Category: Miller’s Court

This is a large and high definition photo of MJK1…

There follows a series of the same image with various enhancements…

And in the small window, I’ve noticed something that might be of interest.

In the bottom right pane of the small window, there appears to be an oblong form of something perhaps inside the room.

I’ve highlighted it below

and here is an animation to better highlight the thing.

Take a look at the full, hi-def image again and it is quite obvious.

Might this be the small table that sits beside the bed?

It’s also quite obvious in this high threshold enhancement:

 

Here are some stylised images of Miller’s Court archway based on contemporary illustrated newspapers of the time.

This is a drawing of Miller’s Court archway published at the time in newspapers:

Here are some stylised ones of my own:

Some more contemporary drawings…

 

 

 

And a few more of my own stylised ones…

 

 

 

The post-mortem report conducted by Dr. Thomas Bond states…

“…the right arm was slightly abducted from the body & rested on the mattress, the elbow bent & the forearm supine with the fingers clenched.”

Below are images of Mary’s right arm in the position described in the report.

 

 

 

Out of curiosity, I decided to turn this plan created by sgh over on Casebook into a 3D visualization and to render the images that the plan suggests.

Here are the plans/elevations:

And here are the 3D reconstructions:

So the 3D reconstruction is an exact creation using the plans measured in millimetres. Obviously, the plan is created with an element of guesswork because all we all have to go on are the two images taken inside number 13. So allowances have to be given for this and for measurements allowing for a margin for error. The plan is created on square grids with the bed and table and even the walls of the room presented as exact parallel and vertical lines. In reality, the bed, table partition wall etc will have been at various different angles so allowances need to be given for this also.

After I created the 3D of the plan, I placed a mannequin on the bed in the position that Mary was on the mattress. I place her head in the area depicted in the plan. The mannequin is an exact position depiction of Mary including her finger and toe positions but includes no depiction of the mutilations inflicted.

I rendered the two images that are the camera positions for MJK1 & MJK3 (MJK1 = The famous photo of Mary in situ taken from the larger window) (MJK3 = The photo taken from the partition wall in the opposite direction)

Here are the results with a side by side comparison.

MKJ1 and result image pretty much spot on.

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Doorknob in the right place in both images.

A sliver of light in the right place between ‘curtains’ or shutters.

Table height correct

Mary in petty much the right position

‘Right knee’ close to the camera

Left knee absent

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I’m not sure if there were curtains on that small window. I know there was a coat hanging over the broken panes. I have a few misgivings about the plan, the measurements and the perspective, but the resultant images are thought-provoking. There are suggestions that to get the photo known as MJK3 the bed and table would have to have been moved and this might have been the case. But this plan and the 3D renders & resultant images demonstrate that it might have been possible to get MKJ3 without moving things. Although, Mary’s left leg/knee is a bone of contention!

 

The plan was created 11 years ago but most of the information in it holds true and this experiment will perhaps provide more debate and opinion.

 

Thanks

 

 

Here is the original MJK2

And here is a recreation that features the whole bed and side table with a bit of the surrounding room included.

 

Here are some alternative views of the crime scene in Number 13 Miller’s Court.

MJK2 Orignal

MJK2 Mock

MJK2 New View 1

MJK2 New View 2

MJK2 New View 3

MJK2 New View 4

MJK2 New View 5

MJK2 New View 6

 

 

So here I outline the steps I took in the creation of the Mary Kelly Bed photos.

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During my internet search for a good image to base my 3D model of the bed to be used in a VR experience, I was fortunate to come across this image of a victorian wooden bed that was almost a perfect match of the bed in number 13.

It’s not a perfect copy but it is close. Particularly the bedknobs and the slatted frame. The headboard is obviously not correct as the headboard on Mary’s bed has a straight edge whereas this one is an apex. Also, the crossbar is cylindrical at the junction of the upright bedpost/crossbar while Mary’s bed is square. So there are differences.

I photoshopped the headboard to be square but left the cylindrical crossposts. I removed the plugs on the back wall and the electric wires (obviously) and then I mirrored the image to arrive at this:

This shows the fake bed in almost the same position as MJK2. The photographer of this modern day bed looks to be in almost the same position as the photographer of MJK2 –  same height and same angles (slightly pointing down to the floor with a left-to-right framing. Note, already, that the upright posts at the (now) head end, closest to the wall is not totally upright in the photo despite us knowing that the bed is totally upright in construction:

There is a small amount of ‘fisheye’ and distortion going on and the long edge of the main bedframe also appears to be less than straight (Blue line below)

Anyway, I continued with the mock-up by grey-scaling and ageing the photo:

And then I simply cut and pasted the detail of the partition wall from the original MJK2 photo. Note that I only pasted the partition wall detail. I didn’t rotate it at all and yet the upright bedpost closest to the partition is at the SAME correct angle as the bedpost in the original MJK2 photo:

Comparison:

 

Obviously, the two photos were taken with entirely different cameras, with totally different focal lengths, fields of view and many other differences which would create differences/distortions in the resultant photos. Also, the original MJK2 photo has been copied and perhaps had its dimensions stretched and altered many, many times so those factors need to be considered against a modern-day photo. 

But even this experiment of turning a clear and clear photo of a bed into an aged and damaged photo shows how details in photos can be misinterpreted and lost and how new elements can be introduced (or miss-seen!) once defects, scratches and shadows are introduced.

There is only one single photograph known that shows the bed on which Mary Kelly was slain on the 9th November 1888. Even that photograph shows only a small part of the bed frame, mattress and the headboard/bed posts.

This is the image:

Jtr3d.com creates depictions, models and mock-ups centred around the Whitechapel murder case and so carrying on with that theme I present some ‘newly discovered’ photographs featuring the bed in-situ in the small room of No.13 Miller’s Court taken some days after the murder.