JtR was Law Enforcement Hypothesis

[John G]

Mrs. Mortimer thought she heard a policeman around the time of Stride's death.

https://www.casebook.org/press_reports/london_evening_news/881001.html

THE SILENCE OF THE MURDERER.
When the alarm of murder was raised a young girl had been standing in a bisecting thoroughfare not fifty yards from the spot where the body was found. She had, she said, been standing there for about twenty-minutes, talking with her sweetheart, but neither of them heard any unusual noises. A woman who lives two doors from the club has made an important statement. It appears that shortly before a

Page 3
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. During the ten minutes she saw no one enter or leave the neighbouring yard, and she feels sure that had any one done so she could not have overlooked the fact. The quiet and deserted character of the street appears even to have struck her at the time. Locking the door, she prepared to retire to bed, in the front room on the ground floor, and it so happened that in about four minutes' time she heard Diemschitz's pony cart pass the house, and remarked upon the circumstance to her husband.

DISTURBING THE MURDERER.
Presuming that the body did not lie in the yard when the policeman passed - and it could hardly, it is thought, have escaped his notice - and presuming also that the assassin and his victim did not enter the yard while the woman stood at the door, it follows that they must have entered it within a minute or two before the arrival of the pony trap. If this be a correct surmise, it is easy to understand that the criminal may have been interrupted at his work. Diemschitz says he thinks it quite possible that after he had entered the yard the assassin may have fled out of it, having lurked in the gloom until a favourable moment arrived.

I think it was PC Smith that Mrs Mortimer heard passing at around 12:45. We don't know what time Stride was murdered.

Here is a previous exchange I had with Tom Westcott about PC Smith's timings: https://forum.casebook.org/showthrea...452#post369452

[Batman]

You know when I have two or three hours spare I might just try and digest the dissertation in question. As far as I'm concerned though it's another example of taking witness testimony as the gospel truth. "If he was here when he said he was why didn't he see this?" That sort of thing. Why did Smith not see Schwartz? Because he wasn't in the street at that time. It's as simple as that.

The corroboration is Leon Goldstein, of 22 Christian Street, and he said that he had walked down Berner Street at about 1:00 on his way home. This was the man with the black bag she had seen. He was found and identified.

[Observer]

https://www.casebook.org/dissertatio...iths-beat.html

This suggests differently.

You know when I have two or three hours spare I might just try and digest the dissertation in question. As far as I'm concerned though it's another example of taking witness testimony as the gospel truth. "If he was here when he said he was why didn't he see this?" That sort of thing. Why did Smith not see Schwartz? Because he wasn't in the street at that time. It's as simple as that.

[MrBarnett]

https://www.casebook.org/dissertatio...iths-beat.html

This suggests differently.

Peer reviewed by yourself?

[Batman]

Which policeman? Smith? Schwartz witnessed the assault upon Stride at approximately 12:45 Smith would not have been in the vicinity at the time.

https://www.casebook.org/dissertations/rip-smiths-beat.html

This suggests differently.

[Observer]

Why would she be all over the place?

https://youtu.be/OsO7n_rrxSA?t=2592##

Her story is corroborated.

Why didn't the PC respond to what Schwartz witnessed?

Which policeman? Smith? Schwartz witnessed the assault upon Stride at approximately 12:45 Smith would not have been in the vicinity at the time.

[Batman]

Why would she be all over the place?

https://youtu.be/OsO7n_rrxSA?t=2592##

Her story is corroborated.

Why didn't the PC respond to what Schwartz witnessed?

[Observer]

Well, policemen did walk their beats after all. Can't see we can read anything into Mrs Mortimer's observation.

I a nutshell we can't. I fail to see why it was mentioned

[Observer]

Well, the inference in the press is that the officer would have seen something, so Stride was still alive. Yet where is the officer responding to the distress heard by Swartz? Today the inference is made she heard the ripper walking away and not an officer. Just like Cox.

Mortimers account is all over the place. If she heard what she thought was a policemen then it must have been PC Smith, who passed up the street at 12:30.

[Batman]

Well, policemen did walk their beats after all. Can't see we can read anything into Mrs Mortimer's observation.

Well, the inference in the press is that the officer would have seen something, so Stride was still alive. Yet where is the officer responding to the distress heard by Swartz? Today the inference is made she heard the ripper walking away and not an officer. Just like Cox.

[MrBarnett]

Well, policemen did walk their beats after all. Can't see we can read anything into Mrs Mortimer's observation.

Well, if we believe that Mrs M went to the door 'immediately' after hearing a cop plodding past, why did she not mention seeing him when she got to the door and looked up and down the street?

Her husband may well have been seriously, possibly terminally, ill at the time, though. She may have had a lot on her mind.

[Sam Flynn]

Well, policemen did walk their beats after all. Can't see we can read anything into Mrs Mortimer's observation.

[Batman]

Mrs. Mortimer thought she heard a policeman around the time of Stride's death.

https://www.casebook.org/press_reports/london_evening_news/881001.html

THE SILENCE OF THE MURDERER.
When the alarm of murder was raised a young girl had been standing in a bisecting thoroughfare not fifty yards from the spot where the body was found. She had, she said, been standing there for about twenty-minutes, talking with her sweetheart, but neither of them heard any unusual noises. A woman who lives two doors from the club has made an important statement. It appears that shortly before a

Page 3
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. During the ten minutes she saw no one enter or leave the neighbouring yard, and she feels sure that had any one done so she could not have overlooked the fact. The quiet and deserted character of the street appears even to have struck her at the time. Locking the door, she prepared to retire to bed, in the front room on the ground floor, and it so happened that in about four minutes' time she heard Diemschitz's pony cart pass the house, and remarked upon the circumstance to her husband.

DISTURBING THE MURDERER.
Presuming that the body did not lie in the yard when the policeman passed - and it could hardly, it is thought, have escaped his notice - and presuming also that the assassin and his victim did not enter the yard while the woman stood at the door, it follows that they must have entered it within a minute or two before the arrival of the pony trap. If this be a correct surmise, it is easy to understand that the criminal may have been interrupted at his work. Diemschitz says he thinks it quite possible that after he had entered the yard the assassin may have fled out of it, having lurked in the gloom until a favourable moment arrived.

[Batman]

If he had equipment (baton for Smith and Tabram), and then it seems absent later (Nichols onwards), then this could indicate the possibility of being fired between Tabram and Nichols.

I would be interested in all LE fired or reprimanded around the time of the Whitechapel murders.

Edit: Another explanation could be he went from clothed to plainclothes at some point. As in, still working.

[John G]

The only member of the force who had to purchase their own uniform was the commissioner, because technically he wasn’t a Constable. This changed in the 1970s.

Therefore each commissioner up until then had a slightly different uniform from their predecessor. The basic design stayed the same, but a symbolic flourish of a laurel leaf would make it their own.

This makes identification of singular commissioner uniforms quite easy.

Monty

Thanks for the detailed reply, Monty. Much appreciated.