Annie Chapman (born Eliza Ann Smith; 25 September 1840 – 8 September 1888) was the second canonical victim of the unidentified serial killer known as "Jack the Ripper", who murdered and mutilated at least five women in the Whitechapel and Spitalfields districts of London between late August and early November 1888.
Although earlier murders attributed to the Ripper—then referred to as the "Whitechapel murderer"—had already attracted considerable press and public attention, Chapman's killing provoked widespread alarm in the East End, and intensified pressure upon the police to apprehend the culprit.
Early life
Annie Chapman was born Eliza Ann Smith on 25 September 1840 in Paddington. She was the first of five children born to George Smith and Ruth Chapman. George was a soldier, having enlisted in the 2nd Regiment of Life Guards in December 1834. The family's movements during Annie's earliest years reportedly followed her father's military service in London and Windsor.
Annie's parents were not married at the time of her birth, although they married on 22 February 1842 in Paddington. Following the birth of their second child in 1844, the family relocated to Knightsbridge, where George Smith became a valet. They later moved to Berkshire in 1856.
According to her brother, Fountain, Annie had "first took a drink when she was quite young", quickly developing a weakness for alcohol. Although both he and two of her sisters had persuaded her to sign a pledge to refrain from drinking, she "was tempted and fell" despite their "over and over" efforts to dissuade her.
Family relocation
Census records from 1861 indicate that all members of the Smith family—except Annie—had relocated to the parish of Clewer. She is believed to have remained in London, possibly due to employment commitments as a domestic servant. Her father, George (also known as William Smith), was by this time the valet to Captain Thomas Naylor Leland of the Denbighshire Yeomanry Cavalry. On 13 June 1863, George accompanied his employer to a horse racing event. He lodged with his employer that evening at the Elephant and Castle, Wrexham. That night, George committed suicide.
Contemporary accounts describe Annie as an intelligent and sociable woman with a weakness for alcohol—particularly rum. She was in height and had blue eyes and wavy, dark brown hair, leading acquaintances to give her the nickname "Dark Annie".
Marriage
160px|thumb|left|Wedding portrait of Annie and John Chapman, 1 May 1869
On 1 May 1869, Annie married John James Chapman, who was related to her mother. The ceremony was conducted at All Saints Church in the Knightsbridge district of London, and was witnessed by one of her sisters, Emily Laticia, and a colleague of her husband named George White. The couple's residence on their marriage certificate is listed as 29 Montpelier Place, Brompton, although they are believed to have briefly lived with White and his wife in Bayswater.
Children
The couple had three children: Emily Ruth (), Annie Georgina (), and John Alfred (). Emily Ruth was born at Chapman's mother's home in Montpelier Place, Knightsbridge; Annie Georgina was born at South Bruton Mews, Mayfair; and John Alfred was born in the Berkshire village of Bray. The Chapmans sought medical help for him at a London hospital before later placing him in the care of an institution for the physically disabled near Windsor.
Although Annie had struggled with alcoholism as an adult, she had reportedly weaned herself off drink by 1880. Her son's disability is believed to have contributed to her gradual return to alcohol dependency.
160px|thumb|right|Emily Ruth Chapman. Her death on 21 November 1882 at age 12 increased her parents' [[Alcohol dependence|alcohol dependency]]
In 1881, the Chapman family relocated from West London to Windsor, where John took a job as a coachman to a farm bailiff named Josiah Weeks, and the family lived in the attic rooms of St. Leonard Hill Farm Cottage. The following year, Emily Ruth died of meningitis on her brother's second birthday, at the age of twelve. The precise reason for the couple's separation is unknown, although a later police report lists the reason for their separation as Annie's "drunken and immoral ways".
Two years later, in 1886, John resigned from his job due to his declining health and relocated to New Windsor. and edema on 25 December, bringing an end to the weekly payments. Annie learned of her husband's death through her brother-in-law. By 1886, she was living with a man who made wire sieves for a living, and consequently became known to some acquaintances as "Annie Sievey" or "Siffey". At the end of that year, her weekly allowance abruptly ceased. When she enquired why these weekly payments had stopped, Annie learned that her husband had died of alcohol-related causes.
Shortly after John's death, this sieve-maker left her—possibly due to the loss of her allowance—and relocated to Notting Hill. One of Annie's friends said she became depressed after this separation and appeared to lose her will to live.
1888
By May or June 1888, Chapman was residing at Crossingham's Lodging House at 35 Dorset Street, According to the lodging-house deputy, Timothy Donovan, a 47-year-old bricklayer's labourer named Edward "The Pensioner" Stanley would typically stay with Chapman between Saturday and Monday, occasionally paying for her bed. She earned her income from crochet work, making antimacassars, and selling flowers, supplemented by casual prostitution.
