Alice Walsh

Alice Walsh (also Alice Welsh; died April 21, 1895) was an Irish-American prostitute found murdered in New York City. She was found in the early morning of April 21 at 143 Thompson Street and succumbed later to the stab wound in her stomach. Her murder bears striking similarities to those of Jack the Ripper and was billed as his arrival to America. Her killer was never found.

Life and Background
Walsh was likely a prostitute, having been well known by police in and around Thompson Street, and had no known permanent residence.

Discovery
Walsh’s body as first seen around 4 a.m. by Vincenzo Ster while on his way to early mass, he presumed her drunk. An hour later Josephine Garolfo, also on her way to mass, called for her son, Genaro, to “put the bum out,” he contacted Patrolman Gorman.

Rather than waste the rest of his day in police court Gorman concluded that Walsh was suffering from “alcoholism and female trouble.” The arriving ambulance surgeons agreed and she was taken to St. Vincent’s only briefly before she was moved straight on to Bellevue. It was here, four hours after her initial discovery, that the stab wound in her abdomen would be first seen. Walsh died at 11:15 never having regained consciousness.

Cause of Death
Walsh died of a stab wound that ran from “the base of the abdomen and upward to the hip” said to have been inflicted by a “strong hand” with a sharp knife that was at least 5 inches long. The coroner’s office announced that her death need not have happened if not for the incompetency of Patrolman Gorman and the ambulance surgeon who agreed with his diagnosis.

Investigation
It was initially thought that Walsh was killed in the building in which she was found but police would come to believe that she was wounded just down the street in the Yorktown Hotel where Philip Muley – the only person arrested in the case – worked. She was seen here the evening before with a man of dark complexion and another, presumed prostitute “Gimpy” Amanda. Miss Walsh stumbled from the hotel a few hours later and was presumed drunk. Her hat and handkerchief were found in the street along the route leading from the hotel to 143 Thompson street where she was found. The police originally said they were looking for four men who had been seen in her company the night of her death.

Suspects
One arrest was made – Philip Muley of the Yorktown Hotel where Walsh was last seen alive – and two suspects were named; Louie “Big Louis” Lavelle and Mickey Walsh. All three were eventually cleared and released. The long standing conjecture, however, is that Alice Walsh is the first, and possibly only, American killed by Jack the Ripper.