Suspect Witnesses?

[NotBlamedForNothing]

I don't see why we need to find a situation for Fanny being at her door almost the whole time when there's another report that Fanny was at her door for 10 minutes, and that report fits better with the rest of the evidence.

That report would have Fanny at her door 5 minutes either side of 12:45, witnessing Goldstein in that period. Neither witness claimed to see a woman standing in the gateway, let alone an incident involving 4 people.

[NotBlamedForNothing]

Except that the only report written in the first person and from Fanny herself, she does say that she was at her door for almost the whole time.

The 10 minute claim was written in a syntex that clearly didn't come from Fanny herself.

In other words, Fanny never said only 10 minutes.

We know that the time period between Smith's last presence on Berner St and a few minutes before 1am is substantially longer than 10 minutes. At least that needs to be acknowledged by anyone wanting to replace a witness quote with a report that contains no quotes and no names.

The only way that 10 minutes could possibly work is to suppose Diemschitz actually arrived no later than 12:55, and then build a timeline anchored around that. How this will fit with the notion of another man coming along to commit the murder after BS departs, is something I'm intrigued to see.

[Doctored Whatsit]

What do we know? Fanny came to the door sometime after PC Smith walked by, and was back indoors before Louis D went past. Just before she went indoors she saw Goldstein walk by. Stride entered the club yard on her own or with JtR some time in between PC Smith and Louis D, and Fanny didn't see this, so she seems to have been at the door rather less time than originally suggested. Unfortunately, we only have newspaper reports and not her police statement.

[NotBlamedForNothing]

There is an irony in Schwartz believers preferring the anonymous 10-minute report to the "I was standing at the door of my house nearly the whole time between half past twelve and one o'clock this morning" quote, that being the flexibility the quote affords to those wanting to build coherent timelines, as opposed to the rigidity of the other report. With the anonymous report, you're stuck trying to bridge a point immediately after Smith - who gave a time of 12:35 - with another point a few minutes before the 1am time given by Diemschitz, and you've got about 10 minutes to play with.

In contrast, those who correctly stick with the witness quote are mostly free to pick and choose when Mortimer is observing the street. The critical point here is that Mortimer can be placed away from her door when victim and culprit enter the gates yet be at her door just a minute or two either side of that point. Surely that scenario is preferrable.