Ellen the Cutter was a human crime wave in nineteenth century Ipswich, Queensland, where she may also have been a serial killer. I told a version of this story live on West Bremer Radio.

She was known by many names. Ellen Clinch alias Ellen Simple, alias Ellen Morris, alias Ellen Morley, and most chilling of all – alias “Ellen the Cutter”.

Across her twenty-year career, Ellen made at least 34 court appearances with 17 convictions, most of them in Ipswich, and people tended to die around her.

One hundred and sixty-seven years ago this week, in May 1858, Ellen the Cutter was in the Ipswich courthouse charged with stealing £70 from her husband. That was the English carrier William Morley. Despite the bench holding great suspicion, the charge was dismissed, and her husband was found dead at their home at Coalfalls in Ipswich just ten weeks later.

The following year 1859, Ellen was in the Ipswich court no less than five times in a twenty-week period.

She sued over some bullock gear a man by the name of Joseph Gibson who was commonly known as “Red Joe”. But she didn’t turn up so the case she brought was dismissed. Red Joe was later sued by one of Ellen’s many husbands who actually worked for Red Joe. It was all very messy.

Then Ellen was charged with assaulting the Ipswich draper Mr. Henry Reeve. But Ellen turned up to court in a state of drunkenness, so she was sent to the lock-up for twenty-four hours. The case was dismissed anyway.

Ellen was then indicted for having stolen money from a Mr. Thomas McAuley. One night they had a drink together and went to a lodging house together. Ellen left and McAuley found his money was missing. He then went on a quest with two constables to locate her, they finally found her at about three or four o’clock in the morning at Ipswich’s Steam Packet Hotel.  The Ipswich chief constable Edward Quinn prosecuted. It was Quinn who had earlier arrested Ipswich’s nude maniac. In any case, Ellen was acquitted and discharged.

Ellen then got into a feud that lasted for months with a woman called Honora Remilton when they continually sued one another for use of obscene and abusive language. At around this time, another one of Ellen’s husbands, David Semple, died after going to the circus. It was all very strange.

Ellen developed a liking for stealing clothes. In 1865, she was charged with robbing clothes from Colonel Andrew Thynne. The colonel would become a prominent Ipswich lawyer, soldier, educator, philanthropist, and government minister. She was apprehended at her house with all of the missing property in her possession, but still the jury found her not guilty.

In 1866, the police took the extraordinary step of advertising in the newspaper for someone to come forward to prosecute Ellen. That’s because they had found Ellen in the possession of two fowls. They said that there was no doubt the chooks were stolen, and could someone please prosecute Ellen.

1867 was another extraordinary year for Ellen. She was working with a former convict named Jane Thorpe in an Ipswich house of ill repute.  Firstly, Jane sued Ellen for stealing money from her. Then Jane testified against Ellen in another clothes stealing case, but changed her testimony and Ellen got off. Jane was then found murdered in their workplace, a crime for which no one was ever brought to justice.

And so Ellen’s career continued, from one misadventure to the next. That was until she left Ipswich and was convicted in Dalby, with the prison term effectively ending her career.

But how did she get her name “Ellen the Cutter”. Back then, “cutter” was someone who cut cloth and sold the pieces, and Ellen did have a liking for stealing clothes, so maybe that’s where she got her name.

But you’ve got to wonder, with so many people dying around her in unusual circumstances, was Ellen the Cutter Ipswich’s first serial killer.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSION OF THIS STORY TOLD ON WEST BREMER RADIO.

Photo credits:
Ellen the Cutter, 50 year old woman in 1865 in an eerie cemetery – ChatGPT Image May 20, 2025.
Ipswich Courthouse c1860 – State Library of Queensland.
Andrew Joseph Thynne – State Library of Queensland.