The Canonical Five: Elizabeth Stride
September 13, 2022
Elizabeth Stride, the third victim of the canonical five, was born Elisabeth Gustafsdotter on November 27, 1843 in Stora Tumlehed, in Sweden. She was the second born out of four children in total. Elizabeth’s father, Gustaf Ericsson was a farmer, and the family lived on a farm where the children were expected to complete chores.
Elizabeth moved to the city of Gothenburg and became a domestic servant to a few different families. Elizabeth was described as between 5′2-5′5 inches tall, with curly dark brown hair, and light grey eyes.
Elizabeth had begun sex worker at an earlier age than some of the other canonical five victims, police records from as early as March 1865, confirm she was arrested for this. On April 21, 1865, Elizabeth gave birth to a stillborn daughter.
In February of 1866, Elizabeth had moved to London, though the reasoning is unclear. Elizabeth supposedly told people she knew two different stories about why she made the move, telling some she relocated for employment by a “gentlemen who lived near Hyde Park” and others thought she moved because she had family already living there.
It is believed that Elizabeth briefly dated a policeman, but on March 7, 1869 she married a man named John Thomas Stride, who was a ship’s carpenter and who was 22 years older than her.
The couple ran a coffee shop in Poplar, east London for several years, while also making income from John’s carpenter work. In 1874, the marriage began to fall apart, however the couple were still living together. In 1875 they sold the coffee shop due to financial struggles.
In 1881, it is believed that Elizabeth and John had reunited and lived together again in the district of Bow, however they permanently separated later that year, with Elizabeth being admitted to a Whitechapel workhouse infirmary suffering from bronchitis in December 1881. Elizabeth was discharged on January 4, 1882, and is believed to have begun living on Flower and Dean Street in Whitechapel.
On October 24, 1884, John Stride died of tuberculosis. Elizabeth was known to have told several people that her husband and 9 children had drowned in the 1878 sinking of the Princess Alice in the River Thames. Elizabeth would tell people she had survived by climbing the ship’s mast, though none of this was true.
Elizabeth began a tumultuous relationship with a local dock labourer named Michael Kidney, with the two often separating, and Elizabeth would then go sleep in local lodging houses before going back to live with Michael. In April 1887, Elizabeth filed a formal assault against Michael, but she did not pursue this charge.
Elizabeth was often charged for drunk and disorderly conduct and the use of obscene language. She would often show up to the Thames Magistrates’ Court using the alias Annie Fitzgerald.
Elizabeth and Michael got into an argument on September 26, 1888, and separated, with Elizabeth taking residence at 32 Flower and Dean Street. She earned money by cleaning the lodging house for a few days. The day before her murder, Elizabeth was known to have cleaned two rooms at her lodging house and was paid sixpence for it.
That evening she was wearing a black jacket and skirt, with a black bonnet. At 6:30pm, Elizabeth visited the Queen’s Head pub on Commercial Street before going back to her lodging house alone.
Elizabeth was seen with a man described as short, with a dark moustache, wearing a morning suit and bowler hat at 11pm close to Berner Street. A second eyewitness claimed to have seen Elizabeth with a man wearing a peaked cap, black coat and dark pants standing on the pavement opposite number 58 Berner Street around 11:45pm. This eyewitness said Elizabeth had repeatedly kissed this man, before he said, “You would say anything but your prayers.”
At 12:35 am, PC William Smith saw Elizabeth with a man wearing a hard felt hat at 40 Berner Street in Whitechapel. The man was carrying a package about 18 inches long. Smith didn’t feel that anything was suspicious so he continued on toward Commercial Road.
Between 12:35-12:45am, a dockworker named James Brown saw who he thought appeared to be Elizabeth standing with her back against a wall at the corner of Berner Street saying to a man with a long black coat and average build, “No. Not tonight. Some other night.”
Elizabeth Stride’s body was discovered around 1am on September 30, 1888, in the adjacent Dutfield’s Yard by a man named Louis Diemschutz. He had driven into the yard with his horse and two wheeled cart when he horse abruptly went to the left to avoid what appeared to be a bundle on the ground.
Blood was still flowing from a single knife wound inflicted to Elizabeth’s neck, her hands were cold, but other parts of her body were still fairly warm. It appeared that Elizabeth had been killed very shortly before she was discovered at 1am, with several witnesses coming forward saying they were around the area between 12:30-12:50am and did not see anything.
Elizabeth’s body was lying on the near side with her face toward the wall, her head towards the yard and her feet towards the street. Her left arm was extended and there was a packet of cachous in her left hand. Her right arm was over her stomach, the back of the hand and wrist had clotted blood on it. Her legs were drawn up with her feet close to the wall.
