At around 3 pm on Monday 1st October Dr Blackwell made a post-mortem examination of Elizabeth Stride's body alongside Dr Bagster Phillips.
Dr Phillips's official post-mortem documents state:
The Rigour mortis was still thoroughly marked. There was mud on the left side of the face and it was matted in the head. ... The body was fairly nourished. Over both shoulders, especially the right, and under the collarbone and in front of the chest there was a bluish discolouration, which I have watched and have seen on two occasions since. There was a clear-cut incision on the neck. It was six inches in length and commenced two and a half inches in a straight line below the angle of the jaw, three-quarters of an inch over an undivided muscle, and then, becoming deeper, dividing the sheath. The cut was very clean and deviated a little downwards. The arteries and other vessels contained in the sheath were all cut through. The cut through the tissues on the right side was more superficial and tailed off to about two inches below the right angle of the jaw. The deep vessels on that side were uninjured. From this, it was evident that the haemorrhage was caused by the partial severance of the left carotid artery and a small bladed knife could have been used.
Decomposition had commenced in the skin. Dark brown spots were on the anterior surface of the left chin. There was a deformity in the bones of the right leg, which was not straight but bowed forwards. There was no recent external injury save to the neck. The body being washed more thoroughly, I could see some healing sores. The lobe of the left ear was torn as if from the removal or wearing through of an earring, but it was thoroughly healed. On removing the scalp there was no sign of bruising or extravasation of blood. ... The heart was small, the left ventricle firmly contracted, and the right slightly so. There was no clot in the pulmonary artery, but the right ventricle was full of dark clots. The left was firmly contracted as to be absolutely empty. The stomach was large and the mucous membrane was only congested. It contained partly digested food, apparently consisting of cheese, potato, and farinaceous powder. All the teeth on the lower left jaw were absent.I believe the perpetrator of the act must have had considerable knowledge of the position of the organs in the abdominal cavity and the way of removing them. The parts removed would be of no use for any professional purpose. It required a great deal of knowledge to have removed the kidney and to know where it was placed. Such a piece of knowledge might be possessed by one in the habit of cutting up animals. I think the perpetrator of this act had sufficient time ... It would take at least five minutes. ... I believe it was the act of one person."
That same day, the suspect of Elizabeth strides murder, Michael Kidney walked into Leman Street police station and accused the police of incompetence, stating that had he been a policeman on duty in Berner Street during the murder, he would have shot himself. Kidney was suspected of being Stride's murderer because of their turbulent relationship and because there is no record of his alibi. But the lack of compelling evidence meant he was free to move around.
Mr Frederick William Blackwell was called on the inquest of Elizabeth stride who deposed:
I reside at No. 100, Commercial-road, and am a physician and surgeon. On Sunday morning last, at ten minutes past one o'clock, I was called to Berner-street by a policeman. My assistant, Mr Johnston, went back with the constable, and I followed immediately. I was dressed. I consulted my watch on my arrival, and it was 1.16 a.m. The deceased was lying on her left side obliquely across the passage, her face looking towards the right wall. Her legs were drawn up, her feet close against the wall of the right side of the passage. Her head was resting beyond the carriage-wheel rut, the neck lying over the rut. Her feet were three yards from the gateway. Her dress was unfastened at the neck. The neck and chest were quite warm, as were also the legs, and the face was slightly warm. The hands were cold. The right hand was open and on the chest, and was smeared with blood. The left hand, lying on the ground, was partially closed and contained a small packet of cachous wrapped in tissue paper. There were no rings, nor marks of rings, on her hands. The appearance of the face was quite placid. The mouth was slightly open. The deceased had around her neck a check silk scarf, the bow of which was turned to the left and pulled very tight. In the neck, there was a long incision which exactly corresponded with the lower border of the scarf. The border was slightly frayed, as if by a sharp knife. The incision in the neck commenced on the left side, 2 inches below the angle of the jaw, and almost in a direct line with it, nearly severing the vessels on that side, cutting the windpipe completely in two, and terminating on the opposite side 1 inch below the angle of the right jaw, but without severing the vessels on that side. I could not ascertain whether the bloody hand had been moved. The blood was running down the gutter into the drain in the opposite direction from the feet. There was about 1 pound of clotted blood close to the body, and a stream of blood running all the way from there to the back door of the club.
Coroner: Were there no spots of blood about? - Dr Blackwell:No; only some marks of blood which had been trodden in.
Coroner:Was there any blood on the soles of the deceased's boots?
Dr Blackwell: - No.
Coroner: No splashing of blood on the wall?
Dr Blackwell - No, it was very dark, and what I saw was by the aid of a policeman's lantern. I have not examined the place since. I examined the clothes but found no blood on any part of them. The bonnet of the deceased was lying on the ground a few inches from the head. Her dress was unbuttoned at the top.
