Saucy Jacky

When she died, Emma Smith was forty-five years old. She was a mother of two, a widower, and a prostitute. Her refined speech suggested she had been well off before residing in Whitechapel, which earned her a higher status amongst her peers. 

Emma complained her children did nothing to help her. She had been a prostitute for some time before her death. Emma resided at 18 George Street for about a year and a half before her untimely death. She habitually left her lodgings around six or seven in the evening and returned early the following morning after plying her trade to earn her doss money.

On Easter Monday, April 3, 1888, she left her lodging house around 6:00 pm. A gang of men attacked her around one-thirty in the morning and beat, robbed and savagely assaulted her. Although badly injured and left for dead, Emma was determined to return to her lodgings. 

Emma, who possessed an iron will, staggered into her lodging house on George Street about four hours later. She had placed her woollen wrap between her thighs to staunch the flow of blood from the wound, which proved fatal. 

The lodging house deputy, Mary Russell and a fellow lodger, Annie Lee, took her to the London Hospital on Whitechapel Road over Emma’s objections. Hospital staff treated her wounds, and she remained conscious just long enough to describe her assailants and recount the assault. Emma lapsed into a coma and died without regaining consciousness.

Mr Wynne E. Baxter, the East Middlesex Coroner, held an inquiry on Saturday, April 7, into Emma’s death. 

Mr George Haslip, the hospital surgeon who treated Emma, said she had been drinking but was not intoxicated when admitted to the hospital. The doctor added that Emma was bleeding from the head and ear and had a ruptured peritoneum caused by her attackers inserting a blunt instrument into her vagina with great force.

Dr Haslip said Emma told him that at half past one that morning, a small band of men and a youth began to follow her as she passed by Whitechapel Church. She crossed the road to avoid them, but they continued to follow her. They finally caught up with her near Taylor’s cocoa factory on the corner of Brick Lane and Wentworth Street. There, they beat, robbed, and viciously jabbed a blunt object into her vagina, tearing her perineum. She was unable to describe the object, nor could she describe her assailants, although she maintained one was a youth of 19. Emma died on Wednesday, April 5, after peritonitis set in.

Chief Inspector West, H Division, stated that the Metropolitan Police only became aware of the attack through an article in the daily papers. He questioned the constables on the beat, but none knew anything about the matter.

The coroner determined that a group of unknown men had murdered Emma. He added that it was impossible to imagine a more brutal and cruel assault.

The coroner’s  jury duly returned a verdict of “Wilful murder against some person or persons unknown.”

Most Ripperologists, as Ripper researchers are known, wrongly believe Emma was a victim of one of the many ‘High rip’ gangs that preyed on prostitutes and part-time prostitutes – known as ‘unfortunates’ – in Whitechapel. 

When we accept that Emma Smith was a Ripper victim, the myth of the lone attacker disappears, and the Ripper attacks become a conspiracy.