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[[File:mary-jane-kelly-310-victim.jpg|250px||right|Mary Kelly]]
== Mary Kelly ==
At 10.45am on November 9th, 1888, the Lord Mayor’s Day celebrations were just getting under way when the horribly mutilated body of a young prostitute named '''Mary Kelly ''' was discovered in a small room on one of East London’s worst streets.
The murder of Mary Kelly would go down as one of the most heinous murders on record in the history of crime.
<blockquote>"The poor fellow was so frightened that for a time he was unable to utter a single intelligible word".</blockquote>
Inspector Walter Beck, on duty with Detective Constable Walter Dew sent someone to fetch Dr George Bagster Phillips in nearby Spital Square, then dispatched a telegram to Scotland Yard. Beck closed off the Miller's Court.
Dr Phillips arrived at Miller’s Court at approximately 11.15am. The door was locked. There was an initial delay in breaking the door down as it was understood bloodhounds may have been on the way to track the scent. When Detective Frederick Abberline arrived at 11.30am, he was informed that they were still waiting for the bloodhounds. At 1.20pm Superintendent Arnold arrived and informed everybody that the order had been cancelled, and the bloodhounds were not coming. He gave the order to break down the door,.
On November 12th the inquest commenced in a small committee room on the ground floor of the Shoreditch Town Hall, conducted by Dr Roderick McDonald, MP, the coroner for the North-Eastern District of Middlesex. Superintendent Arnold of H Division, Detective Abberline of CID, and Inspector James Nairn represented the police. The fifteen jurymen were taken to view the body at the mortuary and then went to inspect Kelly’s room.
In his inquest testimony, Dr George Bagster Phillips gave only a very limited description of Kelly’s wounds and did not describe the mutilations at all. Coroner McDonald then said, "It was clear that the severance of the artery was the immediate cause of death, and unless the jury otherwise desired, this was all the evidence Dr. Phillips proposed to give that day". The inquest was closed the same afternoon after the jury had passed a verdict of “Wilful murder against some person or persons unknown.”
== Early Life ==