SARAH RONEY

MET A MAN ON BRUSHFIELD STREET

Was He Jack The Ripper?

Sarah Roney is one of those witnesses who makes a brief appearance in the Jack the Ripper saga, largely because she was willing to talk to journalists in the aftermath of one of the murders.

Following the murder of Mary Kelly, Sarah Roney was mentioned in several newspapers as having met a man in Brushfield Street, Spitalfields, whom she appears to have believed may well have been the Whitechapel murderer.

The Sheffield Daily Telegraph, published an account of her experience in its edition of Saturday, 10th November, 1888:-

Sarah Roney, a girl of about twenty years of age, states that she was with two other girls on Thursday night in Brushfield Street, which is near Dorset street, when a man wearing a tall hat and a black coat, and carrying a black bag, came up to her, and said, "Will you come with me."

She told him that she would not, and asked him what he had in the bag, and he said, "Something the ladies don't like."

He then walked away."

Source: The Sheffield Daily Telegraph, Saturday, 10th November, 1888.