Free The Law Killers by Alexander McGregor

three-foot deep, square-shaped box described by Bury dominated the scene. Prising this box open, Lamb recoiled at the ghastly sight before his eyes. Partly covered by a sheet was the near-naked corpse of Ellen Bury, her body twisted awkwardly to fit into her gruesome coffin. Her abdomen had been ripped apart by five or six knife slashes, one particularly long, deep gash exposing the entrails. There were deep red marks on her throat. Beside the mutilated body, which was already in the early stages of decay, were the New Testament, a hymn book, prayer book and other papers, books and some clothing. On the nearby window ledge lay a blood-stained knife with scraps of flesh and hair attached and, on the floor, a length of cord, also with some hairs adhering to it. In the hearth were the remnants of burnt ladies’ clothing and the buttons which had adorned it.
    The lieutenant swiftly took in the rest of the scene in the sparsely furnished bedroom and noted some empty beer bottles, a whisky flask, and a cigar box containing dominoes. The iron bedstead, bought a week earlier by Bury in the Greenmarket, had its sheets tidily folded back, as though someone had just risen.
    A brief search also unearthed a document which read:
January 12, 1889
We, Messrs. Malcolm, Ogilvy & Co. Ltd., Dundee, do hereby agree to take into our employ W. H. and E. N. Bury of No. 3 Spanby Road, London, E. for a period of 7 years. Wages for W.H.B. £2 per week; wages for E. B. £1 per week. To enter duty as soon as Possible. Travelling expenses will Be allowed after one Month from Date of entering employment.
Messrs. Malcolm, Ogilvy & Co.,
Dundee.
W. H. Bury,
Pro. Tem. Ellen Bury.
Witness – William James Hawkins
    Lieutenant Lamb left Detective Campbell to stand guard over the grisly death scene and strode quickly from the flat to summon the presence of the police surgeon and the Procurator Fiscal.
    From that moment on, William Henry Bury, the insignificant, drunken drifter who had mysteriously decided to set sail from London to settle in a Scottish city he knew nothing of, assumed a worldwide notoriety that has continued to surround him for over a hundred years. Piecing together the strands of the Burys’ flight from the Whitechapel area of London, the nature of the unfortunate Ellen’s injuries and the references to Jack the Ripper, news agencies quickly made the link to what had happened at 113 Princes Street and the back alleys of the brothel areas of London. The address of the dingy basement floor in an unfashionable part of Dundee was soon to be telegraphed round the world. Within days newspapers as far away as America were proclaiming that Bury and the Ripper were one and the same person, even though he had still to stand trial for the only crime he had been charged with.
    In Dundee, news of Bury’s arrest, and the possible links with the London maniac who had stalked the back alleys of Whitechapel, spread like wildfire. The day after Bury’s breathless admissions at police headquarters, large groups of men, women and children queued outside newsagents to read the third edition of The Courier which published at 1 p.m. and gave a full account of what had been found in Princes Street. From then until early evening, when a fall of heavy snow sent them scurrying home, crowds descended on the basement flat to jostle for a position which might give them a glimpse between the crimson curtains over the broken kitchen window into the scene of horror.
    Those who got close enough to the winding staircase leading to the flat gasped at what they saw written in chalk on a door at the bottom of the stairs – ‘Jack Ripper is at the back of this door’ – and on a wall – ‘Jack Ripper is in this seller ( sic )’. Although the writing looked childish, it appeared to have been there for some time.
    Meanwhile, other unexpected discoveries had been made at police headquarters after the detention of the flat’s occupant. Shortly after arriving in Bell Street on