Alice McKenzie
a.k.a. "Clay Pipe" Alice, Alice Bryant
Little is known of Alice McKenzie's early years and
upbringing, except that she was born sometime around 1849 and
was said to have been raised in Peterborough. She was later
to move into the East End of London sometime before 1874, and
began living sporadically with a John McCormack (also Bryant)
around 9 years later in 1883.
McCormack, an Irishman, was in the employ of some Jewish
tailors in Hanbury Street as a porter. He shared lodgings in
various doss houses with his common-law wife for around six
years, and their last cohabitation was at Mr. Tenpenny's
lodging house: 52 Gun Street (Sugden) or 54 Gun Street (Begg
et alia), Spitalfields. They moved there around April of
1889.
The lodging house on Gun
Street was managed by a Mrs.
Elizabeth Ryder, wife of Richard John Ryder. While there,
McKenzie was said to have worked for her Jewish neighbors as
a washerwoman and charwoman, but the police considered her a
common prostitute and she was known to have frequented the
streets on occasion. At this time, Alice was around 40 years
of age, described as a freckle-faced woman with a penchant
for both smoke and drink, engaging more in the former than
the latter. She preferred the smoke of a pipe, which was
soon to grant her the name "Clay Pipe" Alice by her friends
and acquaintances. Her left thumb was also injured in
what was no doubt some sort of industrial accident.
Tuesday, July 16, 1889.
4:00 P.M.: McCormack returns from his morning shift
at work somewhat drunk and sets himself down in bed. He
hands Alice 1s. 8d. to pay Mrs. Ryder for the rent, and a
shilling to spend for other necessities. Alice left the
room with the money, but did not pay the rent.
7:10 P.M.: According to the Pall Mall Gazette,
Alice took a blind boy named George Dixon or Discon, another
resident at Mr. Tenpenny's, to the Royal Cambridge Music
Hall. Dixon would later testify that he had heard Alice
speaking to a strange man, asking him to buy her a drink, to
which the man replied, "Yes." Alice then saw Dixon home to
Gun Street.
8:30 P.M.: Elizabeth Ryder sees Alice at the house,
'more or less drunk,' and watches her leave Gun Street after
having had some sort of argument with McCormack (this would
negate his statement that the last time he saw Alice alive
would have been 4:00 P.M.)
11:00 P.M.: McCormack emerges from the room and
proceeds downstairs, passing Mrs. Ryder who informs him that
Alice had indeed not payed their rent.
11:40 P.M.: A friend of Alice's named Margaret
Franklin was sitting with two acquaintances (Catherine
Hughes and Sarah Mahoney or Marney) on the step of either a
barber's shop (Sugden) or a lodging house (Begg et alia) on
Flower and Dean Street at the side connecting with Brick
Lane. Alice passes the three ladies 'walking hurriedly'
toward Whitechapel. Margaret asked Alice how she was doing,
and she replied in the same hurried manner: "All right. I
can't stop now." According to the three ladies, Alice was
not wearing a bonnet, but rather a 'light-coloured shawl'
around her shoulders.
12:15 A.M.: P.C. Joseph Allen (423H) takes a break
under a street lamp in Castle Alley, just off Whitehapel High
Street, for a bite to eat. According to Allen the alley was
completely deserted. After about five minutes, Allen notices
another constable entering the alley.
12:20 A.M.: P.C. Walter Andrews (272H) enters Castle
Alley just as Allen is leaving. Andrews remains in the alley
for about three minutes, and again he sees nothing of a
suspicious nature.
12:25 A.M.: At about this time, Sarah Smith, deputy
of the Whitechapel Baths and Washhouses (which lined Castle
Alley) retires to her room. She begins reading in bed, the
closed window of her room overlooking the entire alley.
Sarah later testifies she heard nothing suspicious until she
heard the blow of Andrews' whistle.
12:45 A.M.: It begins to rain in Whitechapel.
12:50 A.M.: Andrews returns to Castle Alley on his
regular beat, about twenty-seven minutes having passed since
he left the area. This time, however, he discovers the body
of a woman lying on the pavement, her head angled toward the
curb and her feet toward the wall. Blood flowed from two
stabs in the left side of her neck and her skirts had been
lifted, revealing blood across her abdomen, which had been
mutilated.
The pavement beneath the body of Alice McKenzie was still
dry, placing her death sometime after 12:25 A.M. and before
12:45 A.M., when it began to rain. In her possession were
found a clay pipe often referred to as a 'nose warmer' and a
bronze farthing. She was noticed to have been wearing
some 'odd stockings.'
P.C. Andrews heard someone approaching the alley soon after,
and ordered the man (Lewis Jacobs) to stay with the body
while he went to fetch help.
