William Henry Bury
Encyclopedia
William Henry Bury was executed in Dundee
, Scotland
, for the murder of his wife Ellen in 1889, shortly after the height of the Whitechapel murders in London that were attributed to the unidentified serial killer "Jack the Ripper
". Bury's previous abode near Whitechapel, and certain similarities between the crimes, led to suggestions that Bury was the Ripper. He denied any connection, despite confessing that he had strangled his wife.
Bury was orphaned an early age, and was educated at a charitable school in the English Midlands
. After a few years in regular employment, he fell into financial difficulty, was sacked for theft, and became a street peddler. In 1887, he moved to London, where he married probable prostitute Ellen Elliot. During their stormy marriage, which lasted just over a year, they faced increasing financial hardship. In January 1889, they moved to Dundee. The following month, he strangled his wife with a rope, stabbed her dead body with a penknife, and hid the corpse in a box in their room. A few days later, he presented himself to the local police, and was arrested for her murder. Tried and convicted, he was sentenced to death by hanging
. Shortly before his execution, he confessed to the crime. Bury's previous association with the Whitechapel
district of London, and similarities between the Ripper's crimes and Bury's, led the media and executioner James Berry
to link the two. Bury protested his innocence in the Ripper crimes, and the police discounted him as a suspect.
, Worcestershire
. He was orphaned in infancy. His father, Henry Bury, who worked for a local fishmonger called Joscelyne, died in a horse and cart accident in Halesowen
on 10 April 1860. While on an incline, Henry Bury fell beneath the wheels of his own fish cart and was killed when the horse bolted and pulled the cart over his prone body. William's mother, Mary Jane Bury (née Henley), may already have been suffering from post-natal depression at the time of her husband's death, and was committed to the Worcester County Pauper and Lunatic Asylum
on 7 May 1860 suffering from melancholia
. She remained there until her death aged 33 on 30 March 1864.
William was the youngest of four children. His eldest sibling, Elizabeth Ann, died aged seven during an epileptic fit
on 7 September 1859, which may have contributed to Mary Jane's depression. The other two children, Joseph Henry and Mary Jane, both died before 1889. William was raised initially in Dudley
by his mother's younger brother, Edward Henley. By 1871, he was enrolled at the Blue Coat charity school
in Stourbridge
. Later claims that William's education was paid for by a close family friend may have been untrue.
At the age of sixteen, he found work as a factor's clerk in a warehouse at Horseley Fields, Wolverhampton
. In the early 1880s, William left the warehouse after failing to repay a loan. He then worked for a lock manufacturer called Osborne in Lord Street, Wolverhampton, until he was sacked for theft in either 1884 or 1885. For the next few years, his whereabouts are not known for certain, but he appears to have lived an unsettled life in the English Midlands
and Yorkshire
. In 1887, he was making a living as a hawker
, selling small items such as lead pencils and key rings on the streets of Snow Hill, Birmingham
.
, and found work selling sawdust for James Martin. Martin is believed to have run a brothel at 80 Quickett Street, Bow, where Bury lived initially in the stable with the horse, but he later moved into the house. There, he met Ellen Elliot, who was employed by Martin as a servant and probably a prostitute.
Ellen had been born on 24 October 1854 at the Bricklayer's Arms public house
in Queen's Row, Walworth, London
, and was the daughter of publican George Elliot, who died in 1873. She had worked as a needlewoman and in a jute factory. In 1883, Ellen had had an illegitimate daughter, also called Ellen, but she had died in Poplar
workhouse
in December 1885. Ellen had worked for Martin since 1886. In March 1888, Ellen and William left Martin's employ, and moved to a furnished room at 3 Swaton Road, Bow, where they lived together until their marriage on Easter Monday, 2 April 1888, at Bromley Parish Church. Martin later said he had sacked William because he owed him money.