Elizabeth had a silk handkerchief around her neck that was slightly torn. Some believe it was cut. Her throat had been deeply gashed. Rigor mortis was thorough. There was mud on the left side of her face, and over both shoulders, under the collarbone and in front of her chest was a blueish discolouration.
There was a clear cut incision on her neck. It was six inches in length and two and a half inches in a straight line below the angle of the jaw. The cut was clean and deviated downwards a little. The arteries and other vessels were all cut through. Her stomach contained partially digested food, consisting of cheese, potato and flour or milled grain powder. All her teeth on the lower left jaw were missing.
It was believed that Elizabeth’s murderer may have pulled her backwards by her neckerchief before cutting her throat. It was strongly indicated that the person who had killed Elizabeth was right-handed.
Israel Schwartz told investigators that he saw Elizabeth being attacked outside Dutfield’s Yard around 12:45am by a man with dark hair, a small brown moustache and was around 5′5 in height. The man attempted to pull Elizabeth onto the street before turning her around and shoving her to the ground. The man shouted the word, “Lipski” either to Schwartz or to another man who had been nearby lighting a pipe.
Michael Kidney was suspected in Elizabeth’s murder due to their on again off again relationship, as well as the fact that he had no alibi. Investigator’s eventually eliminated Michael as a suspect though there’s not much information on why.
At the inquest it was determined that there was about 25-30 people in the International Working Men’s Educational Club which was right by where Elizabeth was murdered that night. No one there said that they heard or saw anything strange around that time.
On the second day of the inquest a woman named Mary Malcolm swore that the body was not of Elizabeth Stride, but it was her sister, Elizabeth Watts that had been murdered. Though, police and doctors were certain it was Elizabeth Stride. The doctors also testified that it would of been impossible for Elizabeth to cry out for help.
On October 3, Michael identified Elizabeth formally, stating that he had been in a relationship with her for nearly three years. He did admit that they separated quite frequently due to Elizabeth’s heavy drinking, though she always returned.
The inquest into her death lasted five days with it being adjourned until October 23, 1888. The verdict was unanimous and read, “Wilful murder against some person or persons unknown.”
While Elizabeth’s murder had occurred in close connection to the other two murders, that of Mary Ann Nichols and Annie Chapman as they had both had deep cuts to their neck, Elizabeth had received no mutilation injuries, her sole injury was a deep cut beneath her jaw.
Some believe that Elizabeth is not connected to the other murders and that Jack the Ripper was not her killer. This is based on how there was no mutilation done to her body and that this is the only murder by Jack the Ripper that occurred south of Whitechapel Road. It is also believed that the knife used on Elizabeth Stride was shorter and a different design than was used on the other four canonical five victims.
Many however do believe that Jack the Ripper is responsible for Elizabeth Stride’s death, based off of the location, who she was, and how the murder happened. Some believe Jack the Ripper heard Diemschutz’s horse approach so he ran off without being able to finish or mutilate Elizabeth.
The same night, another woman named Catherine Eddowes was murdered, shortly after Elizabeth. Both women lived on Flower and Dean Street at the time. Perhaps Jack killed Catherine because he didn’t get to fulfill his full fantasy of mutilating Elizabeth due to being interrupted?
On October 1, 1888, a postcard dubbed the “Saucy Jacky” and signed Jack the Ripper, was received by Central News Agency. The letter took responsibility for both Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes’ murders, describing the murders as a “double event.”
The card was postmarked more than 24 hours after the murders, long after details of the murders had been known to the public, meaning anyone could have written the letter, and not necessarily the killer himself. Most Ripperologist’s agree that this postcard is a hoax, written by some journalist.
On October 16, 1888, a parcel containing half of a human kidney was sent to the Chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, George Lusk. The note is widely known as the “From Hell” letter, because that’s what the writer put as the return address. The writer said they had fried and eaten the other half of the human kidney, and the writing was different than the Saucy Jacky postcard, another reason why most think the postcard was a fraud.
The kidney was discovered to be human and from the left side. It had also been preserved in spirits before it was mailed. Major Henry Smith claimed that this kidney matched the missing one from victim Catherine Eddowes, because the length of the renal artery matched the missing length from her body. The section of kidney also showed signs of Bright’s disease, which Catherine supposedly had.
Elizabeth was buried on October 6, 1888 in the East London Cemetery, with a small number of people at her funeral. Her headstone is inscribed with her name and the years of her birth and death.
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