Catherine Eddowes
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Catherine Eddowes |
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Sor
I send you half the Kidne I took from one women prasarved it for you tother piece I fried and ate it was
very nise. I may send you the bloody knif that took it out if you only wate a whil longer
signed
Catch me when you can Mishter Lusk ”
The kidney was taken to Dr. Thomas Horrocks Openshaw at the nearby London Hospital. He believed that the kidney was human and from the left side. This half kidney, which was believed to have been preserved in "spirits of wine" (ethyl alcohol), is held by some to have been the kidney that had been removed from Eddowes' body by the Ripper. The kidney was then handed over to the City of London Police, in whose jurisdiction Eddowes had been murdered. The Royal London Hospital on Whitechapel Road preserves some crime scene drawings and plans of the Mitre Square murder by the City Surveyor Frederick Foster.
The intestines were drawn out to a large extent and placed over the right shoulder -- they were smeared
over with some feculent matter. A piece of about two feet was quite detached from the body and placed between the body and
the left arm, apparently by design. The lobe and auricle of the right ear were cut obliquely through.
There was a quantity of clotted blood on the pavement on the left side of the neck round the shoulder and
upper part of arm, and fluid blood-coloured serum which had flowed under the neck to the right shoulder, the pavement sloping
in that direction.
Body was quite warm. No death stiffening had taken place. She must have been dead most likely within the
half hour. We looked for superficial bruises and saw none. No blood on the skin of the abdomen or secretion of any kind on
the thighs. No spurting of blood on the bricks or pavement around. No marks of blood below the middle of the body. Several
buttons were found in the clotted blood after the body was removed. There was no blood on the front of the clothes. There
were no traces of recent connexion.
When the body arrived at Golden Lane, some of the blood was dispersed through the removal of the body to
the mortuary. The clothes were taken off carefully from the body. A piece of deceased's ear dropped from the clothing.
I made a post mortem examination at half past two on Sunday afternoon. Rigor mortis was well marked; body
not quite cold. Green discoloration over the abdomen.
After washing the left hand carefully, a bruise the size of a sixpence, recent and red, was discovered on
the back of the left hand between the thumb and first finger. A few small bruises on right shin of older date. The hands and
arms were bronzed. No bruises on the scalp, the back of the body, or the elbows.
The face was very much mutilated. There was a cut about a quarter of an inch through the lower left eyelid,
dividing the structures completely through. The upper eyelid on that side, there was a scratch through the skin on the left
upper eyelid, near to the angle of the nose. The right eyelid was cut through to about half an inch.
There was a deep cut over the bridge of the nose, extending from the left border of the nasal bone down near the angle of the jaw on the right side of the cheek. This cut went into the bone and divided all the structures of the cheek except the mucuous membrane of the mouth. The tip of the nose was quite detached by an oblique cut from the bottom of the nasal bone to where the
wings of the nose join on to the face. A cut from this divided the upper lip and extended through the substance of the gum
over the right upper lateral incisor tooth.
About half an inch from the top of the nose was another oblique cut. There was a cut on the right angle
of the mouth as if the cut of a point of a knife. The cut extended an inch and a half, parallel with the lower lip.
There was on each side of cheek a cut which peeled up the skin, forming a triangular flap about an inch
and a half. On the left cheek there were two abrasions of the epithelium under the left ear.
The throat was cut across to the extent of about six or seven inches. A superficial cut commenced about an inch and a half below the lobe below, and about two and a half inches behind the left ear, and extended across the throat to about three inches below the lobe of the right ear. The big muscle across the throat was divided through on the left side. The large vessels on the left side
of the neck were severed. The larynx was severed below the vocal chord. All the deep structures were severed to the bone,
the knife marking intervertebral cartilages.
The sheath of the vessels on the right side was just opened.
The carotid artery had a fine hole opening, the internal jugular vein was opened about an inch and a half
-- not divided. The blood vessels contained clot. All these injuries were performed by a sharp instrument like a knife, and
pointed.
The cause of death was hemorrhage from the left common cartoid artery. The death was immediate and the mutilations
were inflicted after death.
We examined the abdomen. The front walls were laid open from the breast bones to the pubes. The cut commenced
opposite the enciform cartilage. The incision went upwards, not penetrating the skin that was over the sternum. It then divided
the enciform cartilage. The knife must have cut obliquely at the expense of that cartilage.
