Jack the Ripper – A Love Story ( Excerpt 91 )

Jack the Ripper – A Love Story ( Excerpt 91 )

Continuation of Police Surgeons Report :

The whole of the surface of the abdomen and thighs was removed, and the abdominal cavity emptied of its viscera. The breasts were cut off. The arms mutilated by several jagged wounds and the face hacked beyond recognition of its features. The tissues of the neck were severed all round down to the bone.

The viscera were found in various parts viz : The uterus and kidneys with one breast under the head, the other breast by the right foot, the kidneys between the feet, the intestines by the right side of the body and the spleen by the left. The flaps removed from the abdomen and thighs were on a table.

The bed clothing at the right corner was saturated with blood, and on the floor beneath, a pool of blood covering about two feet square. The wall by the right side of the bed and in line with the neck was marked by blood where it had struck it in several separate splashes.

The face was gashed in all directions, the nose, cheeks, eyebrows and ears all being partially removed. The lips were blanched and cut by several incisions running obliquely down to the chin. There were also numerous cuts extending irregularly over all the features.

The neck was cut through the skin and other tissues, right down to the vertebrae, the fifth and sixth being deeply notched. The skin cuts in the front of the neck showed distinct ecchymosis. The air passage was cut at the lower part of the larynx, through the cricoid cartilage.

Both breasts were more or less removed by circular incisions, the muscle down to the ribs being attached to the breasts. The intercostals between the fourth, fifth and sixth ribs were cut through and the contents of the thorax visible through the openings.

The skin and tissues of the abdomen from the costal arch to the pubes were removed in three large flaps. The right thigh was denuded in front to the bone, the flap of skin including the external organs of generation, and part of the right buttock. The left thigh was stripped of skin fascia and muscles as far as the knee.

(C) Damian Grange 2018