*(The Illustrated Police News-
The throat had been cut right across with a knife, nearly severing the head from the body. The abdomen had been partially ripped open, and both of the breasts had been cut from the body, the left arm, like the head, hung to body by the skin only. The nose had been cut off, the forehead skinned, and the thighs, down to the feet, stripped of flesh. The abdomen had been slashed with a knife across downwards, and the liver and entrails wrenched away. The entrails and other portions of the frame were missing, but the liver etc., it is said, were found placed between the feet of this poor victim. The flesh from the thighs and legs, together with the breasts and nose, had been placed by the murderer on the table, and one of the hands of the dead woman had been pushed into her stomach.)
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| © Mary Evans Picture Library-used with permission |
Barking and East Ham Advertiser
United Kingdom 24 November 1888
United Kingdom 24 November 1888
THE WHITECHAPEL MURDER
The remains of Mary Janet Kelly, who was murdered on the 9th of
November, in Miller's-Court, Dorset-street, Spitalfields, have been
interred in the Roman Catholic Cemetery at Leytonstone. The body was
enclosed in a polished elm and oak coffin, with metal mounts. On the
coffin plate was engraved: "Marie Jeanette Kelly, died 9th Nov., 1888,
aged 25 years." Upon the coffin were two crowns of artificial flowers
and a cross made up of heartsease. The coffin was carried in an open car
drawn by two horses, and two coaches followed, from the Shoreditch
Mortuary. An enormous crowd of people assembled at an early hour,
completely blocking the thoroughfare, and a large number of police were
engaged in keeping order. As the coffin appeared, borne on the shoulders
of four men, at the principal gate of the church, the crowd was greatly
moved. Round the open car in which it was to be placed men and women
struggled desperately to touch the coffin. Women with faces streaming
with tears cried out "God forgive her!" and every man's head was bared.
The site was quite remarkable, and the emotion natural and
unconstrained. Two mourning coaches followed, one containing three, and
the other five persons. Joe Barnett was amongst them, with someone from
M'Carthy's, the landlord; and the others were women who had given
evidence at the inquest. After a tremendous struggle, the car, with the
coffin fully exposed to view, set out at a very slow pace, all the crowd
appearing to move off simultaneously in attendance. The traffic was
blocked, and the constables had great difficulty in obtaining free
passage for the small procession through the mass of carts and vans and
tramcars which blocked the road. The distance from Shoreditch Church to
the Cemetery at Leytonstone by road is about six miles, and the route
traversed was, Hackney-road, Cambridge Heath, Whitechapel-road, and
Stratford. The appearance of the roadway throughout the whole journey
was remarkable, owing to the hundreds of men and women who escorted the
coffin on each side, and who had to keep up a sharp trot in many places.
But the crowd rapidly thinned away when, getting into the suburbs, the
car and coaches broke into a trot. The cemetery was reached at two
o'clock. The Rev. Father Columban, with two acolytes, and a
cross-bearer, met the body at the door of the little chapel at St.
Patrick, and the coffin was carried at once to a grave in the
north-eastern corner. Barnett and the poor women who had accompanied the
funeral knelt on the clay by the side of the grave, while the service
was read. The coffin was incensed, lowered, and then sprinkled with holy
water, and the simple ceremony ended. The floral ornaments were
afterwards raised to be placed upon the grave, and the filling-up was
completed in a few moments, and was watched by a small crowd of people.
There was a very large concourse of people outside the gates, who were
refused admission until after the funeral was over.
Note- next story will start in a week or so; stay tuned!
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