THE HORRIBLE MURDER IN WHITECHAPEL.

MONDAY 9TH APRIL

1888

1 Mr. Wynne Baxter held on Saturday morning, at the London Hospital, an

2 inquiry into the circumstances attending the death of an unfortunate,
3 named Emma Eliza Smith, who was assaulted in the most brutal manner
4 early on Tuesday morning in the neighbourhood of Osborn-street,
5 Whitechapel. Mary Russell, the deputy-keeper of a common lodging-
6 house in George- street, Spitalfields, stated that the deceased, who had
7 lived eighteen months in the house, left home on Monday evening in her
8 usual health and returned between four and five next morning, suffering
9 from horrible injuries.

10 The woman told witness that she had been shockingly ill-treated by
11 some men and robbed of her money. Her face was bleeding and her ear
12 cut. Witness took her at once to the London Hospital, passing through
13 Osborn-street on the way, near a spot close to a cocoa factory, which
14 Smith pointed out as the place where the outrage had been committed.
15 Smith, who seemed unwilling to go into details, did not describe the men
16 nor give any further account of the occurrence to witness. Dr. G.H.
17 Hillier, the house surgeon in attendance on Tuesday morning, when the
18 deceased was brought in, said the injuries which the woman had
19 received were horrible. A portion of the right ear was torn, and there was
20 a rupture of the peritoneum [1] and other internal organs, caused by
21 some blunt instrument. The account given of the occurrence, by the
22 unfortunate woman to the doctor, was that about half-past one o'clock on
23 Tuesday morning, when near Whitechapel Church, she crossed over the
24 road to avoid some men, who followed, assaulted her, robbed her of all
25 the money she had, and then committed the outrage. There were two or
26 three men, one of them looking like a youth of about nineteen. The
27 patient died on Wednesday, about nine a.m., of peritonitis [2]. In reply to
28 questions from the coroner and the jury, the doctor said he had no doubt
29 whatever that death had been caused by the wounds. He had found the
30 other organs generally in a normal condition.

31 Another woman subsequently examined as a witness deposed to seeing

32 Smith about a quarter-past twelve on Tuesday morning, near the
33 Burdett-road, talking to a man dressed in dark clothes with a white
34 neckerchief round his neck. She had been assaulted a few minutes
35 before seeing Smith, and was getting away from the neighbourhood,
36 where there had been some rough work that night. Two fellows had
37 come up to her, one asking the time and the other striking her on the
38 mouth, and both running away. She did not think the man talking to
39 Smith was one of her assailants. Mr. John West, chief inspector of police
40 of the H division, said he had no official information of the occurrence.
41 He had questioned the constables on duty in the Whitechapel-road at
42 the time, but none of them had either seen or heard any such
43 disturbance as that indicated in the evidence, nor had seen anyone
44 taken to the hospital. He would make inquiries as to Osborn-street in
45 consequence of what had transpired at the inquest.

46 The Coroner, in summing up, said that from the medical evidence, which
47 must be true, it was perfectly clear that the poor woman had been
48 murdered, but by whom there was no evidence to show. After a short
49 consultation, a verdict of "Wilful murder" against some person or persons
50 unknown was returned by the jury.

Glossary
[1] peritoneum (n) = lining of your abdomen.
[2] peritonitis (n) = a bacterial/fungal infection of the lining of your
abdomen.