the body and then rushed out to find a constable. They soon came upon Inspector John Chandler of H Division on Commercial Street. Another woman has been murdered, they told him. The victim was another Whitechapel prostitute by the name of Annie Chapman. To her friends, she was known as Dark Annie.
Annie was born to a George Smith and Ruth Chapman and had three sisters. In 1869, she married John Chapman at the age of 28. John worked as a coachman and in other service positions. They had three children, Emily Ruth, Annie Georgina and John Alfred.
A happy family life was not in the cards for the Chapmans, however. Emily Ruth died of meningitis in 1882 at the tender age of 12, and John Alfred was born disabled and surrendered to a charity school for care. Possibly due to these tragic stains on their marriage, both John and Annie Chapman became heavy drinkers.
Annie was arrested several times for public drunkenness in Windsor, and a police report blamed her for drunken and immoral ways. For the end of the Chapman's marriage, around 1884 or 1885, John was no teetotaler himself, however, and soon died on Christmas of 1886 of cirrhosis of the liver and dropsy.
Despite their earlier estrangement, Annie was hit hard by the loss. Annie's friend, Amelia Palmer, said that after John's death, even until she died, she seemed to have given away altogether. Annie Georgina was rumoured to be travelling in a performance troupe in France in 1888, leaving her mother, for all intents and purposes, without close family.
Before John's death, Annie lived a modest existence, but had not engaged in prostitution. She received ten shillings a week from John Chapman and supplemented that allowance by selling crochet work and flowers. At the time of John Chapman's death, Annie lived with a sieve-maker called John Sivy, and sometimes Siffy.
John Sivvy left Annie soon after John Chapman's death, presumably because of the loss of Annie's weekly allowance, and moved to Notting Hill. After this further shake-up, Annie continued to sell her wares, while scraping by with the help of some begging, and she had by then also turned to prostitution.
Annie spent much of her time living in different lodging houses in the Whitechapel district. In addition to living off her small crochet earnings, Annie was often provided with a nightly bed at Crossingham's Lodging House on Dorset Street by a man named Ted Stanley.
At first, the police only knew Stanley as the pensioner, because witnesses from the lodging house were unsure of his identity. He claimed to be a former military man who got his earnings from an army pension. During Stanley's inquest on the 14th of September, however, it was revealed he was actually not in the military, but worked as a bricklayer.
In the days before her fatal encounter with the Ripper, Annie was having her share of difficulties. Around the end of August, she got into a fistfight with fellow Crossingham's lodger, Eliza Cooper. Though some people in the lodging house claimed it was in a fight over Ted Stanley, Cooper testified at the inquest that they had tussled over Annie's failure to return a bar of soap.
According to Cooper, Annie had borrowed the soap to lend to Stanley. After a few days of Eliza asking for it back, Annie had tossed her a half penny and told her to go get a half penny's worth of soap. Eliza claimed that she had struck Annie in the face and chest during a fight at the Britannia Public House.
Others commented that Eliza had been the one to steal from fellow lodger Harry the Hawker. Annie had called Harry's attention to the slight instigating a fight between the two women. Amelia Palmer told police that the actual fistfight had taken place later at the lodging house rather than at the pub.
It isn't certain whose story is accurate. Crossingham's lodging house deputy, Timothy Donovan, however, referred to Annie as generally quiet and inoffensive, and that this was the only disagreement he knew of her having with another lodger.
Regardless of who was at fault, Annie sustained injuries that remained evident during the post-mortem, requiring police to investigate Eliza Cooper's story. Donovan confirmed to police that Annie had shown him the black eye she had gotten during the fight on the 31st of August. Annie may also have spent time in the casual ward before her death.
a place where the poor of Whitechapel could go when they were ill. Though there were no record of her being there, she had told her friend Amelia Palmer on the 4th of September that she was planning to go there for a couple of days. After her death, Donovan found medicine in her room. Pills were also found on her person when her body was discovered at No. 29 Hanbury Street.
