Thames Torso Murders
[1] The torso was matched by police surgeon Thomas Bond to a right arm and shoulder that had previously been discovered on the muddy shore of the River Thames in Pimlico on 11 September.
[2] On 17 October 1888,[3] reporter Jasper Waring[4] used a Spitsbergen dog, with the permission of the police and the help of a labourer, to find a left leg[5] cut above the knee that was buried near the construction site.
There was a great similarity between the condition, as regarded cutting up, of the remains and that of those found at Rainham, and at the new police building on the Thames Embankment.
[11] On 10 September 1889, Police Constable William Pennett found the headless and legless torso of an unidentified woman under a railway arch at Pinchin Street, Whitechapel.
[13] Extensive bruising about the victim's back, hip, and arm indicated that she had been severely beaten shortly before her death, which had occurred approximately one day prior to the discovery of her torso.
[14] Chief Inspector Swanson and Commissioner Monro observed that the presence of blood within the torso indicated that death was not from haemorrhage or cutting of the throat.
[18] Newspaper speculation that the body belonged to Lydia Hart, who had disappeared, was refuted after she was found recovering in hospital after "a bit of a spree".
[19] Another claim that the victim was a missing girl called Emily Barker was also refuted, as the torso was from an older and taller woman.
[19] Swanson did not consider this a Ripper case, and instead suggested a link to the Thames Torso Murders in Rainham and Chelsea, as well as the "Whitehall Mystery".
[23][24] Experts on the murders, such as Stewart Evans, Keith Skinner, Martin Fido, and Donald Rumbelow, discount any connection between the torso and Ripper killings on the basis of their different modi operandi.
[25] Monro was replaced as Commissioner by Sir Edward Bradford on 21 June 1890, after a disagreement with the Home Secretary Henry Matthews over police pensions.
[27] On 5 September 1873, the left quarter of a woman's trunk was discovered by a Thames Police patrol near Battersea.
The attempts to identify the remains were disturbed by the curiosity of the public, and the police first showed a photograph to any potential witness.
In November 1886, a woman's torso was found on the steps of the Montrouge church in Paris, missing the head, legs, right arm, left breast and uterus.
[31] Newspapers suggested a tie to Jack the Ripper's killings that were occurring simultaneously, but the Metropolitan Police said there was no connection.
