George Bagster Phillips - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Dr George Bagster Phillips MBBS

Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery

Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, or in Latin Medicinae Baccalaureus, Baccalaureus Chirurgiae , are the two first professional degrees awarded upon graduation from medical school in medicine and surgery by universities in various countries...

, MRCS Eng

Royal College of Surgeons of England

The Royal College of Surgeons of England is an independent professional body and registered charity committed to promoting and advancing the highest standards of surgical care for patients, regulating surgery, including dentistry, in England and Wales...

, L.M., LSA

Worshipful Society of Apothecaries

The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. Originally, apothecaries were members of the Grocers' Company and before this members of the Guild of Pepperers formed in London in 1180...

(1834, Camberwell

Camberwell

Camberwell is a district of south London, England, and forms part of the London Borough of Southwark. It is a built-up inner city district located southeast of Charing Cross. To the west it has a boundary with the London Borough of Lambeth.-Toponymy:...

, Surrey, – 27 October 1897, London), was, from 1865, the Police Surgeon for the Metropolitan Police's

Metropolitan police

Metropolitan Police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...

'H' Division, which covered London's

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

Whitechapel

Whitechapel is a built-up inner city district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, London, England. It is located east of Charing Cross and roughly bounded by the Bishopsgate thoroughfare on the west, Fashion Street on the north, Brady Street and Cavell Street on the east and The Highway on the...

district. He came to prominence during the murders of Jack the Ripper

Jack the Ripper

"Jack the Ripper" is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer, that was disseminated in the...

when he conducted or attended autopsies

Autopsy

An autopsy—also known as a post-mortem examination, necropsy , autopsia cadaverum, or obduction—is a highly specialized surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse to determine the cause and manner of death and to evaluate any disease or injury that may be present...

on the bodies of four of the victims, namely Annie Chapman

Annie Chapman

Annie Chapman , born Eliza Ann Smith, was a victim of the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper, who killed and mutilated five women in the Whitechapel area of London from late August to early November 1888.-Life and background:Annie Chapman was born Eliza Ann Smith...

, Elizabeth Stride

Elizabeth Stride

Elizabeth "Long Liz" Stride is believed to be the third victim of the notorious unidentified serial killer called Jack the Ripper, who killed and mutilated prostitutes in the Whitechapel area of London from late August to early November 1888.She was nicknamed "Long Liz"...

, Catharine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly

Mary Jane Kelly

Mary Jane Kelly , also known as "Marie Jeanette" Kelly, "Fair Emma", "Ginger" and "Black Mary", is widely believed to be the fifth and final victim of the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper, who killed and mutilated prostitutes in the Whitechapel area of London from late August to...

. He was called by the police to the murder scene of three of them: Chapman, Stride and Kelly.

Detective Chief Inspector

Chief inspector

Chief inspector is a rank used in police forces which follow the British model. In countries outside Britain, it is sometimes referred to as chief inspector of police .-Australia:...

Walter Dew

Detective Chief Inspector Walter Dew was a Metropolitan Police officer who was involved in the hunt for both Jack the Ripper and Dr Crippen.-Early life:...

, who was a detective constable

Constable

A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions.-Etymology:...

in the Whitechapel CID

Criminal Investigation Department

The Crime Investigation Department is the branch of all Territorial police forces within the British Police and many other Commonwealth police forces, to which plain clothes detectives belong. It is thus distinct from the Uniformed Branch and the Special Branch.The Metropolitan Police Service CID,...

throughout the Ripper investigation, and who knew Phillips well, remembered him as being in his fifties in 1888. "He was a character," Dew later wrote, " An elderly man, he was ultra old-fashioned both in his personal appearance and his dress. He used to look for all the world as though he had stepped out of a century-old painting. His manners were charming: he was immensely popular both with the police and the public, and he was highly skilled"

Phillips lived at 2 Spital Square in Whitechapel.

