Annie Chapman aka Dark Annie, Annie Siffey, Sievey or Sivvey
Born: Eliza Anne Smith in September 1841.
Father: George Smith of Harrow Road. Described on the marriage
certificate as a Private, 2nd Battalion of Lifeguards. At the time of
his death he is listed as a servant.
Mother: Ruth Chapman of Market Street.
Annie's parents are married on February 22, 1842, 6 months after Annie
was born. The marriage takes place in Paddington.
She has two brothers, one of whom is named Fontain Smith, born
February 25, 1861. He is employed as a printer's warehouseman. He is a
tall man with dark hair and a heavy brown mustache. One or two
sisters. One lives with her mother in Brompton. They do not get along
with Annie.
Description:
- 5' tall
- 45 years old at time of death
- Pallid complexion
- Blue eyes
- Dark brown wavy hair
- Excellent teeth (possibly two missing in lower jaw)
- Strongly built (stout)
- Thick nose
- She is under nourished and suffering from a chronic disease of the
lungs (tuberculosis) and brain tissue. It is said that she is dying.
These could also be symptoms of syphilis.
- Although she has a drinking problem she is not described as an
alcoholic.
Her friend, Amelia Palmer describes her as "sober, steady going woman
who seldom took any drink." She was, however, known to have a taste
for rum.
Amelia Palmer is the wife of a dock laborer, Henry Palmer. He is an
ex-soldier. She is a charwoman who works for local Jewish residents
following an accident which left her husband unable to work. She is
described as pale faced and dark haired. She has lived at the common
lodging house at 30 Dorset Street for four years.
History:
Annie marries John Chapman, a coachman in the service of a gentleman
in Clewer, near Windsor. John is a relative of Annie's mother. They are
married on May 1, 1869. Annie is 28 at the time of her marriage.
Their residence on the marriage certificate is listed as 29 Montpelier
Place, Brompton. This is also where her mother lived until her
(mother's) death in 1893. In 1870 they move to 1 Brook Mews in
Bayswater
and then in 1873 to 17 South Bruton Mews, Berkeley Square. In 1881
they move to Windsor where John takes a job as a domestic coachman. He
is in the employ of Josiah Weeks, a farm bailiff at St. Leonard's Mill
Farm Cottage.
Mrs. Pearcer tells Timothy Donovan, deputy at Crossingham's lodging
house that John Chapman had been a valet in the employ of a nobleman
who lived in Bond Street but that he was fired because of his wife's
dishonesty.
The couple have three children. Emily Ruth, born 1870, Annie Georgina,
born 1873 and John, born in 1881. John is a cripple and sent to a
home. Emily Ruth dies of meningitis at the age of twelve. Some reports
have Annie Georgina traveling with a circus in France at the time of
her mother's death.
Annie and John separate by mutual consent in 1884 or 1885. The reason
is uncertain. A police report says it was because of her "drunken and
immoral ways." She has been arrested several times in Windsor for
drunkenness. Her husband was also a heavy drinker.
John Chapman semi-regularly paid his wife 10 shillings per week by
Post Office order until his death on Christmas day in 1886. At the
time of his death he is living at Grove Road, Windsor. He dies of
cirrhosis of the liver and dropsy. Annie finds out about his death
through her brother-in-law who lives in Oxford Street, Whitechapel.
On telling Amelia Palmer about it she cried. Palmer says that even two
years later she seemed downcast when speaking of her children and how
"since the death of her husband she seemed to have given away all
together."
Sometime during 1886 she is living with a sieve maker named John
Sivvey (unknown whether this is a nickname or not) at the common
lodging house at 30 Dorset Street, Spitalfileds. He leaves her soon
after her husband's death. Probably when the money stopped coming. He
moves to Notting Hill.
From May or June 1888, Annie is living consistently at the lodging
house at 35 Dorset Street, Spitalfields. This lodging house is known
as Crossingham's and caters to approximately 300 people. The deputy is
Timothy Donovan.
This may be the Timothy Donovan aged 29 of Russell Court,
St. George's in the East who died of Cirrhosis of the liver, Phthisis
and exhaustion at London Hospital on November 1, 1888. It may also be
the Timothy Donovan, aged 30, who appeared repeatedly in Thames
Magistrate Court through 1887-88 on charges of assualt. This same
Timothy Donovan is almost certainly the same one who was indicted for
murdering his wife, Mary, in Stepney in 1904.
