C. Neil - The Hunt of a pipsqueak Jack the Ripper

MARY CHAPPELL, friend of Mrs. Fiddymont who saw a suspicious looking man with blood on his hand in the Prince Albert on the morning of 8th September 1888. After the man left the pub, Chappell followed him and on Brushfield Street she pointed him out to passer-by Joseph Taylor.

ELIZA COOPER, Witness at Annie Chapman's inquest.

Resident of Crossingham's Lodging House for five months and may well have been a prostitute. Had a quarrel with Annie Chapman over a piece of soap a week or so before her death. Cooper's possibly inaccurate version of events is as follows: Witness knew the deceased, and had a quarrel with her on the Tuesday before she was murdered. On the previous Saturday deceased came in and asked the people there to give her a piece of soap. She was told to ask "Liza." Deceased then came to witness, who opened the locker and gave her a piece of soap. Deceased then handed the soap to Stanley, who went and washed himself. Deceased also went out, and when she came back witness asked her for the soap, which, however, she did not return, but said "I will see you by and by." Stanley gave deceased 2s., and she paid for the bed for two nights. Witness saw no more of deceased that night. Witness was treated by Stanley. On the following Wednesday witness met deceased in the kitchen and asked her to return the piece of soap. Deceased threw a halfpenny on the table and said "Go and get a halfpennyworth of soap." They then began to quarrel, and afterwards went to the Ringers public-house, where the quarrel was continued. Deceased slapped her face and said "Think yourself lucky I did not do more." Witness believed she then struck deceased in the left eye and then on the chest. She could afterwards see that the blow had marked deceased's face. That was the last time she saw deceased alive.

JOHN DAVIS, Witness at Annie Chapman's inquest. Born 1832 in Spitalfields. Married to Mary Ann b.1838 with four children; Mary (b.1856), James (b.1865), Benjamin (b.1868) and David (b.1870). In 1871 the family were living at 27 Grey Eagle Street and John was described as a coal dealer.

Davis was described as an elderly carman (although he was only 56), living in the third-floor front room of 29 Hanbury Street. He had been living there with his wife and three sons for approximately two weeks prior to the murder. On Friday, September 7th 1888, he had gone to bed at approximately 8.00pm; his sons came in at different times thereafter, the last one at about 10.45pm. Davis was awake between 3.00am and 5.00am on the morning of the 8th, before falling back to sleep for half an hour. He got up at 5.45am. He was certain of the time as he heard the clock of Christchurch chime. When he went downstairs to the backyard, he noticed that the front door of the house was wide open (not unusual) and that the back door leading to the yard was shut. When he entered the yard, Davis saw the body of Annie Chapman. He did not go any further into the yard, but ran out into the street where he saw two men whose names he did not know (actually James Green and James Kent) and after telling them of his discovery, they went to see the body for themselves. Davis left the house with them and went to Commercial Street Police Station to report what he had seen. He did not alert any other residents of No.29 to the discovery and though he returned to Hanbury Street, he did not re-enter the house until the afternoon. Davis did not know the deceased and heard nothing suspicious during the night. The Davis family were still living at No.29 in 1891

TIMOTHY DONOVAN, Witness at Annie Chapman's inquest. Deputy of Crossingham's Lodging House, 35 Dorset Street, Spitalfields. At Chapman's inquest, Donovan stated that he had seen the body in the mortuary and identified it as being that of a woman who had been staying at the lodging house for about four months. At about 7.00pm on 7th September 1888, she had asked him if she could use the kitchen and when he asked where she'd been, she replied "the infirmary". When she left the house at around 1.45am the following morning, she asked him to keep her regular bed. He chastised her, saying that she could find money for drink but not for her bed. She had obviously been drinking, but in Donovan's eyes seemed to be able to walk straight enough. He did not see which way she turned when she left and did not see her with anyone that night. Donovan stated that he had never had any trouble with Chapman and that she was always very friendly with the other lodgers. Despite this claim, he noticed her black-eye received in a fight with Eliza Cooper on 30th August to which Chapman said "Tim, this is lovely, aren’t it". He was also able to identify the handkerchief that Chapman had been wearing round her neck - he said she'd bought it off another lodger a week or two before her death and had been wearing it on the morning of her murder.

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