The Coroner's theory

[Phil Carter]

Hello all,

Apologies if this has been posted before.

Here is an interesting little snippet from the Glasgow Herald, 2nd October 1888
under the heading The Coroner's theory

The Coroner's theory

Thw Pall Mall Gazette of last night says:-

"The only practcal thing to be done is to keep a sharp lookout and dismiss once and for all the Coroner's theory as to the motive of the murder. The Coroner seems to have been the innocent victim of a somewhat dtupid hoax. If he had made enquiries of the sub-curator of the Pathalogical museum he would have discovered that the figure named is a quite preposterous and impossible price for the missing portion of the human body. It is best to set the plain facts plainly forth and the following letter of prices current containing latest quotations for various parts of the human body suffices to blow the Coroner's theory into the air. The following are the prices we are paying at present for anatomical subjects:-

For one corpse, complete, £3.5s
For one thorax, 5s
For one arm, one leg, one head and neck and one abdomen, 15s net

The prices refer to pickled dissecting room subjects. The organ removed by the murderer can be had for the asking at any post-mortem room
12 hours after death. This being so, what comes of the Coroner's theory that the murders were committed in order to secure the bonus of £20 offered by a mythical American for the organ in question."

Additionally, in the Pall Mall Gazette version, shown here:-

http://www.casebook.org/press_reports/pall_mall_gazette/18881001.html

it adds at the end...

"The first thing to be done in order to get on the right track is to get off a wrong one. Now that the coroner's clue turns out to be no clue, we may perhaps, by diligent searching, come upon a clue that will lead us to a real criminal. At present everybody, the police as much as any one else, seems to be completely at sea."

Interesting to note that these items can be precured "12 hours after death from any post-mortem room"

best wishes

Phil

[Trevor Marriott]

Hello all,

Apologies if this has been posted before.

Here is an interesting little snippet from the Glasgow Herald, 2nd October 1888
under the heading The Coroner's theory

The Coroner's theory

Thw Pall Mall Gazette of last night says:-

"The only practcal thing to be done is to keep a sharp lookout and dismiss once and for all the Coroner's theory as to the motive of the murder. The Coroner seems to have been the innocent victim of a somewhat dtupid hoax. If he had made enquiries of the sub-curator of the Pathalogical museum he would have discovered that the figure named is a quite preposterous and impossible price for the missing portion of the human body. It is best to set the plain facts plainly forth and the following letter of prices current containing latest quotations for various parts of the human body suffices to blow the Coroner's theory into the air. The following are the prices we are paying at present for anatomical subjects:-

For one corpse, complete, £3.5s
For one thorax, 5s
For one arm, one leg, one head and neck and one abdomen, 15s net

The prices refer to pickled dissecting room subjects. The organ removed by the murderer can be had for the asking at any post-mortem room
12 hours after death. This being so, what comes of the Coroner's theory that the murders were committed in order to secure the bonus of £20 offered by a mythical American for the organ in question."

Additionally, in the Pall Mall Gazette version, shown here:-

http://www.casebook.org/press_reports/pall_mall_gazette/18881001.html

it adds at the end...

"The first thing to be done in order to get on the right track is to get off a wrong one. Now that the coroner's clue turns out to be no clue, we may perhaps, by diligent searching, come upon a clue that will lead us to a real criminal. At present everybody, the police as much as any one else, seems to be completely at sea."

Interesting to note that these items can be precured "12 hours after death from any post-mortem room"

best wishes

Phil

Nice post Phil

Goes along way to add even more corroboration to my long standing theory

Its put a whole new meaning to the saying " It`ll cost you an arm and a leg"

Trevor

[lynn cates]

parts

Hello Phil. Nice find.

I'm delighted that my head was not enumerated. Might be shocking to see the low value.

Cheers.
LC

[Phil Carter]

Newspapers

Hello Trevor, Lynn,

Thank you both. When examining this little piece, I started to ponder over the torso murder series as well. As a body (or part) can be precured 12 hours after death, and given the time of the finding of body parts found strewn around, and allowing for any evidence of time lapse (6 weeks in the case of the Whitehall torso) estimated by doctors, then one can, albeit only roughly, start to see who the victims of these crimes may have been. Location, death registers, etc.
Carrying a body part around for any length of time is going to attract attention, as rotting flesh starts to smell badly within a short period of time. So getting rid of such-like would have to be pretty quick, methinks.

And although I produce absolutely no evidence for it, a wicked thought has crossed my mind. Just how far would the newspapers et al want to go to whip up the panic/stir in the area to actually increase sales? .... It would only take for example, one arm precured, dumped, and await it's discovery, to be splashed across the next day's headlines...maybe even an extra edition printed..

No evidence, and wicked. But an intruiging thought, perhaps.

best wishes

Phil

[TomTomKent]

Hello Trevor, Lynn,

Thank you both. When examining this little piece, I started to ponder over the torso murder series as well. As a body (or part) can be precured 12 hours after death, and given the time of the finding of body parts found strewn around, and allowing for any evidence of time lapse (6 weeks in the case of the Whitehall torso) estimated by doctors, then one can, albeit only roughly, start to see who the victims of these crimes may have been. Location, death registers, etc.
Carrying a body part around for any length of time is going to attract attention, as rotting flesh starts to smell badly within a short period of time. So getting rid of such-like would have to be pretty quick, methinks.

And although I produce absolutely no evidence for it, a wicked thought has crossed my mind. Just how far would the newspapers et al want to go to whip up the panic/stir in the area to actually increase sales? .... It would only take for example, one arm precured, dumped, and await it's discovery, to be splashed across the next day's headlines...maybe even an extra edition printed..

No evidence, and wicked. But an intruiging thought, perhaps.

best wishes

Phil

An intruiging idea, and even with out evidence is more convincing than other ideas for which there is no evidence. As long as it is in the grounds of "reasonable speculation" and not "Oh heck why not believe it..." then sure, consider it with the same pinch of salt as the "evidence" encoded in paintings or Alice in Wonderland. If in doubt, you could get a good novel out of the idea (and yes, I do intend to steal it!)