Alice McKenzie

“Alice Pitts was born in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England on 8 March 1845 and baptised there on 11 April of the same year. Her parents were Charles Pitts and Martha Pitts (née Watson) who had married at Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire on 14 October 1832. Charles was born in Edenham, Lincolnshire in 1805 to William Pitts and Elizabeth Pitts (née Chapman) who had married at Long Sutton in Lincolnshire on 4 June 1792. Martha was born in Whittlesea in Cambridgeshire in 1811 (parents as yet unknown). Charles would die in 1878 and Martha in 1885. Alice was their sixth child, following William (b. 1833), Ann (b. 1835), John (b. 1838), Martha (b. 1840) and Jane (b. 1842). She was followed by Charles (b. 1847), Thomas (b. 1849), George (b. 1851) and James (b. 1856). Alice married Joseph Kinsey on 11 October 1863 at All Saints Church in Leicester. Sadly, their child, Joseph James Kinsey, born on 21 July 1866, would succumb to marasmus (malnutrition) at their home at 4 Joseph Street in St. Mary, Leicester, on 18 February 1867. This was followed by another blow for Alice when her husband Joseph died of tuberculosis a year later on 18 February 1867. Like many thousands in London at the time, Alice was homeless. Her sometime partner was Irishman John McCormack who served in the army and fought during the Crimean War and worked as a porter for Jewish tailors in Hamburg Street. Alice used the assumed last name of ‘McKenzie’, smoked a clay pipe, and worked as a laundress and charwoman. Her meagre income did not cover basic expenses, so she supplemented it occasionally by working as a sex worker. Following her murder, Alice was buried in the East London Cemetery in Plaistow, Newham on Wednesday 24 July 1889.” Biography by Debbie McCauley (15 January 2021, updated 27 April 2021 with many thanks to Gary Barnett).

NOTE: Please do not add post-mortem images to this profile (or link to sources that do so). Most of the Whitechapel Murder victims had brutally hard lives and nowhere to turn, they were failed by society back then, much like many are today. They were the victims of violent crime and to see the pictures of their bodies so casually strewn across the internet reflects a systemic misogyny that saw police investigations fail to catch the murderer at the time and unfortunately is still demeaning these women today.