GEORGE HUTCHINSON

I had wondered whether the discrepancy might be explained by clerical error. However, what I referred to as
a speculative birthday line some time between early December and early March is very unlikely to have been in
play for the purposes of this article. I am pleased to remove it from present calculations together with the George
Hutchinson it attached to and who was born in Shadwell on 10 December 1859. 30
We are left frustratingly, with a year of birth and chronological age as stated in the Australian documents
which contradict and support one another simultaneously. Be that as it may, the gaol record refers to, and crossreferences,
information verifiable in the shipping files and together they cast a consistent net around Hutchinson’s
date of birth. Except for this dilemma, in all other details, it would seem clear they refer to the same man.
A 29-year-old Englishman is recorded arriving in Australia on a ship from London within a year of Mary Kelly’s
murder, a few months after Alice McKenzie’s. A spree of violent mayhem came to an end in the East End.
The only Ripper-like murder after McKenzie’s was that of Francis Coles in 1891, but police were sure they
had their man when they charged her partner James Sadler, even after the case fell apart. Whatever Sadler’s
involvement if any, there were some decidedly non-Ripper facets to Coles’ injuries, particularly the lack of
mutilations. Students of the case are broadly in agreement that Jack the Ripper was probably not involved. To all
intent, his crimes came to a halt no later than July 1889, on the eve of George Hutchinson’s departure for New
South Wales.
It was ultimately in this colony, seven years after disembarking, where he found himself charged before a court
with indecently assaulting two children. Though convicted of indecent exposure, the offences were particularly
shocking according to media coverage.
Physically, he fits Sarah Lewis’ description of witness George Hutchinson from 1888. It is not just Lewis’
testimony that tallies. Various descriptions of Jack the Ripper match the newly gleaned information presented
here, as the work done by the Scotland Yard team in 2006 attests.
It is worth adding that the information from Bathurst gaol states he was carrying a few scars and injuries,
recorded as identifying marks or special features: a broken nose, a broken little finger on his right hand, a broken
right knee, and a scar on his left breast. His religion is given as Church Of England.
There is more work to be done, for facts to be flushed out and nailed down, in turn building a platform for
research to proceed. Until then, an otherwise interesting report like the following is limited in its value to
spurring on further enquiry.
It comes from the Sydney Morning Herald which carried in-depth coverage of an inquest into a corpse fished
out of the Lachlan River near the now abandoned hamlet of Grudgery about 16 miles downstream from Forbes. In
other contemporary Australian reports it was referred to as “The New South Wales Mystery”. 31 The news report is
dated 29 October 1895.
MYSTERIOUS MURDER NEAR GRUDGERY
BY TELEGRAPH
(FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT)
FORBES, Monday.
The Coroner, Mr Sowter, continued the inquest on the body of the man found in the Lachlan River at
Grudgery on the 20th instant at the courthouse to-day. The evidence of Dr McDonnell, Government
medical officer was all that was forthcoming. He had searched and examined the body thoroughly,
besides taking a number of photos, which were produced and put in as evidence. The back of the skull
was knocked in, as though by a hammer or tomahawk. Around the waist was a trouser strap, also a rope
tightly knotted at the rear, and attached to which was 16 yards of No. 8 eight wire; also a bag with the
bottom rotted out. The bag had evidently been fastened to the body, and is supposed to have contained
weights for keeping the body underwater, but as soon as the bag rotted the weights were lost and the body
rose to the surface. The body was in a frightfully decomposed state, the flesh having been stripped off
the hands, shins, thighs, &c. The clothes were also perfectly rotten. Nothing was found on the deceased
except a knife, tobacco, and matches in one of the waistcoat pockets. He appeared to have been a stout
30 www.jtrforums.com/showthread.php?p=278839#post278839.
31 The West Australian, Friday 1 November, 1895.
Ripperologist 146 October 2015 12