On the evening of the 7th, she was in the lodging house kitchen, not diverse for drink, according to fellow lodger William Stevens. Annie sent Stevens out for a pint of beer, and they drank it together around 12.30 a.m. She then went out and returned to the lodging house kitchen with a potato to eat around 1.30 a.m.,
"'Darnovan, the house deputy, inquired about the money required for her room, "'and she let him know she did not have it, but to hold her bed for her. "'Never mind him,' she said. "'I'll soon be back.' "'Stevens reported that Annie had come to the lodging-house kitchen "'carrying a box of pills, a bottle of medicine, and a bottle of lotion, "'but that the box of pills had fallen apart.'
She took a corner of an envelope from the mantelpiece and put two of the pills inside. Then, around 1.50 a.m., she went out again. She was not seen by anyone who knew her until her body was discovered at 6 a.m.
To get people excited about Boost Mobile's new nationwide 5G network, we're offering unlimited talk, text, and data for $25 a month. Forever. Even if you have a baby. Even if your baby has a baby. Even if you grow old and wrinkly and you start repeating yourself. Even if you start repeating yourself. Even if you're on your deathbed and you need to make one last call. Or text. Right, or text. The long lost son you abandoned at birth. You'll still get unlimited talk, text, and data for just $25 a month with Boost Mobile. Forever. Forever.
After 30 gigabytes, customers may experience slower speeds. Customers will pay $25 a month as long as they remain active on the Boost Unlimited plan. Hey, it's Sharon, and here's where it gets interesting. Raise your hand if you want salon-perfect nails for just $2 a manicure.
Yeah, me too. With the Olive and June Manny system, you can say goodbye to expensive services that take hours and hours and love your nails more than ever. I would know. I've been doing it for years. Get 20% off your first Manny system with code PerfectManny20 at OliveandJune.com slash PerfectManny20. That's PerfectManny20 at OliveandJune.com slash PerfectManny20. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp.
as a family man with three kids i know first-hand how extremely difficult it is to make time for self-care but it's good to have some things that are non negotiable for some that could be a night out with the boys chugging beers and having a laugh for others it might be an eating night
For me, one non-negotiable activity is researching psychopathic serial killers and making this podcast. Even when we know what makes us happy, it's often near impossible to make time for it. But when you feel like you have no time for yourself, non-negotiables like therapy are more important than ever.
If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible and suited to your schedule. Everyone needs someone to talk to, even psychopaths, even your humble host. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp.
Visit betterhelp.com slash serialkiller today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash serialkiller. By the time Inspector Chandler arrived at the crime scene, a crowd had gathered in the passageway at number 29 Hanbury Street, trying to get a glimpse of the body.
Inspector Joseph H. Chandler was present by 6.10 a.m. and sent for Dr. George Bagster Phillips, who was there 20 minutes later. Annie Chapman's body was mutilated even more than Polly Nichols had been. She had a similar cut across her throat that moved from left to right, as well as a gash in her abdomen made by the same knife.
Chapman's intestines were torn out and placed on the ground over her right shoulder, though still connected to her body. She was also missing her uterus and parts of her bladder and vagina. The doctor was very disturbed by the grisly crime scene and refused to go into graphic detail at the inquest. He wrote, and I quote the following,
The left arm was placed across the left breast. The legs were drawn up, the feet resting on the ground, and the knees turned outwards. The face was so swollen and turned on the right side. The tongue protruded between the front teeth, but not beyond the lips. The tongue was evidently much swollen.
The front teeth were perfect as far as the first molar, top and bottom, and very fine teeth they were. The body was terribly mutilated. The stiffness of the limbs was not marked, but was evidently commencing. I noticed that the throat was dissevered deeply, that the incision through the skin were jagged, and reached right round the neck."
The fact that Annie's tongue was found protruding from her mouth implied that she, like Polly Nichols, had died from asphyxiation rather than from the damage done by the killer's knife. The autopsy revealed indications found in the lungs and membranes of the brain of advanced disease.
In fact, from the state of her lungs, investigators speculated that had she not been murdered on the 8th of September, she would soon have died of tuberculosis. In spite of the fact that she was described as plump, her body also showed signs of starvation.
