of several common lodging-houses on Flower and Dean Street, Whitechapel, shortly thereafter. Two years later, on 24 October 1884, John Stride died of tuberculosis in the Poplar and Stepney Sick Asylum. In the years following the collapse of her marriage and the death of her husband, Stride is known to have informed several individuals that her husband and two of her nine children had drowned in the 1878 sinking of the Princess Alice in the River Thames. According to Stride, she and her husband had been employed upon this steamer, although she had survived the accident by climbing the ship's mast, but as she had done so, she had been kicked in the mouth by another survivor of the sinking, and this injury to her palate had caused a permanent stutter. Common lodging residences While residing in common lodging-houses, Stride occasionally received charitable assistance from the Church of Sweden in London, and from 1885 until her death lived much of the time with local dock labourer Michael Kidney, who resided in Devonshire Street. The couple had a tumultuous relationship and regularly separated, with Stride sleeping in local lodging houses before returning to live with Kidney. In April 1887, Stride filed a formal assault charge against Kidney, although she failed to pursue this charge in court and the case was discharged. In addition to prostitution, Stride occasionally earned income from sewing and housecleaning. An acquaintance described her as having a calm temperament, though she appeared before the Thames Magistrates' Court on approximately eight occasions for both drunk and disorderly conduct and the use of obscene language. Occasionally, Stride used the alias Annie Fitzgerald at these hearings. Her relationship with Kidney continued in an on-and-off manner between 1885 and 1888. 1888 Following an argument on 26 September 1888, Stride and Kidney again separated, and she again took residence at 32 Flower and Dean Street (then a notorious slum and criminal rookery), informing a fellow lodger named Catherine Lane she and Kidney "had had a few words". Over the following days she regularly earned money by performing cleaning duties, both at the lodging house and for local residents, being observed by the housekeeper, Elizabeth Tanner, to be a quiet woman who occasionally performed cleaning work for the local Jewish community. 29 September On the day prior to her murder, Stride is known to have cleaned two rooms at her lodging house, for which