Emma Elizabeth Smith

Emma Elizabeth Smith, (c. 1843- April 4 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. She was viciously assaulted and robbed in Osborn Street, Whitechapel in the early hours of April 3, 1888. 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.m. April 4, 1888. Medical investigation revealed that a blunt object had been inserted into her vagina, rupturing her perineum. 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. 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. 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. Ships in docks were searched and sailors questioned. [Walter Dew (1938) "I Caught Crippen", quoted in Nicholas Connell (2005) "Walter Dew: The Man Who Caught Crippen": 8-9]

The case was listed as the first of the eleven 'Whitechapel Murders' in the Metropolitan Police files. 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.

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'. [Walter Dew (1938) "I Caught Crippen", quoted in Nicholas Connell (2005) "Walter Dew: The Man Who Caught Crippen": 7-8]

References

Further reading

Stewart P. Evans and Donald Rumbelow (2006) "Jack the Ripper: Scotland Yard Investigates". Sutton: Stroud.