The access to Marys room

[Wickerman]

The London Evening Standard of the same date, Nov. 12th, also reported the discovery of the key.
Barnett had already testified earlier in the afternoon at the inquest that the key had been missing for some time.

What is odd to me is that the evening papers go to print in the afternoon, yet the inquest was underway about the same time. Which tends to suggest the evening press, or at least their common source - an agency?, were aware of the key being found while Barnett was testifying that it had been missing for some time.
It doesn't seem likely that the key would have turned up in the room somewhere or that would have been found over the weekend, at least before the inquest.

[Michael W Richards]

Mary let her killer in, it needs to be no more complicated than that.

The lock was a spring-lock, so when the door was closed it automatically locked.
When the killer leaves, the door again automatically locked as he closed it behind him.

I'm not sure if it wasn't William Fishman, or another source?, who explained that these women typically had nothing of value by way of possessions in their rooms. The door was only locked when they were home, for personal protection. Mostly when they were out the door was left unlocked, due to the fact they had nothing worth stealing. Which compared to our modern society seems counter intuitive.
These were different times, with different priorities.

Hi Jon,

Im in agreement with you when you say Mary let him in...always have been actually, Im more interested in how this missing key is produced.

All the best for the holidays.

[Wickerman]

Mary let her killer in, it needs to be no more complicated than that.

The lock was a spring-lock, so when the door was closed it automatically locked.
When the killer leaves, the door again automatically locked as he closed it behind him.

I'm not sure if it wasn't William Fishman, or another source?, who explained that these women typically had nothing of value by way of possessions in their rooms. The door was only locked when they were home, for personal protection. Mostly when they were out the door was left unlocked, due to the fact they had nothing worth stealing. Which compared to our modern society seems counter intuitive.
These were different times, with different priorities.

[Michael W Richards]

Hello all,

I've often wondered about that supposedly missing key to Mary's room. Many have posted speculation about how the killer got in, and it would appear by the following excerpt in the Star on November 12th that the question of key access is a non-starter..."The key of the murdered woman's door has been found, so that her murderer did not carry it away with him, as was at first supposed."

What Im curious about is who produced the missing key, was it the same key that Mary and Joe used until it was lost, and how was it found so quickly.

In the edition of the Star its reported that nothing of Marys remains was taken by the killer, so perhaps the found key is also an error.

Anyone have any info of who produced the key?