Eight days before her death, Chapman fought with a fellow resident of Crossingham's Lodging House named Eliza Cooper. The two were reportedly rivals for the affections of a local hawker named Harry, although Cooper later claimed the dispute had begun when Chapman borrowed a bar of soap from her and, when asked to return it, threw a halfpenny onto a kitchen table, saying, "Go get a halfpenny's worth of soap." A later confrontation between the two at the Britannia Public House ended with Cooper striking Chapman in the face and chest, leaving her with a black eye and a bruised breast.
On 7 September, Amelia Palmer encountered Chapman in Dorset Street. Palmer later told police that she appeared visibly pale, having been discharged from the casual ward of the Whitechapel Infirmary earlier that day.
After Chapman's death, the coroner who conducted her autopsy noted that her lungs and membranes of her brain were in an advanced state of disease, which would have proved fatal within months. Stevens then observed her take a box of pills from her pocket. This box broke, and Chapman wrapped the pills in a piece of envelope taken from a mantlepiece before leaving the property. At approximately 1:35 am, she returned to the lodging-house with a baked potato which she ate before again leaving the premises, likely intending to earn the money needed for a bed through prostituting herself, saying, "I won't be long, Brummie. See that Tim keeps the bed for me." Evans last saw her walking in the direction of Spitalfields Market.
A Mrs Elizabeth Long testified at the subsequent inquest that she had seen Chapman speaking with a man at 5:30 am. The pair were standing just beyond the back yard of 29 Hanbury Street, Spitalfields. Long described the man as over 40 years old, slightly taller than Chapman, with dark hair, and of a foreign, "shabby-genteel" appearance. According to Long, the man asked Chapman, "Will you?" to which she replied, "Yes."
Long was certain of both Chapman's identity and the time of the sighting, having heard a nearby clock strike the half-hour just before she entered Hanbury Street. If her account was accurate, she was likely the last person to see Chapman alive, and in the company of her murderer.
Murder
Shortly before 5:00 am on 8 September, John Richardson, the son of a resident of 29 Hanbury Street, entered the back yard of the property to check that the padlocked cellar remained secure and to trim a loose piece of leather from his boot. He confirmed the cellar was still padlocked, then sat on the rear steps to cut away the loose leather, noticing nothing unusual. Richardson left the property via the front door approximately three minutes later, having not ventured beyond the steps into the yard.
At approximately 5:15 am, Albert Cadosch, a tenant of 27 Hanbury Street, entered his back yard to use the lavatory. He later told police he heard a woman say, "No, no!" followed by the sound of something—or someone—falling against the fence dividing the yards of numbers 27 and 29 Hanbury Street. He did not investigate the noises.
230px|thumb|left|The entrance to the yard of 29 Hanbury Street. Chapman's body was found lying parallel to the fence, with her head almost touching the rear steps of this property, on 8 September 1888.
thumb|160px|Mortuary photograph of Annie Chapman
Chapman's mutilated body was discovered shortly before 6:00 am by John Davis, an elderly resident of 29 Hanbury Street. Davis noticed that the front door was open, while the back door remained shut. Her body lay on the ground near the doorway to the back yard, with her head six inches (15 cm) from the steps to the property. He alerted three men—James Green, James Kent, and Henry Holland—before all three ran down Commercial Street to find a policeman, while Davis reported the discovery at the nearest police station.
At the corner of Hanbury Street, Green, Kent, and Holland encountered Divisional Inspector Joseph Luniss Chandler and told him, "Another woman has been murdered!" Chandler followed the men to the scene before requesting the assistance of police surgeon Dr George Bagster Phillips and additional officers. Several policemen arrived within minutes and were instructed to clear the passageway to the yard to ensure Phillips had access. Phillips reached Hanbury Street at approximately 6:30 am.
Dr Phillips quickly established a definite link between Chapman's murder and that of Mary Ann Nichols, which had occurred on 31 August. Nichols had also suffered two deep slash wounds to the throat, inflicted from the left to right, followed by abdominal mutilation, and a blade of similar size and design had been used in both murders. Phillips also noted six areas of blood spattering on the wall between the steps and wooden palings dividing 27 and 29 Hanbury Street. Some of these spatterings were 18 inches (45 cm) above the ground.
Two pills, prescribed to Chapman, a torn piece of envelope, a small fragment of frayed coarse muslin, and a comb were recovered near her body. Edmund Reid, the local inspector of H Division Whitechapel, was reported to have mentioned the coins at an inquest in 1889, and Major Henry Smith, acting Commissioner of the City Police, also referred to them in his memoirs.