Ellen Petrie

Ellen Petrie was found dying in the back doorway of a baker's shop in West George Lane, Glasgow on the night of Friday 15 June 1956.

She had a deep wound to her upper thigh from which blood was described as having been gushing from. Her body was found by a baker who then asked a passer-by to call an ambulance.

She was also known as English Nellie.

The police said that they were looking for a man with a Roman nose and receding hair who was thought to have been seen in her company before she died.

He was further described as being:

• Age: 50.
• Height: Medium.
• Hair: Dark, receding at temples.
• Prominent or Roman nose.

Other reports stated that police were looking for a well-dressed man that had been wearing a white cap that had been seen drinking with Ellen Petrie shortly before she died in a pub in Argyle Street near Carrick Street in Anderston. A 63-year-old friend of Ellen Petrie said, 'I saw Ellen standing with her back to the wall of a Carrick Street, Anderston, public house, kissing the man', and that shortly after she saw Ellen Petrie walking across Bothwell Street into Pitt Street just after 9.30pm. It was said that Ellen Petrie was found dying about 15 minutes later with blood gushing from deep wounds on her left thigh that had severed an artery.

The police said that when they went to the public house mentioned in Argyle Street they were unable to learn of any clues that might identify the murderer.

It was said that the murder weapon, which was thought to have been a sharp-edge weapon, was not found even though waste ground in the region of the lane was searched.

When she was found she was wearing a camel-haired coat and had only one shoe on and was wearing no stockings.

The police said that they thought that Ellen Petrie had died at the spot where she was attacked and that her death had been swift.

The police said that they were investigating the possibility that the attack on her might have been linked to two previous attacks on women in the city centre at a late hour of the evening which they said bore a striking resemblance to the attack on Ellen Petrie. The police said that in each of the earlier cases that the women had been slashed by a man who she had met earlier in the evening and who had been walking home with her.

Newspaper reports also ran headlines suggesting that the murderer was a modern day 'Jack The Ripper' with the  Aberdeen Evening Express on Monday 18 June 1956 running an article headed, 'WAS GLASGOW KILLER A JACK THE RIPPER?', and saying, ''Is he in fact, a modern Jack the Ripper?'.

Ellen Petrie was said to have been a native of Southport and was said to have had friends there as well as in Birmingham and/or Perthshire. The police added that they thought that she had a sister that had been working in a canteen at a hydro-electric scheme in Perthshire and another sister in the Birmingham area.

The police said that their investigation had been hampered by the fact that Ellen Petrie had sometimes used the surnames of Jackson and Kelly as well as her own name Petrie and by the fact that she was also known as English Nellie.

Ellen Petrie was said to have moved to Glasgow from Southport in 1950 at which time she met a man who she married, but her husband had died a few years later after which she went into lodgings in Hill Street, Glasgow.

The police said, 'Until a few years ago Mrs Petrie lived at 160 Curle Street, Whiteinch, Glasgow. Since then her addresses are unknown'.

On 21 June 1956 the police said that they were searching for a woman customer who told a shopkeeper in Carlisle that she had been with Ellen Petrie on the night before she died. The police said that the woman was thought to have come from Glasgow and that she had known 'English Nellie' and that they had slept in the same building on the Thursday.