The slayings never faded from public consciousness, however. The person responsible for killing at least five Londoners between August and November 1888 was never found, and authorities officially closed the file in 1892. It was never worn or washed as the search for one of the world’s most notorious killers grew colder and colder. Simpson’s horrified wife stashed the seven-foot-long fabric found next to Jack the Ripper’s fourth victim in a box.
His superiors granted permission, but unsurprisingly, the present was not well received. Eddowes had been the second prostitute inside of an hour found murdered in that section of the city, and the slaying bore the grisly signatures of the serial killer who for weeks had been terrorizing London’s East End- Jack the Ripper.Īs police from Scotland Yard completed their work, Acting Sergeant Amos Simpson reportedly made an odd request to take home a blood-splattered shawl-blue and dark brown with a pattern of Michaelmas daisies at either end-found at the crime scene as a gift for his seamstress wife. In the early morning hours of September 30, 1888, police discovered the mutilated body of Catherine Eddowes, her throat slit and left kidney removed, in London’s Mitre Square.
