William Henry Bury (25 May 1859 – 24 April 1889) was suspected of being the notorious serial killer "Jack the Ripper". He was hanged for the murder of his wife Ellen in 1889, and was the last person executed in Dundee, Scotland.
Bury was orphaned at 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 dismissed for theft, and became a street peddler. In 1887 he moved to London, where he married Ellen Elliot, who was probably a prostitute. 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, Bury 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. Although Bury's guilt was not in doubt, Dundee had a history of opposition to the death penalty and The Dundee Courier printed an editorial the day after his execution decrying the "judicial butcheries" of capital punishment.
Bury killed his wife shortly after the height of the London Whitechapel murders, which were attributed to the unidentified serial killer "Jack the Ripper". Bury's previous abode near Whitechapel and similarities between the Ripper's crimes and Bury's led the press, as well as executioner James Berry, to suggest that Bury was the Ripper. Bury protested his innocence in the Ripper crimes, and the police discounted him as a suspect. Later authors have built on the earlier accusations, but the idea that Bury was the Ripper is not widely accepted.
Childhood and youth William Bury was born in Stourbridge, Worcestershire, the youngest of four children of Henry Bury and his wife Mary Jane (née Henley). He was orphaned in infancy. His father, 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, he fell beneath the wheels of his fish cart and was killed when the horse bolted and pulled the cart over his prone body.Beadle, pp. 36–37 William's mother may 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.Beadle, pp. 36–38 She remained there until her death aged 33 on 30 March 1864.Beadle, p. 38; Macpherson, p. 40
William's eldest sibling, Elizabeth Ann, died at the age of seven during an epileptic seizure on 7 September 1859, which may have contributed to Mary Jane's depression.Beadle, p. 36 The other two children, Joseph Henry and Mary Jane, both died before 1889.Bury's reprieve petition, 1 April 1889, quoted in Beadle, p. 38 William was raised initially in Dudley by his maternal uncle, Edward Henley,Beadle, p. 38 and by 1871 he was enrolled at the Blue Coat charity school in Stourbridge.Beadle, p. 39
At the age of sixteen, he found work as a factor's clerk in a warehouse at Horseley Fields, Wolverhampton, until the early 1880s when he left the warehouse after failing to repay a loan.Beadle, p. 52 He then worked for a lock manufacturer called Osborne in Lord Street, Wolverhampton, until he was dismissed for theft in either 1884 or 1885.Beadle, pp. 52–53 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.Beadle, p. 53 In 1887, he was making a living as a hawker, selling small items such as pencils and key rings on the streets of Snow Hill, Birmingham.Beadle, p. 53; Macpherson, p. 41
London In October 1887, Bury arrived in Bow, London, and found work selling sawdust for James Martin, who appears to have run a brothel at 80 Quickett Street, Bow. Initially, Bury lived in the stable, but later moved into the house. There, he met Ellen Elliot, who was employed by Martin as a servant and probably a prostitute.Beadle, pp. 73–74; Macpherson, pp. 43–44
Ellen was born on 24 October 1856 in Walworth, London, at the Bricklayer's Arms public house run by her father, George Elliot.Beadle, pp. 70–72 In adult life, she worked as a needlewoman and in a jute processing factory.Testimony of Ellen's sister, Margaret Corney, quoted in Macpherson, p. 52 In 1883, she had an illegitimate daughter, also called Ellen, who died in Poplar workhouse in December 1885. Within a year of the death of her daughter, she began working for Martin.Beadle, p. 73 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.Beadle, p. 79 Martin later said he had dismissed William because of unpaid debts.Martin's statement, 14 February 1889, and trial evidence, 28 March 1889, quoted in Beadle, p. 76
