The Potteries Examiner : — 1873-09-13 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

HORRIBLE DISCOVERY IN THE THAMES. The mutilated parts of a woman have been found in the Thames, in a condition which leaves no doubt that she had been brutally murdered, hacked to pieces, and the parts thrown iuto the river. It appears that the discovery was first made on Saturday morning about 6.30, by Constable Fane, T division, whose attention was called to the left upper quarter of a woman on the shore of Battersea Waterworks. At 10.30 Police-constable Fleury, one of the South-Western Railway Police, found the corresponding quarter of the same body at Brunswick Wharf, Nine Elms. Inspector Marley, of the T division, found under the second arch of Battersea Bridge a set of lungs. Another policeman found another set of lungs near Battersea Railway Pier. The skin of a woman's face has been found near Limehouse, evidently having been purposely stripped off to prevent identification. The various divisional police surgeons have minutely examined the parts of the body, and given it as their positive opinion that the body has not been dissected for anatomical purposes, but that it has been sawn and cut to pieces. The portions of the body are lying at the Clapham Workhouse for identification. Up till dark on Saturday night the Thames police were still actively engaged in netting and dragging the river round Battersea and other parts in the hope of finding the remaining portions of the mutilated woman. In the afternoon Dr. Kempster made a further examination of a part of the head found at Limebouse, which he states is undoubtedly part of the head belpnging to the mutilated remains he had , examined, and which were found at Battersea. The I woman, he states, "is evidently the victim of a recent murder." There is a large bruise on the right temple, which he should think was caused by a blow from a blunt instrument, and which would probably cause death. There was a fracture rr, the skull, the skull being divided from the upper part of the wound. The fresh state of the mutilated portions shows that they had not been in the water long, and that the murder had not been committed many hours, the probability being that it was done on Thursday night. Along with the skin, which has been torn from the face, there is a portion of the nose, which has been a rather short and thick One. There is also a cut over the left lip In addition to the nose there is also one of the mu; attached to the skin, which is of large size. The medical opinion is that the body is that of a woman about forty years of age. An inqu t was opened on Monday at the Wandsworth Workhoe:se, on the mutilated remains. Part of the thigh and right arm had been subsequently picked up floating in the river at Woolwich, se that almost the whole of the body bas been recovered except the head. The medical evidence showed that the remains were theses! a stoat female who most have been alive within thirty hours of the time that the remains were discovered. The inquiry was adjourned till Monday next. On Sunday evening an elderly man went to Clapham Union and positively identified the woman as his daughter. On Tuesday information was received by the police to which considerable importance is attached. It appears that on board 'a particular barge, the name of which is known, there was a woman, whose husband, or para. ' mour, was known to be of a very violent disposition. , The man and woman worked the barge together. She ' was frequently seen on board at work. The barge was at Battersea on Wednesday. and discharged cargo, and on Thumbs/ evening took in another cargo. She started on I riday morning—the morning on which the remains were found down the river. The barge was seen by a number of bargemen going down, but the woman was not seen on board. The police have started down the river in pursuit. Several other cut up portions of the woman's holy have best) found out. The hands, feet, and skull are still missing.  DIVISIONs IN THE Horse OF