Both Martin and the landlady at 3 Swaton Road, Elizabeth Haynes, described Bury as a violent drunk. On 7 April 1888, Haynes caught Bury kneeling on his bride of five days threatening to cut her throat with a knife. Haynes subsequently evicted them, and Ellen sold one sixth of some shares in a railway company that she had inherited from a maiden aunt, Margaret Barren, to pay William's debt to Martin. William was re-employed by Martin, and the couple moved to 11 Blackthorn Street, close to Swaton Road. According to Martin, William was now suffering from venereal disease. In June, Ellen sold the remaining shares in the railway company, and in August they moved to 3 Spanby Road, which was adjacent to where William stabled his horse. With Ellen's income from the shares, William and Ellen had a week's holiday in Wolverhampton with a drinking buddy of William's and Ellen bought new jewellery. but William continued to assault his wife. By the first week of December, Ellen's windfall was nearly spent, and William sold his horse and cart. In January the following year, he told his landlord at 3 Spanby Road that he was thinking of emigrating to Brisbane
, Australia
, and asked him to make two wooden crates for the journey. Instead, William and Ellen moved to Dundee
in Scotland
. According to Ellen's sister, Margaret Corney, Ellen was not keen to go and only did so because William had told her he had obtained a position in a jute factory there. However, William's claim to have been offered a job by a jute merchant was false.
On Monday 4 February 1889, William bought some rope at the local grocer's shop, and spent the rest of the day observing cases at the Sheriff Court
from the public gallery. He was later reported to have listened attentively to the proceedings. On 7 February, he attended the court sessions again. On 10 February, he visited his acquaintance, Walker, who lent him a newspaper that featured a woman's suicide by hanging. Walker asked Bury to look up any news of Jack the Ripper, at which Bury threw down the newspaper with a fright. That evening, he walked into the Dundee Central Police Station on Bell Street and reported his wife's suicide to Lieutenant James Parr. He said they had been drinking heavily the night before her death, and he had woken in the morning to find his wife's body on the floor with a rope around her neck. Bury had not summoned a doctor, but had instead cut the body and concealed it in one of the packing cases brought from London. Bury told Parr that his actions were now preying on his mind, and he was afraid that he would be arrested as "Jack the Ripper
".
Parr took Bury upstairs to see Lieutenant David Lamb, the head of the detective department. Parr told Lamb, "This man has a wonderful story to tell you." Bury retold his story to Lamb, but omitted the reference to Jack the Ripper, and added that he had stabbed his wife's body once. Bury was searched, and a small knife, bankbook and his house key were confiscated pending inquiries. Lamb and Detective Constable Peter Campbell proceeded to the Burys' dingy flat, where they discovered the mutilated remains of Ellen stuffed into the wooden box Bury had commissioned in London.
Ellen's body was examined by five physicians: police surgeon Charles Templeman, his colleague Alexander Stalker, two local doctors David Lennox and William Kinnear, and Edinburgh surgeon Henry Littlejohn. They concluded that Ellen had been strangled from behind. Her right leg was broken in two places so it could be crammed into the crate. Incisions, made by the penknife, ran downwards along her abdomen and had been made "within at most ten minutes of the time of death" according to Templeman, Stalker and Littlejohn. Lennox disagreed and thought the wounds were made later on the basis that when he examined the body the wound was not everted, but Templeman and Stalker said the wound was everted when they examined the body. Littlejohn explained that as Lennox made his examination three days after the others, the eversion could have disappeared, to which Lennox agreed.
Chief Constable Dewar sent a telegraph detailing the circumstances of the crime to the London Metropolitan Police Service
, which was investigating the crimes attributed to Jack the Ripper. Detectives from London did not consider Bury a realistic suspect in their investigation into the Ripper murders, but Inspector Frederick Abberline
did interview witnesses in Whitechapel connected to Bury, such as William's former employer James Martin and landlords Elizabeth Haynes and William Smith. According to the hangman James Berry
and crime reporter Norman Hastings, Scotland Yard
sent two detectives to interview Bury, but there is no surviving record of the visit in the police archive.
in the High Court of Justiciary
on 28 March. Bury's defence team comprised solicitor
David Tweedie and barrister
William Hay; the prosecution was led by advocate deputy
Dugald or Dill McKechnie. The hearing lasted 13 hours. The prosecution witnesses included Ellen's sister Margaret Corney, William's former employer James Martin, the Burys' London landlady Elizabeth Haynes, William's drinking partner David Walker, Lieutenant Lamb and Drs Templeman and Littlejohn. After a break for supper, Hay presented the defence case, which was heavily dependent on Dr Lennox's testimony that Ellen had strangled herself. At 10:05 p.m., Lord Young finished his summation, and the jury of 15 men retired to consider their verdict. After 25 minutes, the jury returned with a verdict of guilty with a recommendation for mercy. Lord Young asked the jury why they recommended mercy, and one of them replied that the medical evidence was contradictory, referring to Lennox's testimony. Dundee had a history of opposition to the death penalty, and the jury may have been trying to avoid passing a death sentence. Young told the jury to retire and reconsider their verdict until they were decided by the evidence one way or another. At 10:40 p.m., they returned with a unanimous verdict of guilty. Lord Young passed the mandatory sentence for murder: death by hanging
.