Early career

Appointed a member of the Royal College of Surgeons

Royal College of Surgeons of England

in 1861, Phillips is first mentioned in the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

national press in The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

of 24 May 1866, when he attended on James Ashe, who had been cut with a knife and wounded by his brother-in-law, Patrick O'Donnell, a 20 year-old journeyman tailor. Later, in 1870, Phillips was called to the Stepney

Stepney

Stepney is a district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in London's East End that grew out of a medieval village around St Dunstan's church and the 15th century ribbon development of Mile End Road...

police station concerning a case of child abuse, when he was asked to examine a 7 year-old girl and the man charged with her sexual assault. He diagnosed both as suffering from gonorrhea

Gonorrhea

Gonorrhea is a common sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae. The usual symptoms in men are burning with urination and penile discharge. Women, on the other hand, are asymptomatic half the time or have vaginal discharge and pelvic pain...

and also found that the young girl had a vagina

Vagina

The vagina is a fibromuscular tubular tract leading from the uterus to the exterior of the body in female placental mammals and marsupials, or to the cloaca in female birds, monotremes, and some reptiles. Female insects and other invertebrates also have a vagina, which is the terminal part of the...

l rupture, which Phillips said was an indication of "violence of some kind".

The Times referred to Phillips again on the 6 March 1882 when Mary Ann Macarthy, aged 17 and living in a common lodging-house in Spitalfields

Spitalfields

Spitalfields is a former parish in the borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London, near to Liverpool Street station and Brick Lane. The area straddles Commercial Street and is home to many markets, including the historic Old Spitalfields Market, founded in the 17th century, Sunday...

, was charged on remand with feloniously cutting and wounding Henry Connor, by stabbing him with a knife. Again, Phillips dressed the wounds of the injured party.

Annie Chapman

Phillips was called by the police to 29 Hanbury Street

Hanbury Street

Hanbury Street is a street in Spitalfields, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London. It runs east from Commercial Street to a cul-de-sac at the east end. It was laid out in the seventeenth century, and was originally known as Browne's Lane after the original developer...

at 6.20 a.m. on Saturday 8 September 1888 and arrived there at 6.20. He then immediately examined the body of Annie Chapman

Annie Chapman

where it lay in the back yard. He stated that "the body was cold, except that there was a certain remaining heat, under the intestines, in the body." He added that "stiffness of the limbs was not marked, but it was commencing." At the post mortem, conducted at 2.00 p.m. that afternoon, he also noted that "the stomach contained a little food." From this information he estimated Chapman's time of death at some time before 4.30 a.m. However, eyewitnesses claimed that the yard was empty at that time, and at the inquest Coroner

Coroner

A coroner is a government official who* Investigates human deaths* Determines cause of death* Issues death certificates* Maintains death records* Responds to deaths in mass disasters* Identifies unknown dead* Other functions depending on local laws...

Wynne Baxter

Wynne Edwin Baxter

Wynne Edwin Baxter FRMS, FGS LL.B was an English lawyer, translator, antiquarian and botanist, but is best known as the Coroner who conducted the inquests on most of the victims of the Whitechapel Murders of 1888 to 1891 including three of the victims of Jack the Ripper in 1888, as well as on...

, who had no medical background, chose the witness testimony over the doctors' opinions and argued that the time of death was 5.30 a.m. After examining Chapman's body he concluded that her reported recent ill health was due to tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

. Phillips also concluded that she had been sober at the time of death and had not consumed alcohol

Alcohol

In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....

for at least some hours before it. The Lancet
The Lancet
The Lancet is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal. It is one of the world's best known, oldest, and most respected general medical journals...

quoted Phillips on the surgical proficiency of Chapman's killer. 'Obviously', Phillips wrote, 'the work was that of an expert- or one, at least, who had such knowledge of anatomical or pathological examinations as to be enabled to secure the pelvic organs with one sweep of the knife'. His original opinion, given at 6.20 a.m. and backed up by 22 years as a police surgeon, was that Chapman had been dead "for two hours, probably more." When a witness said that he had not seen Chapman's body in the yard when he went there at 4.45 - when by Phillips' original estimate she would have been dead for over half an hour - the doctor qualified this by saying that with the coldness of the morning and the amount of blood that she had lost, the victim might have appeared to have been dead for longer than she was. This gave credence to the dubious evidence of Mrs Elizabeth Long, who claimed to have seen Chapman alive at 5.30. Chapman was found about 20 minutes after the alleged sighting and Phillips estimated that it would have taken much longer than that to have inflicted all the injuries that he found on her body.

Elizabeth Stride

Phillips was called to Dutfield's Yard in Berner Street at 1.20 a.m. on Sunday, 30 September 1888, to examine the body of Elizabeth Stride

Elizabeth Stride

. At her inquest, held on 3 October 1888, he reported:

"The body was lying on the near side, with the face turned toward the wall, the head up the yard and the feet toward the street. The left arm was extended and there was a packet of cachous in the left hand.

