Autopsy of Emily Williams

William Lowell Mullen, states, I am a Doctor
of Medicine practising at Melbourne

On the afternoon of the fourth instant at the Morgue in
conjunction with Dr. Mollison I made a post mortem examination
of the deceased. Emily Williams

The body when I first saw it was lying in a deal case, the
hair of the head (produced) was lying detached on the body, the
left hand was close to the chin, the right hand was across the
chest and the body itself was in a dirty condition. We re-
moved the body from the box and proceeded to make the examina-
tion.

The body was that of a female adult; it was dirty from a
mixture of a cement and of a soot-like substance. The body
was dressed only in the linen chemise and the under singlet
produced; on the right side they were adherent to each other
apparently from the remains of blood between them. These gar-
ments were removed by us.

There was a material of a reddish purple colour tied roud [sic]
round the right wrist; the article produced is the material
alluded to.

From marks found on various parts of the body and [crossed out: descr]
described below this material had been used as a cord to tie
the upper and lower limbs together doubled up to the trunk.

The body was in an early stage of the conditions known as
mummification and saponification; the skin was dry and greasy;
the tissues immediately below the skin were of a cheese-like

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consistency colour and smell, and the muscles were soft.

The body was five feet and half an inch in length; it was
well nourished; the deceased had during life been of slender
build and petite. The fingers were rather long and slender,
the middle finger of the left hand measuring three and a half
inches along the palmar surface. There were no ring marks on
any of the fingers; the nails were short and apparently bitten
especially on the left hand. The hair of the head is pro-
duced; it is matted together in parts with cement. The hair
in the arms pits was of light brown colour; the hair over the
pubes was dark brown almost black. The colour of the eyes
could not be ascertained with any certainty, but they seemed to
have been of a darkish hue. The ears had apparently not been
pierced. [crossed out: There were no] The nose was pressed over to the
right side. There were no deformities or marks of any kind
such as might be used for identification with the exception
of the teeth.

The skin over both knees was desiccated or dried; the
skin at the lower part of the back was also desiccated, more
especially on the left side.

There were reddish purple marks or stripes on various
parts of the body; they were well marked on the right wrist
where the coloured material had been found by us; there were
traces

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traces on the left wrist; there was a mark across the lower
part of the front of the chest; another around the leg just
below the right knee, another around the inside and back of the
right ankle, another at the back and inner side of the right
thigh. There were also similar marks on the outer side of the
left leg above the ankle and a patch on the back of the upper
part of the left thigh? From the position of these marks it
is evident that the cord produced had been used to tie the
limbs to the trunk.

There were various small cracks and holes in the skin;
they existed in various parts of the body, on the hands and
on the wrists; they were only superficial and were due in my
opinion to causes acting after death.

The teeth presented some important characteristics. The
vulcanite plate produced was found in the upper jaw; all the
teeth of the upper jaw had long been extracted except the
stump of the second right bicuspid. The following was the
condition of the lower jaw; on the left side the wisdom tooth
was decayed almost to the bone, the next two teeth were mere
stumps, the first bicuspid was decayed at the back. On the
right side the wisdom tooth was a stump; the next two teeth hd [sic]
had long been removed, the second bicuspid was decayed down to
the bone and the first bicuspid was decayed in front. The
lower front teeth were sound.

On examining

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On examining the head there were three distinct wounds of
the skin which had in each case gone through the scalp exposig [sic]
ing the bone; these were -

1- a clean cut wound longitudinal in the midline of the
back of the head above the occipito-parietal suture, two and a
quarter inches in length; at the bottom of this wound the bone
was exposed and chipped to the extent of an inch and a half in
the direction of the superficial wound forming a groove in the
bone which groove was an eighth of an inch [crossed out: long] deep. The
corresponding portion of the inner table was splinted.
At the lower end of the outer fracture was
another smaller chipping of the bone,
about the 3/4 of an inch long, almost
parallel to, but not communicating with
the other chipping.

2- a large jagged wound in the middle [crossed out: line] of the left
side of the head, almost triangular in shape, the sides of the
wound being each about two inches in length. At the bottom
of this wound was an extensive fracture which was depressed
and a piece of bone had been knocked into the cavity of the
skull.