Dorset Street:
An infamous road in Spitalfields running east-west between
Commercial Street and Chrispin Street. The Commercial Street (east)
end faces Christ's Church burial grounds, the other end faces the
Providence Road Night refuge and Convent on Chrispin Street. There are
three public houses on Dorset Street. At the corner of Commercial is
the Britannia, also known as the Ringer's after the husband and wife
proprietors. The Horn of Plenty is at the corner of Chrispin and in
the center is the Blue Coat Boy. Directly across the street from
Crossingham's lodging house, about one third of the way down Dorset
from Commercial, is the narrow brick archway entrance to Miller's
Court. To the left of the entrance at number 27 in McCarthy's chandler
shop. Dorset Street is known locally as "Dosset" street due to the
number of common lodging houses located along it's length.
More recently, Annie has been having a relationship with Edward
Stanley, a bricklayer's mate, known as the Pensioner. At the time of
Annie's death he is living at 1 Osborne Street, Whitechapel. He claims
to be a member of the military but later admits that he is not and is
not drawing a pension from any military unit.
Stanley and Annie spend weekends together at Crossingham's. Stanley
instructs Donovan to turn Annie away if she tries to enter with
another man. He often pays for Annie's bed as well as that of Eliza
Cooper. They spend Saturdays and Sundays together, parting between
1:00 and 3:00 AM on Sundays. Stanley says that he had known Annie in
Windsor.
Annie didn't take to prostitution until after her husbands death.
Prior to that she lived off the allowance he sent her and worked doing
crochet work and selling flowers.
In mid to late August of 1888 she runs into her brother Fontain on
Commercial Road. She says she is hard up but will not tell him where
she is living. He gives her 2 shillings.
Saturday, September 1, 1888
Edward Stanley returns after having been away since August 6. He meets
Annie at the corner of Brushfield Street.
Sometime close to this date, Annie has a fight with Eliza Cooper. The
fight has several different tellings but all revolve around Edward
Stanley.
An argument breaks out in the Britannia Public House between Eliza
Cooper and Annie. Also present are Stanley and Harry the Hawker.
Cooper is Annie's rival for the affections of Stanley. Cooper struck
her, giving her a black eye and bruising her breast.
The cause is alternately given as:
Chapman noticed Cooper palming a florin belonging to Harry, who was
drunk, and replacing it with a penny. Chapman mentions this to Harry
and otherwise calls attention to Cooper's deceit. Cooper says she
struck Annie in the pub on September 2nd.
Amelia Palmer says that Annie told her the argument took place at
the pub but the fisticuffs took place at the lodging house, later.
John Evans, night watchman at the lodging house says the fight broke
out in the lodging house on September 6th. Cooper also says that the
fight was not over Harry but over soap which Annie had borrowed for
the Pensioner and not returned. In one version of the story, Annie is
to have thrown a half penny at Cooper and slapped her in the face
saying "Think yourself lucky I did not do more."
Donovan states that on August 30th he noticed she had a black eye.
"Tim, this is lovely, aint it." She is to have said to him. Stanley
noticed that she had a black eye on the evening of September 2nd and
on the 3rd Annie showed her bruises to Amelia Palmer.
Donovan will tell the inquest into her death that she was not at the
lodging house during the week prior to her death. So it appears from
the bulk of the evidence that the fight took place in the last few
days of August and probably in the lodging house.
Chapman says that she may have to go to the infirmary but there is no
record of any woman being admitted to either Whitechapel or
Spitalfields workhouse infirmaries. She may have picked up medication
though.
Monday, September 3:
She meets Amelia Palmer in Dorset Street. "How did you get that?" asks
Palmer, noticing the bruise on her right temple. By way of answer,
Annie opened her dress. "Yes," Annie said "look at my chest." Annie
complains of feeling unwell and says she may go see her sister. "If I
can get a pair of boots from my sister," she says "I may go hop
picking."
Tuesday, September 4:
Amelia Palmer again sees Annie near Spitalfields Church. Chapman again
complains she is feeling ill and says she may go the casual ward for a
day or two. She says she has had nothing to eat or drink all day.
