Whitechapel 1888The evidence, and its limits

Case · 8 September 1888

Annie Chapman

Back yard of 29 Hanbury Street, Spitalfields

Her life

Born
1840-09-25 (Paddington, London) per Wikipedia/baptismal research; Casebook gives September 1841
Died
1888-09-08 (c. 5.30 a.m., back yard of 29 Hanbury Street, Spitalfields)
Age
47
Also known as
Dark Annie; Annie Siffey/Sievey/Sivvey; née Eliza Ann Smith; Annie Siffey

Editorial biographyCompiled by the research team from the sources listed below. It summarises those sources and is not itself evidence.

Born Eliza Ann Smith in Paddington in 1840 (Casebook gives 1841), Annie was the daughter of George Smith, a soldier in the Life Guards and later a servant, and Ruth Chapman. In May 1869 she married John Chapman, a coachman, and they lived in west London before moving in 1881 to Windsor, where John worked as a domestic coachman. They had three children: Emily Ruth (died of meningitis aged 12), Annie Georgina, and John Alfred, who was disabled. Both partners drank heavily, and they separated by mutual consent about 1884; John paid her 10s a week until he died of cirrhosis at Christmas 1886. The loss of the allowance pushed her into poverty in Spitalfields. She lived with a sieve-maker (hence the nickname 'Annie Sivvey'), sold crochet work and flowers, and by 1888 lived at Crossingham's lodging house, 35 Dorset Street, spending weekends with Edward Stanley, 'the Pensioner'. Friends described her as clever and industrious when sober. By September 1888 she was seriously ill (the post-mortem found long-standing disease of the lungs and brain membranes) and bruised from a fight with Eliza Cooper over a bar of soap. She was buried at Manor Park Cemetery on 14 September 1888.

Last known movements

Compiled timelineEntries are the research team's summaries of the cited sources, not quotations. The time on the left is as reported, and the ≈ line is this site's interpretation of it.

Times in 1888 came from witnesses' estimates, church clocks and police beats, and they rarely agree to the minute. Open an entry to see how its time was read and which testimony mentions the people involved.

  1. Fri 7 Sep, c. 5.00 p.m.16:45–17:15

    Meets Amelia Palmer in Dorset Street, sober but ill: 'I shall have to go somewhere to get some money to pay my lodgings.'

    Evidence and interpretation
    Time interpretation
    7 September 1888, 16:45–17:15. Compiled timeline entry. Normalization: "c." read as ±15 min. Underlying times are witness estimates or police timings; see related testimony.
    Cited by this site's research
    Casebook transcription: Annie Chapman inquest (5 transcribed reports)
    Related testimony
    Linked by matching names in the entry. This does not mean the testimony has been assessed as supporting it.
  2. c. 11.30 p.m.23:15–23:45

    Returns to Crossingham's lodging house and asks to use the kitchen.

    Evidence and interpretation
    Time interpretation
    7 September 1888, 23:15–23:45. Compiled timeline entry. Normalization: "c." read as ±15 min. Underlying times are witness estimates or police timings; see related testimony.
    Cited by this site's research
    Casebook: Jack the Ripper, victim page "chapman"
    Related testimony
    none linked yetLinked by matching names in the entry. This does not mean the testimony has been assessed as supporting it.
  3. Sat 8 Sep, shortly after midnight / c. 12.20 a.m.00:00–00:45

    In the kitchen; says she has been to her sister's in Vauxhall; William Stevens sees her put pills in a torn envelope; sends out for beer.

    Evidence and interpretation
    Time interpretation
    8 September 1888, 00:00–00:45. Compiled timeline entry. Normalization: alternative readings combined into one span. Underlying times are witness estimates or police timings; see related testimony.
    Cited by this site's research
    Casebook transcription: Annie Chapman inquest (5 transcribed reports)
    Related testimony
    Linked by matching names in the entry. This does not mean the testimony has been assessed as supporting it.
  4. c. 1.35-1.50 a.m.01:35–01:50

    Eating potatoes in the kitchen; tells deputy Timothy Donovan she lacks the 8d for her bed: 'Don't let it. I shan't be long before I am in.'

    Evidence and interpretation
    Time interpretation
    8 September 1888, 01:35–01:50. Compiled timeline entry. Normalization: stated range kept as given. Underlying times are witness estimates or police timings; see related testimony.
    Cited by this site's research
    Casebook transcription: Annie Chapman inquest (5 transcribed reports)
    Related testimony
    Linked by matching names in the entry. This does not mean the testimony has been assessed as supporting it.
  5. c. 1.45-1.50 a.m.01:45–01:50

    Watchman John Evans sees her leave via Paternoster Row into Brushfield Street, towards Spitalfields Church.

    Evidence and interpretation
    Time interpretation
    8 September 1888, 01:45–01:50. Compiled timeline entry. Normalization: stated range kept as given. Underlying times are witness estimates or police timings; see related testimony.
    Cited by this site's research
    Casebook transcription: Annie Chapman inquest (5 transcribed reports)
    Related testimony
    Linked by matching names in the entry. This does not mean the testimony has been assessed as supporting it.
  6. c. 4.45-4.50 a.m.04:45–04:50

    John Richardson sits on the back steps of No. 29 to trim his boot and sees no body in the yard.

    Evidence and interpretation
    Time interpretation
    8 September 1888, 04:45–04:50. Compiled timeline entry. Normalization: stated range kept as given. Underlying times are witness estimates or police timings; see related testimony.
    Cited by this site's research
    Casebook transcription: Annie Chapman inquest (5 transcribed reports)
    Related testimony
    Linked by matching names in the entry. This does not mean the testimony has been assessed as supporting it.
  7. c. 5.20 a.m.05:05–05:35

    Next door, Albert Cadosch hears a voice say 'No', then a few minutes later something fall against the fence.