3- a small jagged wound an inch and a half behind the pre
ceding also communicating with the fracture.

On turning back the scalp the skull was found to be ex-
tensively fractured. There was a triangular hole in the skull
cap the sides of which measured each [crossed out: about] an inch and a quar-
ter; the fragments which would fill up this hole were found
lying within the skull on the outer covering of the brain.
They consisted of a large central piece and of a few small
splinters. The bones produced are the parts of the skull
showing the hole.

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showing the hole. From each angle of the hole a fracture ex-
tended as follows - -

1- Over the top of the head forwards to the outer corner
of the right eye completely splitting the bone of the forehead
and passing down into the anterior fossa of the right side.

2- [crossed out: Towards and] behind the left ear in a downward and back
ward direction till it became lost in the posterior fossa of
the base of the skull:

3- Directly forwards to the outer corner of the left eye
ending in the left anterior fossa.

The bones comprising the floor of the anterior fossa were
shattered and loosened from their attachments.

Blood had been effused into both eyeballs.

On examining the face and the neck there was found a
clean cut wound on the outer side of the left half of the low-
er jaw above the angle; running downwards and slightly towards the
midline of the body it was an inch and a half long and it
exposed the covering of the masseter muscle.

The throat was found to be cut in two distinct places.
These wounds began separately on the left side and ran into
each other on the right side forming a large gaping wound.

The Upper wound started immediately below the angle of
the jaw on the left side and passed across the fron [sic] of the neck
to the middle of the right side of the neck in a direction slightly
downward
downward to

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downward to the right. Its deep direction was slightly up-
wards. The thyroid cartilage was cleanly divided transversely
and the lower part of the pharynx was exposed.

The Lower wound began on the left side an inch and a
quarter below the lobe of the ear on the left side. It exten-
ded horizontally across the neck joining the upper wound on
the right side; it had passed through the windpipe immediately
below the cricoid cartilage and had also divided the gullet.

The large blood vessels on both sides were divided by
these wounds.

Also on the right side just over the middle of the collar
bone and above it was a clean cut wound two inches long exten-
ding to the muscles; the direction was downwards to the right
and it tailed off through the skin at its lower extremity to
the extent of half an inch.

All these wounds were full of dirt and cement and there
were small masses of fatting matter which on subsequent examina-
tion was found to contain traces of blood.

In ternally the condition of the organs was as follows - -

The Brain was a shapeless pulpy mass and was too decomposed
for examination.

The Windpipe was lined with dirt of various kinds.

The Lungs were collapsed; the surface was of a dark-bluih [sic]
[crossed out: bluish] colour; they showed no signs of disease.

The Heart was relaxed, the cavities slightly dilated; it
contained no blood; the valves were healthy; the heart sub-
stance was

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the heart substance was apparently healthy. There were a few
patches of atheroma on the aorta just above the valves.

The liver was small and decomposing.

The stomach and the intestines were removed and subse-
quently examined. The stomach was then found to be collapsed
and empty. The lining internally was stained with bile. The
intestines presented no marked characteristics.

The Spleen was apparently normal.

The Kidneys were swollen from decomposition; they presen-
ted no marked signs of disease.

On examining the vagina the hymen was absent, but there ws
[crossed out: was a] was a well marked fourchette. The generative organs were nor
mal. In my opinion the deceased had never been confined of a
child. [crossed out: In my opinion the diseased was a woman of some thirty]

In my opinion the deceased was a woman of some thirty
years of age.

The immediate course [sic] of death was
haemorrhage from the cut throat.

I believe the small fracture at the back
of the skull was the first injury inflected [sic]
such an injury would render the deceased
incapable of

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resistance.

I think that all the injuries to the skull
were inflicted first, then the throat was
cut. Any one of the injuries, except
the small one in the head was necessarily
fatal. They were all inflected during life

I have seen the hole in the room
at Andrew St. I believe the body of
the deceased had been placed there,
at most six hours after death.
The body must have been in the
hole, in my opinion, between
six weeks and three months.
All the wounds in the head
could have been produced by some
such weapon as an axe, both
the blunt or sharp sides may
have been used. All the wounds
about the neck were

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were clean cut
wounds, and could have been
easily produced by any sharp
cutting instrument of moderate size.

W. L. Mullen MD