Emma Elizabeth Smith

Emma Elizabeth Smith, (c. 1843- April 4th 1888) was an East End prostitute and murder victim, of mysterious origins, who at the time of her death was living at a lodging-house at 18 George Street, Spitalfields. Circa (often abbreviated c, ca, ca or cca and sometimes Italicized to show it is Latin) means "about" Year 1843 ( MDCCCXLIII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Events 1581 - Francis Drake completes a circumnavigation of the world and is knighted by Elizabeth I. Year 1888 ( MDCCCLXXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Spitalfields is an area in the borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London, near to Liverpool Street station and Brick She was viciously assaulted and robbed in Osborn Street, Whitechapel in the early hours of April 3, 1888. Brick Lane ( Bangla: ব্রিক লেন is a long street in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London. Whitechapel is a built-up Inner city district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, England. Events 1043 - Edward the Confessor is crowned King of England. Year 1888 ( MDCCCLXXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a She survived the attack and managed to walk back to her lodging house with the injuries. Here she told the deputy-keeper, Mary Russell, that she was attacked by a number of men, one of whom was a teenager. Friends brought her to the London Hospital where she fell into a coma and died the next day at 9 a. Royal London Museum and Archives The Royal London has a museum which is located in the crypt of a 19th century church m. April 4, 1888. Events 1581 - Francis Drake completes a circumnavigation of the world and is knighted by Elizabeth I. Year 1888 ( MDCCCLXXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Medical investigation revealed that a blunt object had been inserted into her vagina, rupturing her perineum. The vagina (from Latin, literally " Sheath " or " Scabbard " is a fibromuscular tubular tract leading from the Uterus In Human anatomy, the perineum is generally defined as the surface region in both males and females between the Pubic symphysis and the Coccyx. On the 6th April the police were informed that an inquest was to be held the next day. The inquest, which was conducted by Coroner Wynne Edwin Baxter, was attended by the Local Inspector of the Metropolitan Police, H Division Whitechapel: Edmund Reid. Wynne Edwin Baxter FRMS, FGS LLB ( May 1 1844 - October 1 1920) born in Lewes, in Sussex "Metropolitan Police" redirects here See also Metropolitan police. His subsequent investigations, however, proved fruitless and the murderer or murderers were never caught. Walter Dew who as a Detective Constable stationed with H Division at the time describes the investigation:

As in every case of murder in this country, however poor and friendless the victims might be, the police made every effort to track down Emma Smith's assailant. Detective Chief Inspector Walter Dew (17 April 1863 &ndash 16 December 1947 was a Metropolitan Police officer who was involved in the hunt for both Jack the Ripper Unlikely as well as likely places were searched for clues. Hundreds of people were interrogated, many of them by me personally. Scores of statements were taken. Soldiers from the Tower of London [which stood within H Division] were questioned as to their movements. Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London (and historically as The Tower) is a historic monument in central London Ships in docks were searched and sailors questioned. ^[1]

The case was listed as the first of the eleven 'Whitechapel Murders' in the Metropolitan Police files. The Whitechapel murders (1888-91 were a series of eleven unsolved brutal murders of women committed in Whitechapel, in the East End of London between 3 Walter Dew thought that Smith was the first victim of Jack the Ripper, despite her claim to have been attacked by a group of men. Jack the Ripper is an alias given to an unidentified Serial killer active in the largely impoverished Whitechapel area and adjacent districts of London

Emma's previous history remains mysterious. According to Dew:

Her past was a closed book even to her intimate friends. All she had ever told anyone about herself was that she was a widow who more than ten years before had left her husband and broken away from all her early associations.

There was something about Emma Smith which suggested that there had been a time when the comforts of life had not been denied her. There was a touch of culture in her speech, unusual in her class.

Once when Emma was asked why she had broken away so completely from her old life she replied, a little wistfully: 'They would not understand now any more than they understood then. I must live somehow'. ^[2]

References

^ Walter Dew (1938) I Caught Crippen, quoted in Nicholas Connell (2005) Walter Dew: The Man Who Caught Crippen: 8-9
^ Walter Dew (1938) I Caught Crippen, quoted in Nicholas Connell (2005) Walter Dew: The Man Who Caught Crippen: 7-8

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