Framing Charles

[Fiver]

Ah, so you’ve established what kind of van he was driving. And what load he was carrying.

Very impressive.

Perhaps you should read what I actually wrote. I made no attempt to establish what load Charles Lechmere was carrying on any given day. My point was that we cannot know what Charles Lechmere was carrying on any given day.

"From what I can find, the standard for Pickford's was "Each team of horses takes out for delivery, and returns with, two loads of goods daily" and "a full three-horse-van carries between four and five tons". At the time, Pickford's appears to have transported goods for both businesses and individuals. There certainly would be regular bulk shipments to and from large firms, but even those wouldn't necessarily be the same size or be shipped every day. Smaller firms and individuals would be even more irregular in the size and frequency of their shipments."

"The nearest Market appears to have been Spitalfield's Market (fruit, vegetables, flowers), though plenty of other things were available there as well. And there were plenty of business outside the Markets. A period source notes "All day long and all the year round there is a constant Fair going on in Whitechapel Road. It is held upon the broad pavement, which was benevolently intended, no doubt, for this purpose. Here are displayed all kinds of things; bits of second-hand furniture, such as the head of a wooden bed, whose griminess is perhaps exaggerated, in order that a purchaser may expect something extraordinarily cheap. Here are lids of pots and saucepans laid out, to show that in the warehouse, of which these things are specimens, will be found the principal parts of the utensils for sale; here are unexpected things, such as rows of skates, sold cheap in summer, light clothing in winter; workmen’s tools of every kind, including, perhaps, the burglarious jemmy; second-hand books – a miscellaneous collection, establishing the fact that the readers of books in Whitechapel – a feeble and scanty folk – read nothing at all except sermons and meditations among the tombs; second-hand boots and shoes; cutlery; hats and caps; rat-traps and mouse-traps and birdcages; flowers and seeds; skittles; and frames for photographs. Cheap- jacks have their carts beside the pavement; and with strident voice proclaim the goodness of their wares, which include in this district bloaters and dried haddocks, as well as crockery. And one is amazed, seeing how the open-air Fair goes on, why the shops are kept open at all.^""

"The idea that Lechmere would have been delivering a single commodity is wildly unlikely when his van would have been carrying 4 to 5 tons of goods. Even if he was delivering to Spitalfields Market, it is unlikely that the entire cargo would go to a single vendor or consist of a single commodity. Then Lechemere would be expected to return to Broad Street Station with goods that he picked up. Again, this would be wildly unlikely to have been picked up from one location, let alone be one commodity."

"As noted, period standard for Pickford's appears to have been each van doing 2 sets of deliveries and returns. Lechmere might have had the occasional day where he only did one set of deliveries and returns, but it would be an exception and he'd probably have to work later on another day to make up for the lost wages. And, as previously noted, a Pickford's van typically carried both a carman and a conductor, or book carrier."

Now perhaps you can explain how Pickford’s deliveries of provincial horse flesh worked. Who received them and what other commodities were carried alongside the produce of the knacker’s yards, bearing in mind the strict legal distinction between knacker’s meat and food for human consumption.

How many firms were involved in the horse flesh trade and where were they located?

I’m assuming you have established these facts because you are not using qualifiers.

Clearly you did not read my post. I used 10 qualifiers, which I have now bolded.

I made no comments on how "Pickford's deliveries of provincial horse flesh worked" other than to agree with your statement that as perishables, it would have made sense to deliver them as rapidly possible. I do know that Pickford's had been in business for a long time so there cannot be a single answer for what businesses shipped horsemeat, what businesses or individuals received horsemeat, how much horsemeat was shipped to or from the Broad Street Station, how much was horsemeat shipped on any given day, or what items were carried in the same van load as any individual shipment of horsemeat.

[MrBarnett]

RJ has already shown that, unless she knew John Lechmere was still alive, enough time had passed for her second marriage to be legal.

No he hasn’t.

If, when JAL had been absent for more than seven years, Maria was unaware whether he was alive, she could remarry without committing the offence of bigamy. However, as John was still alive when her subsequent marriages took place, they were null and void.

[MrBarnett]

Perhaps you should read what I actually wrote. I made no attempt to establish what load Charles Lechmere was carrying on any given day. My point was that we cannot know what Charles Lechmere was carrying on any given day.