Coroner: Can you say whether the injuries could have been self-inflicted?
Dr Blackwell: - It is impossible that they could have been.
Coroner:Did you form any opinion as to how long the deceased had been dead?
Dr Blackwell:From twenty minutes to half an hour when I arrived. The clothes were not wet with the rain. She would have bled to death comparatively slowly on account of vessels on one side only of the neck being cut and the artery not completely severed.
Coroner:After the infliction of the injuries was there any possibility of any cry being uttered by the deceased?
Dr Blackwell: None whatsoever. Dr Phillips came about twenty minutes to half an hour after my arrival. The double doors of the yard were closed when I arrived so the previous witness must have made a mistake on that point.
A Juror: Can you say whether the throat was cut before or after the deceased fell to the ground?
Dr Blackwell:- I formed the opinion that the murderer probably caught hold of the silk scarf, which was tight and knotted, and pulled the deceased backwards, cutting her throat in that way. The throat might have been cut as she was falling, or when she was on the ground. The blood would have spurted about if the act had been committed while she was standing up.
The Coroner: Was the silk scarf tight enough to prevent her from calling out?
Dr Blackwell:- I could not say that.
Coroner: A hand might have been put on her nose and mouth.
Dr Blackwell:- Yes, and the cut on the throat was probably instantaneous.
Dr Blackwell was recalled again to the inquest on 5 October, after a re-examination of the body had been performed by him and Dr Phillips:
Dr Blackwell said: I can confirm Dr Phillips as to the appearances at the mortuary. I may add that I removed the cachous from the left hand of the deceased, which was nearly open. The packet was lodged between the thumb and the first finger and was partially hidden from view. It was I who split them by removing them from my hand. My impression is that the hand gradually relaxed while the woman was dying, she was dying in a fainting condition from the loss of blood. I do not think that I made myself quite clear as to whether this could have been a case of suicide. What I meant to say was that considering all the facts, more especially the absence of any instrument in the hand, it was impossible to have been a suicide. I have myself seen many equally severe wounds self-inflicted. Concerning the knife which was found, I would like to say that I concur with Dr Phillips in his opinion that, although it might have inflicted the injury, it is an extremely unlikely instrument to have been used. It appears to me that a murderer, in using a round-pointed instrument, would seriously handicap himself, as he would be only able to use it in one particular way. I am told that slaughterers always use a sharp-pointed instrument.
The Coroner: No one has suggested that this crime was committed by a slaughterer.
Dr Blackwell: I simply intended to point out the inconvenience that might arise from using a blunt-pointed weapon.
The Foreman: Did you notice any marks or bruises about the shoulders?
Dr Blackwell: - They were what we call pressure marks. At first, they were very obscure, but subsequently, they became very evident. They were not what are ordinarily called bruises; neither is there any abrasion. Each shoulder was about equally marked.
A Juror: How recently might the marks have been caused?
Dr.Blackwell: That is rather difficult to say.
Coroner: Did you perceive any grapes near the body in the yard?
Dr.Blackwell:No.
Coroner: Did you hear any person say that they had seen grapes there?
Dr.Blackwell: I did not
J. Best and John Gardner were quoted in The Evening News, on Monday, 1st October 1888, as having seen Elizabeth Stride in the company of a man in the doorway of the Bricklayers Arms, at a little before 11 pm on the night of Saturday, 29th September 1888.
Best stated that he and his friends had been surprised by how the man was "going on with the woman". He claimed that he was so suspicious of the man that, if he had seen a policeman, he would have had the man arrested.
The article in The Evening News read:-
J. Best, 82, Lower Chapman-street, said:-
"I was in the Bricklayers Arms, Settles-street, about two hundred yards from the scene of the murder on Saturday night, shortly before eleven, and saw a man and a woman in the doorway. They had been served in the public house and went out when I and my friends came in.
It was raining very fast, and they did not appear willing to go out. He was hugging her and kissing her, and as he seemed a respectably dressed man, we were rather astonished at the way he was going on with the woman, who was poorly dressed.
We 'chipped' him, but he paid no attention.
As he stood in the doorway he always threw sidelong glances into the bar but would look nobody in the face.
I said to him "Why don't you bring the woman in and treat her?", but he made no answer.
If he had been a straight fellow he would have told us to mind our own business, or he would have gone away.
I was so certain that there was something up that I would have charged him if I could have seen a policeman.
When the man could not stand the chaffing any longer he and the woman went off like a shot soon after eleven.
I have been to the mortuary, and am almost certain the woman there is the one we saw at the Bricklayers Arms. She is the same slight woman and seems the same height. The face looks the same, but a little paler, and the bridge of the nose does not look so prominent.
