9th April 1863 the body of Emma Jackson was found in a brothel located on George Street, St Giles. She had been brutally murdered but this case remains unsolved even though there are witnesses who saw Emma just before her death.
What happened in 1863?
Emma Jackson aged 28 lived with her father an out of work clerk, her mother a shirtmaker and her brother.
It was suggested by friends of Emma that she would work hard but then have stages of disappearing from her home for days or even weeks at a time meeting with a number of people, she was known to be a sex worker during this time.
7 AM Thursday 9th April Emma and a male showed up at the brother located on George Street, St Giles.
The servant was awoken by the pair and they then requested a room which was located upstairs, this would be the last time Emma would be seen alive and well.
Throughout the day there were no reports of noise or disturbance coming from the room so around 17:30 a servant went to check the room and found the door was unlocked so entered.
What they found was a horrific scene the bed sheets were soaked in blood the walls splattered and the poor body of Emma was left lying on the bed.
Her throat had been cut so severely that her windpipe was severed which was the cause of death, as well as other stab wounds to her neck and body.
A surgeon attended the scene and assumed that Emma had been dead for around 4-5 hours.
How has the murderer avoided detection all this time?
From the above, we know there is at least one witness who saw the male who was with Emma but they later said they couldn’t describe him due to being awoken and was still tired.
But the question there is how did they identify Emma but not the male surely you would look at both people entering the building.
This raises the question was there some kind of threat or bribe paid to the servant to keep quiet or was there genuinely no way of describing the suspected murderer?
It was reported that the room below where the murder took place was where the landlord would sleep but the issue was that they were expected to stay awake throughout the night so they would be asleep most of the day.
They were questioned but said they didn’t hear anything.
Conclusion
In my honest opinion, I do believe there would’ve been some kind of bribe or threat towards the servant who saw the pair because it seems so strange that they are unable to describe the male who was with Emma at the time of entering the brothel.
There is also the question of how the male suspect exited the building because if Emma was found around 17:30 this would mean that she was killed around midday approximately so the murderer would have left throughout the day.
It’s hard to believe that nobody would then see the suspect leaving the scene as it would be in daylight and would’ve generally been a lot busier on the streets at this time.
There is also the matter of clothing how the scene was described as blood splattered in many places so this would almost definitely include the suspect himself which would make it even harder for the suspect to go undetected.
There are a couple of questions left unanswered:
- Why was the servant unable to describe the male Emma was with, was it really due to tiredness?
- Nobody came forward to say they had seen the male leaving the brothel, was there a bribe or a threat involved, did he work alone?
- Was the killer the male seen with Emma at all or was there someone else involved
It is a real mystery how the suspect was able to enter the brothel with Emma, request a room, kill Emma and exit without anyone been able to describe him.
Was there someone else involved such as someone who was already inside the brothel who killed Emma while she slept, this would explain the exiting with no witnesses, did the murderer ever leave in the first place?
I am going to be returning to this case at a later date as I find it so intriguing that it has never been solved but there seems to be so much to go on.
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