At the same time this brief exchange was taking place, a Mr. and Mrs. Mahoney of George Yard Buildings passed the landing where Martha’s body was later found and heard nothing of note and saw no sign of anyone. Martha had not been murdered yet. Perhaps she was nearby in the shadows, waiting for the constable to resume his patrol so she could resume business with the soldier. Perhaps the soldier had nothing to do with Martha at all and is simply a source of confusion. Whatever the truth, it is evident that Police Constable Barrett’s attention was piqued by a soldier alone in the street at 2:00 A.M. outside George Yard Buildings, and whether he questioned this soldier or not, the soldier felt compelled to offer an explanation as to why he was there.
The identities of that soldier and any other soldiers associated with Pearly Poll and Martha the night of August 6th and early morning of the 7th remain unknown. Pearly Poll, Barrett, and other witnesses who had noticed Martha on the street were never able to positively identify any soldiers in the guard room at the Tower of London or in Wellington Barracks. Every man who seemed even remotely familiar had a believable alibi. A search through the belongings of soldiers produced no evidence, including blood. Martha Tabran’s killer would have been bloody.
Chief Inspector Donald Swanson of Scotland Yard’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) acknowledged in his special report that there was no reason to think that Martha Tabran had been with anybody but the soldier she had walked off with before midnight, although it was possible, due to the “lapse of time,” that she might have been with another client. She might have been with several. The puzzle of the “private” seen with Martha at 11:45 and the “private” seen by P. C. Barrett at 2:00 A.M. nagged at Scotland Yard because he was seen so close to when and where Martha was murdered. Maybe he did it. Maybe he really was a soldier.
Or maybe he was a killer disguised as a soldier. What a brilliant bit of trickery that would have been. There were plenty of soldiers out on bank holiday night, and cruising for prostitutes was not an uncommon activity among military men. It may seem a stretch to consider that Jack the Ripper might have donned a soldier’s uniform and pasted on a fake mustache to commit his first murder, but this would not be the last time a mysterious man in uniform would be connected with a murder in London’s East End.
Walter Sickert was familiar with uniforms. Later, during World War I when he was painting battle scenes, he would admit to being especially “enchanted” by French ones. “I have got my Belgian uniforms today,” he wrote in 1914. “The artillery man’s forage cap with a little gold tassel is the sauciest thing in the world.” As a boy, Sickert frequently sketched men in uniforms and armor. As Mr. Nemo, the actor, his most critically acclaimed performance was in 1880, when he played a French soldier in Shakespeare’s Henry V. At some point between 1887 and 1889, Sickert completed a painting he titled It All Comes from Sticking to a Soldier – the painting that depicts music-hall performer Ada Lundberg singing as she is surrounded by leering men.
Sickert’s interest in things military never waned throughout his life, and it was his habit to ask the Red Cross for the uniforms of soldiers who were disabled or dying. His motive, he said, was to outfit models for his military sketches and paintings. At one time, an acquaintance recalled, Sickert’s studio was piled with uniforms and rifles.
“I am doing a portrait of a dear dead man, a Colonel,” he wrote. He asked a friend to help him “borrow some uniforms from Belgians in hospital. One has a kind of distaste for using misfortunes to further one’s own ends.” He didn’t really. He admitted more than once to his “purely selfish practice of life.” As he himself said, “I live entirely for my work – or as some people put it, for myself.”
It is surprising that the possibility of a Ripper who wore disguises hasn’t been emphasized more or explored as a likely scenario, one that would surely help explain why he seemed to vanish without a trace after his crimes. A Ripper using disguises would also explain the variety of descriptions witnesses gave of the men supposedly last seen with the victims. The use of disguises by violent offenders is not uncommon. Men who dressed as police, soldiers, maintenance workers, deliverymen, servicemen, paramedics, and even clowns have been convicted of violent serial crimes, including sexual homicides. A disguise is a simple and effective way to gain access and lure the victim without resistance or suspicion, and to get away with robbery, rape, or murder. Disguises allow the perpetrator to return to the scene of the crime and watch the investigative drama or to attend the victim’s funeral.