The Canonical Five

The Canonical Five are the main victims that are attributed to Jack the Ripper. They are: Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly. Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes were killed in the same night, which was coined the Double Event by reporters and police alike. All the victims were labelled as sex workers, though there isn't conclusive evidence to say that all of them were working the streets on the nights they were killed. Some researchers claim that rather than picking up their killer as a client, the women, apart from Mary Kelly, were sleeping rough when they were killed. 

Mary Ann Nichols

Mary Ann Nichols, aka Polly Nichols, was born Mary Ann Walker on 26^th August 1845 in London. She was the second of three children born to merchants and at the age of 18, married William Nichols, a printer’s machinist.
The pair would go on to have five children but would separate due to Mary Ann's heavy drinking and William’s adultery. Following this, in order to make ends meet, Mary Ann reportedly turned to sex work and would eventually find her way to the workhouses of the East End. Around the time of her murder, she was known to be staying at a lodging house at Flower and Dean Street, Whitechapel. Flower and Dean Street was notorious at the time for its high crime rate and poor states of accommodation. 

On the night of 30th August 1888, Mary Ann attempted to gain access to her usual lodging house but was turned away as she didn't have enough money for her board. It is reported that she told a fellow lodger:  “I’ll soon get my doss money, see what a jolly bonnet I’ve got now.” She then left the lodging house.

Witness reports state that she was seen at various locations around Whitechapel and had been spotted in a number of local pubs, however, no one reported having purchased her services. Her body was discovered  in Buck’s Row, Whitechapel, now Durward Street. Her throat had been severed down to the vertebrae, her genitals had been mutilated and the lower part of her abdomen had been ripped open.

Annie Chapman

Annie Chapman was born Eliza Ann Smith in Paddington, London, she was the eldest of five children. Her father was a soldier and the family would move around London and Windsor, going wherever he was stationed.
Annie turned to drink at an early age, despite being quite wealthy for the time and drink being known as an affliction of the poor. All of her siblings were teetotal and practiced temperance. Throughout her life, her siblings would work to get and keep her sober.
Annie would go on to marry a relative of her mother’s, John Chapman, and the pair moved to Bayswater, London where they settled down and started a family. As both Annie and John were alcoholics, the marriage broke down and they separated.  Annie relocated to Whitechapel, where she was known to reside in several lodging houses around the Whitechapel and Spitalfields areas. At the time of her murder, she was living in Whitechapel at 35 Dorset Street.
Her body was discovered a week after Mary Ann Nichols’ near the steps to the doorway of the back yard of 29 Hanbury Street, Spitalfields. Her throat had been cut and her abdomen cut open. Some of her organs were removed from the scene entirely, while others were placed above her shoulder.

Elizabeth Stride

Elizabeth Stride, known as Long Liz, was born in Sweden as Elisabeth Gustafsdotter and was brought up on her family farm. It is unknown why she relocated to London, but it is known that she did so after the death of her mother. She would later marry John Stride, a carpenter who was 22 years older than her and the pair ran a coffee shop together in Poplar. They had no children.

The pair fell on hard times and separated, with Elizabeth moving into various lodging houses, most notably living at Flower and Dean Street in Whitechapel. Elizabeth’s body was discovered at 1 am in Duffield’s Yard off Berner Street (now Henriques Street) in Whitechapel. Her throat had been cut, but as the blood was still warm when she was discovered and there were no other injuries to her body, it has been speculated that her killer was interrupted during the attack. Several witnesses did note that they saw her walking in the direction of Berner Street with a man not long before her discovery.

Catherine Eddowes

Catherine Eddowes was discovered 45 minutes after Elizabeth Stride. She had been attacked in Mitre Square just over the border in the City of London. Catherine was born in Wolverhampton but her family moved to London when she was a child, initially living in Bermondsey. At the age of 15, she was orphaned and she and her siblings were admitted into a workhouse. She would marry a Thomas Conway who was known to be violent but would later leave him for John Kelly with whom she lodged at Flower and Dean Street. Around the time of her murder, she and her partner were short of money, and it was reported that Catherine planned to make the journey to Bermondsey to borrow money from her daughter. Whether she did or not, she was picked up for being publicly drunk and arrested, spending some time in the cells at Bishopsgate Station. After half an hour,  she was released and all presumed she would be making her way back home.

At 1.44 in the morning, her body was found in Mitre Square. She was discovered by a policeman who had previously walked through the square around 15 minutes before. Catherine had her throat severed, her abdomen ripped open and her intestines placed over her shoulder. Other organs had been removed and her face had been disfigured, with notable cuts to her eyes and cheeks in the shape of a triangle. Later, a section of her blood soaked apron would be found on Goulston Street alongside some graffiti which read “The Jewes are the men That Will not be Blamed for nothing.” Such graffiti was common in the region, however the police believed it would cause riots, with people believing that the Ripper was Jewish and so they had it scrubbed from the walls before it could be properly examined.

Mary Jane Kelly

Mary Jane Kelly is believed to be the final Ripper victim. She was by far the most mutilated of all the victims and was the only one murdered in her home rather than in the street.

Mary Jane Kelly was thought to be Irish and had lived in Wales as a child. When she was around 16, she is believed to have been married to a miner who died a short time later. Following this, she relocated to Cardiff where it is thought she began sex work. She moved to London in 1884, where she initially worked in Fitzrovia and Chelsea before joining a high class brothel in the West End.

Later she would move to the East End with her partner Joseph Barnett, who worked at Billingsgate Fish Market. The pair were living at 13 Miller’s Court in Spitalfields at the time of the murder. Mary had allegedly lost her keys and so would open and close the door by putting her hand through a broken window which had never been fixed. It is alleged that Mary was seen with several men on the day of her death and had been known to bring clients to her home, though whether she was working the night of her death is unverified. 

Mary Kelly was extensively mutilated and disembowelled. She was discovered lying on her bed in her home. Police at the scene said her face had been “hacked beyond all recognition.” Her throat had been severed down to the spine and her abdomen emptied of its organs. Her uterus, kidneys and one breast were found above her head, while others were placed under her feet. Other sections of her body were discovered on the bedside table. Her heart was never found.

History has determined that all the Ripper's victims were sex workers, however, there is only concrete evidence to suggest that Mary Jane Kelly and Elizabeth Stride performed this job with any regularity. Nichols, Chapman and Eddowes may have dabbled in sex work during hard times, but were known to make money other ways and it has never been established that any of the women were working the nights that they were murdered. 

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