"From what I can find, the standard for Pickford's was "Each team of horses takes out for delivery, and returns with, two loads of goods daily" and "a full three-horse-van carries between four and five tons". At the time, Pickford's appears to have transported goods for both businesses and individuals. There certainly would be regular bulk shipments to and from large firms, but even those wouldn't necessarily be the same size or be shipped every day. Smaller firms and individuals would be even more irregular in the size and frequency of their shipments."

"The nearest Market appears to have been Spitalfield's Market (fruit, vegetables, flowers), though plenty of other things were available there as well. And there were plenty of business outside the Markets. A period source notes "All day long and all the year round there is a constant Fair going on in Whitechapel Road. It is held upon the broad pavement, which was benevolently intended, no doubt, for this purpose. Here are displayed all kinds of things; bits of second-hand furniture, such as the head of a wooden bed, whose griminess is perhaps exaggerated, in order that a purchaser may expect something extraordinarily cheap. Here are lids of pots and saucepans laid out, to show that in the warehouse, of which these things are specimens, will be found the principal parts of the utensils for sale; here are unexpected things, such as rows of skates, sold cheap in summer, light clothing in winter; workmen’s tools of every kind, including, perhaps, the burglarious jemmy; second-hand books – a miscellaneous collection, establishing the fact that the readers of books in Whitechapel – a feeble and scanty folk – read nothing at all except sermons and meditations among the tombs; second-hand boots and shoes; cutlery; hats and caps; rat-traps and mouse-traps and birdcages; flowers and seeds; skittles; and frames for photographs. Cheap- jacks have their carts beside the pavement; and with strident voice proclaim the goodness of their wares, which include in this district bloaters and dried haddocks, as well as crockery. And one is amazed, seeing how the open-air Fair goes on, why the shops are kept open at all.^""

"The idea that Lechmere would have been delivering a single commodity is wildly unlikely when his van would have been carrying 4 to 5 tons of goods. Even if he was delivering to Spitalfields Market, it is unlikely that the entire cargo would go to a single vendor or consist of a single commodity. Then Lechemere would be expected to return to Broad Street Station with goods that he picked up. Again, this would be wildly unlikely to have been picked up from one location, let alone be one commodity."

"As noted, period standard for Pickford's appears to have been each van doing 2 sets of deliveries and returns. Lechmere might have had the occasional day where he only did one set of deliveries and returns, but it would be an exception and he'd probably have to work later on another day to make up for the lost wages. And, as previously noted, a Pickford's van typically carried both a carman and a conductor, or book carrier."



Clearly you did not read my post. I used 10 qualifiers, which I have now bolded.

I made no comments on how "Pickford's deliveries of provincial horse flesh worked" other than to agree with your statement that as perishables, it would have made sense to deliver them as rapidly possible. I do know that Pickford's had been in business for a long time so there cannot be a single answer for what businesses shipped horsemeat, what businesses or individuals received horsemeat, how much horsemeat was shipped to or from the Broad Street Station, how much was horsemeat shipped on any given day, or what items were carried in the same van load as any individual shipment of horsemeat.

I shan’t waste my time responding to this.

[Fiver]

Your source is an article that appeared in All The Year Round in 1863 and which describes Pickfords activities at Camden. Their relationship with the LNWR was going through a sticky patch at that time and they moved from Camden around 1864.

Yes, my source is The Year Round in 1863. That's why I added lots of qualifiers, since you can only extrapolate so far from a single source. I would be happy to see additional sources about day to day operations at Pickford's if you have any.

Pickfords were universal carriers, meaning they carried just about anything: consumer goods, foodstuffs, minerals, building materials, fuel...and more besides.

I am aware that Pickfords were universal carriers. I am aware that means that they carried just about anything. I have stated this repeatedly to show that we cannot know what Charles Lechmere carried on any given day.

Do you really believe the few facts and figures you have gleaned about their activities in Camden in 1863 are valid for whatever loads CAL was carrying in 1888?

I used 10 qualifiers in my statements about Pickford's deliveries. So far, you have provided no evidence that any of Pickford's methods being used in 1863 had been changed significantly in 1888.