Behind this, the liver was stabbed as if by the point of a sharp instrument. Below this was another incision
into the liver of about two and a half inches, and below this the left lobe of the liver was slit through by a vertical cut.
Two cuts were shewn by a jagging of the skin on the left side.
The abdominal walls were divided in the middle line to within a quarter of an inch of the navel. The cut
then took a horizontal course for two inches and a half towards the right side. It then divided round the navel on the left
side, and made a parallel incision to the former horizontal incision, leaving the navel on a tongue of skin. Attached to the
navel was two and a half inches of the lower part of the rectus muscle on the left side of the abdomen. The incision then
took an oblique direction to the right and was shelving. The incision went down the right side of the vagina and rectum for
half an inch behind the rectum.
There was a stab of about an inch on the left groin. This was done by a pointed instrument. Below this was
a cut of three inches going through all tissues making a wound of the peritoneum about the same extent.
An inch below the crease of the thigh was a cut extending from the anterior spine of the ilium obliquely
down the inner side of the left thigh and separating the left labium, forming a flap of skin up to the groin. The left rectus
muscle was not detached.
There was a flap of skin formed by the right thigh, attaching the right labium, and extending up to the
spine of the ilium. The muscles on the right side inserted into the frontal ligaments were cut through.
The skin was retracted through the whole of the cut through the abdomen, but the vessels were not clotted.
Nor had there been any appreciable bleeding from the vessels. I draw the conclusion that the act was made after death, and
there would not have been much blood on the murderer. The cut was made by someone on the right side of the body, kneeling
below the middle of the body.
I removed the content of the stomach and placed it in a jar for further examination. There seemed very little
in it in the way of food or fluid, but from the cut end partly digested farinaceous food escaped.
The intestines had been detached to a large extent from the mesentery. About two feet of the colon was cut
away. The signoid flexure was invaginated into the rectum very tightly.
Right kidney was pale, bloodless with slight congestion of the base of the pyramids. There was a cut from
the upper part of the slit on the under surface of the liver to the left side, and another cut at right angles to this, which
were about an inch and a half deep and two and a half inches long. Liver itself was healthy.
The gall bladder contained bile. The pancreas was cut, but not through, on the left side of the spinal column.
Three and a half inches of the lower border of the spleen by half an inch was attached only to the peritoneum.
The peritoneal lining was cut through on the left side and the left kidney carefully taken out and removed.
The left renal artery was cut through. I would say that someone who knew the position of the kidney must have done it.
The lining membrane over the uterus was cut through. The womb was cut through horizontally, leaving a stump
of three quarters of an inch. The rest of the womb had been taken away with some of the ligaments. The vagina and cervix of
the womb was uninjured.
The bladder was healthy and uninjured, and contained three or four ounces of water. There was a tongue-like
cut through the anterior wall of the abdominal aorta. The other organs were healthy. There were no indications of connexion.
I believe the wound in the throat was first inflicted. I believe she must have been lying on the ground.
The wounds on the face and abdomen prove that they were inflicted by a sharp, pointed knife, and that in
the abdomen by one six inches or longer.
I believe the perpetrator of the act must have had considerable knowledge of the position of the organs
in the abdominal cavity and the way of removing them. It required a great deal of medical knowledge to have removed the kidney
and to know where it was placed. The parts removed would be of no use for any professional purpose.
I think the perpetrator of this act had sufficient time, or he would not have nicked the lower eyelids.
It would take at least five minutes.
I cannot assign any reason for the parts being taken away. I feel sure that there was no struggle, and believe
it was the act of one person.
The throat had been so instantly severed that no noise could have been emitted. I should not expect much
blood to have been found on the person who had inflicted these wounds. The wounds could not have been self-inflicted.
My attention was called to the apron, particularly the corner of the apron with a string attached. The blood
spots were of recent origin. I have seen the portion of an apron produced by Dr Phillips and stated to have been found in
Goulston Street. It is impossible to say that it is human blood on the apron. I fitted the piece of apron, which had a new
piece of material on it (which had evidently been sewn on to the piece I have), the seams of the borders of the two actually
corresponding. Some blood and apparently faecal matter was found on the portion that was found in Goulston Street."
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