Jack the Ripper

Not only was her throat slit, Mary Ann Nichols had been disemboweled with a murder weapon Dr. Henry Llewellyn (the surgeon who examined her after death) described as

Near the end of the Inquest, the coroner was still surprised that the murderer got away without notice:

It seems astonishing at first thought that the culprit should have escaped detection, for there must surely have been marks of blood about his person. If, however, blood was principally on his hands, the presence of so many slaughter-houses in the neighbourhood would make the frequenters of this spot familiar with blood-stained clothes and hands, and his appearance might in that way have failed to attract attention while he passed from Buck’s row [where the bodyfound was depicted in this 1960s picture as a garage doorway] in the twilight into Whitechapel Road, and was lost sight of in the morning’s market traffic.

Inspector Frederick Abberline, from the Metropolitan Police, attended the coroner’s inquest regarding Mary Ann Nichols’ death. As lead investigator for the Ripper’s murders, Abberline had no idea what was in store for him.