Jack The Ripper - Mark Whitehead [33]
Mary Kelly’s funeral was held at St Patrick’s Roman Catholic Cemetery at Leytonstone. None of her relatives were ever traced but when her coffin left the mortuary at St Leonard’s, Shoreditch, a crowd of several thousand locals were there to see her off. The men removed their hats, the women wept openly and the police struggled to clear a path through the crowd so that the cortege of the hearse and two mourning coaches could proceed. Determined that she would not suffer a pauper’s grave, Henry Wilton, the verger of St Leonard’s, paid the entire cost of the funeral.
George Hutchinson
The early closure of the inquest unfortunately meant that one important witness never testified, and from him comes what is probably our final and clearest glimpse of Jack the Ripper. George Hutchinson, a labourer, walked into Commercial Street police station on 12 November. His information, if true, clears both Mrs Cox’s man with the carroty moustache and explains who Sarah Lewis saw hanging around outside Miller’s Court.
Hutchinson had been in Romford on Thursday 8 November and had walked back to London. At about 2am on 9 November he had arrived back in Whitechapel and there he met Mary Kelly at Flower and Dean Street. He had known her for about three years and ‘occasionally gave her money’. Kelly asked him to lend her sixpence. He said he couldn’t as he had spent all his money going down to Romford. Kelly told him that she must go and find money and they parted. Kelly headed towards Thrawl Street. A man coming in the opposite direction tapped Kelly on the shoulder and said something. They both laughed. Kelly said, ‘Alright’. The man responded, ‘You will be alright for what I have told you’, and put his right hand around her shoulders. He had a small parcel with a strap around it in his left hand.
Hutchinson stood against the lamp by the Queen’s Head pub and watched them. As they passed, the man hung his head so that his hat covered his eyes. Hutchinson stooped down to get a look at his face. ‘He looked at me stern.’ He followed them as they turned into Dorset Street and they stood on the corner for a few minutes. The man said something to Kelly and she replied, ‘Alright, my dear. Come along, you will be comfortable.’ He placed a hand on her shoulder and kissed her. She said that she had lost her handkerchief and the man pulled out a red one and gave it to her.
They then both went into Miller’s Court. Hutchinson followed but could no longer see them. He waited around for about 45 minutes to see if they would re-emerge but they did not.
Impressively, Hutchinson’s statement to the press the following day differs surprisingly little. He described the man as aged about 34 or 35, 5 feet 6 inches tall, of pale complexion (his press statement says ‘dark’) with dark eyes, dark hair and a slight moustache (press: dark and heavy) turned up at the ends. No side whiskers and his chin was clean shaven. He wore a long dark coat, its collar and cuffs trimmed with astrakhan and underneath a dark jacket, light waistcoat, white collar and black necktie with a horseshoe pin. His hat was of dark felt and turned down in the middle. He wore button boots under spats with light buttons. He had a thick gold watch chain with a big seal, a red stone hanging from it. He walked very softly and was of respectable and possibly Jewish appearance. Hutchinson was certain that he could identify him again and thought that he had seen him in Petticoat Lane on Sunday, but was not certain.
Inspector Abberline, who interrogated Hutchinson on Monday evening, was certainly impressed. Hutchinson was slow in coming forward, probably because he