There was a little food in her stomach, but no alcohol in her system, which eliminated the possibility of her having spent those missing four hours in a public house. The crime scene seemed to imply that Annie did not put up much of a struggle. Even Kadosh, who presumably heard Annie and her murderer from the adjoining backyard, described the limited amount of noise coming from the yard of number 29.
It is possible, however, that in her sickly state, and so taken by surprise by the attack, and she did not have the opportunity to cry out before being stifled. Additionally, Annie's belongings had been scattered across the backyard of No. 29, a fact that has baffled students of the case for over a century, starting with investigators.
Dr. Phillips said that Annie's belongings had been placed near her body in order, that is to say, arranged there. These belongings included a piece of muslin, an envelope corner containing two pills, and a comb wrapped in paper.
Abrasions on her fingers showed that she had been wearing three rings, apparently of brass, but those had either been pawned or taken by the murderer. She was also wearing a kerchief around her neck, which she had been wearing when she left the lodging house. Press also claimed that two farthings were found in the yard, though this is not stated in police reports.
In spite of many scholars believing the farthings to be a press fabrication, the mysterious farthings have remained the source of speculations as to the Ripper's identity and possible affiliations. A few drops of blood were visible on the fence above Annie's head, but not as much as to suggest that her throat had been cut while she was still living.
Remarkably, a nearby water spigot showed no signs of having been touched by someone whose hands were covered in blood, a further sign of the Ripper's audacity. Also found on the scene was a leather workman's apron, which led to the arrest of a villainous figure in Whitechapel, known as Leather Apron, really named John Pizer.
The apron was later found to belong to a resident of No. 29, and Pizer was released after his alibis were confirmed, but his nickname soon became synonymous with Jack's.
Several questions arose at the initial discovery of the body, as well as during the inquest as to a. where Annie had spent her final hours, and b. what exactly was the time of death. Dr. Phillips noted that, though rigor mortis had not set in at the time the body was discovered, the body was quite cold.
This led him to postulate that the time of death had been around 4.30 a.m. His estimation ran in direct opposition to the testimonies of three witnesses. Mrs. Long expressed certainty that she saw Annie at 5.30 a.m., due to the chiming of the nearby brewery clock.
Police were inclined to believe Mrs. Long's testimony due to the fact that she was able to identify Annie's body in the mortuary. Albert Kadosch was also certain that he had heard the voices coming from the backyard of No. 29 around the same time. If either of these two witnesses were incorrect, it would make the possible identification all the more impossible.
The biggest case for Dr. Phillips being in error came from John Richardson. On his way to work, he stopped in the backyard of No. 29 to sit on the steps and remove a broken piece of leather from his boots. He was sitting on the back steps that would have been about a foot away from Annie's body had she been murdered at 4.30 a.m.,
However, Richardson reports not having seen anything out of the ordinary. One reason that was given for the coldness of Annie's body was the level of mutilation to her abdomen. Exposure of so many veins, arteries and internal organs to the cold morning air could have hastened the chilling of the body at a higher rate than that of an intact corpse.
The other option would be that the witness testimony was inaccurate, a case that many have made, including Scotland Yard at the time. There is, first, the obvious discrepancy between Kadosh and Long's stories. For both of them to have actually heard and seen the victim, one of the witnesses would have to be off by 15 minutes or so.
either due to confusion or deception. There is also a question as to whether or not it was actually Annie Chapman that Mrs. Long had seen on Hanbury Street, since she had never seen the woman prior to the morning of the 8th and did not see the body in order to identify it until four days later, on the 12th of September. Additionally, the official position of Scotland Yard
was to treat John Richardson as suspect. Inspector Chandler, who was first on the scene, said that in his first interview with John Richardson, the witness had mentioned nothing of his boots. Instead, Chandler said, he said he came to the back door and looked down to the cellar to see if all was right, and then went away to his work.
He did not go down the steps and did not mention the fact that he sat down on the steps and cut his boot. Despite the challenges offered by the inspector and surgeon, coroner Wynne Baxter, who conducted the inquest, accepted the testimonies of the three witnesses as an account of the events that gruesome morning.
