The Secrets of the Special Reports

[Simon Wood]

Hi David,

As it's hard to get a story that wrong, indulge me for a moment.

What if the Emperor had no clothes?

What if the ELO story was accurate?

Regards,

Simon

[David Orsam]

It is for that reason that I wondered if the report came in very late on Friday night, in fact during the early hours of Saturday morning, but the date stamp had not been switched over to the next day so it was stamped by the clerk as 31st August, with the time of 50 minutes after midnight written on - or intended to be written on - in to indicate this. Of course, if that was the intention, the chap has made a mess of it because 12:50pm indicates the afternoon (while 12:50am would have indicated the early hours of Friday morning). There was, in fact, no way of doing it other than altering the date from 31 Aug to 1 Sept and then noting 12:50am.

Worth pointing out that the problem with this theory is that Acting Supt Davis signs and dates his comments beneath the date stamp as being "31.8.88" so he would (a) still have had to have been in the office after midnight and (b) have had to have put the wrong date to his notes. So I guess it is not really a runner.

[David Orsam]

Hi David,

As it's hard to get a story that wrong, indulge me for a moment.

What if the Emperor had no clothes?

What if the ELO story was accurate?

Am happy to indulge, although we are a bit off-topic here. You are suggesting that three police constables, Dr Llewellyn and Henry Tomkins all colluded to present a false account of what happened that morning to the coroner. Plus Inspector Spratling joined in with it a bit later. A little hard for me to see what was in it for the doctor and the slaughterman frankly. But then we have Mrs Green's evidence that "She opened the window and saw three or four constables and two or three other men" as well as "the body of deceased lying on the ground". So was she in on the conspiracy? And what about Walter Purkiss who said that he too opened his window and "could see the deceased, and there were "two or three men there, besides three or four constables". Was he in on the conspiracy? And then what about Patrick Mulshaw who said he went to Buck's Row and saw the body on the ground along with "Three or four policemen" and "five or six working men". Was he also in on this conspiracy?

Abberline also says that the statements of Tomkins, Britton and Mumford were taken separately and without any means of communicating with each other. And Tomkins said in his evidence that he was on the scene and saw the doctor. How far are you suggesting this conspiracy went? Up to Abberline?

If what you are suggesting is true, Bethnal Green police station would have known that Mizen didn't call for the ambulance so his evidence would surely have been known to be untrue by senior officers.

I'm sure I could go on but, in short, I don't see that such an attempt to falsify the events of that night in the way you are suggesting was possible. There were too many people around.

[David Orsam]

I have, so far, found no other examples of such a thing, either in the JTR MEPO file or other police files although there is admittedly only a small selection of files - at least that I have located - containing special reports received by the Executive Branch.

I already need to correct this statement. I've been looking at some previously unreviewed (by me) files and, as luck would have it, I think I have now found another example, quite possibly by the same person because the handwriting looks similar and it appears to be another form of Executive Branch date-stamp, of 9 July 1887. This comes from MEPO 3/139 and, I think, says 1.30pm:

[GUT]

From the few characters on the stamp that can be made out, and from other date stamps in the file, I believe that the stamp probably says:

METROPOLITAN POLICE

31 AUG 1888

EXECUTIVE BRANCH

Thanks David.

[Monty]

I've only dipped in and out of this thread.

Are you querying the date and time stamps?

Monty

[GUT]

Just to add one further point about the fact that someone appears to have noted the time of receipt within the date stamp.

Why would they have done this?

I have, so far, found no other examples of such a thing, either in the JTR MEPO file or other police files although there is admittedly only a small selection of files - at least that I have located - containing special reports received by the Executive Branch.

The stamp would have borne the date of receipt which is normally quite adequate. What extra information is added by the fact that the report came in to the Executive Branch during the early afternoon?

It is for that reason that I wondered if the report came in very late on Friday night, in fact during the early hours of Saturday morning, but the date stamp had not been switched over to the next day so it was stamped by the clerk as 31st August, with the time of 50 minutes after midnight written on - or intended to be written on - in to indicate this. Of course, if that was the intention, the chap has made a mess of it because 12:50pm indicates the afternoon (while 12:50am would have indicated the early hours of Friday morning). There was, in fact, no way of doing it other than altering the date from 31 Aug to 1 Sept and then noting 12:50am.

