mary-jane was the only victim to be
murdered indoors in her room in Miller's
court the weapon had the time and space
to realize his very darkest fantasies
when detectives discovered the body if
they send around a photographer we get
the first and only photographs of a
Ripper crime scene they're truly
chilling but they're also a powerful
investigatory tool that we can deploy
today by using the scene of crime
photographs and the really detailed
notes taken by detectives who were there
we can recreate the murder scene in
detail for the first time in over a
hundred and thirty years we've built a
full-scale replica of Mary Jane's
bedroom to help understand the rippers
psychology Peter is once again helping
us investigate the murder scene so tell
me what was the Millers caught a flat or
house no it was a ground-floor room in a
block of over a dozen flats and we have
a photograph of the outside of the
building here taken on the day that Mary
Jane Kelly was murdered okay Mary Jane
Kennedy what do we know that well she
was about 25 years old and so she's the
youngest of the Ripper victims what were
her movements on the day of her murder
well we know that at about 2:00 a.m. she
goes out and she's seen with a man and
that's the last sighting we have of Mary
Jane Kelly alive and remember this is
the height of the Jack the Ripper
murders there's a heightened police
presence the newspapers are going crazy
about covering the Jack the Ripper case
and there are wanted posters all round
Whitechapel saying beware Jack the
Ripper and he's still prepared to kill
this is an exact reproduction of Mary
Jane Kelly's room built to scale and the
furniture is placed exactly as it was
found by the police when they came
through the door after Mary Jane Kelly's
death so what is it exactly that you
would look for when you first come into
a crime scene in a modern-day
investigate
detectives will be looking for traces of
DNA fingerprints shoe marks or even tiny
microscopic fibers that could have been
transferred from the clothing of the
victim to the killer or vice versa
but of course in 1888 none of this
exists so they would have been
completely reliant upon the visual signs
what was the crime scene telling them
was there any sign of forced entry no
sign of forced entry and in fact the
police had to bring in acts to break
down the door so presumably the Ripper
was invited in and there's absolutely no
sense of this at first glance being a
murder scene is that no and that's
strange I mean III sort of expect that
there would be clothes strewn across the
floor and the furniture would be
upturned but in fact the clothes were
found perfectly folded and Mary Jane
Kelly's boots by the fireplace she was
clearly comfortable in the company of
this man so what does that say about the
Ripper himself well it tells us that
Jack the Ripper at least initially was a
very plausible punter he could put the
women at ease but then of course in
relation to Mary Jane Kelly this is the
first crime he's committed inside a
woman's room and frankly he's in no
hurry to leave dr. Thomas bond attended
the murder scene and made detailed notes
which we are using in our reconstruction
but if we follow his report and say that
the heavy blood staining was there and
of course the pool of blood was found
underneath it indicates that her body's
been moved somewhat from the point at
where I would contend she was murdered
to this side of the mattress and why
would that be pulling the victim away
avoids him being covered in blood and
allows him to pose Mary Jane Kelly he
then begins to dismember the corpse and
place organs around the room the
question for me is why does he dismember
the body he
it's messy bloody and time-consuming and
we know therefore it's incredibly
unusual whether we're talking about
murder in 1888 or whether we're talking
about murders today I mean though
something on average like 550 murders
each year in the United Kingdom and only
a handful of those murders would have
any form of dismemberment at all and the
dismemberment cases that I've come
across invariably that has been done in
order to transport or otherwise dispose
of the body but that's not what we're
seeing here and I think what we're
seeing in this murder is just simply
he's got time to be with a dead victim
and he's exploring he's allowing his
fantasies to be fully flowered for me
the other significant and striking
feature of the murder of Mary Jane is
just the ferocity yeah the the killer
has focused on her face and she was
described as a pretty woman wasn't she
but then when the police surgeon
describes finding her here he said that
her face was gashed in all directions
and that nose and cheeks and eyebrows
and ears had been partly removed all of
this is shocking but it is a massive
disfigurement isn't it yes and of course
to attack the face is to attack the very
being of the victim so what can we
determine about his psychology from this
room oh we see the absolute limits of
his misogyny when he's got time to be
alone with a dead woman he disfigures he
dehumanizes he obliterated
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you