Some thought she was Jack the Ripper.

Not much is known about the early years of Mary Eleanor Wheeler Pearcey, other than she was born in England around 1866, and that her father was convicted of murder and executed when Mary was in her teens. The effect this had on young Mary's psyche can only be guessed at.

Her traceable history begins with her illicit connection to John Charles Pearcey, a local carpenter. Although Mary and John never married, she began using his surname as her own — and…