Originally posted by Trevor Marriott
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From The Times, 12th October 1888.
"By Mr. Crawford. - The distance between the Imperial Club and the top of Church-passage, where he [Lawende] saw the man and the woman standing together, was about nine or ten yards. He fixed the time of leaving the club at half-past 1 by reference to the club clock and to his own watch, and it would have been about 25 minutes to 2 o'clock when he saw the man and woman standing together…"
So, Lawende has reference to the club clock and his own watch, and this is a very short walk from the Imperial Club to Church Passage.
According to The Telegraph report of the inquest, both Lawende and Levy stated they rose to leave at 1.30am and Levy added a few more details in that they came out 3 to 4 minutes later. This would be consistent with reaching Church passage at 1.35am. Obviously, there is a degree of estimating by both Levy and Lawende but given they would have done that walk countless times, and the short space of time involved from rising to leave to arriving at Church Passage; we really shouldn't expect Lawende and Levy to be too far out with their timings.
As you quite rightly point out, there is the time required to enter the square. In the event Lawende saw Catherine and the WM, can it reasonably be argued that the WM was aware of police beats given that Watkins had passed by at 1.30-1.32am, they were still standing talking at 1.35am and Watkins was due back at 1.44am? I don't think so. That being the case, there is no reason to think the WM and Catherine immediately hurried into the square as soon as Lawende, Levy and Harris turned the corner.
In addition, given he cut a piece of the apron to take with him, this would suggest the WM did not leave in a hurry.
It is tempting to suggest that the couple seen by Lawende and associates were not Catherine and the WM.
But then we have both doctors, Brown and Sequeira, who believed that Catherine was murdered at 1.40am at the earliest.
As with so many other areas of this case, there is no proposal devoid of obstacles.
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