Steampunk Miriam

I think I warned you that I would be re-visiting Miriam Angel.  It's a process.

Something gets stuck in my mind and I have to work it out.  I have now created three Miriam Angel themed pieces, read numerous articles, and managed to find and read two books about Israel Lipski, the man convicted of murdering her.

My first instinct when I heard the details of the case was to be outraged about the scant attention paid to Miriam herself.  I've unearthed more details about her.  She was 22 and pregnant with her first child.  She was having a difficult time with it, but still managed to breakfast with her mother in law every day after her husband had gone off to work as a boot riveter.

She was asleep in her bed, clearly visible through a hall window when the killer / killers came in and the murder occurred.  

As I worked my way through the information I could find about the case, the focus was always on Israel Lipski.  I can absolutely see why.  Based on the evidence, I really don't understand why he was ever even bought to trial.  

I suppose it came down to a case of his word against those of his two employees who pointed the finger back at him.  He was at the scene, bearing similar burn wounds in his mouth and throat as those inflicted to Miriam Angel, but the police chose to believe that the wounds were self-inflicted out of guilt.

Despite his swift conviction, enough doubt remained that the local Jewish community managed to have the execution put on hold until another police inquiry could be conducted.  While the investigation was under way, however, strangely, Israel Lipski confessed to the crime.  

As to be expected, he was hung in due course, but the trial and conviction remain controversial. 

Admittedly, I took a bit of a surrealistic bent on the crime as I did in my other two pieces featuring Miriam Angel.  

For whatever reason, my interest lingers on all things Victorian London, at least, those concerned with crime.

I live in south Louisiana.  Much local art features swamp landscapes and sea creatures.  Mine does not.

Admittedly, I didn't grow up here, but I also didn't grow up in Whitechapel at the turn of last century.  I did grow up in a world in which Victorian London seemed to represent all things magical and beautiful.  Remember "Mary Poppins"?  "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"?  I grew up on such classics so I think maybe the contrast between the Disneyfied version of that reality and the gritty contrast of what that world was really like is what draws me in.

I am wrapping up my Jack the Ripper series, but just know I will be back with at least one more Miriam Angel piece.  I read the title "East End poisoner driven to murder by Angel Lust."

How delicious and dark is that?  What exactly does Angel Lust look like?

As soon as I figure it out, I will share it with you!

Kate Kelly the Fourth

Kate Kelly is the fourth in my series about Jack the Ripper.

I was surprised to realize that it has been over a month since my last posting on this series.  I put up my Long Liz piece all the way back on January 19th.

In some ways,  Long Liz and  Kate Kelly are eternally joined in the mind of the public and, especially, to the Ripperologist.

Catherine Eddowes aka Kate Kelly was killed only an hour after Jack the Ripper murdered Long Liz.  The murderous night became popularly known as the double header.

Reading up on Catherine Eddowes, I was fascinated by her character.  If ever a woman lived the life of the mayfly, it would be Catherine.  She was described by friends as always jolly and singing.  The difficulties and poverty of her life seemed almost to be of her own making.

The four other victims of Jack the Ripper all survived their difficult lives, at least in part, through prostitution.  Catherine Eddowes might well have been the exception.  Of course, walking home from jail at one in the morning through the dark streets of Whitechapel, whether she was actively soliciting or not, made her an ideal victim for Jack.

  Catherine Eddowes was born in Graisley Green, Wolverhampton on 14 April 1842. She one among ten children born to her parents, tinplate worker, George Eddowes and his wife Catherine (formerly Evans), The family moved to London a year after she was born.  Growing up, she was known affectionately as "Chick".  Later, she moved back to Wolverhampton to take up work as a tinplate stamper.

She spent twenty years as the common law wife of ex-soldier, Thomas Conway.  The two had a daughter and two sons together before her increasing drinking created too many problems in their relationship.  By 1881, she was living with her new common law husband, John Kelly.  The two lived a hand to mouth existence in the poverty stricken area of Spitalfields, London.  As soon as they earned money, it was spent.