The discovery of this second canonical victim led to more speculations as well as further developments of how we view Jack the Ripper even in our own time. Dr. Phillips speculated from the efficient removal of the uterus that perhaps Annie had been killed for the sole purpose of attaining the organ. This idea was referred to as the Burke and Hare theory.
a reference to a series of murders previously covered here on the podcast. Elizabeth Long's statement that the man she had seen with Annie looked like a foreigner fueled this idea. Some thought that the killer was perhaps an American who was selling purloined innards to American medical schools.
Annie's death also marked the beginning of theorizing that the Whitechapel murderer had some sort of medical background, or was possibly in trade as a butcher. This idea arose from the precision of the uterine removal, the fact that it must have taken place within a very short period of time.
Lastly, Long's testimony has also supported iconic imagery of the Ripper that lives on into modern times. First, she described the man she saw with Annie Chapman as shabby genteel, lending credence to the idea that the man was at least slightly well-off.
Secondly, her words evoke that famous image of the skulking Whitechapel murderer in a long coat and hat. The better-heeled members of the Smith family, including her father and sisters, conducted Annie's funeral in secret on the 14th of September, 1888, to avoid the attention of hysterical crowds
The hearse quietly removed her corpse and moved stealthily to the City of London Cemetery, Little Ilford, Seabird Road, Forest Gate, London, E12. Rather than draw attention by using mourning coaches, the family met the hearse at the cemetery. Annie was buried at Public Grave 78, Square 148.
Her body was laid to rest 12 feet down in a communal grave. Since then, the grave has been covered over, and the exact location is lost. But in 2008, cemetery authorities marked the approximate location of her grave with a plaque. Cemetery records indicate that a large framed tribute to her was at one time placed near her grave, which read,
Within this area lie the mutilated remains of Annie Chapman, who was interred here in grave number 78 on the 14th of September in the year 1888.
1-800-Flowers.com is more than your birthday, anniversary, or just-because gift-giving destination. We put our hearts into everything we do to help you celebrate all life's special occasions with friends and family. From our farmers and bakers, florists and makers...
Everything from 1-800-Flowers is made with love every step of the way because we know that nothing is more important than delivering a smile. To learn more, visit 1-800-Flowers.com slash ACAST. That's 1-800-Flowers.com slash ACAST. Need new glasses or want a fresh new style? Warby Parker has you covered. Glasses start at just $95, including anti-reflective, scratch-resistant prescription lenses that block 100% of UV rays. Everything from 1-800-Flowers.com slash ACAST.
Every frame's designed in-house, with a huge selection of styles for every face shape. And with Warby Parker's free home try-on program, you can order five pairs to try at home for free. Shipping is free both ways, too. Go to warbyparker.com slash covered to try five pairs of frames at home for free. warbyparker.com slash covered. At Ashley, you'll find colorful furniture that brings your home to life.
Ashley makes it easier than ever to express your personal style with an array of looks in fun trending hues to choose from. From earth tones to vibrant colors to calming blues and greens. Ashley has pieces for every room in the house in the season's most sought after shades. A more colorful life starts at Ashley. Shop in store online today. Ashley for the love of home. And so ends part two of my series on Jack the Ripper.
The next episode will be presented to you in just one week. So, as they say in the land of radio, stay tuned. I have been your host, Thomas Weyborg Thun. Doing this podcast is a labor of love, and I couldn't have done it without my loyal listeners.
This podcast has been able to bring serial killer stories to life, especially thanks to those of you that support me via Patreon. You can do so at theserialkillerpodcast.com slash donate. There are especially a few patrons that have stayed loyal for a long time. Amber, Charlotte, Christina, Jason, Lexi, Lisbeth, Maud,
Mickey, Sarah, Tommy, Thomas, and Troy. Your monthly contributions really help keep this podcast thriving. You have my deepest gratitude. As always, thank you, dear listener.
for listening and feel free to leave a review on your favorite podcast app, Facebook or website. And please do subscribe to the show if you enjoy it. Thank you. Good night and good luck.