On 1 April, Bury's solicitor, David Tweedie, petitioned the Secretary of State for Scotland
, Lord Lothian
, for clemency. Tweedie argued that the sentence should be commuted to life imprisonment on the grounds of the conflicting medical evidence and the jury's initial reservations. Tweedie further argued that Bury could have inherited insanity from his mother, who had died in a lunatic asylum. A clergyman whom Bury had befriended, Edward John Gough, minister of St Paul's Episopalian Church in Dundee
, also wrote to Lothian asking for a reprieve. The reprieve was rejected on 22 April, and Bury was hanged on 24 April by executioner James Berry
. The Dundee Courier printed an article the following day against capital punishment:
A few days before the execution, Bury confessed to Reverend Gough that he had killed Ellen. At the urging of Gough, William wrote a confession on 22 April 1889, which he asked to be withheld until after he was dead. William claimed that he had strangled Ellen without premeditation on the night of 4–5 February 1889 during a drunken row over money, and that he had tried to dismember the body for disposal the next day but was too squeamish to continue. The latter part of this confession does not match the expert testimony of the physicians, who said that the incisions were made "within at most ten minutes of the time of death" rather than the next day. William stated he had stuffed Ellen's body into the crate as part of a later plan for disposal, but instead concocted the suicide story when he realised that Ellen's absence would be noted.
in the East End of London
between August and November 1888. Authorities are not agreed on the exact number of the Ripper's victims and at least eleven Whitechapel murders until 1891 were included in the same extensive police investigation. All the crimes remain unsolved.
The claims that Bury could have been the Ripper began to appear in newspapers shortly after Bury's arrest. Like Bury, the Ripper had inflicted post-mortem abdominal wounds on his victims, and Bury lived in Bow
, near Whitechapel
, from October 1887 to January 1889, which placed him fairly near the Whitechapel murders at the appropriate time. The Dundee Advertiser of 12 February claimed that the Burys' "neighbours were startled and alarmed at the idea that one whom in their terror they associated with the Whitechapel tragedies had been living in their midst." The New York Times
of the same day connected Bury directly to the atrocities, and reported the theory that William had murdered Ellen to prevent her from revealing his guilt, a story picked up and repeated by The Dundee Courier the following day. The Courier alleged that Bury admitted to Lt. Parr in the police station that he was Jack the Ripper, but Parr's version of the story says only that Bury said he was afraid he would be arrested as Jack the Ripper. Bury denied any connection, despite making a full confession to his wife's homicide. Nevertheless, the hangman James Berry
promoted the idea that Bury was the Ripper.
In the 1920s, Norman Hastings built on Berry's hypothesis proposing Bury as the Ripper, and more recently William Beadle and Dundee librarian Euan Macpherson have published books and articles popularising Bury as a Ripper suspect. They highlighted that the canonical five Whitechapel murders ended in November 1888, which roughly coincided with Bury's departure from Whitechapel. There was graffiti at Bury's Dundee flat that implied that Jack the Ripper lived there, and Macpherson supposed this was written by Bury as a form of confession. Willliam took Ellen's rings, and the Ripper is believed to have taken rings from victim Annie Chapman
. Bury was persistently violent to his wife, threatened her with a knife, and cut open her abdomen after death in a manner not dissimilar to the Whitechapel murderer. In a conversation with her neighbours, Marjory Smith who ran the shop above the Burys' Princes Street flat in Dundee, asked them "What sort of work was this you Whitechapel folk have been about, letting Jack the Ripper kill so many people?" Bury went silent, but Ellen replied "Jack the Ripper is quiet now." She reportedly told another neighbour, "Jack the Ripper is taking a rest." Beadle and Macpherson argued that Ellen's comments might indicate that she had knowledge of the Rippers whereabouts.
