William Pigott
Piggott came to the attention of the police after the landlady of the Pope's Head public house in Gravesend, Kent, heard him yelling his hatred and hostility towards women. PC Vollensworth was summoned, and found Piggott dazed and confused. When the Constable noticed an injury to the man's hand, which he was unable to satisfactorily account for, he was arrested. When questioned at the police station, Piggott made a rambling statement in which he explained that on Sunday morning the 9 September 1888 in Brick Lane, he came to the aid of a women who had fallen while having a fit, he came to her aid and attempted to help her up, whereupon she bit him on the hand, causing the wound and the blood on his shirt. Superintendent Berry later recovered a paper parcel which Piggott had left at a fish and pie stall, it contained two bloodstained shirts, it was noticed that his shoes also looked like they had been wiped clean of blood. Inspector Abberline was summoned to Gravesend and returned to London with Piggott. Now looking a strong suspect, he was placed in an identity parade of seventeen men, before Mrs Fiddymont, Joseph Taylor and Mary Chappell, to see if they could recognize the bloodstained man seen in the Prince Albert public house shortly after the murder of Annie Chapman. Of the three witnesses, only Mary Chappell picked Piggott out as the man she had seen, before changing her mind and saying she was no longer sure. The police eventually satisfied themselves that Piggott had nothing to do with the Whitechapel murders. He was treated for delirium tremens and discharged on 9 October 1888.
Piggott was born in 1835 and was 53 years of age at the time of the Whitechapel murders. He was no stranger to the infirmary as he had previously been admitted there on 8 June from 19 Brick Lane, and discharged on 30 July again suffering from delirium tremens.
Piggott was said to be a ship's cook, who at one time had owned his own pub in Hoxton, which he paid the sum of £8.000 for. In appearance he was said to closely resemble John Pizer (Leather Apron). There is a suggestion that Piggott may have later been incarcerated in an asylum.
