Mary Jane Kelly A.K.A.. Marie Jeanette Kelly, Mary Ann Kelly, Ginger, Fair Emma

But why Fair Emma?

PASSING ENGLISH

OF THE VICTORIAN ERA

A DICTIONARY OF HETERODOX
ENGLISH, SLANG, AND PHRASE

Whoa, Emma! (Street, '80's).
Entreaty to be modified addressed to
women with marked appearance or
behaviour in the streets. It came from
an inquest on a woman who had died
under astounding circumstances. She
was suffering from inflammation; she
induced her husband to allay her pain
by the use of a small Dutch clock
weight. Finding relief from the con-
tact of the cold iron, she urged the
husband to continue the operation
whereupon she died. At the inquest
the husband had to defend himself.
He urged that he said to his wife,
'Whoa Emma! ' over and over again,
but she would not listen to him. For
years this phrase lasted as a street
Protest, too often shot at drunken
women. (See Outside Eliza, Now
we're busy.)

Outside Eliza (Low. London).
Drunk again, Eliza. Applied to
intoxicated, reeling women.
Derived from a police case where a barman
stated that he said to the prisoner
over and over again, 'Outside, Eliza'
but she would not go, and finally
smashed a plate-glass window.

The mind boggles as to what he was doing with that clock weight.