Palmer gives her 2d for tea and warns her not to spend it on rum.
Wednesday-Thursday, September 5-6:
Possibly she is in the casual ward although there are no records to
support the assumption. However, following her death, Donovan finds a
bottle of medicine in her room.
Friday, September 7, Saturday, September 8th:
5:00 PM: Amelia Palmer again sees Annie in Dorset Street.
Chapman is
sober and Palmer asks her if she is going to Stratford (believed to be
the territory where Annie plied her trade). Annie says she is too ill
to do anything. Farmer left but returned a few minutes later only to
find Chapman not having moved. It's no use my giving way," Annie says
"I must pull myself together and go out and get some money or I shall
have no lodgings."
11:30 PM: Annie returns to the lodging house and asks permission
to go
into the kitchen.
12:10 AM: Frederick Stevens, also a lodger at Crossingham's
says he
drank a pint of beer with Annie who was already slightly the worse for
drink. He states that she did not leave the lodging house until 1:00
AM.
12:12 AM: William Stevens (a printer), another lodger, enters
the
kitchen and sees Chapman. She says that she has been to Vauxhall to
see her sister, that she went to get some money and that her family
had given her 5 pence. (If this is so, she spent it on drink.) Stevens
sees her take a broken box of pills from her pocket. The box breaks
and she takes a torn piece of envelope from the mantelpiece and places
the pills in it. Chapman leaves the kitchen. Stevens thinks she has
gone to bed.
It appears obvious that she did pick up medication at the casual
ward. The lotion found in her room may have brought up there at this
time. This would re-enforce Stevens' impression that she had gone to
bed. She certainly shows every sign of intending to return to
Crossingham's.
1:35 AM: Annie returns to the lodging house again. She is
eating a
baked potato. John Evans, an elderly man who is night watchman has
been sent to collect her bed money. She goes upstairs to see Donovan
in his office. "I haven't sufficient money for my bed," she tells him,
"but don't let it. I shall not be long before I'm in." Donovan
chastises her, "You can find money for your beer and you can't find
money for your bed." Annie is not dismayed. She steps out of the
office and stands in the doorway for two or three minutes. "Never
mind, Tim." she states, "I'll soon be back." And to Evans she says, "I
won't be long, Brummy (his nickname). See that Tim keeps the bed for
me." Her regular bed in the lodging house is number 29. Evans sees her
leave and enter Little Paternoster Row going in the direction of
Brushfield Street and then turn towards Spitalfields Market.
4:45 AM: Mr. John Richardson enters the backyard of 29 Hanbury St.
on his way to work, and sits down on the steps to remove a piece of leather
which was protruding from his boot. Although it was quite dark at the time,
he was sitting no more than a yard away from where the head of Annie
Chapman would have been had she already been killed. He later testified to
have seen nothing of extraordinary nature.
5:30 AM: Elizabeth Long sees Chapman with a man, hard against
the
shutters of 29 Hanbury Street. they are talking. Long hears the man
say "Will you?" and Annie replies "Yes." Long is certain of the time
as she had heard the clock on the Black Eagle Brewery, Brick Lane,
strike the half hour just as she had turned onto the street. The woman
(Chapman) had her back towards Spitalfields Market and, thus, her face
towards Long. The man had his back towards Long. She describes the man
at the inquest.
Long: "...dark complexion, and was wearing a brown deerstalker hat.
I think he was wearing a dark over coat but cannot be sure."
Baxter: "Was he a man or a boy?"
Long: "Oh he was a man over forty, as far as I can tell. He
seemed
a little taller than the deceased. He looked to me like a foreigner,
as well as I could make out."
Baxter: "Was he a laborer or what?"
Long: "He looked what I should call shabby genteel."
A few moments after the Long sighting, Albert Cadoch, a young
carpenter living at 27 Hanbury Street walks into his back yard
probably to use the outhouse. Passing the five foot tall wooden fence
which separates his yard from that of number 29, he hears voices quite
close. The only word he can make out is a woman saying "No!" He then
heard something falling against the fence.
Annie's Clothes and Possessions:
- Long black figured coat that came down to her knees.
