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The canonical five Jack the Ripper victims
Mary Ann Nichols
Annie Chapman
Elizabeth Stride
Catherine Eddowes
Mary Jane Kelly

Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols (26 August 1845 – 31 August 1888) was one of the Whitechapel murder victims.^[1] Her death has been attributed to the notorious unidentified serial killer named Jack the Ripper who is believed to have killed and mutilated five women in the Whitechapel area of London from late August to early November 1888.^[1]

Last hours and death

Mortuary photograph of Mary Ann Nichols (1845–88)

At about 11 p.m. on 30 August, Nichols was seen walking the Whitechapel Road; at 12.30 a.m. she was seen to leave a pub in Brick Lane, Spitalfields. An hour later she left a common lodging-house in Thrawl Street as she was lacking fourpence for a bed, implying by her last words that she would soon earn the money on the street with the help of a new bonnet she had acquired. She was last seen at the corner of Osborn Street and Whitechapel Road, at 2.30 a.m., an hour before her death. At about 3:40am she was found dead in front of a gated stable entrance in Buck's Row (since renamed Durward Street), a back street in Whitechapel about 150 yards from the London Hospital and 100 yards from Blackwall Buildings.^[2] Neither the police officers patrolling nearby streets nor the residents of houses alongside Buck's Row reported hearing or seeing anything suspicious. The police surgeon, Dr Rees Ralph Llewellyn, 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". This was the first indication that a Ripper victim was not killed where her body was found. The amount of blood found by the body contrasted with the four pints estimated when a later victim was found and there was no doubt that she had been killed at the crime scene. Llewellyn was of the opinion that Nichols was already dead when her throat was cut - which would account for the small amount of blood - suggesting that that final wound had been inflicted for ritual purposes.

Life and background

While her death certificate states that she was forty-two at the time of her murder (an apparent error reflected on her coffin plate and gravestone), birth records indicate she was forty-three, a fact confirmed at her inquest by her father, who described her as looking "ten years younger" than her age. She was born Mary Ann Walker in Dawes Court, off Shoe Lane in London on 26 August 1845. On 16 January 1864 she married a printer's machinist, and the couple had five children: Edward John, Percy George, Alice Esther, Eliza Sarah, and Henry Alfred. Their marriage broke up in 1880 from disputed causes. Nichols was reported by her father and others to be a heavy drinker. William Nichols in turn was accused by her inquest of leaving her for an affair with a nurse, though he claimed to have proof that their marriage had continued for at least three years after the date alleged for the affair. He also maintained that his wife had repeatedly deserted him.

Legally required to support his estranged wife, William Nichols paid her an allowance of five shillings a week for a year or two but terminated it when he reported hearing she was living with another man. Nichols spent most of her remaining years in workhouses and boarding houses, often living off her meagre earnings as a prostitute. Later she lived for a short time with her father but left after a quarrel; her father stated she subsequently lived with a blacksmith for a while. In May 1888, the year of her death, she was living in the Lambeth workhouse but left to take a job as a domestic servant. Unhappy in that position because she was an alcoholic and the employer and his wife were tee-totallers, she left her a month later, stealing clothing worth three pounds ten shillings. At the time of her death she was living in a Whitechapel lodging house.

Inquest

The coroner at Nichols' inquest was Wynne Edwin Baxter. Inquest testimony as reported in The Times^[3] stated:

"Five teeth were missing, and there was a slight laceration of the tongue. There was a bruise running along the lower part of the jaw on the right side of the face. That might have been caused by a blow from a fist or pressure from a thumb. There was a circular bruise on the left side of the face which also might have been inflicted by the pressure of the fingers. On the left side of the neck, about 1in. below the jaw, there was an incision about 4in. in length, and ran from a point immediately below the ear. On the same side, but an inch below, and commencing about 1in. in front of it, was a circular incision, which terminated at a point about 3in. below the right jaw. That incision completely severed all the tissues down to the vertebrae. The large vessels of the neck on both sides were severed. The incision was about 8 inches in length. the cuts must have been caused by a long-bladed knife, moderately sharp, and used with great violence. No blood was found on the breast, either of the body or the clothes. There were no injuries about the body until just about the lower part of the abdomen. Two or three inches from the left side was a wound running in a jagged manner. The wound was a very deep one, and the tissues were cut through. There were several incisions running across the abdomen. There were three or four similar cuts running downwards, on the right side, all of which had been caused by a knife which had been used violently and downwards. The injuries were from left to right and might have been done by a left-handed person. All the injuries had been caused by the same instrument."

Funeral

Nichols was buried on Thursday, 6 September 1888. That afternoon, her body was transported in a polished elm coffin to Mr Henry Smith, Hanbury Street undertaker. The cortege consisted of the hearse and two mourning coaches, which carried William Nichols and Edward John Nichols (her eldest son, who was approximately 22 years of age). 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 Polly's grave with a plaque.

Fictional portrayals

Polly Nichols was played by Christiane Maybach in the 1965 film A Study in Terror, and by Annabelle Apsion in the 2001 film From Hell.

Further reading

• Paul Begg, Jack The Ripper - The Definitive Story ISBN 1405807121
• Philip Sugden, The Complete History of Jack the Ripper ISBN 0786702761

References

External links

• Casebook: Jack the Ripper

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