1:10 A.M.: Inspector Reid arrives only moments before
Dr. Bagster Phillips. Reid notices that blood continues to
flow from the throat into the gutter (about 1:09 A.M.) but it
begins to clot upon the arival of Phillips (about 1:12 A.M.)
On a side note, a fellow prostitute and companion of McKenzie's
named Margaret 'Mog' Cheeks, was also thought to have been killed
along with Alice because she was not to be found for two days following
the discovery of McKenzie's body. Actually, she had been staying with
her sister at the time.
Injuries
- Cause of death from severance of the left carotid
artery.
- Two stabs in the left side of the neck 'carried forward
in the same skin wound.'
- Some bruising on chest.
- Five bruises or marks on left side of abdomen.
- Cut was made from left to right, apparently while
McKenzie was on the ground.
- A long (seven-inch) 'but not unduly deep' wound from the
bottom of the left breast to the navel.
- Seven or eight scratches beginning at the navel and
pointing toward the genitalia.
- Small cut across the mons veneris.
Dr. Phillips believed there was a degree of anatomical
knowledge necessary to have committed the atrocities to
McKenzie.
The severing of the left carotid artery is consistent with
previous Ripper murders, although the canonical five were
murdered with much deeper and longer injuries which cut down
to the spinal column. McKenzie suffered only two jagged
wounds on the left side which were no longer than four inches
a piece and had left the air passages untouched.
The bruises on the chestal region suggest the killer probably
held her down to the ground with one hand while inflicting
the wounds with the other.
The mutilations committed upon McKenzie were mostly
superficial in manner, the deepest of which opened neither
the abdominal cavity nor the muscular structure. The wounds
also suggested that the killer was left-handed (as opposed to
the Ripper being right-handed). Phillips suggested the five
marks on the left side of her body were an imprint of the
killer's right hand, which left only his left hand to
facilitate the injuries. Dr. Bond disagreed, claiming there
was no evidence to support the theory that those marks were
made through such processes (admittedly, Bond saw the body
the day after the post mortem, and it had already begun to
decompose).
The weapon involved was agreed upon to have been a 'sharp-
pointed weapon,' although it could be smaller than the one
used by the Ripper.
Phillips ultimately claimed that McKenzie's death was not
attributable to the Ripper:
After careful and long deliberation, I cannot satisfy myself,
on purely Anatomical and professional grounds that the perpetrator
of all the "Wh Ch. murders" is our man. I am on the contrary impelled
to a contrary conclusion in this noting the mode of procedure and
the character of the mutilations and judging of motive in connection
with the latter.
I do not here enter into the comparison of the cases neither do I
take into account what I admit may be almost conclusive evidence
in favour of the one man theory if all the surrounding circumstances
and other evidence are considered, holding it as my duty to report
on the P.M. appearances and express an opinion only on Professional
grounds, based upon my own observation.
Bond chose the opposite
conclusion, telling Anderson he believed it was indeed a
Ripper killing:
I see in this murder evidence of similar design to the
former Whitechapel murders, viz. sudden onslaught on the
prostrate woman, the throat skillfully and resolutely cut
with subsequent mutilation, each mutilation indicating sexual
thoughts and a desire to mutilate the abdomen and sexual
organs. I am of opinion that the murder was performed by the
same person who committed the former series of Whitechapel
murder.
Anderson himself disagreed, writing:
I am here assuming that the murder of Alice M'Kenzie on the 17th of July 1889,
was by another hand. I was absent from London when it occurred,
but the Chief Commissioner investigated the case on the spot and
decided it was an ordinary murder, and not the work of a sexual maniac.
Monro, who was
on duty during the investigation since Anderson was on leave
at the time, disagreed:
I need not say that every effort will be made by the police
to discover the murderer, who, I am inclined to believe, is identical
with the notorious Jack the Ripper of last year.
In fact, on the day of the murder, Monro
deployed 3 sergeants and 39 constables on duty in
Whitechapel, increasing the force with 22 extra men.
The inquest was held on July 17th and 19th, and later
adjourned to August 14th -- the conclusion was the all too
familar 'murder by a person or persons unknown.'
The Scotland Yard Files pertaining to the McKenzie murder detail
an interesting sidebar concerning an individual named William Wallace
Brodie, who confessed to murdering the woman. It was earlier printed
in the Kimberley Advertiser of June 29th, 1889 that Brodie
had confessed to all the Whitechapel murders while in a drunken stupor.
His statement was
forwarded by Inspector Moore, but Inspector Arnold gave instructions
to dismiss Brodie as of unsound mind. Scotland Yard gave the same
prognosis: "Let him be charged as a lunatic." It was soon discovered
that Brodie had a conviction for larceny, and just to be sure, enquiries
were made into his character and location during the Whitechapel Murders.
It was found that he was in South Africa between September 6th, 1888 and
July 15th, 1889.
Ultimately, Brodie was released from custody, but was almost immediately
rearrested for fraud.
