The Berner Street Affair

At approximately 1:00 AM on the morning of the 3rd of October, the body of Eleanor Fitch, a seamstress of modest reputation residing at No. 7 Dorset Street, was discovered in the yard behind No. 14 Berner Street — scarcely three days after the discovery of Elizabeth Stride's body at Dutfield's Yard, not forty paces distant. The body bore wounds inconsistent with common robbery — a single, precise incision to the throat, and a small quantity of white powder upon the victim's lips. Her purse, containing three shillings and fourpence, was untouched. A torn fragment of a letter was clutched in her right hand. The case has been assigned to H Division, Metropolitan Police, under the jurisdiction of the County of Middlesex.

"An Inquisition Indented, taken for our Sovereign Lord the King, at the Parish of Saint Mary Whitechapel in the County of Middlesex. Dr. Horace Whitfield, attending coroner, notes: "The wound was administered with surgical precision — a single stroke from left to right, suggesting a right-handed assailant of considerable anatomical knowledge. The white residue upon the lips requires chemical analysis, to be conducted at The London Hospital on Whitechapel Road. Time of death estimated between 11:00 PM and midnight, some hours before discovery. The body was removed to the Whitechapel Mortuary, situated behind the parish workhouse.""