The right arm was over the belly, the back of the hand and wrist had on it clotted blood. The legs were drawn up with the feet close to the wall. The body and face were warm and the hand cold. The legs were quite warm. Deceased had a silk handkerchief round her neck, and it appeared to be slightly torn. I have since ascertained it was cut. This corresponded with the right angle of the jaw. The throat was deeply gashed and there was an abrasion of the skin about one and a half inches in diameter, apparently stained with blood, under her right arm.

At three o'clock p.m. on Monday at St. George's Mortuary, Dr. Blackwell and I made a post mortem examination. Rigor 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 discoloration, 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, one half inch in over an undivided muscle, and then becoming deeper, dividing the sheath. The cut was very clean and deviated only 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 is was evident that the hemorrhage was caused through the partial severance of the left cartoid artery.

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 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 clot. The left was firmly contracted as to be absolutely empty. The stomach was large and the mucous membrane 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."

Catherine Eddowes

Catherine Eddowes was one of the victims in the Whitechapel murders. She was the second person killed on the night of Sunday 30 September 1888, a night which already had seen the murder of Elizabeth Stride less than an hour earlier...

was killed in the City of London

City of London

The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...

, and so her murder came within the jurisdiction of the City of London Police

City of London Police

The City of London Police is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement within the City of London, England, including the Middle and Inner Temple. The service responsible for law enforcement within the rest of Greater London is the Metropolitan Police Service, a separate...

, who had their own police surgeon, Dr. Frederick Gordon Brown. He was called to the murder scene at Mitre Square

Mitre Square

Mitre Square is a small square in the City of London. It measures about by and is connected via three passages with Mitre Street to the SW, to Creechurch Place to the NW and, via St James's Passage , to Duke's Place to the NE....

. However, because of his familiarity with the Ripper's previous victims, Phillips was called by the Metropolitan Police

Metropolitan police

Metropolitan Police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...

to take part in Eddowes's autopsy. In his opinion the way in which the incisions were made could only have been the work of someone who had knowledge of anatomical or pathological examinations.

Mary Jane Kelly

Together with Dr Thomas Bond

Thomas Bond (British physician)

Dr Thomas Bond FRCS, MB BS , was a British surgeon considered by some to be the first offender profiler, and best known for his association with the notorious Jack the Ripper murders of 1888.-Early life:...

, Phillips examined the remains of Mary Jane Kelly

Mary Jane Kelly

on 9 November 1888. At the inquest

Inquest

Inquests in England and Wales are held into sudden and unexplained deaths and also into the circumstances of discovery of a certain class of valuable artefacts known as "treasure trove"...

, Phillips reported:

"I was called by the police on Friday morning at eleven o'clock, and on proceeding to Miller's Court, which I entered at 11.15. I found a room, the door of which led out of the passage at the side of 26, Dorset street, photographs of which I produce. It had two windows in the court. Two panes in the lesser window were broken, and as the door was locked I looked through the lower of the broken panes and satisfied myself that the mutilated corpse lying on the bed was not in need of any immediate attention from me, and I also came to the conclusion that there was nobody else upon the bed, or within view, to whom I could render any professional assistance. Having ascertained that probably it was advisable that no entrance should be made into the room at that time, I remained until about 1.30p.m., when the door was broken open by McCarthy, under the direction of Superintendent Arnold.

On the door being opened it knocked against a table which was close to the left-hand side of the bedstead, and the bedstead was close against the wooden partition. The mutilated remains of a woman were lying two-thirds over, towards the edge of the bedstead, nearest the door. Deceased had only an under-linen garment upon her, and by subsequent examination I am sure the body had been removed, after the injury which caused death, from that side of the bedstead which was nearest to the wooden partition previously mentioned. The large quantity of blood under the bedstead, the saturated condition of the palliasse, pillow, and sheet at the top corner of the bedstead nearest to the partition leads me to the conclusion that the severance of the right carotid artery, which was the immediate cause of death, was inflicted while the deceased was lying at the right side of the bedstead and her head and neck in the top right-hand corner".

This was only general evidence. The coroner, Dr Roderick MacDonald, had told the jury that they would hear Dr Phillips' full post mortem report at "the adjourned inquest" - clearly indicating that there would be a further session, as had happened with the previous victims. However, after hearing a few more witnesses, he said that he did not know if the jury wished to bring in a verdict - all they had to go was agree on the cause of death, "leaving other matters in the hands of the police" and there was no point in continually going over the same matters. The jury conferred quickly, then said that they wished to bring in a verdict of "Wilful murder against a person or persons unknown." MacDonald then closed the inquest. Consequently, the coroner had not complied with the legal requisite that the length, breadth and depths of all wounds to the deceased must be recorded and, with conflicting evidence having been given to the inquest, the time of death had not been established. Phillips had conferred in private with the coroner before the hearing opened, something he had wanted to do at a previous inquest but had been refused.

