- If you take away the ostentatious garb, what are you left with: a man in his mid 30s, 5’6” to 5’7”, light moustache, hat, Jewish look. Sounds a little familiar. Also, a red handkerchief – Lawende’s man had a red necktie.
- Why would JtR feel the need to get dressed up? Perhaps after his close call with Stride-Eddowes he realised the chance of keep doing what he was and not being caught were slim. Logical answer: go inside. A good way to secure this would be to get dressed up as someone above suspicion (very smart).
- Considering the smart clothes, the full conversation that Hutch heard a part of could have been:
KELLY: ‘Don’t worry, I will make you comfortable’
- So did Kelly take him back, get into bed and not leave. I’ve always thought the crime scene of boots by fire, clothes folded up says: ‘I’m done for the day, going to bed’. At some point, after they were in bed, he then attacked her.
- The only other similar example of the above I can think of is the farmer incident. They go to bed and then at some point he, allegedly, attacks her. Perhaps the difference could be explained by Kelly maintaining a fire and candles in her room, to give light, whereas in the lodging house room perhaps these weren’t available, hence the fumble and botch job? Also, famer’s attacker knew her from 12 months previous so he wouldn’t need the flash clothes to secure her confidence (even if he had beaten her). I also wondered if the necktie on lawende’s man was hiding the abscess/scar on farmer’s man's neck?
- Overall, I’m not inclined to totally write-off Hutch’s statement, although I have these caveats: what was the source of hutch’s statement being written off? Aberline said he believed him. Also, how solid is the later Kelly Britannia sighting? Although this doesn’t exclude AMAN – he could have been tucked up in Kelly’s bed with his hob-nob and hot milk. Also, having being inspected so closely by Hutch, would her killer really have continued?
- One of the issues with AMAN is that it writes off a lot of popular suspects: can’t see Koz having the means to pull off a smart (clever smart and clothes smart) deception; Druitt could have; Lech would need his Sunday very best, but with 12 kids was there the spare money for such a get-up? Bury could have done it through Ellen’s £300 quid (£40K today) – and we know he used considerable deception to lure ellen away.
- If I was going wild, I might stretch to 50:50 or even 51:49 in favour of his statement being real. But, I have issues with the boots with white buttons – really?
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