Murder & Mutilation In Victoria

[Howard Brown]

Revelstoke Herald
Revelstoke, B.C.
October 7, 1899
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[Wolf Vanderlinden]

The Ripper-like murder of Agnes Bings was never solved.

Wolf.

[Chris G.]

From "Unlocking the Dark Secrets of Victoria" by Danielle Pope, Monday Magazine, July 25, 2012.

"Short cut to death

"It was raining hard the night of Sept. 22 [sic], 1899, when 44-year-old Agnes Bing missed her bus home. Bing decided to walk the distance from her job at Pilgrim Bakery in Market Square to her house on Russell Street in Vic West. But, perhaps because of the rain or because the store had stayed open late, she decided to take a shortcut across the railway tracks where the Johnson Street Bridge now exists. As Adams tells, she would never arrive home. Her husband called police, who found her the next morning near the tracks of the rail yard. She was naked, and had been completely disemboweled, with her stomach split open and her innards pulled out. No one was ever caught for Bing’s murder, but because of its similarity to the Jack-the-Ripper-style killings in London 10 years earlier, many wondered if the murderer had made a tour through Victoria. This likely remains Victoria’s most upsetting unsolved murder, . . . ."

However. . . .

Victoria Daily Colonist, October 26, 1899



From Rootsweb: "Agnes Bing, 44, b.GER, d.Victoria, 29 Sep 1899, w.o. John, Psb."

Agnes Bing's murder is featured in MURDER. Brutal, Bizarre and Unsolved Mysteries of the Northwest by T. W. Paterson, Solitaire Publications, Victoria, BC., 1973, Soft cover, 1st Edition. 72pp. Illus. in text -- copy now available on ABE Books for US$ 23.34 from a UK bookseller whose description of the portion of the book about this Ripper-like crime goes, "The Monster and Mrs Bing - the bizarre and unsolved murder of Agnes Bing on a railway embankment in Victoria in 1899."

[Howard Brown]

Chris George located this article


Victoria Daily Colonist
October 1, 1899
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[Chris G.]

Hi Howard

Thanks for putting up this Victoria Daily Colonist article of October 1, 1899 which was a bit too lengthy for me to try to copy and post.

That's a strange statement by Dr. Fraser, who conducted the post mortem, that although it was evident that death was due to strangulation by hand and by "rope or strap", he couldn't say if the extensive mutilations to her abdomen were done by a knife or by hand! I wonder if we can find an article now on the coroner's inquest on Mrs. Bing due to be conducted, according to this article, by Coroner Hart?

All the best

Chris

[Howard Brown]

You're welcome CG...and thanks to Wolf for pitching in.

From Chris's link :

Short cut to death
It was raining hard the night of Sept. 22, 1899, when 44-year-old Agnes Bing missed her bus home. Bing decided to walk the distance from her job at Pilgrim Bakery in Market Square to her house on Russell Street in Vic West. But, perhaps because of the rain or because the store had stayed open late, she decided to take a shortcut across the railway tracks where the Johnson Street Bridge now exists. As Adams tells, she would never arrive home. Her husband called police, who found her the next morning near the tracks of the rail yard. She was naked, and had been completely disemboweled, with her stomach split open and her innards pulled out. No one was ever caught for Bing’s murder, but because of its similarity to the Jack-the-Ripper-style killings in London 10 years earlier, many wondered if the murderer had made a tour through Victoria. This likely remains Victoria’s most upsetting unsolved murder,

[Chris G.]

Hi Howard

Hoping you will post the report of the Coroner's Inquest reported in the Daily Colonist of October 3 to which I directed you.

Meanwhile, I see that the Bing murder was overshadowed by another local murder, as reported in the Colonist of October 8 in an article headlined, "Who Slew Mike Powers?" (click on the page with the asterisk to download the newspaper page with the article). Meanwhile, on October 5, the newspaper printed the following comment lamenting the lack of any reward offered for the capture Mrs. Bing's murderer --

[Howard Brown]

Victoria Daily Colonist
October 3, 1899
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[Howard Brown]

Victoria Daily Colonist
October 8, 1899
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[Howard Brown]

Here's an article with yet another baker's wife involved, although a decade before the Bing Murder.

Victoria Daily Colonist
November 28, 1888
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[Chris G.]

Thanks, Howard. Fascinating stuff.

Chris

[Wolf Vanderlinden]

From my files:

- Agnes Bings (nee Agnes Augusta Caroline Smith) was found murdered on Friday, the 29th of September, 1899, in Victoria BC. She was 44 years old, born in Stralsand, Germany and was the sole supporter of her railroad hand husband, John, 58 (born 9th of February, 1841, in Kincardine O'Neil, Aberdeenshire, Scotland), and 10 year old son, Arthur. John had had a stroke and could not work.
- Agnes worked at the Plymouth Bakery, owned by her and her husband with her brother, William Jordan, who acted as baker, at 15 Store Street [where the Muffet & Louisa store is now] and lived on Russell Street across the bridge in Vic West.
- The streetcar, at 7 cents a trip, was too expensive so she walked to and from work.
- She was last seen alive between 7 and 8 p.m. when she locked up the store alone. It was pitch dark and pouring rain when she headed into the railway yard [near where the little E&N railway station is now].
- Her body was found the next day on the Vic West side of the bridge [i.e., across the bridge from Victoria] -- it showed evidence of a violent struggle: hair pulled out; belt buckle twisted etc. She was lying naked on the ground.
- She had been strangled and disembowelled -- organs were removed and placed around her -- 10 ft of small intestine and 2 ft of large.
- Doctor who did the autopsy felt it had to be someone who knew anatomy.
- Speculation arouse about Jack the Ripper. Some theorists have stated that there were other similar murders on the west coast of the US (?) but nothing like it had ever happened in BC before nor did any more occur.
- She's buried in RossBayCemetery but only acquired a tombstone in the past 15 years or so.

Wolf.

[Howard Brown]

Thanks a lot Wolf.
There's mention in one of the articles Chris provided about Denver and 'Frisco crimes....I know the Denver murder involved a Japanese woman and I'm pretty sure she was mutilated. Trying to recall the San Francisco crime...its probably on the boards somewhere.

[Chris G.]

Thanks for providing that information, Wolf.

Chris