Originally posted by Meet Ze Monster
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Almost all students of the case prefer to see the couple at the end of church passage as Eddowes & her killer, yet the police were not so certain. When we go with our preferences we create a time-window that may not be justified.
Perhaps this couple was not Eddowes & the killer?
Harvey patrolled church passage on his beat every shift, but why walk down this ally every time, especially when he can see pretty clearly right to the end because there was a gas lamp at the mitre-square end, on the corner of the building. It was not his duty to survey the square, just check the passage, and he could do that from the Duke St. end.
He knows though, that he must include the passage in his report regardless whether he actually walked to the end or not.
Perhaps, PC Harvey did not walk to the end of the passage on every occasion as he passed on his beat?
PC Watkins knows his beat pretty well, he knows it takes 12-14 minutes, so he is required to fill his report with details that are consistent with a 12-14 minute beat. Did he look in every corner with his lamp lit?
Apparently, the oil used for these lamps was paid for by the beat constable himself, so the more he uses his lamp, the more it cost him. Is that a good incentive to always have the lamp on when walking his beat, or just when he thinks it necessary?
In his testimony, according to accounts, we read Watkins entered the square at 1:44, yet in other reports he said he entered the square, discovered the body, ran to the warehouse and alerted Morris, whom he sent for help, and then looked at his watch - it was 1:44. It can't be both.
Did he really enter the square at 1:44?, if so, why check his watch on entering the square? It seems an overly fastidious think to do. Or, more likely, he only checked his watch later, after he sent Morris for help. So, was it really 1:44 at that specific point in time, or was it later, and he has deducted the amount of time he thinks it took him (1, 2 or 3 minutes?) from discovering the body to sending Morris for help?
Remember what Morris claimed - he spoke to Watkins and went to get his lamp, then went into the square to look at the body, before he ran for help. Therefore, his encounter with Watkins was not instantaneous, they were in each others company possibly, for a minute or two?
What does the time 1:44 really represent; the time Watkins entered the square, or an assumed time after he deducted several minutes for his exchanges with Morris?
All these variables can narrow down the time-window if we assume perfection, though if we permit a bit of flexibility in each instance then we find there indeed was time for this killer to do what he did.
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