PC John Neil

[ICE14]

I was wondering the police beat of PC John Neil...

1) Polly was last seen at 02:30 intoxicated walking/staggering down Whitechapel Road.

2) If PC Neil's beats took 30 mins to complete, he would have been in Bucks Row at 03:15 and 02:45 (working backwards)

3) So, if his beat took him down Bucks Row at 03:45 where he spotted the body of Polly, would he not have seen her down there prior to her death?

4) He missed her it seem altogether and only just missed Lechmere, which one thinks, PC John Neil may have skipped some of his beat?

[David Orsam]

If we assume that PC Neil passed the spot in Bucks Row where Nichols' body was found at 3:15, and that Lechmere discovered the body at 3:40, then, as it took Neil 30 minutes to walk his beat, Nichols could have entered Bucks Row and been murdered at any point between these two times when PC Neil was elsewhere, before he returned to the spot at 3:45.

So where's the problem?

[Billiou]

I was wondering the police beat of PC John Neil...

1) Polly was last seen at 02:30 intoxicated walking/staggering down Whitechapel Road.

2) If PC Neil's beats took 30 mins to complete, he would have been in Bucks Row at 03:15 and 02:45 (working backwards)

3) So, if his beat took him down Bucks Row at 03:45 where he spotted the body of Polly, would he not have seen her down there prior to her death?

4) He missed her it seem altogether and only just missed Lechmere, which one thinks, PC John Neil may have skipped some of his beat?

We don't know when she first entered Buck's Row. It is approx. 1km from where she was seen on Whitechapel Rd to Buck's Row (via Whitechapel and Brady). Walking/staggering (very slowly one presumes) would take over 30 mins.
But we don't know whether she went directly there, stopped somewhere, went up a different street etc etc

Cheers
Bill

[Rosella]

Hi ICE14,

Have you checked out the 2015 thread from here?

http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?t=8698

[The Station Cat]

It would perhaps assist with any conclusion, if it could be confirmed how long he'd been on duty and how many shifts he'd conducted and what time these shifts started and finished. I believe that in those days officers worked an 8 hour shift.

So lets assume that he started his shift at 19:00 hours and this was his first shift, it's 02:30 he's tired and approaching the end of his shift. I don't think that it would be unreasonable to suggest that perhaps he simply missed Polly's body. Perhaps he was distracted by something else and walked right past it, perhaps he was on the opposite side of the road and she was concealed in shadow?

[Fisherman]

It would perhaps assist with any conclusion, if it could be confirmed how long he'd been on duty and how many shifts he'd conducted and what time these shifts started and finished. I believe that in those days officers worked an 8 hour shift.

So lets assume that he started his shift at 19:00 hours and this was his first shift, it's 02:30 he's tired and approaching the end of his shift. I don't think that it would be unreasonable to suggest that perhaps he simply missed Polly's body. Perhaps he was distracted by something else and walked right past it, perhaps he was on the opposite side of the road and she was concealed in shadow?

Polly Nichols bled as both Neil and Mizen saw her. That effectively closes the path suggested here, I´m afraid. Plus she twitched when Paul felt her chest, and Llewellyn said that she had been dead for at most 30 minutes.

[Robert]

An animation :

http://www.casebook.org/victims/polly.crossneil.html#ani

[The Station Cat]

The Times Newspaper 18th January 1868

A seditious placard appeared in front of the Mansion house, under the very windows of the Lord Mayor in the place reserved for Royal proclamations.
It was assumed to be a really bad joke, however, Constable 577 NEWHAM of the City Police was deeply embarrassed about it having appeared on his beat which took him passed the point every fifteen to twenty minutes.

This would appear to demonstrate two things, firstly beat bobbies do miss things, or indeed things can be done under their very noses without them being aware of them and secondly as early as 1868 bobbies beats where 15 to 20 minutes long exactly as they were 20 years later.