Later cases

During the later Whitechapel murder investigation, Phillips performed the post-mortem examination of Alice McKenzie (nicknamed "Clay Pipe" Alice and who used the alias Alice Bryant), who was killed on 17 July 1889 in Castle Alley in Whitechapel. At the coroner's inquest on 22 July 1889, Phillips stated that the injuries to her throat had been caused by someone who "knew the position of the vessels, at any rate where to cut with reference to causing speedy death." She had two jagged wounds in the left side of her neck. Phillips also found five superficial marks on the left side of McKenzie's abdomen, which had been made, he thought, by the pressure of a right thumb and fingers prior to mutilating her body with a knife that was held in the murderer's left hand.

Phillips was involved in investigating "The Pinchin Street Murder," a term coined after the headless and legless torso of a woman was found under a railway arch in Pinchin Street in Whitechapel on 10 September 1889. After examining the medical evidence Phillips, Commissioner James Monro

James Monro

James Monro CB was a lawyer who became the first Assistant Commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police and also served as Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis from 1888 to 1890.-Early career:...

and Chief Inspector Donald Swanson

Donald Swanson

Chief Inspector Donald Sutherland Swanson was born in Thurso in Scotland, and was a senior police officer in the Metropolitan Police in London during the notorious Jack the Ripper murders of 1888.-Early life:...

concluded that the murder was not committed by Jack the Ripper

He also performed the autopsy on Frances Coles (also known as Frances Coleman, Frances Hawkins and nicknamed "Carrotty Nell"), born in 1865 and killed on 13 February 1891. He believed that the minor wounds on the back of her head suggested that she was thrown violently to the ground before her throat was cut three times. Otherwise there were no mutilations to the body. Phillips did not believe that her murderer displayed any medical knowledge. Cole's body was found under a railway arch in Swallow Gardens, Whitechapel.

His obituary

Obituary

An obituary is a news article that reports the recent death of a person, typically along with an account of the person's life and information about the upcoming funeral. In large cities and larger newspapers, obituaries are written only for people considered significant...

in The Lancet
The Lancet
The Lancet is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal. It is one of the world's best known, oldest, and most respected general medical journals...

on 13 November 1897 described Phillips as "a leading police surgeon

Police surgeon

Police surgeon could refer to:*Police Surgeon , a British ITV television series from 1960*Police Surgeon , a Canadian syndicated television series from 1971-1974, which starred Sam Groom; was known as Dr. Simon Locke in its first season* The topic of forensic pathology...

in London". In it he was described by his assistant, Dr. Percy John Clark, as "a modest man who found self-advertising abhorrent... under a brusque, quick manner engendered by his busy life, there was a warm, kind heart, and a large number of men and women of all classes are feeling that by his death they have lost a very real friend".

Phillips died from apoplexy

Apoplexy

Apoplexy is a medical term, which can be used to describe 'bleeding' in a stroke . Without further specification, it is rather outdated in use. Today it is used only for specific conditions, such as pituitary apoplexy and ovarian apoplexy. In common speech, it is used non-medically to mean a state...

on 27 October 1897.

Portrayal in film

In the 1988 made for television film Jack the Ripper starring Michael Caine

Michael Caine

Sir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules ....

, Phillips was played by actor Gerald Sim

Gerald Sim

Gerald Grant Sim is an English actor who is perhaps best known for playing the Rector in To the Manor Born. He is the younger brother of actress Sheila Sim and brother-in-law of actor/director Lord Attenborough.- Career :...

External links

Phillips on the Crime Library
http://www.casebook.org/about_the_casebook/cbindex.html?showindex=George%20Bagster%20PhillipsPhillips on the Casebook: Jack the Ripper
Casebook: Jack the Ripper
Casebook: Jack the Ripper is a website devoted to the historical mystery of the Jack the Ripper murders of Whitechapel and the surrounding areas of London in 1888 and possibly other years. The site was started in January 1996 and features suspect, victim and witness overviews as well as more than...

website]
Phillips on the Whitechapel Society website

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.