The first murder victim of Jack the Ripper, Mary Ann "Polly"
Nichols was born on August 26,
1845 in London. Her death has been attributed to the notorious unidentified serial
killer, who is believed to have killed and mutilated five women in the Whitechapel
area of London from late August to early November 1888. She was found lying on
the ground in front of a gated stable entrance in Buck’s Row, Whitechapel, around
3:40 am on August 31st, about 150 yards from the London Hospital by cart driver
named Charles Cross. No one had reported hearing or seeing anything suspicious
before the discovery of the body.
Doctor Henry
Llewellyn, who arrived on the scene around 4:00 am, determined that she had
been dead for about 30 minutes. Her throat had been slit twice from left to
right and her abdomen mutilated with one deep jagged wound, several incisions
across the abdomen, and three or four similar cuts on the right side caused by
the same knife. He expressed surprise at the small amount of blood at the crime
scene, "about enough to fill two large wine glasses, or half a pint at the
most.” His comment led to the supposition that Nichols was not killed where her
body was found, but the blood from her wounds had soaked into her clothes and
hair, and there was little doubt that she had been killed at the crime scene by
a swift slash to the throat. Death would have been instantaneous, and the
abdominal injuries, which would have taken less than five minutes to perform,
were made by the murderer after she was dead. Nichols was buried at the City of
London Cemetery, in a public grave numbered 210752 (on the edge of the current
Memorial Garden). In late 1996, the cemetery authorities decided to mark her
grave with a plaque.
Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for CrimeMagazine.com and author
of Murder
and Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California 1849-1949. His book
can be purchased from Amazon through the following link:
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