But that is idle speculation - and perhaps there was some unusual reason due to urgency of circulating the report why it was felt necessary to note that it came in at 12:50pm (or 12:30pm if you prefer).

Could the time have been written first and then the stamp placed over it?

Also I support the POSSIBILITY of t being just after midnight, It is one that many get mixed.

[David Orsam]

I've only dipped in and out of this thread.

Are you querying the date and time stamps?

Well mainly just trying to work out what the time actually is due to legibility issues.

I had wondered aloud why someone even bothered to write the time in but now I have found another example (and it's possible I have also found one or two more from a Commissioner's Office stamp) I realise it is probably less rare than I had thought.

[GUT]

Well mainly just trying to work out what the time actually is due to legibility issues.

I had wondered aloud why someone even bothered to write the time in but now I have found another example (and it's possible I have also found one or two more from a Commissioner's Office stamp) I realise it is probably less rare than I had thought.

Thanks for that last bit David, it actually took me by surprise when you said it was rare.

[David Orsam]

Could the time have been written first and then the stamp placed over it?

I'm thinking not because I seem to be finding more examples of the same thing, with a time inside the stamp. Check out #49 above in case you missed it and I think it is worth me posting another one. Looks like it represents a time (of 7.20) - on 14 Feb 1888 - but I'm not sure what is going on with the numbers in the corners. I might leave that for Monty. This is from MEPO 2/210:

[David Orsam]

Thanks for that last bit David, it actually took me by surprise when you said it was rare.

Well the vast majority of those I have seen do not include a time. So I would still say quite rare - subject to anything Monty has to add - but clearly it is done occasionally.

[GUT]

Thanks again David, my suggestion about the time first was when took you to be saying it was a real rarity.

[David Orsam]

Thanks again David, my suggestion about the time first was when took you to be saying it was a real rarity.

I agree that if it's not so rare then it's far less likely to have been after midnight. The other thing I've been considering is that Superintendent Keating added a postscript to Inspector Spratling's report which says: "It has since been ascertained that the dress bears the marks of Lambeth Workhouse". Now, James Hatfield gave evidence about the police finding the Lambeth Workhouse mark and Inspector Helson telling him to cut that portion of the dress out. The timing is a little vague but this appears to have happened in the morning (and Helson said he went straight to the mortuary upon hearing of the murder at 6:45am). So it does look like the report was written by Spratling earlier rather than later in the day. Perhaps the answer is that he carried out his searches earlier than he thought - between 10-11 - and completed his report then.

[David Orsam]

From the few characters on the stamp that can be made out, and from other date stamps in the file, I believe that the stamp probably says:

METROPOLITAN POLICE

31 AUG 1888

EXECUTIVE BRANCH

This needs to be corrected. The C.I.D. stamps say "METROPOLITAN POLICE" across the top but I have discovered that the Executive Branch stamps say "RECEIVED IN". So the stamp must actually read:

RECEIVED IN

31 AUG. 88

EXECUTIVE BRANCH

An example is below (from MEPO 3/2897, from which, incidentally, I learn that the "D" in Inspector William D Davis stands for "Dominic"):

[David Orsam]

Another little snippet of possibly relevant info I discovered today - from a PO of 27 January 1888 - was that there was a horse drawn "despatch cart" which left Bethnal Green Police Station four times a day, carrying correspondence to Scotland Yard.

Assuming that this was how Inspector Spratling's report was transmitted, the relevant cart for our purposes commenced its journey at Arbour Square Police Station at 10:45am. Travelling at seven miles per hour, it reached Bethnal Green Police Station (via Bow Police Station) at 11:24am (stopping for 3 minutes) before reaching Scotland Yard (via Leman Street Police Station) at 12:15pm. Allowing for the mail to make it's way through to the clerk at the Executive Branch at either 12:30pm or 12:50pm, depending on one's point of view, this would make sense and would mean that Spratling must have completed his report by 11:24am. On that basis, the search he referred to in his report must have been carried out before that time. Thinking about it, it certainly makes sense that Spratling, who was clearly on duty at 4:30am, is very unlikely to have been writing reports during the evening as he must have gone off duty at some point during the afternoon. The last cart, incidentally, left Bethnal Green at 9:27pm (arriving Scotland Yard at 10:15pm).