Who Were the Victims?
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Who were the Victims? Mary Ann Nichols Mary Ann was born to locksmith Edward Walker and his wife Caroline on 26 August 1845, in Dean Street, Soho, in London. On 16 January 1864 she married William Nichols, a printer's machinist, and between 1866 and 1879, the couple had five children: Edward John, Percy George, Alice Esther, Eliza Sarah, and Henry Alfred. Their marriage broke up in 1880 or 1881 because of disputed causes. Her father accused William of leaving her after he had an affair with the nurse who had attended the birth of their final child though Nichols claimed to have proof that their marriage had continued for at least three years after the date alleged for the affair. He maintained that his wife had deserted him and was practising prostitution. Police reports say they separated because of her drunken habits. Legally required to support his estranged wife, William Nichols paid her an allowance of five shillings a week until 1882, when he heard that she was working as a prostitute; he was not required to support her if she was earning money through illicit means. Nichols spent most of her remaining years in workhouses and boarding houses, living off charitable handouts and her meagre earnings as a prostitute. She lived with her father for a year or more but left after a quarrel. In early 1888, the year of her death, she was placed in the Lambeth workhouse after being discovered sleeping rough in Trafalgar Square, and in May left the workhouse to take a job as a domestic servant in Wandsworth. Unhappy in that position – she was an alcoholic and her employer, Mr Cowdry, and his wife, were teetotallers—she left two months later, stealing clothing worth three pounds ten shillings. At the time of her death, Nichols was living in a Whitechapel common lodging house in Spitalfields, where she shared a room with a woman named Emily "Nelly" Holland. She was 5 feet 2 inches tall, had brown eyes and greying dark brown hair. Annie Chapman Annie Chapman was born Eliza Ann Smith in Paddington on 25 September 1840. She was the first of five children born to George Smith, and Ruth Chapman. George Smith was a soldier, having enlisted in the 2nd Regiment of Life Guards in December 1834. Reportedly, the location of Chapman's earliest years revolved around her father's military service, served between London and Windsor. Chapman was employed as a domestic servant. Contemporary accounts describe Annie Chapman as an intelligent and sociable woman with a weakness for alcohol—particularly rum. She was 5 feet in height and had blue eyes and wavy, dark brown hair, leading acquaintances to give her the nickname "Dark Annie". On 1 May 1869, Annie married John James Chapman. The couple had three children. Although Chapman had struggled with alcoholism as an adult, she had reportedly weaned herself off drink by 1880. Her son had been born disabled and this disability is believed to have contributed to her gradually stopping drinking, and he later lived in a specialist hospital. When her 12 year old daughter died both parents began drinking heavily again and she was arrested for drunkenness a number of times. Chapman and her husband separated by mutual consent in 1884. John Chapman retained custody of their surviving daughter. Her husband was obliged to pay her a weekly allowance of 10s via Post Office Order. Two years later, in 1886, John Chapman died of liver cirrhosis and oedema, on 25 December, leading to the these weekly payments stopping Chapman and the surviving 13 year old daughter joining an French acting troupe. Elizabeth Stride Stride was born Elisabeth Gustafsdotter on 27 November 1843 in Stora Tumlehed, Sweden. There were four children and all were raised in the Lutheran faith, and all were required to perform numerous chores upon the farm. She was employed as a domestic servant but also worked as a prostitute. She was between 5 feet 2 inches and 5 feet 5 inches in height and had curly dark brown hair, light grey eyes and a pale complexion. In February 1866, Elizabeth relocated to London. Upon her arrival in London, Gusdafsdotter learned to speak both English and Yiddish in addition to her native language. She is also known to have briefly dated a policeman in the late 1860s. On 7 March 1869, Gustafsdotter married John Thomas Stride, a ship's carpenter from Sheerness who was 22 years her senior, but had no children. They later separated. She had an on/off relationship with Michael Kidney and in addition to prostitution, Stride occasionally earned income by performing sewing and housecleaning work. She began regularly earning money by performing cleaning duties both at the lodging house and for local residents and performed cleaning work for local Jews. Catherine Eddows Catherine Eddowes was born in Graiseley Green, Wolverhampton on 14 April 1842, the first of 11 children. By 1857, both of Eddowes's parents had died resulting in Eddowes being admitted as an orphan to a Bermondsey Workhouse, later gaining employment in Birmingham and Wolverhampton. While living in Birmingham, she began a relationship with a former soldier named Thomas Conway, with whom she had two children. At one stage in this relationship, Eddowes had a tattoo of the initials of her common-law husband ("TC") inscribed in blue ink upon her left forearm. Eddowes was five feet tall, with dark auburn hair and hazel eyes. Friends would later describe her as "a very jolly woman, always singing" and an "intelligent and scholarly (individual), but possessed of a fierce temper." In 1868, Eddowes and Conway relocated to London, taking lodgings in Westminster. A third child was born. While in London, Eddowes took to drinking. She left her family in 1880. By the following year, she was living with a new partner named John Kelly at Cooney's common lodging-house at 55 Flower and Dean Street, Spitalfields, at the centre of London's most notorious criminal rookery. Here she took to casual sex work to pay the rent. To avoid contact with his former partner, Conway drew his army pension under the assumed name of Quinn, and kept their sons' addresses secret from her. On occasions when Eddowes lacked sufficient money to pay for a bed in a common lodging-house, she is believed to have slept rough in the front room of 26 Dorset Street, known locally as "the shed". Mary Jane Kelly Mary Kelly's origins are obscure and undocumented, and much of this information is possibly made up. It is believed that Kelly was born in Limerick, Ireland, in around 1863 and that her family moved to Wales when she was a child. Kelly has been variously reported as being a blonde or redhead, whereas her nickname. Reports estimated Kelly's height at 5 feet and 7 inches (1.70 metres). Detective Walter Dew, in his autobiography, claimed to have known Kelly well by sight and described her as "quite attractive" and "a pretty, buxom girl". When Kelly was aged approximately 16 in about 1879, she reportedly married a coal miner named Davis or Davies, who was killed two or three years later in a mining explosion. Without any means of financial support, Kelly relocated to Cardiff, where she lived with a cousin. Although there are no contemporary records of Kelly's presence in Cardiff, it is at this stage in her life that Kelly is considered to have begun her career as a prostitute, possibly being introduced to this profession by her cousin. No South Wales Police records exist to indicate Kelly was arrested for prostitution. In 1884, Kelly apparently left Cardiff and relocated to London, where she briefly worked in a tobacconists in Chelsea before securing employment as a domestic servant. Via her acquaintance with a young French woman whom Kelly had met in Knightsbridge, she found work in a high-class brothel in the more affluent West End of London. She became one of the brothel's most popular girls, and spent her earnings on expensive clothing and hiring a carriage. Reportedly, Kelly was invited by a client named Francis Craig to France, but returned to England within approximately two weeks, having disliked her life there. However, by the time of her return to London, Kelly had adopted the French name "Marie Jeanette". In 1885, Kelly briefly resided with a Mrs. Buki in lodgings located near the London Docks North Quay. It is also believed to be at this stage in her life when Kelly began drinking heavily.Gravitating toward the poorer areas of the East End. When drunk, Kelly would often be heard singing Irish songs. She would often become quarrelsome and even abusive to those around her, which earned her the nickname "Dark Mary". She had relationships with a number of men including Joseph Barnett. When he lost his job as a fish porter in July 1888, reportedly due to committing theft, Kelly again resorted to prostitution. Kelly began to allow other prostitutes to sleep in their room on "cold, bitter nights" as she did not have the heart to refuse them shelter. Ultimately, this caused Barnett and Kelly to separate. .