Питер Форман (Foreman Peter)CHAPTER ONE
MURDER IN BUCK'S ROW
London in the year 1888. On August 30th the weather was cool, the sky was black with smoke from domestic fires, and rain fell; rain and more rain. The late summer and autumn had the heaviest rain of the year.
At 9 o'clock on that Thursday night a great fire in London Docks changed the colour of the sky in the East End of London to a deep red. From the dirty streets, dark passages and slum houses of Whitechapel hundreds of people went to watch the fire. Many of them were poor and homeless. They lived and slept in squalid lodging houses. The poorest lived in the streets and slept in doorways.
As always, the pubs were crowded and noisy. Alcohol was cheap and it helped people to feel better. Mary Ann Nichols was in 'Frying Pan' pub on the corner of Brick Lane, spending her last pennies on drink. She needed the money to pay for a bed in the 'White House', her lodging house in Flower and Dean Street. But Mary Ann needed alcohol too, and she was drinking too much. Later that night she tried to get a bed at Cooley's lodging house in Thrawl Street, but she had to leave because she had no money. So she walked around the wet, cold streets hoping to earn something. One of the poorest areas in London, Whitechapel did not have many street lamps. The streets were dark, gloomy and dangerous.
Mary Ann Nichols was still walking the streets when her friend Ellen Holland saw her at 2.30 a.m. on August 31st. By that time Mary Ann - known as Polly - was very drunk. The women talked for a few minutes. Ellen asked Polly to come with her to the lodgings in Thrawl Street. But Polly went away along Whitechapel Road to try and get some money. After that only one person saw her alive again - her killer.
Buck's Row was a quiet, narrow road with warehouses on one side and some small houses or cottages on the other. At the end of the cottages was the entrance to Brown's stableyard, and then the long wall of a school. The street had only one gas lamp. At nearly 3.40 in the morning it was dark.
At this hour Charles Cross, a carman, was walking to work. He came into Buck's Row from Brady Street. A few moments later he noticed something on the pavement in front of Brown's stableyard, and crossed the road. He saw that it was a woman. At that moment he heard footsteps. It was another carman, Robert Paul, also on his way to work. Cross asked him to come and look. The men looked at the woman, but in the darkness they did not know if she was drunk or dead. They decided to continue on their way to work and tell the first policeman they met.