Originally posted by NotBlamedForNothing
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Here the first report begins with this paragraph.
"Some three doors from the gateway where the body of the first victim was discovered, I saw a clean, respectable-looking woman chatting with one or two neighbours. She was apparently the wife of a well-to-do artisan, and formed a strong contrast to many of those around her. I got into conversation with her and found that she was one of the first on the spot."
I think we can all agree that "three doors from the gateway" is No.36, the home of Mrs Mortimer. Three doors south would be the beer house on the corner at Fairclough St., though she is not identified by name.
The above exchange reads to me like the reporter was a journalist from the Evening News, very informal, almost conversational in presentation.
The next report is buried within a long account where Mortimer's observations are given in the third-person. "Two doors from the club", is the same as "three doors from the gateway".
"A woman who lives two doors from the club has made an important statement. It appears that shortly before a quarter to one o'clock she heard the measured, heavy tramp of a policeman passing the house on his beat. Immediately afterwards she went to the street-door, with the intention of shooting the bolts, though she remained standing there ten minutes before she did so".....etc.
In my view this may be a copied story, and as I do a search I find this same account has been copied from the Daily News of the same date.
Further down we have a third account where the witness is identified by name.
"Mrs. Mortimer, living at 36, Berner-street, four doors from the scene of the tragedy, says: I was standing at the door of my house nearly the whole time between half-past twelve and one o'clock this (Sunday) morning, and did not notice anything unusual"....etc.
The above is part of an agency account. The evening press often copied stories from the morning papers. For an original take a look at the Daily News of the same date, you can read several paragraphs which are verbatim, yet proceeding backwards up the page you will see that the beginning paragraphs concerning Diemschitz have been reworded.
It looks like the editor at the Evening News copied the story and attempted to reword the whole thing to make it look like their own, but gave up half way through and just published the rest of it verbatim.
How do we know this last account was from an agency? - because we read the exact same paragraph for Mortimer in another morning paper, The Morning Advertiser. Morning papers go to press overnight so for two or more morning papers to carry the exact same report means they obtained the report from a third-party - an agency.
And, just for good measure you will see the Times carried the same accounts, just edited down and reworded.
Always remember, weekend papers often copied their stories from the Dailies of the previous week. Evening papers often copied from the morning press of the same day. Whenever you have cause to question if you are dealing with an original story in an evening paper, do a search in the morning press for the exact same wording.
Some morning papers even leave the credit in the story. By this I mean, "...The Central News reports.....etc...etc." or Press Association, or whomever. More often than not these credits are edited out, but sometimes they leave them in confirming it's an agencies story.
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