Wynne Edwin Baxter

Wynne Edwin Baxter FRMS FGS (1 May 1844 – 1 October 1920) was an English lawyer, translator, antiquarian and botanist, but is best known as the coroner who conducted the inquests on most of the victims of the Whitechapel Murders of 1888 to 1891 including three of the victims of Jack the Ripper in 1888, as well as on Joseph Merrick, the "Elephant Man".

Baxter moved from Lewes to London in 1875, starting a solicitor's practice and an advertising agency at the same premises in Cannon Street.

As the Coroner for Sussex from 1880 to 1887, Wynne Baxter conducted the inquest of the Brighton 'railway murderer' Percy Lefroy Mapleton who was hanged in 1881, as well as that of his victim, Isaac Frederick Gold.

In July 1887 he held the inquest of Miriam Angel, who had been poisoned by Israel Lipski at 16, Batty Street.

Baxter played a key judicial role during the Whitechapel Murders of 1888 to 1891, conducting the inquests into the deaths of Annie Millwood, Emma Elizabeth Smith, Polly Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Rose Mylett, Alice McKenzie, the 'Pinchin Street Torso' and Frances Coles.

The inquest for Mary Ann 'Polly' Nichols was conducted by Baxter on 1 September 1888 at the Working Lads' Institute in Whitechapel Road, and was attended by Detective Inspectors Frederick Abberline and Helson and Sergeants Godley and Enright on behalf of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

[4] Baxter's own theory was that the murderer was attempting to obtain certain female organs for sale to doctors along with a medical periodical.

Having heard medical evidence from Police Surgeon Dr George Bagster Phillips during the inquest into Annie Chapman's murder, Baxter said: "The body had not been dissected, but the injuries had been made by someone who had considerable anatomical skill and knowledge.

Between November 1914 and April 1916, during the First World War, Baxter conducted inquests into the deaths of eleven German spies, including Karl Lody, who had been captured in Great Britain and tried and executed at the Tower of London.

Baxter was also an antiquarian,[9] having in his library 3,000 volumes concerning Paradise Lost author John Milton, many of them rare editions.

[17] In the 1988 TV mini-series Jack the Ripper, starring Michael Caine as Inspector Abberline, Baxter was played by veteran actor Harry Andrews.