All Roads Lead to Dorset St.,

[MrBarnett]

Which neatly illustrates Trevor’s earlier point about the street's bad reputation.

Which reached a peak in 1901 and was presumably the reason the name was changed shortly afterwards. I think it was Wynne Baxter who dealing with yet another sudden death in 'Duval' Street enquired where it was. When it was explained to him that it was the renamed Dorset Street he commented 'Ah, an old friend with a new name'. (Or something along those lines)

[Batman]

The big difference, of course, is that Smith and Tabram were attacked in secluded spots. Whoever attacked Austin was either extremely reckless of discovery or felt he was in some way invulnerable.

Local Inspector Thomas Divall, who investigated the case, was of the opinion that the killer was a 'well-known local character' who was being shielded by the staff and residents of Crossingham's.

Which seems to be the conclusion I read in The Bank Holiday Murders by Wescott for Smith and Tabram. The police were stonewalled by them.

Austin was stabbed in the vagina. Same area targetted on Emma Smith which killed her. Tabram's genitals had been stabbed. Also Tabram was left posed in a sexual position with her legs spread, just like most of the JtR victims.

Plus there is nothing seeming to rule out Austin's killer from being JtR.

[MrBarnett]

Which reached a peak in 1901 and was presumably the reason the name was changed shortly afterwards. I think it was Wynne Baxter who dealing with yet another sudden death in 'Duval' Street enquired where it was. When it was explained to him that it was the renamed Dorset Street he commented 'Ah, an old friend with a new name'. (Or something along those lines)

'Face', not 'name'. Sorry!

http://www.jtrforums.com/showthread.php?t=25060&highlight=Duval

[MrBarnett]

Which seems to be the conclusion I read in The Bank Holiday Murders by Wescott for Smith and Tabram. The police were stonewalled by them.

Austin was stabbed in the vagina. Same area targetted on Emma Smith which killed her. Tabram's genitals had been stabbed. Also Tabram was left posed in a sexual position with her legs spread, just like most of the JtR victims.

Plus there is nothing seeming to rule out Austin's killer from being JtR.

Nothing apart from the almost suicidal choice of location. The dossers were locked in at night and the house was full to the brim.

[MrBarnett]

Which seems to be the conclusion I read in The Bank Holiday Murders by Wescott for Smith and Tabram. The police were stonewalled by them.

Austin was stabbed in the vagina. Same area targetted on Emma Smith which killed her. Tabram's genitals had been stabbed. Also Tabram was left posed in a sexual position with her legs spread, just like most of the JtR victims.

Plus there is nothing seeming to rule out Austin's killer from being JtR.

I'm not sure there was obvious stonewalling by the lodging house management in the first two cases. There clearly was in the Austin case.

Pearly Poll seems to have gone out of her way to drag a ripe red herring through the Tabram investigation, though.

[Batman]

Nothing apart from the almost suicidal choice of location. The dossers were locked in at night and the house was full to the brim.

The thing is, would this have been an obstacle for JtR who had no problems going through people's houses and into their back gardens to murder a woman with him, or into a square to murder another with PCs on the beat who could catch him at any moment via the only two pathways in and out, or to go down a cul-de-sac and into a room with only one way in/out to murder a woman?

One could almost call it an escalation of location for the thrill, although not an escalation in the crime itself, but it was bad all the same and with sadistic sexual overtones.

Maybe it wasn't him. Maybe it was. Still given what we know about Smith, Tabram, Kelly and Dorset St., it is certainly a consideration.

[Batman]

I'm not sure there was obvious stonewalling by the lodging house management in the first two cases.

Have you read The Bank Holiday Murders?

[MrBarnett]

Have you read The Bank Holiday Murders?

I have indeed.

[Batman]

I have indeed.

I think for Emma Smith and Tabram it makes a good case for stonewalling. Thick is also a very suspicious character.

[MrBarnett]

I think for Emma Smith and Tabram it makes a good case for stonewalling. Thick is also a very suspicious character.

I think that's the impression the author was hoping to leave in his readers' minds, but it didn't work for me.

There is a whole chapter on the 'Lords of Spitalfields' which contains nothing of any real significance. If you want to get a better understanding of the reach of the lodging house keepers at the time of the Austin murder, my advice would be to research an individual called Billy Maher. Now he really was a 'well known local character'.

[Sam Flynn]

If you go along with Tom's argument re Tabram in TBHM, then the location of the wounds is comparable.

I don't share that view, much though I love the book.

[MrBarnett]

I don't share that view, much though I love the book.

I'm not convinced, either by the specific claim about Tabram's injury or the general direction of travel of the book to be honest. That said, I have read it several times over with pleasure. TBHM is a bit off-topic, though, unless we want to consider the possible connections between the powers in Dorset Street and the murders.

[Sam Flynn]

There is some doubt as to the veracity of the story of Eddowes having lived in a "shed" in Dorset Street. At any rate, the story is not widely attested and only turns up (I think) retrospectively, in connection with the Kelly murder.

Having checked, I was wrong about the story turning up in the reportage surrounding the Kelly murder (I would have looked it up earlier, but I was on the move). In fact, the story appears in the Daily Telegraph of 3rd October 1888:

"[Eddowes] had times without number been in so abject a state of destitution as to be compelled to share the nightly refuge, a shed in Dorset-street, of a score or so of houseless waifs, penniless prostitutes like herself"

The rest of my points remain valid. There are doubts about its veracity, and the story is not widely attested - so far, I've only found it in this Telegraph article, which is a rather dramatic editorial piece which doesn't cite its sources. I also note that it doesn't mention the "shed" being the one at 26 Dorset Street and I doubt it could have been, given that (a) it wasn't really a shed; and (b) it was used by McCarthy as his storeroom.

[Batman]

Having checked, I was wrong about the story turning up in the reportage surrounding the Kelly murder (I would have looked it up earlier, but I was on the move). In fact, the story appears in the Daily Telegraph of 3rd October 1888:

"[Eddowes] had times without number been in so abject a state of destitution as to be compelled to share the nightly refuge, a shed in Dorset-street, of a score or so of houseless waifs, penniless prostitutes like herself"

The rest of my points remain valid. There are doubts about its veracity, and the story is not widely attested - so far, I've only found it in this Telegraph article, which is a rather dramatic editorial piece which doesn't cite its sources. I also note that it doesn't mention the "shed" being the one at 26 Dorset Street and I doubt it could have been, given that (a) it wasn't really a shed; and (b) it was used by McCarthy as his storeroom.

The Daily Telegraph also noted that SIX witnesses were taken to view Eddowes and identified her as the woman having slept in a shed off Dorset Street.

The reporters identified the shed as the front room of 26 Dorset St., (as per my OP).

Prater also called it 'the shed'. Daily Telegraph 13 Nov.

Furthermore, it seems her idea of the shed was the room below her... which was Kelly's room. However, she did say she lived above the shed, not directly above it.

Six women are quite a few witnesses there to dismiss. Plus the corroboration of the what the shed was.

[Sam Flynn]

The Daily Telegraph also noted that SIX witnesses were taken to view Eddowes and identified her as the woman having slept in a shed off Dorset Street.

Can you point me to the specific report, please? I can't find it.