Originally posted by Columbo
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Some will have it that there is a fifty-fifty chance that Lechmere was the liar. This is not so. He is significantly more likely to be the liar than Mizen is, for a number of reasons.
A/ Mizen was a policeman with a twenty-year record and with an excellent grading. He is not a good suggestion for a sloppy or careless PC.
B/ We know that Lechmere did not use the name he otherwise used with the authorities, so there is an indicator for him not being truthful.
C/ After Mizen had spoken to Lechmere (or, as the carman would have it, to him AND Paul), he did not detain the men, nor did he take down their names and addresses. This is not in line with what he should have done if he had been informed that a possibly dead woman had been found by the carmen in Bucks Row. Such a thing would not look good if it was subsequently found out, and there was every risk it would. So the better assumption is that he was told that another PC had sent the carmen (and therefore this other PC would have decided whether the carmen should give their names and addresses or not).
D/ PC John Neil said at the inquest and in a newspaper article that HE was the finder of the body. If Mizen had been informed that the carmen were the finders, he would have reason to tell his superiors that Neil was wrong. Apparently, he never did. It applies that he therefore was probably entertaining the idea that PC Neil WAS the finder. And that would owe to the information he got from Lechmere on the murder morning.
E/ Mizen and Lechmere disagreed about whether one or two of the carmen had delivered the information. Mizen stood to gain nothing from lying about this, whereas Lechmere looked innocent by claiming this.
So there you are - just about everything points to Lechmere being the liar, and not the other way around. And if Lechmere lied...
Hello, Milan - here I come!
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