Originally posted by JeffHamm
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The Foreman: Do you not think that the woman would have dropped the packet of cachous altogether if she had been thrown to the ground before the injuries were inflicted?
Dr Phillips: That is an inference which the jury would be perfectly entitled to draw.
This is clearly a reference to what Schwartz described - so the Foreman knows of the incident, Phillips does not wonder what the point of the question is, and Baxter does not seem to have objected to it. They all know about Schwartz' tale!
Both the phrasing of the loaded question ("Do you not think..."), and Phillips' answer, suggest that these men regarded the BS Man story as less than genuine.
This is Baxter's summing up, from the Evening Post, Oct 23:
The Coroner, in summing up, said the jury would probably agree with him that it would be unreasonable to adjourn this inquiry again on the chance of something further being ascertained to elucidate the mysterious case to which they had patiently devoted so much time. It was true that one of the principal duties of the Court was to inquire “who gave the wounds, and who are, in what manner, culpable either of the act or of the force, and who were present, either men or women.” It was also true that the facts proved in evidence were insufficient to return a positive answer to this inquiry; but it might surely be urged that they had had before them those who appeared most likely to afford information, and that the interval which had occurred since the death justified a doubt if even a long adjournment would place them in a more satisfactory position. There was in the evidence no clue to the murderer, and no suggested motive for the murder. Those who knew deceased were unaware of anyone likely to injure her. She never accused anyone of having threatened her. She never expressed any fear of anyone, and although she had outbursts of drunkenness, she was generally a quiet woman. The ordinary motives of murder – revenge, jealousy, theft, and passion – appeared, therefore, to be absent from this case: while it was clear from the accounts of all who saw her that night, as well as from the post-mortem examination, that she was no otherwise than sober at the time of her death. In the absence of motive, the age and class of woman selected as victim, and the place and time of the crime, there was a similarity between this case and those mysteries which had recently occurred in that neighbourhood. There had been no skilful mutilation as in the case in Mitre-square – possibly the work of an imitator; but there had been the same skill exhibited in the way in which the victim had been entrapped, and the injuries inflicted so as to cause instant death and prevent blood from soiling the operator, and the same daring defiance of immediate detection, which unfortunately for the piece (sic) of the inhabitants and the trade of the neighbourhood, had hitherto been only too successful.
The phrase "but it might surely be urged that they had had before them those who appeared most likely to afford information", suggests to me that questions had been raised, or at least rumours existed, that at least one individual who was not called to the inquest, should have been. My money is on Israel Schwartz - I don't think Baxter believed his tale, and thought it best not to summon him.
When one considers "that one of the principal duties of the Court was to inquire “who gave the wounds, and who are, in what manner, culpable either of the act or of the force, and who were present, either men or women.”", then how on earth could Schwartz not have been called, unless not believed? If believed, he would have been Baxter's first pick!
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