Others contend that Bury only imitated the Ripper because there are differences between their crimes. Ellen Bury was strangled with a rope and sustained comparatively few knife wounds compared to the Ripper's victims, whose throats were cut prior to sustaining lengthy abdominal wounds. Ellen Bury's throat was not cut, and only relatively shallow cuts were made to her abdomen. The identity of the Whitechapel murderer is unknown, and over one hundred suspects, in addition to Bury, have been proposed.
Dundee
Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, for the murder of his wife Ellen in 1889, shortly after the height of the Whitechapel murders in London that were attributed to the unidentified serial killer "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...
". Bury's previous abode near Whitechapel, and certain similarities between the crimes, led to suggestions that Bury was the Ripper. He denied any connection, despite confessing that he had strangled his wife.
Bury was orphaned an early age, and was educated at a charitable school in the English Midlands
English Midlands
The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...
. After a few years in regular employment, he fell into financial difficulty, was sacked for theft, and became a street peddler. In 1887, he moved to London, where he married probable prostitute Ellen Elliot. During their stormy marriage, which lasted just over a year, they faced increasing financial hardship. In January 1889, they moved to Dundee. The following month, he strangled his wife with a rope, stabbed her dead body with a penknife, and hid the corpse in a box in their room. A few days later, he presented himself to the local police, and was arrested for her murder. Tried and convicted, he was sentenced to death by hanging
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
. Shortly before his execution, he confessed to the crime. Bury's previous association with the Whitechapel
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 of London, and similarities between the Ripper's crimes and Bury's, led the media and executioner James Berry
James Berry (hangman)
James Berry was an English executioner from 1884 until 1891. Berry was born in Heckmondwike in Yorkshire, where his father worked as a wool-stapler. His most important contribution to the science of hanging was his refinement of the long drop method developed by William Marwood, whom Berry knew...
to link the two. Bury protested his innocence in the Ripper crimes, and the police discounted him as a suspect.
Childhood and youth
William was born in StourbridgeStourbridge
Stourbridge is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the West Midlands of England. Historically part of Worcestershire, Stourbridge was a centre of glass making, and today includes the suburbs of Amblecote, Lye, Norton, Oldswinford, Pedmore, Wollaston, Wollescote and Wordsley The...
, Worcestershire
Worcestershire
Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...
. He was orphaned in infancy. His father, Henry Bury, who worked for a local fishmonger called Joscelyne, died in a horse and cart accident in Halesowen
Halesowen
Halesowen is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the West Midlands, England.The population, as measured by the United Kingdom Census 2001, was 55,273...
on 10 April 1860. While on an incline, Henry Bury fell beneath the wheels of his own fish cart and was killed when the horse bolted and pulled the cart over his prone body. William's mother, Mary Jane Bury (née Henley), may already have been suffering from post-natal depression at the time of her husband's death, and was committed to the Worcester County Pauper and Lunatic Asylum
Powick Hospital
Powick Hospital was a psychiatric facility located on outside the village of Powick, Worcestershire. Founded in 1847 as the Worcester County Pauper and Lunatic Asylum, it was designed by architects John R. Hamilton & James Medland of Gloucester and opened in August 1852...
on 7 May 1860 suffering from melancholia
Melancholia
Melancholia , also lugubriousness, from the Latin lugere, to mourn; moroseness, from the Latin morosus, self-willed, fastidious habit; wistfulness, from old English wist: intent, or saturnine, , in contemporary usage, is a mood disorder of non-specific depression,...
. She remained there until her death aged 33 on 30 March 1864.
William was the youngest of four children. His eldest sibling, Elizabeth Ann, died aged seven during an epileptic fit
Epilepsy
Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...
on 7 September 1859, which may have contributed to Mary Jane's depression. The other two children, Joseph Henry and Mary Jane, both died before 1889. William was raised initially in Dudley
Dudley
Dudley is a large town in the West Midlands county of England. At the 2001 census , the Dudley Urban Sub Area had a population of 194,919, making it the 26th largest settlement in England, the second largest town in the United Kingdom behind Reading, and the largest settlement in the UK without...
by his mother's younger brother, Edward Henley. By 1871, he was enrolled at the Blue Coat charity school
Old Swinford Hospital
Old Swinford Hospital is a selective voluntary aided boys' boarding school in Oldswinford, Stourbridge, West Midlands, England that has been in continuous operation since the 17th century.- History :Old Swinford Hospital opened in the late summer of 1667...
in Stourbridge
Stourbridge
Stourbridge is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the West Midlands of England. Historically part of Worcestershire, Stourbridge was a centre of glass making, and today includes the suburbs of Amblecote, Lye, Norton, Oldswinford, Pedmore, Wollaston, Wollescote and Wordsley The...
