Annie Chapman Murdered in Spitalfields

Annie Chapman's Last Hours

Shortly after midnight on the morning of her death, Chapman, like Mary Ann Nichols, found herself without money for her lodging and went out to earn some on the street. Elizabeth Long testified that she saw a man and a woman she believed to be Chapman conversing outside 29 Hanbury St at approximately 5:30 am. If correct in her identification, it is likely that Long was the last person to see Chapman alive. Chapman's body was discovered about 5:50 on the morning of 8 September 1888, lying on the ground near a doorway in the back yard of 29 Hanbury Street, Spitalfields.

"There are two front doors, one leading into a shop and the other, on the left, into a passageway which goes through the building and opens into the back yard. The door to the back yard swings to the outside from right to left and, when open, covers a small recess of the yard. It is a self closing door. Baxter refers to it as a swinging door. The back yard is separated from the adjoining yards by a five foot high wooden fence. There are three stone steps leading down to yard level. Looking from the top of the steps there is a small wood shed to the left, Annie's feet pointed directly at it. To the right is the privy. The yard itself is a patch work of stone, grass and dirt."

The body was conveyed later that day to Whitechapel mortuary in the police ambulance by Sergeant Edward Badham. Badham was later to be the first to testify at the subsequent inquest.

Dr. George Bagster Phillips describes the body of Annie Chapman as he saw it at 6:30 AM in the back yard of the house at 29 Hanbury Street.

This is inquest testimony:

"The left arm was placed across the left breast. The legs were drawn up, the feet resting on the ground, and the knees turned outwards. The face was swollen and turned on the right side. The tongue protruded between the front teeth, but not beyond the lips. The tongue was evidently much swollen. The front teeth were perfect as far as the first molar, top and bottom and very fine teeth they were. The body was terribly mutilated...the stiffness of the limbs was not marked, but was evidently commencing. He noticed that the throat was dissevered deeply.; that the incision through the skin were jagged and reached right round the neck...On the wooden paling between the yard in question and the next, smears of blood, corresponding to where the head of the deceased lay, were to be seen. These were about 14 inches from the ground, and immediately above the part where the blood from the neck lay.

He should say that the instrument used at the throat and abdomen was the same. It must have been a very sharp knife with a thin narrow blade, and must have been at least 6 in. to 8 in. in length, probably longer. He should say that the injuries could not have been inflicted by a bayonet or a sword bayonet. They could have been done by such an instrument as a medical man used for post-mortem purposes, but the ordinary surgical cases might not contain such an instrument. Those used by the slaughtermen, well ground down, might have caused them. He thought the knives used by those in the leather trade would not be long enough in the blade. There were indications of anatomical knowledge...he should say that the deceased had been dead at least two hours, and probably more, when he first saw her; but it was right to mention that it was a fairly cool morning, and that the body would be more apt to cool rapidly from...