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[[File:Mary-Ann-Nichols-jack-ripper.jpg|300px||right|Picture of Mary Ann Nichols - Polly]]
== Mary Ann Nichols ==
== The first victim of Jack The Ripper? ==
Most experts consider Mary Ann Nichols to be the first victim of Jack The Ripper.
== Nickname ==
After feeling her hands Cross thought Mary was dead - Paul thought she might still be breathing. Both men are reported to have been running late - so after trying to pull Mary's skirts down they moved on, intending to alert a policeman on the way.
In Baker’s Row, at the junction of Hanbury and Old Montague Street, they met [http://crimehub.co.uk/index.php?title=Jack_The_Ripper#PC_Mizen_55H PC Mizen 55H ] and told him of their discovery.
Unknown to PC Mizen 55H, Cross and Paul, at around 3.45am [http://crimehub.co.uk/index.php?title=PC_John_Neil_97J PC John Neil 97J ] had discovered the body of Mary Ann Nichols. The body hadn't been there when PC Neil had patrolled 30 minutes earlier.
Nichols was lying outside the gate to Mr Brown’s stables, her head towards the east, her left hand touching the gate. Her hands, which were open, lay by her sides and her legs were extended and a little apart. Blood oozed out of the wounds in her throat. A black straw bonnet trimmed with black velvet was by her side.
[http://crimehub.co.uk/index.php?title=PC_John_Thain_96J PC John Thain 96J ] was patrolling Brady Street when [http://crimehub.co.uk/index.php?title=PC_John_Neil_97J PC Neil ] spotted him and called him over. [http://crimehub.co.uk/index.php?title=PC_John_Thain_96J PC John Thain 96J ] was asked to run for Dr Llewellyn immediately.
PC Mizen was the third constable to arrive at the murder scene. He was sent to fetch an ambulance and further assistance from Bethnal Green Police Station.
== Dr Llewellyn ==
[http://crimehub.co.uk/index.php?title=Dr_Rees_Ralph_Llewellyn Dr Rees Ralph Llewellyn ] of [http://crimehub.co.uk/index.php?title=152_Whitechapel_Road 152 Whitechapel Road], arrived on the scene at around 4am. The severe throat injuries were considered and Dr Llewellyn pronounced life extinct. Dr Llewellyn suggested Nichols had been dead for less than thirty minutes.
As on-lookers started to group Dr Llewellyn ordered that the body should be moved to the mortuary in Old Montague Street.
== Inspector Spratling's discovery ==
Inspector Spratling made his way to the mortuary to find the mortuary locked and Mary NicolsNichols' body still on the ambulance.
Some time between 5am and 5.20am Robert Mann, keeper of the mortuary arrived with keys to unlock. Upon lifting her clothes Spratling discovered that Mary's abdomen had been savagely ripped apart from the breast bone. Her intestines were also exposed. For the second time that night Dr Llewellyn was fetched from his bed.
Mary Ann Nichols had been a resident of the workhouse as late as May 1888.
In the following days Mary's father, Edward Walker, and husband, William Nichols were located. They both confirmed her identity.
== Early life ==
Mary was born on 26th August 1845 to Edward Walker, a locksmith, and Caroline. The family resided at Dawes Court, off Shoe Lane.
The daughter of Edward Walker, a locksmith, and his wife Caroline, Polly was born in Dawes Court, off Shoe Lane, on 26 August 1845.
== Family Life ==
Mary married William Nichols, a printer’s machinist, at St Bride’s, Fleet Street, on 16th January 1864.
In the summer of 1868 the couple were living at 131, Trafalgar Street, Walworth.
In 1874, they set up home for themselves at 6D Block, Peabody Square, Duke Street, in Lambeth.
Mary and William had five children:
* Edward John (1866)
* Percy George (1868)
* Alice Esther (1870)
* Eliza Sarah (1876)
* Henry Alfred (1878)
Mary and William ended their marriage on bad terms in 1880.
== 31st August 1888 ==
Mary Ann Nichols is reported to have left Thrawl Street about a week before her murder. Mrs Holland saw Mary in the early hours of 31st August. Mary had tried to return to 18, Thrawl Street and was turned away because she did not have the required lodging money. Ellen Holland was the last person apart from the killer who is known to have seen her alive. Mrs Holland saw Ann at the corner of Osborn Street and Whitechapel Road at 2.30am on the morning of 31st August.
Just over an hour later and less than three-quarters of a mile away her dead and mutilated body was found in Buck’s Row. It was just a few days after her forty-third birthday.
== The Police Investigation ==
Inspector Joseph Helson from the newly created J, or Bethnal Green Division, took control of the investigation.
As Ann's murder took the East End prostitute murder count to 3 Inspector Frederick George Abberline from Scotland Yard also played a role. Abberline had served twenty-five years in the Metropolitan Police, fourteen of them in the slums of Whitechapel. During his years as H Division’s ‘Local Inspector’ (1878–1887) he had built up an unrivalled knowledge of the East End and its villains.
The police searched the local area, various railways and spoke to the local community. They found no clues whatsoever.
After reviewing the case on 19th October Chief Inspector Swanson acknowledged that the "absence of the motives which lead to violence and of any scrap of evidence either direct or circumstantial, left the police without the slightest shadow of a trace".
== Burial ==
Mary Ann Nichols was buried in the City of London Cemetery, Ilford, on the afternoon of Thursday, 6th September.
