Possible reason for Hutch coming forward

[Bridewell]

Reminiscent of hutch shanking his story later when he says he’s now outside her apartment. Scared someone had seen him and changes his story.
Classic lying behavior.

A 'change of story' by Hutchinson - or by a journalist embellishing the account to sell a few more newspapers?

[c.d.]

Hi cd
As I’ve said many times, I think the most likely scenario is that he was just an attention seeker.

Well my impression was that you thought he was the Ripper so my apologies.

c.d.

[Abby Normal]

That is probably true and probably what the police at the time concluded which leads to the question then why in the hell do we have about ten million Hutchinson threads?

c.d.

Probably because there are so many questions about him.

[Abby Normal]

Hello Abby,

Well if you or Sam can offer concrete evidence that Hutchinson was the Ripper beyond simply saying that you think his actions were suspicious and you feel the police at the time dropped the ball I would certainly be open to taking a look at it. But it could be a tough road to hoe.

c.d.

Hi cd
As I’ve said many times, I think the most likely scenario is that he was just an attention seeker.

[c.d.]

I don't think he was the Ripper; I think he was a fantasist and quite possibly an attention seeker. I believe that he grossly exaggerated his story at the very least, and at worst made it up completely.

That is probably true and probably what the police at the time concluded which leads to the question then why in the hell do we have about ten million Hutchinson threads?

c.d.

[Sam Flynn]

Hello Abby,

Well if you or Sam can offer concrete evidence that Hutchinson was the Ripper

I don't think he was the Ripper; I think he was a fantasist and quite possibly an attention seeker. I believe that he grossly exaggerated his story at the very least, and at worst made it up completely.

[c.d.]

Hello Abby,

Well if you or Sam can offer concrete evidence that Hutchinson was the Ripper beyond simply saying that you think his actions were suspicious and you feel the police at the time dropped the ball I would certainly be open to taking a look at it. But it could be a tough road to hoe.

c.d.

[Abby Normal]

The good news is that I don't subscribe to that view, CD. One doesn't need to be incompetent to be taken in by a plausible liar - I'm sure that an experienced detective like George Oldfield wasn't incompetent at all, but he and some of his colleagues were well taken in by the "Wearside Jack" hoax letters and tape recording.

Exactly sam. And what are they going to do anyway even if they did think he was embelling or lying? How are they going to prove it? And it seems and probable the police weren’t all of one mind concerning hutch’s story. Some probably believed or not believed the veracity of his report in varying degrees, and indeed, the only one who mentions him some time later, dew, thinks he was mistaken.

No one, not the police then or people now, despite wicker mans and cds assertion that it has been “cut through” to the “bottom line” concerning hutch.
The only thing certain about hutch is that it’s totally uncertain.

[Sam Flynn]

What I do object to is the idea apparently held by some that the police were fooled by Hutch because they were incompetent and failed to see the obvious signs.

The good news is that I don't subscribe to that view, CD. One doesn't need to be incompetent to be taken in by a plausible liar - I'm sure that an experienced detective like George Oldfield wasn't incompetent at all, but he and some of his colleagues were well taken in by the "Wearside Jack" hoax letters and tape recording.

[c.d.]

Hello Sam,

I have no problem with the idea that the police could have been fooled by Hutchinson and that he was in fact the Ripper. No matter how competent a police force is they are still human and therefore can make mistakes. What I do object to is the idea apparently held by some that the police were fooled by Hutch because they were incompetent and failed to see the obvious signs. And what is there proof of this? Simple. Hutchinson was never a suspect and never arrested for the murder. That seems to be circular reasoning.

c.d.

[Sam Flynn]

Agreed, Sam. But that holds true for every single person they questioned in this case not just Hutchinson.

Not quite, CD, in the sense that not every person in this case came up with such an extraordinarily detailed description of a suspect, nor indeed of their own (in this case, Hutchinson's) movements at the time in question. In fact - correct me if I'm wrong - Hutchinson's story, both what he saw and what he did, was by far and away the most detailed in the entire case.

Most of the other witness descriptions were usually so "ordinary" that they don't give the impression that the witnesses were trying to hoodwink anyone.

[c.d.]

No matter how competent the police were, it doesn't preclude the idea that Hutchinson succeeded in hoodwinking them. He won't have been the first bogus witness to have done so, nor the last.

Agreed, Sam. But that holds true for every single person they questioned in this case not just Hutchinson.

c.d.

[Sam Flynn]

if it is so apparently obvious to people on these boards that Hutchinson engaged in highly suspicious activities then it is a reasonable assumption that the police at the time would have been of the same mind and acted accordingly. Unless they were complete and total idiots and completely incompetent.

No matter how competent the police were, it doesn't preclude the idea that Hutchinson succeeded in hoodwinking them. He won't have been the first bogus witness to have done so, nor the last.

[Joshua Rogan]

Jr
Debra Arif found the article a couple of years ago that Bowyer said, quoted, no less, that he was in the court in the middle of the night. He didn’t see any man at that time and said he was sorry he didn’t because he missed the chance to catch the ripper.

I asked the same thing you just did about bowyer, and still think he’s fishy. At the time she posted it I was surprised that there was so little interest by casebookers.

Wicks, as usual, with the other press reports of Boyer saying he saw a peculiar man a day or so earlier in the court, is trying to twist it into his legendarium with his well dressed man suspect at the center.

Cheers Abby. Sounds similar to the remarks of George Morris, the Kearley & Tonge's watchman;
"It was only on that night that he remarked to some policeman that he wished the "butcher" would come round Mitre square, and he would give him a doing; yet the "butcher" had come, and he was perfectly ignorant of it"

Still, it's odd that the press reports from the Echo on this site stop at 13th Nov... seems almost like a bit of a cover-up.

[Abby Normal]

Easily impressed? I'm not so sure. But I was impressed that Wickerman was able to cut through the essentially uncountable layers of Hutchinson nonsense to get to the bottom line. Sometimes it is important to state the obvious. The paradox of Hutchinson is that if it is so apparently obvious to people on these boards that Hutchinson engaged in highly suspicious activities then it is a reasonable assumption that the police at the time would have been of the same mind and acted accordingly. Unless they were complete and total idiots and completely incompetent.

c.d.

Ok. So cutting through the “uncountable layers of Hutchinson nonsense to get to the bottom line” is what then? And how did the police act accordingly?