abdominal area and sexual organs had been brutally sliced and mutilated, which explained the large puddle of blood beneath the body. Furthermore, there were many bruises on the sides of her face, which indicated that she had been knocked unconscious before being mutilated. The murder was believed to have been committed with a stout-handled blade of six to eight inches long (Geary, p.7).
             Mary Anne Nichols was the first victim of Jack the Ripper who was deliberately mutilated. She was known as "Polly" by her friends, and was a drunken street prostitute in her early forties. She married at the age of nineteen to a printer named William Nichols. They had five children together. The two eventually separated shortly after Mary Anne developed a drinking problem. William took custody of all of their children, except for the oldest, Edward, and paid Mary a weekly allowance of $5.25 until he learned of her lifestyle as a street prostitute. Mary Anne was last seen by a friend named Ellen Holland at 2:30 a.m. on the corner of Osborn Street and White chapel High Street. It was noted that she was drunk and staggering at the time. After a weekend of investigation, the Metropolitan Police Force was unable to come up with much useful information regarding the murder of Mary Anne Nichols.
             On Sept. 8, 1888, a little before 6:00A.M.; Annie Chapman was found laying dead at the foot of steps at the back of a lodging house by a lodger named John Davis. The first sight of the dead body sent Davis screaming down his street, alarming the whole neighborhood. Inspector Joseph Luniss Chandler of the Commercial Street station arrived with his men to seal off the scene and the building from the large crowd that had already gathered before their arrival. Dr. Wynne Baxter-Phillips was summoned to the scene to examine the body. His brief examination revealed that the woman's throat was cut with two deep slashes, so deep, that the woma...