Originally posted by Robert St Devil
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Daily Telegraph:
Police-constable Mizen said that at a quarter to four o'clock on Friday morning he was at the crossing, Hanbury-street, Baker's-row, when a carman who passed in company with another man informed him that he was wanted by a policeman in Buck's-row, where a woman was lying. When he arrived there Constable Neil sent him for the ambulance. At that time nobody but Neil was with the body.
Chas. Andrew Cross, carman, said he had been in the employment of Messrs. Pickford and Co. for over twenty years. About half-past three on Friday he left his home to go to work, and he passed through Buck's-row. He discerned on the opposite side something lying against the gateway, but he could not at once make out what it was. He thought it was a tarpaulin sheet. He walked into the middle of the road, and saw that it was the figure of a woman. He then heard the footsteps of a man going up Buck's-row, about forty yards away, in the direction that he himself had come from. When he came up witness said to him, "Come and look over here; there is a woman lying on the pavement." They both crossed over to the body, and witness took hold of the woman's hands, which were cold and limp. Witness said, "I believe she is dead." He touched her face, which felt warm. The other man, placing his hand on her heart, said "I think she is breathing, but very little if she is." Witness suggested that they should give her a prop, but his companion refused to touch her. Just then they heard a policeman coming. Witness did not notice that her throat was cut, the night being very dark. He and the other man left the deceased, and in Baker's-row they met the last witness, whom they informed that they had seen a woman lying in Buck's-row. Witness said, "She looks to me to be either dead or drunk; but for my part I think she is dead." The policeman said, "All right," and then walked on. The other man left witness soon after. Witness had never seen him before.
Replying to the coroner, witness denied having seen Police-constable Neil in Buck's-row. There was nobody there when he and the other man left."
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Putting it altogether, PC Mizen specifically named PC Neil by name at the end of his deposition. [Cross would have been brought in after Mizen deposed about seeing the carmen in Baker's Row]. Unless Cross was hustled back out of the room, he would have heard this exchange about Neil and known the context of why he was being discussed--not that that was absolutely necessary. Nor do I think there would have been any reason for there to have been a cloak of secrecy over Mizen's identity when Cross was brought in to be identified.
Further, when Cross is later asked about seeing PC Neil, its clearly in reference to the constable in Buck's Row. "He denied having seen Police-constable Neil in Buck's Row." (By contrast, Cross had seen Mizen in Baker's Row).
It's good to pick apart these details and question them, but I'm afraid I'm with Dr. Strange and A.P. on this one; since Cross didn't see a constable in Buck's Row, he doesn't need to know what PC Neil looked like in order to know he didn't see him. He doesn't even need to know his name.
Unless Cross was exceedingly dim-witted and easily confused, I think we have to allow that he was quick enough on the 'uptake' to realize what Coroner Baxter was asking him. Indeed, in his very next statement Cross said that "there was nobody there..." neither a police constable, nor anybody else. He's obviously talking about the crime scene in Buck's Row. I can't see how it would have made sense for Cross to deny seeing a constable (who he thinks was PC Neil) when he did see a constable: Mizen in Buck's Row.
I suspect Coroner Baxter asked Cross about PC Neil because Baxter knew about the controversy of what Cross had said to Mizen.
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