- Black skirt
- Brown bodice
- Another bodice
- 2 petticoats
- A large pocket worn under the skirt and tied about the
waist with strings (empty when found)
- Lace up boots
- Red and white striped woolen stockings
- Neckerchief, white with a wide red border (folded
tri-corner and knotted at the front of her neck. she is wearing the
scarf in this manner when she leaves Crossingham's)
- Had three recently acquired brass rings on her middle
finger (missing after the murder)
- Scrap of muslin
- One small tooth comb
- One comb in a paper case
- Scrap of envelope she had taken form the mantelpiece of
the
kitchen containing two pills. It bears the seal of the Sussex
Regiment. It is postal stamped "London, 28,Aug., 1888" inscribed is a
partial address consisting of the letter M, the number 2 as if the
beginning of an address and an S.
Dr. George Bagster Phillips describes the body of Annie Chapman as he
saw it at 6:30 AM in the back yard of the house at 29 Hanbury Street.
This is inquest testimony.
"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 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. He noticed that the throat was
dissevered deeply.; that the incision through the skin were jagged and
reached right round the neck...On the wooden paling between the yard
in question and the next, smears of blood, corresponding to where the
head of the deceased lay, were to be seen. These were about 14 inches
from the ground, and immediately above the part where the blood from
the neck lay.
He should say that the instrument used at the throat and abdomen was
the same. It must have been a very sharp knife with a thin narrow
blade, and must have been at least 6 in. to 8 in. in length, probably
longer. He should say that the injuries could not have been inflicted
by a bayonet or a sword bayonet. They could have been done by such an
instrument as a medical man used for post-mortem purposes, but the
ordinary surgical cases might not contain such an instrument. Those
used by the slaughtermen, well ground down, might have caused them. He
thought the knives used by those in the leather trade would not be
long enough in the blade. There were indications of anatomical
knowledge...he should say that the deceased had been dead at least two
hours, and probably more, when he first saw her; but it was right to
mention that it was a fairly cool morning, and that the body would be
more apt to cool rapidly from its having lost a great quantity of
blood. There was no evidence...of a struggle having taken place. He
was positive the deceased entered the yard alive...
A handkerchief was round the throat of the deceased when he saw it
early in the morning. He should say it was not tied on after the
throat was cut."
Report following the post mortem examination:
"He noticed the same protrusion of the tongue. There was a bruise over
the right temple. On the upper eyelid there was a bruise, and there
were two distinct bruises, each the size of a man's thumb, on the
forepart of the top of the chest. The stiffness of the limbs was now
well marked. There was a bruise over the middle part of the bone of
the right hand. There was an old scar on the left of the frontal bone.
The stiffness was more noticeable on the left side, especially in the
fingers, which were partly closed. There was an abrasion over the ring
finger, with distinct markings of a ring or rings. The throat had been
severed as before described. the incisions into the skin indicated
that they had been made from the left side of the neck. There were two
distinct clean cuts on the left side of the spine. They were parallel
with each other and separated by about half an inch. The muscular
structures appeared as though an attempt had made to separate the
bones of the neck. There were various other mutilations to the body,
but he was of the opinion that they occurred subsequent to the death
of the woman, and to the large escape of blood from the division of
the neck.
The deceased was far advanced in disease of the lungs and membranes of
the brain, but they had nothing to do with the cause of death. The
stomach contained little food, but there was not any sign of fluid.
There was no appearance of the deceased having taken alcohol, but
there were signs of great deprivation and he should say she had been
badly fed. He was convinced she had not taken any strong alcohol for
some hours before her death. The injuries were certainly not
self-inflicted. The bruises on the face were evidently recent,
especially about the chin and side of the jaw, but the bruises in
front of the chest and temple were of longer standing - probably of
days. He was of the opinion that the person who cut the deceased
throat took hold of her by the chin, and then commenced the incision
from left to right. He thought it was highly probable that a person
could call out, but with regard to an idea that she might have been
gagged he could only point to the swollen face and the protruding
tongue, both of which were signs of suffocation.