. Later claims that William's education was paid for by a close family friend may have been untrue.
At the age of sixteen, he found work as a factor's clerk in a warehouse at Horseley Fields, Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region...
. In the early 1880s, William left the warehouse after failing to repay a loan. He then worked for a lock manufacturer called Osborne in Lord Street, Wolverhampton, until he was sacked for theft in either 1884 or 1885. For the next few years, his whereabouts are not known for certain, but he appears to have lived an unsettled life in the English Midlands
English Midlands
The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...
and Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
. In 1887, he was making a living as a hawker
Peddler
A peddler, in British English pedlar, also known as a canvasser, cheapjack, monger, or solicitor , is a travelling vendor of goods. In England, the term was mostly used for travellers hawking goods in the countryside to small towns and villages; they might also be called tinkers or gypsies...
, selling small items such as lead pencils and key rings on the streets of Snow Hill, Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
.
London
In October 1887, William arrived in Bow, LondonBow, London
Bow is an area of London, England, United Kingdom in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a built-up, mostly residential district located east of Charing Cross, and is a part of the East End.-Bridges at Bowe:...
, and found work selling sawdust for James Martin. Martin is believed to have run a brothel at 80 Quickett Street, Bow, where Bury lived initially in the stable with the horse, but he later moved into the house. There, he met Ellen Elliot, who was employed by Martin as a servant and probably a prostitute.
Ellen had been born on 24 October 1854 at the Bricklayer's Arms public house
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
in Queen's Row, Walworth, London
Walworth, London
Walworth is an inner-city district in the London Borough of Southwark. Walworth probably derives its name from the Old English "Wealhworth" which meant Welsh farm. It is located south east of Charing Cross and near to Camberwell and Elephant and Castle.The major streets in Walworth are the Old...
, and was the daughter of publican George Elliot, who died in 1873. She had worked as a needlewoman and in a jute factory. In 1883, Ellen had had an illegitimate daughter, also called Ellen, but she had died in Poplar
Poplar, London
Poplar is a historic, mainly residential area of the East End of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is about east of Charing Cross. Historically a hamlet in the parish of Stepney, Middlesex, in 1817 Poplar became a civil parish. In 1855 the Poplar District of the Metropolis was...
workhouse
Workhouse
In England and Wales a workhouse, colloquially known as a spike, was a place where those unable to support themselves were offered accommodation and employment...
in December 1885. Ellen had worked for Martin since 1886. In March 1888, Ellen and William left Martin's employ, and moved to a furnished room at 3 Swaton Road, Bow, where they lived together until their marriage on Easter Monday, 2 April 1888, at Bromley Parish Church. Martin later said he had sacked William because he owed him money.
Both Martin and the landlady at 3 Swaton Road, Elizabeth Haynes, described Bury as a violent drunk. On 7 April 1888, Haynes caught Bury kneeling on his bride of five days threatening to cut her throat with a knife. Haynes subsequently evicted them, and Ellen sold one sixth of some shares in a railway company that she had inherited from a maiden aunt, Margaret Barren, to pay William's debt to Martin. William was re-employed by Martin, and the couple moved to 11 Blackthorn Street, close to Swaton Road. According to Martin, William was now suffering from venereal disease. In June, Ellen sold the remaining shares in the railway company, and in August they moved to 3 Spanby Road, which was adjacent to where William stabled his horse. With Ellen's income from the shares, William and Ellen had a week's holiday in Wolverhampton with a drinking buddy of William's and Ellen bought new jewellery. but William continued to assault his wife. By the first week of December, Ellen's windfall was nearly spent, and William sold his horse and cart. In January the following year, he told his landlord at 3 Spanby Road that he was thinking of emigrating to Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, and asked him to make two wooden crates for the journey. Instead, William and Ellen moved to Dundee
Dundee
Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...
in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. According to Ellen's sister, Margaret Corney, Ellen was not keen to go and only did so because William had told her he had obtained a position in a jute factory there. However, William's claim to have been offered a job by a jute merchant was false.