Here's a second source from 1883. Goods that were shipped from Broad Street Station. One of the witnesses against the carman was the van boy who accompanied him.

Broad Street and Liverpool Street next door were major hubs for butchers meat, fish and cats meat. Deliveries from there would have gone to Smithfield, Billingsgate and Harrison, Barber and a handful of other horseflesh wholesalers.

And what is your point? With over 20 years of service, Charles Lechmere probably delivered horseflesh and other meats during some of the thousands of pickups and deliveries he made for Pickfords.

[rjpalmer]

If Lechmere was not the killer, then somebody else just happened to place all four murders along his logical work treks instead of on the 900 + OTHER Whitechapel streets that had no connection to those treks. And the odds for that is one in five million, if we accept the twentyish streets I outline in the book. If we add twenty more streets, we end up at a one in two and a half million chance.

That is extremely strong geographical evidence in my book.

I'll probably regret bringing this up, but statistical analysis has been the flavor of the month, and, to me, this is another example of 'Ripperologists' misusing statistics.

900+ streets is obviously grossly misleading, because prostitution was not spread evenly among those 900 streets. East End prostitution was anything BUT a random distribution. Women solicited where they would expect to find the greatest amount of foot-traffic at night--which, of course, were the same main streets where hundreds if not thousands of people walked daily.

Indeed, it can be convincingly argued that all the victims, with the exception of Liz Stride (and Rose Mylett) were picked up on the main two drags (Aldgate/Whitechapel Road and Commercial /Leman Street) which would render any such argument null and void; these streets must have accounted for a huge percentage of solicitation on any given night. Thus, the most that can be said is that Lechmere walked through the main drags known for prostitution on nearly a daily basis--the same streets an unknown killer would frequent to find a victim. But this is a far cry from claiming the odds are 5 million to 1 or any other imaginary number.

I'm not finding the original post, but Fish appears to be dividing 900 streets by the 19 or so streets Lechmere used daily, which comes to roughly 47 to 1 odds for any given murder; he then multiplies this three more times (for three more murders) coming up with roughly 5,000,000 to 1.

About all I can say in his defense is that this analysis was evidently the work of a colleague.

If so, it should be discarded because it is obviously invalid.

[drstrange169]

It seems Christer's Cross credibility is taking knocks across multiple threads at the moment, time to start sorting the wheat from the chaff when it comes to stories of guilt.

[Fiver]

There was a Scotch Meat and Fish Express that arrived at Broad Street each morning carrying fresh produce from Scotland, for instance. A driver whose regular job it was to carry the fish or meat on to Billingsgate or Smithfield would have been expected to be at his post at the same time each morning. Does a regular fixed start time fit with the times of the murders?

The "Scotch fish and meat." arrived at 4:15am.

"The warehouseman does not want his goods till eight or nine o'clock, but the Smithfield market is open to receive meat at 1 A.M., while Billingsgate is ready for its fish at 5. Accordingly, fast as the ordinary goods traffic is carried, the market traffic (as it is called) goes much faster yet. Danish butter which left Newcastle at 4 p.m., fish which was not despatched from Hull till 7, are unloaded alongside at Broad Street at 2.15 the following morning. Two hours later Broad Street sees a yet more remarkable train — to the best of the present writer's belief, the most remarkable goods train in the world — the "Scotch fish and meat." This train leaves Carlisle at 8.51 P.M., ten minutes after the ' Limited,' and half an hour in front of the ' Special Mail ' ; and this position between two fast expresses it maintains hour after hour all the way to Willesden, till finally it reaches Broad Street five minutes before the mails reach Euston ; and by the time the postman's rap is heard at our doors, the butchers' carts from Smithfield and the fishmongers' carts from Billingsgate have distributed its load half over the Metropolis." - The Railways of England, 1900

After the 4:15am arrival, The goods would then need to be unloaded, sorted, counted, inspected, and moved onto carmen's carts. Perhaps Pickfords could afford to have their carmen sit around waiting for 30 to 40 minutes or more before they left Broad Street station, but if seems more likely that Charles Lechmere would have been leaving Broad Street with his first load of the day at about the same time that the "Scotch fish and meat" arrived.