The abdomen had been entirely laid open: the intestines, severed from
their mesenteric attachments, had been lifted out of the body and
placed on the shoulder of the corpse; whilst from the pelvis, the
uterus and its appendages with the upper portion of the vagina and the
posterior two thirds of the bladder, had been entirely removed. No
trace of these parts could be found and the incisions were cleanly
cut, avoiding the rectum, and dividing the vagina low enough to avoid
injury to the cervix uteri. Obviously the work was that of an expert-
of one, at least, who had such knowledge of anatomical or pathological
examinations as to be enabled to secure the pelvic organs with one
sweep of the knife, which must therefore must have at least 5 or 6
inches in length, probably more. The appearance of the cuts confirmed
him in the opinion that the instrument, like the one which divided the
neck, had been of a very sharp character. The mode in which the knife
had been used seemed to indicate great anatomical knowledge.
He thought he himself could not have performed all the injuries he
described, even without a struggle, under a quarter of an hour. If he
had down it in a deliberate way such as would fall to the duties of a
surgeon it probably would have taken him the best part of an hour."
29 Hanbury Street:
Just three or four hundred yards from Chapman's lodging house, 29
Hanbury Street is a largely wooden structure consisting of eight
rooms. Seventeen people lived inside.
There are two front doors, one leading into a shop and the other, on
the left, into a passageway which goes through the building and opens
into the back yard. The door to the back yard swings to the outside
from right to left and, when open, covers a small recess of the yard.
It is a self closing door. Baxter refers to it as a swinging door. The
back yard is separated from the adjoining yards by a five foot high
wooden fence. There are three stone steps leading down to yard level.
Looking from the top of the steps there is a small wood shed to the
left, Annie's feet pointed directly at it. To the right is the Privy.
The yard itself is a patch work of stone, grass and dirt.
The ground floor of Number 29 was occupied by Mrs. Annie (Harriet)
Hardyman and her 16 year old son. Both of them slept in the front room
which doubled as a shop where they sold cat meat. The rear room was
used as a kitchen.
The first floor front room belongs to Mrs. Amelia Richardson and her
14 year old grandson. She has lived here for 15 years. Her business is
making packing cases, employing her son, John, who does not live on
the premises. She also rents the cellar, which is used in
manufacturing, and the yard. The first floor back room is shared by a
Mr. Waker, a maker of tennis boots, and his retarded adult son.
The second floor front room contains a family consisting of a carman
named Thompson who works at Goodson's in Brick Lane, his wife and
adopted daughter. The back room is shared by two unmarried sisters
named Copsey who work in a cigar factory.
The third floor attic front room is occupied by an elderly man, John
Davis who is also a carman and his wife and three sons. the attic rear
belongs to Sarah Cox, an elderly woman whom Mrs. Richardson keeps out
of charity.
In 1967, a film entitled The London Nobody Knows was filmed, with James Mason as narrator. One of the many sights covered in the film was 29 Hanbury Street. This was quite fortunate as that entire side of the street was demolished soon afterwards. Click here to view this footage. (Requires RealPlayer, available for free at http://www.real.com).
Funeral
Annie Chapman was buried on Friday, 14 September, 1888.
At 7:00am, a hearse, supplied by a Hanbury Street Undertaker, H. Smith,
went to the Whitechapel Mortuary. Annie's body was placed in a
black-draped elm coffin and was then driven to Harry Hawes, a Spitalfields
Undertaker who arranged the funeral, at 19 Hunt Street.
At 9:00am, the hearse (without mourning coaches) took Annie's body to City
of London Cemetery (Little Ilford) at Manor Park Cemetery, Sebert Road,
Forest Gate, London, E12, where she was buried at (public) grave 78,
square 148.
Annie's relatives, who paid for for the funeral, met the hearse at the
cemetery, and, by request, kept the funeral a secret and were the only
ones to attend.
The funeral of Annie Chapman took place early yesterday morning [14 Sep],
the utmost secrecy having been observed, and none but the undertaker,
police, and relatives of the deceased knew anything about the
arrangements. Shortly after seven o'clock a hearse drew up outside the
mortuary in Montague-street, and the body was quickly removed. At nine
o'clock a start was made for Manor Park Cemetery. No coaches followed, as
it was desired that public attention should not be attracted. Mr. Smith
and other relatives met the body at the cemetery. The black-covered elm
coffin bore the words "Annie Chapman, died Sept. 8, 1888, aged 48 years."
(The Daily Telegraph, September 15 1888, page 3)
Chapman's grave no longer exists; it has since been buried over.
Death Cetificate
Death Certificate: No. 281, registered 20 September, 1888 (HC 084466).
The certificate does not list the inquest from 13 September.
