Grimsby Observer & Humber News, The (U.K.)
no date (1 Sep 88?)

HORRIBLE MURDER OF A WOMAN

ANOTHER WHITECHAPEL MYSTERY.

Scarcely have the horror and sensation caused by the discovery of the murdered woman in Whitechapel some short time ago had time to abate, when another discovery is made, which, for the brutality exercised on the victim, is even more horrible. As Constable John Neil was walking down Bucks row, Thomas street, Whitechapel, about a quarter to 4 o'clock on Friday morning he discovered a woman between 35 and 40 years of age lying at the side of the street with her throat cut from ear to ear. The wound was about two inches wide, and the woman was lying in a pool of blood. She was conveyed to the Whitechapel Mortuary, where it was found that besides the wound in the throat the lower part of the abdomen was completely ripped open and the bowels were protruding. The wound extends nearly to her breast, and must have been effected with a large knife. The hands were bruised and bore evidence of having engaged in a severe struggle. There was the impression of a ring having been worn on one of the woman's fingers, but nothing to show that it had been wrenched from her in a struggle. Some of the front teeth had been knocked out, and the face was bruised on both cheeks, and very much discoloured. The woman wore a rough brown ulster with large buttons in front. Her clothes were torn and cut up in several places, bearing evidence of the ferocity with which the murder was committed. The news of the murder having spread, Mary Ann Monk, an inmate of the Lambeth Workhouse, went to the mortuary, and identified the body as that of Mary Ann Nicholls, also called " Polly " Nicholls. She knew her she said, as they were inmates of the Lambeth Workhouse together in April and May, the deceased having been passed there from another workhouse. On the 12th of May, according to Monk, Nicholls left the workhouse to take a situation as servant at Ingleside, Wandsworth Common. It afterwards became known that Nicholls betrayed her trust as domestic servant by stealing £3 from her employer and absconding. From that time she had been wandering about. - The husband and father of the woman murdered have also identified the remains. She left her husband eight years ago.

Another account states: The brutality of the murder is beyond conception and beyond description. The throat is cut in two gashes, the instrument having been a sharp one, but used in a most ferocious and reckless way. There is a gash under the left ear, reaching nearly to the centre of the throat. Along half its length, however, it is accompanied by another one which reaches around under the other ear, making a wide and horrible hole, and nearly severing the head from the body. The ghastliness of this cut, however, pales into insignificance alongside the other. No murder was ever more ferociously and more brutally done. The knife, which must have been a large and sharp one, was jobbed into the deceased at the lower part of the abdomen, and then drawn upward, not once but twice. The first cut veered to the right, slitting up the groin, and passing over the left hip, but the second cut went straight upward, along the centre of the body, and reaching to the breast bone. Such horrible work could only be the deed of a maniac. The other murder, in which the woman received 30 stabs, must also have been the work of a maniac. This murder occurred on Bank Holiday. On the Bank Holiday preceding another woman was murdered in equally brutal but even more barbarous fashion by being stabbed with a stick. She died without being able to tell anything of her murderer. All this leads to the conclusion, that the police have now formed, that there is a maniac haunting Whitechapel, and that the three women were all victims of his murderous frenzy.

The inquest was opened on Saturday. After the evidence of identification had been given, Mr. Llewellyn, surgeon, stated that the cuts on the body must have been caused with a long-bladed knife, moderately sharp, and used with great violence. No blood at all was found on the breast, either of the body or clothes. There were no injuries on the body except about the lower part of the abdomen. Two or three inches from the left side was a wound running in a jagged manner. It was a very deep wound, and the tissues were cut through. There were several incisions running across the abdomen. On the right side there were also three or four similar cuts running downwards. All these had been caused by a knife which had been used violently, and in a downward direction. The injuries were from left to right, and might have been done by a left-handed person. All the injuries had been done by the same instrument. The inquest was adjourned.