Dundee
The Burys travelled north as second class passengers on the steamer Cambria. They arrived at Dundee in the evening of 20 January 1889, and the following morning they rented a room above a bar at 43 Union Street, Dundee. The Burys stayed for only eight days before they moved on 29 January to a squat at 113 Princes Street, a basement flat under a shop. William had obtained the key under false pretences by telling the letting agents he was interested in renting the property. Meanwhile, Ellen had found herself a job as a cleaner at a local mill, but she quit after only a day. William continued to drink heavily, and often drank with a decorator called David Walker, who was re-painting the public house frequented by William.On Monday 4 February 1889, William bought some rope at the local grocer's shop, and spent the rest of the day observing cases at the Sheriff Court
Sheriff Court
Sheriff courts provide the local court service in Scotland, with each court serving a sheriff court district within a sheriffdom.Sheriff courts deal with a myriad of legal procedures which include:*Solemn and Summary Criminal cases...
from the public gallery. He was later reported to have listened attentively to the proceedings. On 7 February, he attended the court sessions again. On 10 February, he visited his acquaintance, Walker, who lent him a newspaper that featured a woman's suicide by hanging. Walker asked Bury to look up any news of Jack the Ripper, at which Bury threw down the newspaper with a fright. That evening, he walked into the Dundee Central Police Station on Bell Street and reported his wife's suicide to Lieutenant James Parr. He said they had been drinking heavily the night before her death, and he had woken in the morning to find his wife's body on the floor with a rope around her neck. Bury had not summoned a doctor, but had instead cut the body and concealed it in one of the packing cases brought from London. Bury told Parr that his actions were now preying on his mind, and he was afraid that he would be arrested as "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...
".
Parr took Bury upstairs to see Lieutenant David Lamb, the head of the detective department. Parr told Lamb, "This man has a wonderful story to tell you." Bury retold his story to Lamb, but omitted the reference to Jack the Ripper, and added that he had stabbed his wife's body once. Bury was searched, and a small knife, bankbook and his house key were confiscated pending inquiries. Lamb and Detective Constable Peter Campbell proceeded to the Burys' dingy flat, where they discovered the mutilated remains of Ellen stuffed into the wooden box Bury had commissioned in London.
Investigation
Lamb returned to the police station and charged William with Ellen's murder. Ellen's jewellery, found in William's pockets, was confiscated. A preliminary search of the premises revealed chalk graffiti on the rear door of the flat, which read "Jack Ripper is at the back of this door", and on the stairwell leading up from the rear of the property, which read "Jack Ripper is in this seller" (sic). The police thought they had been written by a local boy, but the writer was never identified. A more extensive search the following morning yielded blood-stained clothing and the remains of more clothing, and some of Ellen's personal effects, burned in the fireplace. The flat was bereft of furniture, indicating that it may have been burnt on the fire, either for heat or to destroy evidence. A large penknife was found with human flesh and blood upon it, and the rope that William had bought on the morning of 4 February was found with strands of Ellen's hair caught in the fibres.Ellen's body was examined by five physicians: police surgeon Charles Templeman, his colleague Alexander Stalker, two local doctors David Lennox and William Kinnear, and Edinburgh surgeon Henry Littlejohn. They concluded that Ellen had been strangled from behind. Her right leg was broken in two places so it could be crammed into the crate. Incisions, made by the penknife, ran downwards along her abdomen and had been made "within at most ten minutes of the time of death" according to Templeman, Stalker and Littlejohn. Lennox disagreed and thought the wounds were made later on the basis that when he examined the body the wound was not everted, but Templeman and Stalker said the wound was everted when they examined the body. Littlejohn explained that as Lennox made his examination three days after the others, the eversion could have disappeared, to which Lennox agreed.
Chief Constable Dewar sent a telegraph detailing the circumstances of the crime to the London Metropolitan Police Service
Metropolitan Police Service
The Metropolitan Police Service is the territorial police force responsible for Greater London, excluding the "square mile" of the City of London which is the responsibility of the City of London Police...
