The Times report

[Sam Flynn]

Hi Normy,

Here's the relevent sentence attributed to Hutchinson by The Times of 14th November:

"I went up the court and stayed there a couple of minutes, but did not see any light in the house or hear any noise"

There is clear discrepency here, since there's no mention of Hutchinson entering Miller's Court in the initial police report.

There's no real discrepancy, Ben. From his police statement: "I went to the court to see if I could see them, but could not".

[Ben]

Hi Normy,

Here's the relevent sentence attributed to Hutchinson by The Times of 14th November:

"I went up the court and stayed there a couple of minutes, but did not see any light in the house or hear any noise"

There is clear discrepency here, since there's no mention of Hutchinson entering Miller's Court in the initial police report. The question is whether Hutchinson himself was responsible for "jazzing up" his account when speaking to the press the next day, or whether an enterprising journalist was to blame. Now, I can envisage a journalist chucking in the odd "red stone seal" for added spice, but I doubt he'd invent both the "went up the court" detail and the Petticoat Lane/policeman encounter, so it seems a safer bet that they were Hutch-generated.

Hope this helps,

Ben

[Normy]

Hi all
I've taken this from JACK THE RIPPER …PERSON OR PERSONS UNKNOWN?
by
Garry Wroe

Is the report from the Times accepted as being jazzed up for the newspaper or accurate details of his account?

According to a report carried by The Times on 13 November, he didn’t simply tire of his Dorset Street vigil and wander away as has been previously supposed. Rather, a little before 3:00am, he entered Miller’s Court and stood outside Kelly’s room – which, he insisted, was quiet and in darkness. Forgetting for a moment the more obvious implications of this disclosure, one can but wonder why, as with the alleged conversation with a policeman in Petticoat Lane, he made no reference to it during the Abberline interview.

“When I left the corner of Miller’s Court,” he goes on, “the clock struck three o’clock ... After I left the court I walked about all night, as the place where I usually sleep was closed. I came in as soon as it opened in the morning.” This establishment was the Victoria Home, a common lodging house designated 39-41 Commercial Street and situated on the south-west corner of the Commercial/Wentworth Streets intersection.

Cheers all