GEORGE HUTCHINSON

Had things become too much for George Hutchinson as well? Had he struck too close to home this time and
slipped-up? Is it possible that some enterprising detective decided to walk the five or so minute journey from
where Alice McKenzie was last seen alive at the eastern end of Flower and Dean Street, to where she was killed
in Castle Alley and noticed the easiest route led past Hutchinson’s lodgings on the corner of Commercial and
Wentworth Streets? Had Hutchinson, belatedly, made the same realisation himself?
A proactive response may have been his solution, as it had after Kelly’s murder when he came forward as a well
meaning witness. The scenario dovetails with a flight to New South Wales aboard the Ormuz in September 1889,
and the facts fit when considering what is known about the George Hutchinson who arrived in New South Wales
and later served time in Bathurst gaol.
The prison record describes a man whose level of education
consisted of being able to read and write, consistent with
witness Hutchinson who signed all three pages of his police
statement in 1888, suggesting he was able to verify its contents
to his satisfaction by reading it.
Hair colour is recorded as brown, eyes blue, the accompanying
photo shows a moustache. His height is recorded as 5’5 & ½’’
and weighing 154 lbs, which would put him in the stocky range
and consistent not only with Sarah Lewis’ inquest testimony
but that of witnesses claiming to have seen the Ripper.
The images of prisoner 1166 recall Israel Schwartz’s
description of the “rather stoutly built” 24 moustachioed
man seen attacking Elizabeth Stride in the minutes before
her murder, particularly the reference to his “full face” and
“broad shoulders” (age about 30, height 5’5”, complexion fair,
hair dark). 25
Indeed, based on historic witness accounts, modern
investigators from Scotland Yard compiled a physical
description of Jack the Ripper in 2006: he was a man of
medium height, between 5’5’’ and 5’7’’, stout build, between
25 and 35 years of age.
Which brings us to the issue of Hutchinson’s year of birth. In
From Hell:The Jack the Ripper Mystery pioneering Hutchinsonaccuser
Bob Hinton described him being 28 in 1888, basing
himself on newspaper reports. 26 More recent forum postings
attributed to Hinton seem to imply this is less certain, 27
while definitive source material from the period paints but a
thumbnail sketch - allbeit one consistent with his proposition.
George Hutchinson as he appears on his prison record, 1897
Realistically, the question is “fraught” to quote from an earlier published version of this article, 28 and the
reason why it introduced the broader discussion of age with a cautionary advisory that 1860 was not a concrete
foundation, but the best presently available. 29
The George Hutchinson who arrived in Sydney on 29 October 1889 was 29 according to the shipping master’s
records, in other words, born 1859 or 1860. This sits well but less than perfectly with the date of birth cited in
the prison document (1861) which points ultimately to said shipping records.
24 The Star, 1 October 1888.
25 HO 144/221/A49301C, ff 148-59.
26 Bob Hinton, From Hell: The Jack the Ripper Mystery (1998), Old Bakehouse Publications 1998; p.217.
27 ‘George Hutchinson George Hutchinson from Romford?’, www.jtrforums.com/showthread.php?t=13917.
28 Ripperologist 146 “sneak preview”.
29 See also: Garry Wroe, Jack the Ripper: Person or Persons Unknown (2002); John J Eddleston, Jack The Ripper: An Encyclopedia
(2001); Chris Miles, On the Trail of a Dead Man: The Identity of Jack the Ripper (2004).
Ripperologist 146 October 2015 11