The man was about 5ft. 5in. in height. He was well dressed in a black morning suit with a morning coat. He had rather weak eyes. I mean he had sore eyes without any eyelashes. I should know the man again amongst a hundred. He had a thick black moustache and no beard. He wore a black billycock hat, was rather tall, and had on a collar. I don't know the colour of his tie. I said to the woman, "That's Leather Apron getting around you." The man was no foreigner; he was an Englishman right enough."
John Gardner, who was one of the men with J. Best, confirmed everything that his companion had told the reporter, and stated that, like his friend, he had also viewed Elizabeth Stride's body at the mortuary:-
John Gardner, labour, 11 Chapman-street, corroborated all that Best said respecting the conduct of the man and the woman at the Bricklayers Arms, adding, "before I got into the mortuary today., I told you the woman had a flower in her jacket, and that she had a short jacket.
Well, I have been to the mortuary and there she was with the dahlias on the right side of her jacket.
I could swear she is the woman I saw at the Bricklayers Arms and she has the same smile on her face now that she had then."
Interestingly, the police do not seem to have interviewed either of the men and, as far as can be ascertained, neither of them was called to give evidence at the inquest into the death of Elizabeth Stride.
Meanwhile, a carpenter called Frederick Windborn was working in Westminster, which was the address for the New Metropolitan Police Station, Scotland Yard. While working Windborn noticed a parcel on the basement vaults of the Scotland Yards building. But he simply ignored it. The next day on October 2nd 1888, he and his co-worker William Brown, opened the parcel and saw a wrapped-up woman's torso inside it. However, the case was widely overlooked by the case of Jack the Ripper.
Meanwhile, our newspaper, The East London Observer published Louis Diemschutz's version of events on Saturday, 6th October 1888:
"On Saturday," he says, "I left home about half-past eleven in the morning and returned home exactly at one am, Sunday morning. I noticed the time at a tobacco shop on Commercial-road. I was driving a pony harnessed to a costermonger's barrow. I do not keep the pony in the yard of the club, but in George's yard, Cable-street. I drove the barrow home to leave my goods there. I drove into the yard. Both gates were open - wide open. It was rather dark there I drove it in as usual, but as I came into the gate my pony shied to the left, and that made me look at the ground to see what the cause of it was. I could see that there was something unusual on the pavement, but I could not see what it was. It was a dark object. I tried to feel it with the handle of my whip to discover what it was. I tried to lift it up with it. As I could not, I jumped down at once and struck a match. It was rather windy, and I could not get a light sufficient to show that it was the figure of some person, whom by the dress I knew to be a woman.I took no further notice of it, but went into the club and asked where my missus was. I found her in the front room on the ground floor. I left the pony in the yard by itself just outside the club door. My wife was with several of the members of the club. I told them. "; There is a woman lying in the yard, but I cannot say whether she is drunk or dead."
I then got a candle and went down. By that light, I could see there was blood, even before I reached the body. I did not touch the body but went off at once for the police. I passed several streets without seeing a policeman and returned without one. As I returned, a man whom I had met in Grove-street, and who had come back with me, lifted the deceased's head, and then for the first time, I saw the wound in her throat.
Just at that time Eagle, a member of the club, and the constables arrived. I did not notice anything or anybody suspicious as I made my way to the club in my pony cart. The doctors arrived about ten minutes after the constables. The police afterwards took our names and addresses and searched everybody. The clothes of the deceased were in order as far as I could see. She was lying on her side with her face towards the wall of the club; at least I am sure she was lying with her face to the wall.
As soon as the police came I ceased to take any interest in the affair and went on with my duties at the club.
I did not notice in what position the hands of the deceased were. I only noticed that the doctor, when he came, unbuttoned the dress of the deceased, and, putting his hand on her bosom, told a constable standing by that she was quite warm. He told the constable to place his hand there, and he did so.
There appeared to me to have been about two quarts of blood on the ground. It seemed to have run up the yard from her neck. The body was lying about a foot from the club wall.
I have never seen men and women together in the yard by the club, nor have I ever heard of anybody seeing such a thing.
It would have been quite possible for a man to have escaped from the yard while I was driving up to the club door. but after I had told the members what I had seen nobody, I think, could have escaped."
The police thought that, when Diemschutz entered Dutfield's Yard, at 1 am, he interrupted the murderer. Later that day, it would dawn on Diem Schutz that, when he was initially standing in the darkness of the yard, the killer was still there, concealed by the darkness close by. Had he raised the alarm on first finding the body, then the chances are the murderer would have been taken. But, the fact that Diemschutz went into the club to enquire after his wife allowed the killer to escape from the darkness and leave the scene of yet another atrocity, completely unobserved and undetected. As a result investigators initially took him as a suspect in the case.