Martin and the landlady at 3 Swaton Road, Elizabeth Haynes, described Bury as a violent drunk.Beadle, p. 81; Macpherson, pp. 46–47 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 of six £100 shares in a railway company that she had inherited from a maiden aunt, Margaret Barren, to pay William's debt to Martin.Beadle, p. 82 William was re-employed by Martin, and the couple moved to 11 Blackthorn Street, close to Swaton Road. According to Martin, William had developed a venereal disease.Martin's statement, 14 February 1889, quoted in Beadle, p. 83; Macpherson, p. 49 In June, Ellen sold the remaining shares,Statement of the Secretary of the London Union Bank to the Procurator Fiscal, 15 February 1889, quoted in Beadle, p. 84 and in August they moved to 3 Spanby Road, adjacent to where William stabled his horse.Landlord William Smith's statement, 14 February 1889, quoted in Beadle, p. 98 With the money from the shares, the couple had a week's holiday in Wolverhampton with a drinking friend of William's and Ellen bought new jewellery.Beadle, pp. 99–102 William continued to assault his wife throughout the latter half of 1888.Statements of landlord William Smith, 14 February 1889, and Ellen's sister, Margaret Corney, 15 February 1889, quoted in Beadle, pp. 174–175; Macpherson, pp. 56–57 By the first week of December, Ellen's windfall was nearly spent, and William sold his horse and cart.Testimony, 28 March 1889, and statement, 15 February 1889, of Ellen's sister, Margaret Corney, quoted in Beadle, p. 208 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.Beadle, p. 223 Instead, William and Ellen moved to Dundee in Scotland. Ellen was not keen to go and only did so after William lied that he had obtained a position in a jute factory there.Beadle, pp. 221–223; Macpherson, pp. 60–62
Dundee
The Burys travelled north as second-class passengers on the steamer Cambria. They arrived at Dundee on the evening of 20 January 1889, and the following morning they rented a room above a bar at 43 Union Street.Beadle, p. 227; Macpherson, pp. 63–64 The Burys stayed for only eight days before they moved on 29 January to a squat at 113 Prince's Street, a basement flat under a shop. William had obtained the key under false pretences by telling the letting agents that he was a viewer interested in renting the property.Beadle, pp. 230–231; Macpherson, p. 70 Meanwhile, Ellen found a job as a cleaner at a local mill, but she quit after a day.Dundee Courier, 12 February 1889, quoted in Beadle, p. 234; Macpherson, p. 76 William continued to drink heavily, often with a decorator called David Walker, who was re-painting the public house frequented by William.Beadle, p. 234; Macpherson, p. 80
On Monday 4 February, 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.People's Journal, 16 February 1889, quoted in Beadle, p. 235 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's statement, 18 February 1889, quoted in Beadle, p. 238 Walker asked Bury to look up any news of Jack the Ripper, at which Bury threw down the newspaper with a fright.Macpherson, p. 83 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.Beadle, p. 241 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 and accused of being Jack the Ripper.Parr's statement, 13 February 1889, quoted in Beadle, pp. 241–242; Macpherson, pp. 19–20
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."Parr's statement, 13 February 1889, quoted in Beadle, p. 242 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.Lamb's statement, 18 February 1889, quoted in Beadle, p. 242; Macpherson, p. 20 Bury was searched, and a small knife, bankbook and his house key were confiscated pending inquiries.Beadle, p. 242 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.Lamb's trial evidence, 28 March 1889, quoted in Beadle, p. 246
Investigation
Lamb returned to the police station and charged William with Ellen's murder. Ellen's jewellery, found in William's pockets, was confiscated.Beadle, p. 247; Macpherson, p. 25 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 ".Beadle, p. 248 The press and the police thought they had been written by a local boy before the tragedy, but the writer was never identified.Beadle, p. 277; Macpherson, pp. 31–32 A more extensive search the following morning found blood-stained clothing in the crate that had contained the body, and the remains of more clothing and some of Ellen's personal effects burned in the fireplace.Beadle, pp. 250–251; Macpherson, p. 26 The flat was bereft of furniture, indicating that it may have been burnt on the fire, either for heat or to destroy evidence.Macpherson, pp. 26–27 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.Beadle, p. 246