Jack The Ripper In America. Did Jack The Ripper Visit The United States?

James Kelly
Our thanks to Alan Sharp for compiling this timeline

April 20th 1860 - James Kelly born in Preston, Lancashire, the illegitimate son of 15 year old Sarah Kelly. After the birth Sarah returns to Liverpool leaving James in the care of her mother Teresa. James never meets his mother.

1870 - Sarah Kelly marries Master Mariner John Allen.

1873 - James Kelly leaves school and begins an apprenticeship as an upholsterer.

May 16th 1874 - John Allen dies in Peru leaving Sarah Kelly a house and a share in a cargo ship. Sarah falls to pieces and her health begins to deteriorate.

July 29th 1874 - Sarah Kelly dies. In her will she leaves James a small fortune of over £25,000 to be held in trust for him until his 25th birthday.

1875 - Teresa Kelly tells James about his history and his inheritance. It is the first time he learns that the woman he thought was his mother is really his grandmother. He is withdrawn from his apprenticeship and sent to Dr Robert Hurworth's Commercial Academy in New Brighton to learn bookkeeping and clerical skills.

1876 - Teresa Kelly dies.

1877 - James finishes his education and takes a job in Liverpool with Isaac H. Jones, a pawnbroker. He begins to act irrationally and experience mood swings.

Late 1878 - James decides to quit his job and return to his previous trade as an upholsterer. He also decides to move to London, and applies to the administrators of his trust fund who agree to fund the move. On arrival in London he applies to the East London Upholsterer's Trade Society in Shoreditch for work. They agree to help him find a position, but suggest he takes casual work in the meantime.

Early 1879 - Kelly takes lodgings at 37 Collingwood Street, Bethnal Green with the family of fellow upholsterer Walter Lamb. In the company of Lamb and another friend John Merritt, a 35 year old married cab driver, the formerly devout Catholic Kelly learns the delights of hard drinking and paid sex on the back streets of the East End. He works at a variety of casual jobs in sweatshops all over the district. Eventually he decides to try his luck elsewhere.

1879-1881 - For two years there are only scant details of Kelly's movements. For at least some time he is living in Brighton, and he spends a period serving aboard an American Man-o-war.

Mid 1881 - He returns to London and renews his acquaintance with Lamb and Merritt. He works at a variety of casual jobs and sometimes serves on Continental cargo ships. His drinking becomes heavier than ever and most evenings are spent around Whitechapel and Spitalfields.

December 1881 - A few weeks before Christmas he meets Sarah Brider and quickly becomes enamoured of her. Sarah takes him home to meet her family and the pair become an item. Sarah's parents think him a serious and religious young man with good prospects.

March 1882 - Kelly moves into the Brider's house at 21 Cottage Lane, just off the City Road between Shoreditch and Islington, as a lodger. He has to share a room with another man. He cuts down n his drinking and other activities and spends many evenings in the house with Sarah and her parents.

Christmas 1882 - Kelly and Sarah have become increasingly intimate over the year and, after much persistence on his part, she surrenders her virginity to him. The event is a disaster. Despite being sexually experienced, Kelly has only slept with low-class prostitutes, and neither one has had any kind of sex education. He is not prepared for how different sex with a virgin will be and finds himself unable to penetrate. He is convinced that Sarah has some kind of deformity and she babbles a story of being interfered with by an uncle by way of explanation. Kelly's former erratic behaviour returns after this and he experiences stronger and stronger depressions and mood swings in the following months. He also returns to his former habits in the East End rather than pressing Sarah further.

February 1883 - Fearful that he will lose Sarah who is growing more distant, he proposes marriage to her. She delays but eventually accepts. However in the meantime Kelly finds he has a venereal disease and, fearful of doctors, resolves to treat it himself.

April 1st 1883 - Kelly finally lands a permanent job in the upholstery trade, working for John Hiron of 4 Orchard Buildings, Acton Street, Haggerston. Sarah's family pressure him to set a date for the wedding, although he is reluctant due to his disease. They finally agree a date of June 4th. Kelly's erratic behaviour continues and he begins experiencing serious headaches and discharges from his ears.

Friday June 1st 1883 - Kelly is dismissed from his job. As a reason Hiron states that "he was obviously not right in the head." Kelly has some money from his trust fund and it is decided that the wedding will go ahead.

Monday June 4th 1883 - Kelly and Sarah are married at St Luke's Parish Church, Old Street, EC1. On the same day he obtains a new upholstery job with Cornelius Vincent Smith at Marshall's Yard, 4 Henry Street, close to Regents Park and 2 miles walk from Cottage Lane. The couple remain at Sarah's parents house and because of shortness of space Kelly continues to share a room with the lodger. It is believed that the marriage is never consummated.

Saturday June 9th 1883 - Kelly demands Sarah see a doctor about her 'deformity'. Sarah turns to her parents and her father, John Brider, confronts Kelly who pours out to him the whole tale of their sexual problems and the supposed abuse by an uncle. Stunned by this, Mr Brider agrees that Sarah should see a doctor, but Kelly broods on the incident the whole weekend.

Monday June 11th 1883 - Kelly travels to Liverpool and asks the fund trustees for money so that he and Sarah can set up house together. He is successful and returns the same day.

Sunday June 17th 1883 - When cleaning the room Kelly shares, Mrs Brider finds a syringe and the drugs Kelly is using to treat himself. She and Sarah tackle him and after initially denying that they are his, he flies into a rage and accuses Sarah of being a prostitute and infecting him, and accuses them both of tricking him into marriage to get their hands on his inheritance.

Monday June 18th 1883 - Sarah's birthday. Filled with remorse at his outburst of the night before Kelly resolves to take her out on their return from work. Kelly waits for her but she does not return until 9 o'clock, over an hour later than usual. Ignoring Kelly she goes into the parlour and tells her mother she is unwell. Kelly runs into the parlour and drags Sarah into the kitchen screaming abuse at her. Then he pulls a carving knife from a kitchen drawer and threatens to stab her unless she tells him where she has been. She claims to have gone to get some quinine to help him with his problems. Kelly calms down instantly and collapses in a chair crying.