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On the evening of Friday the 5th of September 1873, a police vessel patrolling the River Thames in and around the area of Battersea, a district of Wandsworth in south west London, found the upper left-hand portion of a woman’s body on the banks of the River Thames. Soon after, police surgeons who examined the grisly finding, said the torso had not been in the water for more than twelve hours. Not long after this, a right-hand piece of body, which would later prove to be the corresponding part of the torso, was found by a police officer nearby while pieces of the woman’s lungs were discovered scattered along the river.

On the 6th of September, a face and scalp were found, the nose had been sliced off but was still attached to the upper lip and a bruise was visible on the right temple, possibly the cause of death.

On the 9th of September,  the right forearm was found further along the river,  and the left foot and right shoulder with part of the arm attached were found about six miles away at Greenwich,  and the right thigh was found at Woolwich, a further two miles away.

Doctors tried to reassemble the body parts to identify the woman who was thought to be about 40 years old with short dark hair. The woman had a scar on her left breast that police hoped people missing a family member might recognise, but this proved unsuccessful.

On the 15th of September, another part of the right arm was found, the woman was never identified, and no arrests were made.

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In June 1874 another body was found at Putney, the head, arms, and one leg had been removed from the body of an unknown woman at Putney, about half a mile away from where the torso found in 1873 was discovered. The body had been severed at the spinal column and placed in lime before being dumped in the river.

 

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On Thursday the 23rd of October 1884, a woman’s skull with flesh still attached to it and a lump of flesh from a thigh was found in Tottenham Court Road.

​Not long after, and barely half a mile away, an arm was discovered that had been wrapped in paper and discarded at Bedford Square.​

On Tuesday the 28th of October, a policeman found a paper parcel which he opened to discover part of a female torso half a mile northwest of Bedford Square at 33 Fitzroy Square.

At the post-mortem, Dr Lloyd estimated the woman had been killed about four to five months previously, the face and body had been terribly mutilated and identification was impossible. The discarded arm was the only clue that might help identify the woman as it had a rose tattoo. At the inquest, it was decided all the body parts belonged to the same woman and "divided by someone skilled, but certainly not for the purpose of anatomy.” ​

On the 9th of December 1884, it was disclosed that the right arm, right forearm, and the left and right feet that were found at Mornington Crescent, a mile north of the Tottenham Court Road discovery, were of a different woman.

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In May 1887, a torso belonging to a woman aged somewhere between 25 to 35, with fair hair and a dark complexion, was discovered in the River Thames at Rainham, London. Over the next four or five weeks, the remaining body parts, except for the head and upper chest, were found at various places along the river. Upon examining the torso, Assistant Police Surgeon Hebbert revealed that the heart, lungs, small intestines, and most of the large intestines were missing. Cuts on the vertebrae were consistent with those made with a surgical saw, and the long incisions showed that a long and very sharp knife had been used. The cuts, he said, showed the killer had the skill of a hunter or butcher. Other opinions agreed that a degree of medical knowledge was evident but was not the work of a doctor or anatomist. A verdict of “Found Dead” was returned by a jury. 

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On Tuesday the 11th of September 1888, Frederick Moore who was working at Pimlico, London, noticed something on the tidal mud bank of the River Thames below him. A right arm of a female, severed at the shoulder had got caught up in some timber, and after looking around the area for any more body parts, he took the arm to the police.

On Friday the 28th of September, a boy saw a strange-shaped parcel in the garden of a blind school on Lambeth Road, on opening the parcel, he found the decomposing arm of a woman.​​

On Tuesday the 2nd of October, a worker found a woman’s torso in a vault in the cellar of the building that would later become Scotland Yard. Wrapped in what appeared to be a black petticoat, the body had been placed in the vault sometime after the 29th of September, the last time the vault had been visited. Police Surgeon Thomas Bond later matched the torso to the arm and shoulder found in September. At the inquest on the 8th of October, it was revealed the woman had been around 24 years of age, five feet eight inches in height and was “of large stature and well nourished.” The killer had also removed her uterus. The cause of death could not be determined. On the 17th of October, a reporter named Jasper Waring found a left leg that had been severed above the knee not far from the vault with the help of a sniffer dog. The head and remaining limbs were never recovered, and the identity of the victim and the murderer are a mystery to this day. This murder happened one day after the Pinchin Street Torso event one year later.​​

On the 4th of June 1889, three boys were swimming in the River Thames near Battersea; when they saw a bundle washed up on the shore wrapped in white linen. Opening the bundle, the boys found part of a leg and immediately called for the police. On examination, the limb turned out to be a human thigh that had been removed from the hip to the knee. Not long after this discovery, the lower half of a woman’s abdomen was found five miles away. Doctors noted that the body had not been dead long due to a slight seepage of blood. On Thursday the 6th of June, a gardener working in Battersea Park found the upper half of a woman’s chest, which had been severed below the shoulders and cut down the centre. Later that day, Charles Marlow, working by the Thames, found the lower part of the body that bore the same wound as found on the other half. The head and arms had been removed close to the shoulders. Part of the windpipe remained, but the lungs were missing. Coincidentally, this body was found on the opposite side of the river, to where the ‘Whitehall Torso’ was discovered in 1887. 

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On Friday, the 7th of June 1889, part of the lower left leg and foot were discovered. A search of the Thames turned up a liver, other abdominal flesh, and a piece of lung. These body parts were all wrapped in the undergarments, skirt, and coat that were left on the woman. The left arm and hand were found in the Thames on the 8th of June. On the 9th of June, the buttocks and pelvis, minus its organs, were found in the afternoon. The right thigh had been wrapped in another piece of the coat. On examination of the buttocks, a rolled-up piece of cloth, possibly a handkerchief, had been found inserted into the anus. The name L.E. Fisher was stencilled inside.

On the 10th of June, the right arm and hand were spotted floating in the Thames near Battersea. At the inquest, it was revealed that the woman had been around eight months pregnant at the time of death. The unborn child had been removed from the uterus after her death. It was stated that the removal of the body parts “showed skill and design” not, however, “the anatomical skill of a surgeon.” On the 26th of June 1889, the body was identified as Elizabeth Jackson.

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At 5:15 a.m., on Tuesday the 10th of September 1889, PC William Pennett discovered the body of an unidentified woman aged between 30 and 40 years old, under a railway arch at Pinchin Street, Whitechapel, London. The woman’s head and legs were severed. Extensive bruising on the woman’s back, hip, and arm indicated she had been severely beaten. The abdomen had been mutilated, although the genitals had not been harmed or removed. It was believed the murder took place somewhere on Monday the 8th of September. The body was transported to the arch on September the 10th and concealed by an old chemise that lay nearby. The head and legs were never found.

Later known as the Pinchin Street Torso Murder, it was not associated with Jack the Ripper because pathologists believed that haemorrhage from the tissues and blood vessels was the cause of death. It is unclear if the victim’s throat had been cut. Metropolitan Police Commissioner at the time, Mr James Monro, reported, “The state of the body itself showed that death took place about 36 hours or more previously.” Monro suggested the woman had been taken and killed on the 8th of September (the exact date Ripper victim Annie Chapman was murdered.) Incidentally, Pinchin Street is a 4-minute walk from Berner Street, where one of Jack’s canonical victims’ Elizabeth Stride, was murdered. Some theorists believe was the body of prostitute Lydia Hart. These murders have all been linked with Jack at some time or another, but most criminologists believe they were the work of a different person.

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