, which was investigating the crimes attributed to Jack the Ripper. Detectives from London did not consider Bury a realistic suspect in their investigation into the Ripper murders, but Inspector Frederick Abberline
Frederick Abberline
Frederick George Abberline was a Chief Inspector for the London Metropolitan Police and was a prominent police figure in the investigation into the Jack the Ripper murders of 1888.-Early life:...
did interview witnesses in Whitechapel connected to Bury, such as William's former employer James Martin and landlords Elizabeth Haynes and William Smith. According to the hangman James Berry
James Berry (hangman)
James Berry was an English executioner from 1884 until 1891. Berry was born in Heckmondwike in Yorkshire, where his father worked as a wool-stapler. His most important contribution to the science of hanging was his refinement of the long drop method developed by William Marwood, whom Berry knew...
and crime reporter Norman Hastings, Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
sent two detectives to interview Bury, but there is no surviving record of the visit in the police archive.
Trial and execution
On Monday 18 March, Bury was arraigned for the murder of his wife; he entered a plea of not guilty. The trial was seen before Lord YoungGeorge Young (MP)
George Young was a Scottish Liberal MP in the British Parliament and a Judge, with the judicial title of Lord Young....
in the High Court of Justiciary
High Court of Justiciary
The High Court of Justiciary is the supreme criminal court of Scotland.The High Court is both a court of first instance and a court of appeal. As a court of first instance, the High Court sits mainly in Parliament House, or in the former Sheriff Court building, in Edinburgh, but also sits from time...
on 28 March. Bury's defence team comprised solicitor
Solicitor
Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...
David Tweedie and barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
William Hay; the prosecution was led by advocate deputy
Faculty of Advocates
The Faculty of Advocates is an independent body of lawyers who have been admitted to practise as advocates before the courts of Scotland, especially the Court of Session and the High Court of Justiciary...
Dugald or Dill McKechnie. The hearing lasted 13 hours. The prosecution witnesses included Ellen's sister Margaret Corney, William's former employer James Martin, the Burys' London landlady Elizabeth Haynes, William's drinking partner David Walker, Lieutenant Lamb and Drs Templeman and Littlejohn. After a break for supper, Hay presented the defence case, which was heavily dependent on Dr Lennox's testimony that Ellen had strangled herself. At 10:05 p.m., Lord Young finished his summation, and the jury of 15 men retired to consider their verdict. After 25 minutes, the jury returned with a verdict of guilty with a recommendation for mercy. Lord Young asked the jury why they recommended mercy, and one of them replied that the medical evidence was contradictory, referring to Lennox's testimony. Dundee had a history of opposition to the death penalty, and the jury may have been trying to avoid passing a death sentence. Young told the jury to retire and reconsider their verdict until they were decided by the evidence one way or another. At 10:40 p.m., they returned with a unanimous verdict of guilty. Lord Young passed the mandatory sentence for murder: death by hanging
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
.
On 1 April, Bury's solicitor, David Tweedie, petitioned the Secretary of State for Scotland
Secretary of State for Scotland
The Secretary of State for Scotland is the principal minister of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom with responsibilities for Scotland. He heads the Scotland Office , a government department based in London and Edinburgh. The post was created soon after the Union of the Crowns, but was...
, Lord Lothian
Schomberg Kerr, 9th Marquess of Lothian
Schomberg Henry Kerr, 9th Marquess of Lothian KT, PC , styled Lord Schomberg Kerr until 1870, was a British diplomat and Conservative politician...
, for clemency. Tweedie argued that the sentence should be commuted to life imprisonment on the grounds of the conflicting medical evidence and the jury's initial reservations. Tweedie further argued that Bury could have inherited insanity from his mother, who had died in a lunatic asylum. A clergyman whom Bury had befriended, Edward John Gough, minister of St Paul's Episopalian Church in Dundee
St Paul's Cathedral, Dundee
St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in the city of Dundee, Scotland. It is the Cathedral and administrative centre of the Diocese of Brechin in the Scottish Episcopal Church.-Castle:...
, also wrote to Lothian asking for a reprieve. The reprieve was rejected on 22 April, and Bury was hanged on 24 April by executioner James Berry
James Berry (hangman)
James Berry was an English executioner from 1884 until 1891. Berry was born in Heckmondwike in Yorkshire, where his father worked as a wool-stapler. His most important contribution to the science of hanging was his refinement of the long drop method developed by William Marwood, whom Berry knew...