    Evidence and interpretation
    Time interpretation
    8 September 1888, 05:05–05:35. Compiled timeline entry. Normalization: "c." read as ±15 min. Underlying times are witness estimates or police timings; see related testimony.
    Cited by this site's research
    Casebook transcription: Annie Chapman inquest (5 transcribed reports)
    Related testimony
    Linked by matching names in the entry. This does not mean the testimony has been assessed as supporting it.
  8. c. 5.30 a.m.05:15–05:45

    Elizabeth Long sees her outside No. 29 with a dark man over forty in a brown low-crowned felt hat: 'Will you?' - 'Yes.' Last sighting.

    Evidence and interpretation
    Time interpretation
    8 September 1888, 05:15–05:45. Compiled timeline entry. Normalization: "c." read as ±15 min. Underlying times are witness estimates or police timings; see related testimony.
    Cited by this site's research
    Casebook transcription: Annie Chapman inquest (5 transcribed reports)
    Related testimony
    Linked by matching names in the entry. This does not mean the testimony has been assessed as supporting it.
  9. c. 5.45-6.00 a.m.05:45–06:00

    John Davis, a lodger, finds the body in the back yard and calls men from Bayley's workshop.

    Evidence and interpretation
    Time interpretation
    8 September 1888, 05:45–06:00. Compiled timeline entry. Normalization: stated range kept as given. Underlying times are witness estimates or police timings; see related testimony.
    Cited by this site's research
    Casebook transcription: Annie Chapman inquest (5 transcribed reports)
    Related testimony
    Linked by matching names in the entry. This does not mean the testimony has been assessed as supporting it.
  10. c. 6.10 a.m.05:55–06:25

    Inspector Joseph Chandler arrives; Dr Phillips arrives at 6.30 and estimates death at least two hours earlier.

    Evidence and interpretation
    Time interpretation
    8 September 1888, 05:55–06:25. Compiled timeline entry. Normalization: "c." read as ±15 min. Underlying times are witness estimates or police timings; see related testimony.
    Cited by this site's research
    Casebook transcription: Annie Chapman inquest (5 transcribed reports)
    Related testimony
    Linked by matching names in the entry. This does not mean the testimony has been assessed as supporting it.

Investigate this case

Follow the evidence: places on the map, times on the timeline, each claim back to its source passage, then compare suspects and stress-test a theory.

Base map: Booth's poverty map, published 1889 (a year after the murders), georeferenced by this site to about ±10–15 m. Colours are Booth's social classes, not crime data. Details and limits

Charles Booth, Descriptive Map of London Poverty 1889, North-Eastern sheet (Whitechapel and Spitalfields extract). Wellcome Collection (L0074439), via Wikimedia Commons. Charles Booth, Life and Labour of the People. Licence: CC BY 4.0. Source file.

Derived image Georeferenced by this site: the 1889 scan was warped to fit modern coordinates using 9 surviving street junctions (RMS error about 10 m, worst 15 m).

Published 1889, the year after the murders, and drawn on an Ordnance Survey base: details may differ from August 1888. Colours show Booth's 1889 classification of each street's inhabitants (his own, now-dated categories, from black 'lowest class' to gold 'wealthy'); they are not records of the murders. Location markers are positioned from this site's readings of the 1891-5 OS 1:1,056 plan, not from this image, so marker and image can disagree by 10-30 m.

  1. Scene: 29 Hanbury Street — Annie Chapman, as an interactive schematic plan
  2. Map: places, movements and uncertainty
  3. Timeline: who was where, and when
  4. Reconstruction: Chapman killed ~5:20-5:30 (witness timeline; coroner's view)
  5. Reconstruction: Chapman killed at or before ~4:30 (Phillips' estimate preferred)
  6. Suspects: compare on the evidence, focused on this case
  7. Workbench: stress-test this case's reconstructions
  8. Workbench: the Lechmere/Cross theory across Nichols and Chapman
  9. Workbench: which crimes are linked (all five)

Inquest

Editorial summary

The Chapman inquest ran for five sittings at the Working Lads' Institute. Lodging-house witnesses (Donovan, Evans, Palmer, Stevens, Cooper) reconstructed her last days, poverty, illness and quarrel with Eliza Cooper, while residents of 29 Hanbury Street described a house whose front and back doors were never locked. John Pizer, the shoemaker publicly identified as 'Leather Apron', was called to clear his name, and 'the Pensioner' Edward Stanley was eventually produced. The timing evidence was in sharp conflict. Dr Phillips put death at least two hours before 6.30 a.m., but John Richardson saw nothing in the yard at 4.45-4.50, Albert Cadosch heard a 'No' and a fall against the fence at about 5.20, and Elizabeth Long saw Chapman alive with a man outside No. 29 at 5.30. Phillips at first resisted giving details of the mutilations in public. Recalled on 19 September, he described them, said the organs removed showed anatomical knowledge, and estimated the work would have taken even a surgeon at least a quarter of an hour. In a long summing-up on 26 September, Baxter preferred the witnesses' timing to the medical estimate, concluded that the object of the murder was to obtain the uterus, and floated the theory that an American had sought to buy such specimens. The jury returned wilful murder against a person or persons unknown.

Read the inquest: 22 witnesses, with verbatim reports

Police photographs

Mortuary or scene photographs taken in 1888. They are hidden until you choose to see them.

Content notice: mortuary or crime-scene photograph

Mortuary photograph, Sept 1888

This is a photograph of a deceased person taken by the police in 1888. Some show severe injuries.

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Sources for this case

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