Key Dates
31.08.1888 (3.45 am, Friday): Body of Victim 1 (Mary Ann Nichols) discovered by PC John Neil (Buck's Row).
08.09.1888 (5.45 am, Saturday): Body of Victim 2 (Annie Chapman) discovered (29 Hanbury Street).
25.09.1888: The postmark of the first letter thought to be from the Whitechapel Murderer. It was sent to the Central News Agency in London before being sent on to New Scotland Yard on 29th September. It was then not released to the press until 30th September, after the 'double event' - the murders of Catherine Eddowes and Elizabeth stride, as detailed below.
29.09.1888 (7.00-8.00 pm): Last reliable sighting of Elizabeth Stride (real name Elizabeth Gustafsdotter) still alive.
29.09.1888 (8.30 pm): Catherine Eddowes is discovered drunk and taken to a police cell.
29.09.1888 (11.00 pm-12.45 am): Various sightings of Elizabeth Stride with and without a man.
30.09.1888 (12.55 am): Catherine Eddowes released from her police cell.
30.09.1888 (1.00 am, Sunday): Body of Victim 3 (Elizabeth Stride) discovered (Dutfield's Yard, Berner Street).
30.09.1888 (1.35 am): Catherine Eddowes seen with a man.
30.09.1888 (1.45 am, Sunday): Body of Victim 4 (Catherine Eddowes) discovered (Southernmost corner of Mitre Square, less than 15 minutes walk from Berner Street). As the westernmost of all the Whitechapel Murders it was defined as the only one committed in the City of London.
30.09.1888 (3.00 am): Bloodstained piece of apron and cryptic message discovered by Constable Alfred Long. The apron was found in the stairwell of a tenement at 108 to 119 Model dwellings, Goulston, Whitechapel. The piece of cloth was later confirmed as part of the apron Catherine Eddowes was wearing.
30.09.188 (5.00 am): Police Commissioner Sir Charles Warren arrived in Mitre Square and read the message, 'The Juwes are not the men that will be blamed for nothing, that was written in white chalk on the entranceway wall. Warren would have it erased against the wishes of the detectives wanting to photograph it.
16.10.1888: Human kidney received by George Lusk, Chairman of Vigilantes.
09.11.1888 (10.45 am. Friday): Body of Victim 5 (Mary Jane Kelly AKA Marie Jeanette Kelly) discovered by Thomas Bowyer, her landlord's assistant who was sent to collect overdue rent (13 Miller's Court).
16.07.1889: Body of Alice McKenzie found with throat cut and Abdomen mutilated. Dr Thomas Bond, who also conducted Kelly's autopsy concluded it was the work of Jack the Ripper, although the police disagreed.
1892: Police files closed.
1908: First Ripper book published (Copenhagen).
1929: First Ripper book published in England (Leonard Matter's The Mystery of Jack the Ripper).
1970: Royal involvement first suggested in relation to the murders.
1978: Theory mentioned in the book Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution declared a hoax.