Mary the Ripper

[KGDevil]

I'm never sure if these sort of discussions belong here or if they should be in Fall River and it's Environs. I apologize if it belongs in the latter and would be happy to move it to where ever it belongs.

I've recently started delving into finding out about the more unsavory events that happened in Fall River back then to get a better sense of their climate of life. I've been looking at what types of crimes were being committed and by who, how the police handled the investigations, what the outcomes were, and what other types of controversies and scandals were swirling. I want a better picture of the seedier aspects of the city. I've been following some interesting cases. I'd like to share a few more once I'm finished. But this woman Mary Riley has stuck with me for some reason. I think it's because she seems to have gotten away with what she did. These may not be new stories but, they are new to me at least. Mary Riley committed random and violent attacks for no apparent reason other than she enjoyed hurting people. She bullied her coworkers at the Robeson Mill and would openly steal their belongings. I'd read the name "Mary the Ripper" in one of the accounts of a fight that had taken place in 1893 between Caroline Bould Baker and Mary Williams. I didn't think anything about it then. I haven't found any information about Mary being held or arrested. I think it's possible the girls were too scared to press charges so "Mary the Ripper" may have just gotten away with it.

[KGDevil]

A crazy woman named Mary Riley.

[KGDevil]

That first article from October 15, 1889 in the Fall River Globe is blurry after I attach it to the post for some reason. I'll just type it out to make it easier to read.

"Mary The Ripper"
___________

Whitechapel Ideas Practiced in Fall River
___________

Young Girls Terrorized By a
Mysterious Woman
___________

Violent Assault Committed On Miss
Nellie Wylie --"Mary" Knocked
Out Her Teeth and Walked
Coolly Away
___________

A woman living at a boarding house on Rodman Street had in the past few weeks by her actions, gained the soubriquet of "Mary, the Ripper". For some unknown reason she lies in wait for Mill girls on their way to work and when she meets one alone will, without a moment's warning or the slightest provocation, set upon her and beat her unmercifully. The place that she has selected for her assaults is Anawan Street, and the girls that have to pass through that thoroughfare early in the morning, on their way to work have become so frightened that they now travel in squads for self protection. Mary, however, has little fear, no matter how great the crowd, as she demonstrated by her actions one morning last week.

Miss Nellie Wiley, a 16-year old girl who resides with her mother on Pearl Street, was on her way to work in company with two or three other girls and met the company of the strange woman on Anawan Street. The stranger was attired in a cambric dress and had a black shawl thrown loosely over her shoulders. In her hand she carried a dinner pail which she uneasily shifted from one hand to the other. Miss Wiley had heard stories of assaults made by some strange woman and became frightened. She and her companions took the outer edge of the sidewalk as they approached the woman, and the latter crowded in towards the wall as if to give them plenty of room to pass. As she did so she changed the pail from her right hand to her left hand and when Miss Wiley got opposite her struck her a stinging blow on her face and deliberately walked away. The force of the blow knocked the girl to the ground and her screams brought to her assistance a number of other girls who were also on their way to work. Miss Wiley was assisted to the mill and when she reached there the front of her clothing was saturated in blood, and she was bleeding profusely from the mouth. An examination proved that five of her teeth had been so badly shattered by the force of the blow as to requite extraction.

A report of the assailant's action reached the superintendent of the old Robeson Mill, where she was employed, and that official immediately discharged her.

At the virago's boarding house she is regarded with much fear, and when she returned from the mill after having been discharged, the boarding house mistress asked her why she was not at work and she replied that she had been discharged. A moment later she coolly added "I need a rest, anyway, as I'm tired knockin' 'em out." referring to the number of girls she had assaulted.

The woman's hand was out from the effect of the blow that had knocked out Miss Wiley's teeth. She appears to take delight in telling the number of girls she has "knocked out" and how easily she can do it.

Those who have been assaulted fear to inform the police of the woman's conduct as they are in dread of what form her revenge might take.

[camgarsky4]

A saloon owner, Mary Riley had numerous legal & violence based experiences throughout the 1880's in Fall River. In one episode Sep 1887 , she struck Eliza Newberry on the head w/ an axe. Could this be the same "Mary"? Maybe by the 1890's she had mentally completely lost it?

Quick search of the '90's and a Mary Riley had additional 'violence based' news articles. In 1897 it sounds a bit like a group of women ganged up on her and based on all the other articles, perhaps that was a vigilante type of event.

[KGDevil]

Thank you for sharing the information about Mary the saloon owner. She could have possibly been "Mary the Ripper" because it sounds like she had the same randomly violent tendencies which had finally escalated to hitting someone with an axe. If this "Mary the Ripper" was still at work in '97, then I'd say that the idea these woman had finally had enough and decided to try to put a stop to her sounds pretty plausible. I will have to check those articles out.

[camgarsky4]

Sorry, typo in my earlier message....I corrected it above. The axe hitting episode was Sep 1887, not 1897. '97 was when she got back a little of what she gave out.

[KGDevil]

Sorry, typo in my earlier message....I corrected it above. The axe hitting episode was Sep 1887, not 1897. '97 was when she got back a little of what she gave out.

I found these articles about Mary thanks for pointing them out to me. Eliza Newbury is lucky to have come away with just a cut on her scalp. One article from 1897 said that Mary Riverts was trying to prevent Mary Riley from choking her little boy when the fight broke out after she stabbed Mary Riverts in the hand. Either there were two crazy women named Mary Riley in Fall River or this woman was "Mary the Ripper".