Why Didn't the Police Have Schwartz and/or Lawende Take a Look at Hutchinson?

[Sam Flynn]

Out of all the Jewish places Hutchinson could have picked, of which there are many (as per the Booth poverty map we hear time and time about again to make the point that there are no ways to avoid a Jewish connection!), Hutchinson just happened to pick this one?

A coincidence then?

Hutchinson lived on "Petticoat Lane" which, on a Sunday, would have been thronged with Jews, so not much of a coincidence either way.

[Batman]

If someone was going to make up a Jewish suspect, what safer place to pretend to have seen him than one of the most likely places to find a Jewish-looking man?

Out of all the Jewish places Hutchinson could have picked, of which there are many (as per the Booth poverty map we hear time and time about again to make the point that there are no ways to avoid a Jewish connection!), Hutchinson just happened to pick this one?

A coincidence then?

[Sam Flynn]

Look at this potential candidate for the implication that Hutchinson was truthful.

If someone was going to make up a Jewish suspect, what safer place to pretend to have seen him than one of the most likely places to find a Jewish-looking man?

[Batman]

Look at this potential candidate for the implication that Hutchinson was truthful.

[Abby Normal]

A shabbily-dressed man with a blotchy face sounds even less likely to have been described as being of "gentlemanly appearance and manners". Don't forget that Sarah Lewis was at the inquest, and described seeing a woman, possibly Kelly, in Commercial Street with a "gentleman" she'd seen previously.

of course, for this to be Kelly, Hutch must have been lying or mistaken.

[Sam Flynn]

Is this Astrakhan man or Blotchy?

https://casebook.org/press_reports/morning_advertiser/18881119.html

Cox said shabby. Very shabby. Yet it says the witness gave a description at the inquest. Which isn't Hutchinson's Astrakhan man.

A shabbily-dressed man with a blotchy face sounds even less likely to have been described as being of "gentlemanly appearance and manners". Don't forget that Sarah Lewis was at the inquest, and described seeing a woman, possibly Kelly, in Commercial Street with a "gentleman" she'd seen previously.

[Batman]

Is this Astrakhan man or Blotchy?

https://casebook.org/press_reports/morning_advertiser/18881119.html

He was of gentlemanly appearance and manners, and somewhat resembled the description given by the witnesses at the inquest as having been seen in company with Kelly early on the morning that she was murdered. Upon being minutely questioned as to his whereabouts at the time of the murders, the suspect was able to furnish a satisfactory account of himself, and was accordingly liberated.


Cox said shabby. Very shabby. Yet it says the witness gave a description at the inquest. Which isn't Hutchinson's Astrakhan man.

[Sam Flynn]

Yes, slamming the door would automatically lock the door, providing the retaining knob on the inside was in the release position.

Not that it was necessarily slammed, as such. Simply pulling it to would presumably have sufficed.

[Simon Wood]

John Richardson [Chapman inquest testimony] -

"I did not close the back door. It closed itself."

[Batman]

When you went into the yard on Saturday morning was the yard door open or shut? - I found it shut. - John Davies at Chapman inquest.

It is interesting that in both these cases, JtR shut the door. Obviously, this was done to give him more time to abscond before the body was found.

Anymore shut doors involved in any of the other Whitechapel murders or later?

Also, someone going to Birmingham was chased up on for matching Hutchinson's Astrakhan man's description? https://casebook.org/press_reports/m.../18881119.html

[Wickerman]

Yes, slamming the door would automatically lock the door, providing the retaining knob on the inside was in the release position.
If the knob is in the retained position, and the door bolt is withdrawn the door would just bang against the door frame and swing open again.

[Wolf Vanderlinden]

The Spring Latch was something that had to be disengaged to allow for the door to remain unlocked, which means the killer disengaged the lock when he left the room. That latch could be accessed from the window, due to the fact that the door was almost at the corner of the room, and the windows broken panel(s) was also close to that corner.

This from the London Daily News, 10 November, 1888:

"The door was fastened, not that it had been locked from the inside, but having a catch-lock the person who had gone out last had merely slammed the door behind him, and it had thus become fastened."

This suggests that you only had to slam the door in order to lock it.

Wolf.

[Wolf Vanderlinden]

Back to the coat over the door for a moment.

Correction: Sunday Times one, mythbusters nil.

Or, Thomas Bowyer 1, Sunday Times and Drew 0.

“The man, failing to get any answer by knocking, went to the window, which had been broken and patched by rags for some time past, and on pushing the rags aside was startled by the sight of blood.” The London Daily News, 10 November, 1888. (Rags, but no coat, curtain or blind.)

“Mr. McCarthy at once returned with him, and finding a corner of one of the window panes broken pushed his fingers far enough to thrust aside the blind.” Lloyd’sWeekly Newspaper, 11 November, 1888. (Blind, but no coat or curtain).

From one of the more lengthy and detailed accounts of Bowyer’s inquest testimony: “I went round the corner by the gutter-spout, where there is a small pane of glass broken in the large window. …. There was a curtain before the window, which covered both windows. I pulled the curtain aside and looked in.” The London Evening Standard, 13 November, 1888. (Curtain, but no coat.)

Note the absence in all of these of any mention of the coat over the window.

And to add to the blinds or curtain debate, Mary Ann Cox in her statement to the police stated: “There was light in the room when she was singing I saw nothing as the blinds were down…”

Wolf.

[Michael W Richards]

Without trying to sound too pedantic, do we know what kind of lock and catch was on the door of 13 Millers Court?
I think I need a key to unlock my brain on this little mystery.

The Spring Latch was something that had to be disengaged to allow for the door to remain unlocked, which means the killer disengaged the lock when he left the room. That latch could be accessed from the window, due to the fact that the door was almost at the corner of the room, and the windows broken panel(s) was also close to that corner.

the really important factoids about the spring latch, imho, are that ;


A) It was disengaged by the killer
B) It could have been accessed to allow people into the room.


Point B makes the statements that they had to force the door open less believable.

[Sam Flynn]

Obviously more concerned with salt and batter than ripping.

But they were probably fried in beef (d)ripping nonetheless.