Charles Allen Cross – or to use his actual name Charles Alen Lechmere – was the carman who, on his way to work in the early hours of the 31st of August, 1888, discovered the body of Mary Nichols, who is now generally believed to have been the first victim of Jack the Ripper.

The Echo reported on his inquest testimony in its edition of Monday the 3rd of September, 1888:-

THE CARMAN’S STORY

Charles A. Cross, a carman, in the employ Messrs. Pickford and Co., said that on Friday morning he left his home about half-past three.

He reached Messrs, Pickford’s yard at Broad-street, City, at four o’clock.

He crossed Brady Street into Buck’s Row.

“Was there anyone with you?”

“No, I was by myself.”

WHERE THE BODY WAS FOUND

“As I got to Buck’s Row, by the gateway of the wool warehouse, I saw someone lying at the entrance to the gateway. It looked like a dark figure.

I  walked into the centre of the road, and saw that it was a woman.

At the same time I heard a mam come up behind, in the same direction as I was going. He was about thirty or forty yards behind me.

I stepped back to await his arrival.

When he came, I said to him, “Come and look over here. There’s a woman.”

THEY STOOPED OVER THE BODY

We then both went over to the body. He stooped one side of her, and I stooped the other, and took hold of her hand, which was cold. Her face was warm. I said to the man, “I believe the woman is dead.”

The other man, at the same time, put his hand on her breast over her heart and remarked, “I think she is breathing, but very little, if she is.”

SIT HER UP

He then said, “Sit her up.”’

I replied, “I’m not going to touch her. You had better go on, and if you see a policeman tell him.”

When I found her, her clothes were above her knees. There did not seem to be much clothing. The other man pulled her clothes down before he left.

DIDN’T SEE ANY BLOOD

“Did you touch the clothes?”

“No, Sir.”

“Did you notice any blood?”

No, it was too dark, I did not notice that her threat was cut.

MEETS A CONSTABLE

I then left her, went up Baker’s-row, turned to the right, and saw a constable. I said to a constable, “There’s a woman lying in Back’s Row. She looks to me as though she was dead, or drunk.”

The other man then said, “I believe she is dead.”

I don’t know who this man was; he was a stranger, but he appeared to me to be a carman.

SHE SEEMED OUTRAGED

From the time I left my home I did not see anyone until I saw the man who overtook me in Buck’s Row.

The Coroner:- “Did you see anything of a struggle?

Witness:- “She seemed to me as if she had been outraged.”

The Coroner:- “You did net think so at the time?”

SHE DID NOT LOOK INJURED

Witness: –  “Yes, I did ; put I did not think she had been injured.

The Coroner:- “You had no idea that she had been injured at all?”

Witness:- “No.”