Originally posted by Wickerman
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While the people in your article are either talking with one another or lounging around, Hutchinson is doing neither. Hutchinson is keeping vigil for the best part of an hour. Nowhere does it state in the article that there 'are men making a specific point of working out what is going on in a court and what is going on in the surrounding streets'. Of course there were people around at that time of night, we know that to be true, but it doesn't follow that it was a Victorian habit of scouting the area for the best part of an hour for no reason other than they saw a 'well dressed man'. 'Lounging around' is not the same as Hutchinson's activity. Hutchinson has a mission whereas people idly sitting around don't.
As for Hutchinson's statement, I'm at a loss as to how you have concluded Hutchinson was talking specifically of suspicious men. In fact, Hutchinson makes a point of saying when his suspicions were aroused.
One policeman went by the Commercial-street end of Dorset-street while I was standing there, but no one came down Dorset-street. I saw one man go into a lodging-house in Dorset-street, and no one else.
There is absolutely nothing in that statement to suggest he was merely noting suspicious men. Reasonably, Hutchinson is talking of anyone he saw. So, the reality of that night is that people weren't 'hanging around talking' nor 'lounging around'. But, even in the event they were, it doesn't change the fact that Hutchinson offers no reasonable motive for spending the best part of an hour watching the court and surrounding streets. That cannot be explained away simply by the presence of a 'well dressed man'.
As for Mary Cox, they could reasonably have missed one another by a few minutes.
As for Sarah Lewis, well, we're in the realms of guesswork again. 'Many possibilities here. My reading of Hutchinson's statement given to The Times, 14th November, is that he didn't actually go into the court and so he was in Dorset Street. Sarah Lewis's man was stood by a lodging house in Dorset Street. From those positions, it's difficult to argue Hutchinson may have simply missed her, particularly as Lewis claimed the man was looking up the court and Lewis herself entered the court/passageway.
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