Catherine, John Kelly, and their friend, Emily Birrell, made some money picking hops in the countryside.  Within a day or two of returning to London, the earned money was gone.  Catherine Eddowes and John Kelly were forced to pawn his new boots just to pay for their breakfast.

On Sept 29th, the pair split up, Catherine to see if she could get some money from her daughter while John Kelly  settled into a lodging house.

By 8:30 pm, though, never having made it to the home of her daughter, Catherine Eddowes was well into her cups, arrested for lying drunk in the street. She sobered up in jail and was released at 1 am.   By 1:45 am, she was dead.

Interrupted in his killing of Elizabethe Stride, Jack the Ripper inflicted a far more gruesome and mutilating death on Kate Kelly.

Catherine Eddowes was a woman who danced through her life, taking one moment at a time.  She may have enjoyed her drink a little more than she should, but certainly deserved a better end than the one she was given.

Rest in Peace, Kate Kelly  

(14 April 1842 – 30 September 1888)

Long Liz

Long Liz is the third piece in my Jack the Ripper series.

By its very nature, the subject of a mysterious serial killer is overwhelming sensationalist.  

So much of the fascination with Jack is that we just don't know who he was.  Most likely, we never will.  I love a good mystery, and these crimes were committed over 125 years ago so the worst of the horror of the crimes has faded.

At its heart, though, this is still a brutal crime perpetuated against women in the lower class, labeled as the unfortunate.  Tragically, even after so much time, the same attitudes about and against women continue to flourish in the world today.

Elizabeth Stride was killed in what has become popularly known as the double header.

The daughter of farmer Gustaf Ericsson, and his wife Beata Carlsdotter, Elizabeth was born in Sweden on Nov 27, 1843.  She seems to have taken up the career of prostitution early on, giving birth to a stillborn daughter in 1865.

She moved to London in 1866, possibly in domestic service to a family.   She married John Stride, a ship's carpenter in 1869.  The two kept a coffee room for a time, but separated by 1877.

Elizabeth seems to have been fond of dramatic stories about her past, telling acquaintances that she lost her husband and children in the sinking of the Princess Anne in 1878 (her husband died of tuberculous in 1884 and there is no record of her having any children after 1865).

Like the other victims of Jack, Elizabeth seems to have had a drinking problem.  She kept company with a labourer named Michael Kidney but the two had separated a few days before her death.

On the night of September 30th, her body was discovered at about 1 am.  Although her throat had been slit like that of the other Ripper victims, her body sustained none of the mutilation of the other victims.  This has led to the speculation that Jack was interrupted in his kill or even that she was not a Ripper victim at all.

Regardless of your opinion on the identity of her murderer, Elizabeth "Long Liz" bled out on the pavement across the street from a social club.

Less than an hour later, only a short walk away, another woman died in an even more brutal fashion.

Polly Nichols buys a New Bonnet

Polly Nichols (aka Mary Ann Walker) was born on August 26, 1845). In 1864, she married William Nichols, a printer's machinist, and had five children.

The marriage broke up over allegations of her husband's philandering and her drinking. Her estranged husband stopped paying her support when he learned she was supplementing her income with prostitution.

On August 30, 1888, Polly earned her doss money but spent it on a jolly new bonnet. She earned it again, and then drank it away. Around 1:30 am, she announced her intention of earning the money quickly so that she could have a bed for the night.

Then, she met Jack. 

Sometimes you find yourself locked in a circular pattern of a strange obsession.  I've always had a streak of ripperologist in me but it recently began a strong resurgence in my psyche.  The best way for me to exorcise an obsession is to work through it.

What has always bothered me most about the obsession with Jack the Ripper is the emphasis on the Jack portion.  What about Polly Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly?  

Their lives were brutally ended by a monster.  There seems to be an implicit thought line that their lives were lesser because they were prostitutes, because they were older (excepting Mary Jane Kelly), because they were alcoholics, and because they spent most of their lives on the street.

I don't like or accept that implication so decided to start to exorcise my Jack demon by exploring each of the lives of these women that lived and died over a century ago.  They were people.  Their lives had value.