The Greenock Ripper!

Late on the 7^th of March in 1903, a Saturday night, a woman made her way to Greenock Police Office in Dalrymple Street.  She was bleeding heavily and reported that she had been stabbed by a man while in a close in Dalrymple Street near an empty building.  Her name was Elizabeth (Lowden) O’Neill, forty-one years old and known to the police as a woman who frequented the shebeens and closes of that part of Greenock.  Her injuries, which the local press delicately described as being “to the lower part of her body” were severe, and she was rushed to Greenock Infirmary. 

Just an hour and a half later, at 1am, Bridget (Gordon) Baker appeared at the Police Office bleeding profusely, to report that she had been stabbed by a man in a close at 20 Vennel, just across from the side entrance of the public library.  She was 52 years old and also well known to the local police.  She had a seven-inch gash in her hip and had been cut by a knife.  She was also immediately rushed to the Infirmary to have her wound treated.

1. Dalrymple Street   2. Vennel   3. Public Library    4. Police Office

Both women described their attacker as between twenty and thirty years of age, tall and “respectably dressed”.  Needless to say, the attacks caused some commotion in the town with the attacks being likened to those attributed to “Jack the Ripper” in Whitechapel, London in the previous decade.  Just as in that case, no arrests were ever made in the “Greenock Ripper” case. 

Greenock Infirmary, Duncan Street

The women were discharged from the Infirmary a couple of weeks later having been successfully treated for their injuries.  One of the victims Bridget (Gordon) Baker was quite a character.  She had frequently been in trouble with the police and in 1877 had even been charged with theft of a petticoat from the local prison!  She died in the poorhouse at Smithston in 1911.  Elizabeth (Lowden) O’Neill was from Glasgow and seems to have left the town shortly after the assault. 

Greenock’s closes, or narrow lanes, which led down to the quays and harbours had a bad reputation and despite the recent improvements, there were still areas of the town that were known to be the haunt of prostitutes and crooks.  (Read more about Greenock's closes here.)  

@Greenock Burns Club

Interesting that the offences were carried out by someone described as "well dressed" and that they took place not in the heart of the Vennel, but on the edges, like Dalrymple Street and near the library (at Wallace Place).  Perhaps the perpetrator would have looked out of place in the deeper heart of the closes.  The young man could have been just passing through and perhaps left the town on one of the many ships that sailed the next morning.  Many places in Britain and abroad reported “copycat” assaults and murders in the wake of the sensational Whitechapel Murders.  Greenock was no exception!

Listen to the Greenock Ripper Podcast by the Greenockian.

Greenock Library, Wallace Place

Greenock Gaol

The prison at Greenock used to be situated on the west side of Bank Street behind what is now Wellpark Mid Kirk in the town.  This description of the prison was given by Prison Inspectors in the 1830s.  

Source - Greenock Burns Club

"The building is old and ill constructed, and the propriety of either building a new prison or of making extensive alterations in the present one has been frequently considered.  The prison is situated in a central part of the town, and is near the bottom of a hill, the water that drains from which frequently causes parts of the prison to be damp."

Source - Watt Institution

"The prison is in a very confined situation, and persons without sometimes get on the surrounding wall and communicate with the prisoners, either by calling to the, or occasionally by throwing small packets in at the windows.  The prison is moderately secure, although escapes are sometimes effected.  The number of cells is generally sufficient … so far as to have not more than two prisoners in the same cell."

"The prison is kept in a very clean state, but it is very ill ventilated.  Most of the cells are dry, but some of them are damp.  Such as are heated artificially are so by means of open fires or a stove.  There are, however, but few that are heated at all, and the complaints of the prisoners respecting the cold appear to be well founded, for the employment to which they are put, viz. picking oakum and teasing hair, can do very little towards exciting animal warmth.  The same cells are used for working and sleeping."

 Prison staff consisted of five people – the gaoler, a turnkey, a watchman, a surgeon and a chaplain.  “The different officers appear to be well qualified for their situation and I received no complaint respecting their conduct.  The gaoler is not allowed to sell or let out any article to a prisoner.  He is the only officer who resides in the prison."

Greenock Sheriff Court, Nelson Street, Greenock

This building remained as the prison until a new prison was built behind the Sheriff Court in Nelson Street in the late 1860s.