128th death anniversary of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes

On September 30, 1888, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes were murdered by the man known to us as Jack the Ripper. Finding news articles about these two women is difficult, in spite of the fact that their murders are two of history’s most notorious and are commented on in the news to this day. Indeed, according to the author of The Real Mary Kelly, Wynne Weston-Davies: “There have been many other serial killings before and since of much greater magnitude and—in some cases—of equal ferocity, but none have dwelled in the popular imagination as firmly as the Ripper murders.”[1] The trouble is that news outlets only ever focus on Stride and Eddowes’ killer and to a large extent ignore his victims. It is not my intention to paint a portrait of the lives of these two women, but on this day in particular I think they should at least be named and remembered. I have not read much about them but did find some information on the Internet (as well as in Weston-Davies’ book) which appears to be factual.

According to Weston-Davies, Elizabeth Stride "had moved to England from her native Sweden 22 years previously."[2] According to Dave Yost, the author of Elizabeth Stride and Jack the Ripper: The Life and Death of the Reputed Third Victim, she was born on November 27, 1843, on a family farm in Stora Tumlehed, the second daughter of Gustaf Ericsson and Beata Carlsdotter. She was baptized as Elizabeth Gustafsdotter, and she had two younger brothers.[3] Again according to Weston-Davies, Elizabeth Stride “married John Thomas Stride, a ship’s carpenter, in 1869 at St. Giles in the fields.”[4] She was 45-years-old when she was murdered. 
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Catherine Eddowes was born April 14, 1842, in Staffordshire and had 10 brothers and sisters, including one sister named Eliza Gould. According to Weston-Davies, her family moved to London when she was a baby. “After the death of her father the family was split up and Catherine spent much of her early life in the workhouse or being looked after by relatives […] At about the age of 20 she took up with Thomas Conway, an army pensioner, and bore him three children although she and Conway were probably never formally married.”[5] They eventually separated, and her partner for the seven years before her death was John Kelly.[6] She was 46-years-old when she was murdered. 

[1] Wynne Weston-Davies, The Real Mary Kelly, 2015, Blink Publishing, London, p. 110

[2] Wynne Weston-Davies, The Real Mary Kelly, 2015, Blink Publishing, London, p. 116

[3] Dave Yost, Elizabeth Stride and Jack the Ripper: The Life and Death of the Reputed Third Victim, 2008, McFarland & Company, Inc. Jefferson, p. 3

[4] Wynne Weston-Davies, The Real Mary Kelly, 2015, Blink Publishing, London, p. 138

[5] Wynne Weston-Davies, The Real Mary Kelly, 2015, Blink Publishing, London, p. 142

[6] Wynne Weston-Davies, The Real Mary Kelly, 2015, Blink Publishing, London, p. 142

© 2016 Alline Cormier

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