The infamous Shawl belonging to Catherine Eddowes (6/8)

Amos Simpson the first police constable to find the body of Catherine Eddowes in Mitre square had decided to keep the shawl found with the victim because it might be important one day He kept it hidden in an old sea chest with waxed rope handles. Amos died in 1917. In March 2007, Amos’s descendant, David Melville Hayes, sold the shawl, which had been in his family for over 100 years and donated the proceeds to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution which saves lives around the coasts of the UK. Hayes had no descendants.