. The Dundee Courier printed an article the following day against capital punishment:
A few days before the execution, Bury confessed to Reverend Gough that he had killed Ellen. At the urging of Gough, William wrote a confession on 22 April 1889, which he asked to be withheld until after he was dead. William claimed that he had strangled Ellen without premeditation on the night of 4–5 February 1889 during a drunken row over money, and that he had tried to dismember the body for disposal the next day but was too squeamish to continue. The latter part of this confession does not match the expert testimony of the physicians, who said that the incisions were made "within at most ten minutes of the time of death" rather than the next day. William stated he had stuffed Ellen's body into the crate as part of a later plan for disposal, but instead concocted the suicide story when he realised that Ellen's absence would be noted.
Jack the Ripper suspect
Traditionally, five murders (known as the "canonical five") are attributed to the notorious serial killer "Jack the Ripper", who terrorised WhitechapelWhitechapel
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...
in the East End of London
East End of London
The East End of London, also known simply as the East End, is the area of London, England, United Kingdom, east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames. Although not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries, the River Lea can be considered another boundary...
between August and November 1888. Authorities are not agreed on the exact number of the Ripper's victims and at least eleven Whitechapel murders until 1891 were included in the same extensive police investigation. All the crimes remain unsolved.
The claims that Bury could have been the Ripper began to appear in newspapers shortly after Bury's arrest. Like Bury, the Ripper had inflicted post-mortem abdominal wounds on his victims, and Bury lived in Bow
Bow, London
Bow is an area of London, England, United Kingdom in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a built-up, mostly residential district located east of Charing Cross, and is a part of the East End.-Bridges at Bowe:...
, near Whitechapel
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...
, from October 1887 to January 1889, which placed him fairly near the Whitechapel murders at the appropriate time. The Dundee Advertiser of 12 February claimed that the Burys' "neighbours were startled and alarmed at the idea that one whom in their terror they associated with the Whitechapel tragedies had been living in their midst." The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
of the same day connected Bury directly to the atrocities, and reported the theory that William had murdered Ellen to prevent her from revealing his guilt, a story picked up and repeated by The Dundee Courier the following day. The Courier alleged that Bury admitted to Lt. Parr in the police station that he was Jack the Ripper, but Parr's version of the story says only that Bury said he was afraid he would be arrested as Jack the Ripper. Bury denied any connection, despite making a full confession to his wife's homicide. Nevertheless, the hangman James Berry
James Berry (hangman)
James Berry was an English executioner from 1884 until 1891. Berry was born in Heckmondwike in Yorkshire, where his father worked as a wool-stapler. His most important contribution to the science of hanging was his refinement of the long drop method developed by William Marwood, whom Berry knew...
promoted the idea that Bury was the Ripper.
In the 1920s, Norman Hastings built on Berry's hypothesis proposing Bury as the Ripper, and more recently William Beadle and Dundee librarian Euan Macpherson have published books and articles popularising Bury as a Ripper suspect. They highlighted that the canonical five Whitechapel murders ended in November 1888, which roughly coincided with Bury's departure from Whitechapel. There was graffiti at Bury's Dundee flat that implied that Jack the Ripper lived there, and Macpherson supposed this was written by Bury as a form of confession. Willliam took Ellen's rings, and the Ripper is believed to have taken rings from victim 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...
. Bury was persistently violent to his wife, threatened her with a knife, and cut open her abdomen after death in a manner not dissimilar to the Whitechapel murderer. In a conversation with her neighbours, Marjory Smith who ran the shop above the Burys' Princes Street flat in Dundee, asked them "What sort of work was this you Whitechapel folk have been about, letting Jack the Ripper kill so many people?" Bury went silent, but Ellen replied "Jack the Ripper is quiet now." She reportedly told another neighbour, "Jack the Ripper is taking a rest." Beadle and Macpherson argued that Ellen's comments might indicate that she had knowledge of the Rippers whereabouts.
Others contend that Bury only imitated the Ripper because there are differences between their crimes. Ellen Bury was strangled with a rope and sustained comparatively few knife wounds compared to the Ripper's victims, whose throats were cut prior to sustaining lengthy abdominal wounds. Ellen Bury's throat was not cut, and only relatively shallow cuts were made to her abdomen. The identity of the Whitechapel murderer is unknown, and over one hundred suspects, in addition to Bury, have been proposed.