Jack The Ripper - Mark Whitehead [18]
On Saturday nights the club held free discussions. On Saturday 29 September, this had ended around midnight after which many of the ninety or so attendees had gone home.
Thirty-odd remained behind to socialise, sing and chat with their fellows. Although there was noise coming from the upstairs rooms of the club, it was not rowdy.Witnesses were certain that had there been a cry of ‘Murder!’ from the yard, they would have heard it. Between 12.30 and 12.40am several people, including the club’s chairman, Morris Eagle, would leave and/or enter via Dutfield’s Yard. All of them would later state that the yard had been empty.
Twenty minutes later, the situation was much different. Louis Diemschütz, the club steward, lived on the premises with his wife. On Saturdays he sold cheap jewellery atWestow Hill market, Crystal Palace. This Saturday was no different, and he returned to the club at 1.00am, intending to unload his unsold merchandise before stabling his pony and barrow at George Yard. Driving into Dutfield’s Yard, the pony suddenly shied over to the left-hand side of the passage. Looking down to his right, Diemschütz noticed something lying on the ground.At first he tried to feel what it was with his whip. Still uncertain, he jumped down and struck a match. Lying by the club wall was a woman. He ran inside and told several members of his discovery. Returning outside with a lighted candle, they saw blood on the ground. Immediately Diemschütz headed towards Fairclough Street in search of the police. Morris Eagle also went for assistance, running toward Commercial Street. Diemschütz found no officer, but was followed back by Edward Spooner, a horse-keeper attracted by all the excitement. At the yard, someone lit a match and Spooner inspected the woman. He lifted her chin. It was still warm and blood still flowed from a deep cut in the throat.
Five minutes later, Morris Eagle returned with PC Henry Lamb and a fellow officer. Lamb was quick to get people to stand back from the body, lest they get blood on their clothes. Examining the woman, he noticed the blood that flowed towards the side door of the club had not yet congealed. He sent the other officer to fetch a doctor and Eagle to Leman Street police station for assistance.
Dr Frederick Blackwell arrived at the scene at about 1.16am and examined the body. By now the blood on the pavement had begun to dry. His findings on this brief examination included the following: Her legs were drawn up with her feet against the right side of the passage. Her neck, chest, legs and face were all slightly warm but her hands were cold. Her right hand was open, lying on her chest and smeared on both sides with blood. Her left hand, partially closed, contained a small packet of cachous (small aromatic sweetmeats sucked to sweeten the breath). Her face was quite placid. Around her neck was a check silk scarf, the bow of which was turned to the left and pulled tightly, suggesting that the murderer had pulled her back by it. There was a long incision in the neck, made from left to right. It had severed the vessels on the left side but not on the right, and had cut the windpipe completely in two. Blackwell noted that there were no spots of blood nearby nor on the clothing. He placed the time of death between twenty minutes and half an hour before he had arrived. She would have bled to death quite slowly but have been unable to cry out due to the severing of the windpipe. The injuries, he noted, were ‘beyond self-infliction’.
After about half an hour Blackwell was joined by Dr Bagster Phillips who confirmed most of his findings. Phillips, however, stated that the woman had been alive ‘within an hour’ of his arrival.Their estimates, therefore, put the time of the murder as early as 12.36am