This day in history: September 30th - Double Happiness

This day in history September 30, 1888

Catherine Eddowes

On September 30, 1888, Jack the Ripper struck again from London Emerging from the shadows of the East End, preying on his favorite target - ***. He was out this time - two women, Elizabeth Strider and Catherine Eddowes, were brutally attacked and murdered within an hour in what was known as a "double incident."

Elizabeth "Long Liz" Strider was born in Sweden. Her marriage to John Stead ended in 1881, and her relationship with a working man was unstable at best. Over the years, her drinking problem worsened and she turned to prostitution to survive. She told potential clients that her husband and children had died in 1878 when the Princess Alice sank on the Thames, a lie she hoped would earn her some extra consolation money.

On the last night of her life, Liz Strider was seen with men around her. She was last seen alive as a flower pinned to her jacket by Constable William Smith at 12:30. She was talking to a young man wearing a dark coat and an antler hat. Nothing seemed amiss, so Smith continued his beat,

Just 30 minutes later, at 1 a.m., Louis Diemschutz, the steward of the International Workers' Educational Club, was in the building Stead's body was found outside. Diemschutz and other club members immediately set out to find the police. He told reporters later that day, "I could see her throat had been horribly slashed. It was a two-inch-wide gash.

Officer Lamb rushed to the scene and felt Steed's face Still warm, but without a pulse, when asked at the coroner's inquest whether the victim's clothes had been disrupted, he testified: "No, I could barely see her boots. She looked like she was being laid still.

Almost immediately after Liz Strider's body was discovered, Catherine Kate Eddos was released from Bishop's Constabulary in London. She had been in protective custody since 8:30 p.m., when she passed out drunkenly and could not be awakened.

Kate Eddowes's story is like that of many other women she knew - a failed relationship, little hope of making a living, a difficult existence that led to her addiction to alcohol and her Eventually turning to prostitution to make ends meet.

When she came and assured the police that she could take care of herself, they allowed her to leave. At 12:55 a.m. on September 30, they returned her to the streets of London.

She was last seen by three men at 1.35am at the entrance to the church passage leading to Mitte Square. Just 10 minutes later, her massacred body was discovered by Edward Watkins, who had recently passed through the area.

The Ripper was more angry at Eddos than any of his other victims to date. Her throat was slit in his signature style, she was dissected like Nichols and Chapman before her. But in Eddos' case, her intestines were placed over her right shoulder, and about two feet of her intestines were completely removed and placed between her body and left arm.

He also slashed her face, removed most of her uterus and took one of her kidneys. Some Ripper scholars believe that the only authentic letter from Jack the Ripper to the London police was the one containing Eddos' kidney.

Additionally, while the other victims were cut in a more precise manner, Kate's wounds were more unstable and jagged. As if the Ripper was going berserk. In contrast, as mentioned before, Liz Strider "only" slit her throat, perhaps because the Ripper was interrupted. We'll never know.

If you liked this article, you might also like our new popular podcast, The Brain Food Show (iTunes, Spotify, Google Play Music, Feed), as well as: Jack starts ripping the role of Sherlock Holmes Based on a real person? Mid-19th century London panic "House of Horrors" a hotel