David:
"it could be a mistake, of course, but knowing what we know of witnesses descriptions, BS and Sailor Man aren't necessarily two different guys. Age, cap, both rather short, etc....
Witnesses can have different words to describe the same thing.
And I don't think BS was so classy."
Don´t tell me about witnesses, David - I know full well of the discrepancies that may surface! But in this case, I think that very much speaks against a coupling between the two. It must be kept in mind that Marshall, Smith and Schwartz ALL spoke of a respectably clad man, if we take on board the report from the Star. This calls for some interest, whichever way we look upon it. And Marshalls description is extremely close to Schwartz ditto, meaning that they may well have seen the exact same guy - a respectably clad man. Bear in mind that there is no other description of BS man´s general appearance than the one Schwartz gave to the Star! Each and every scrap we have thus points away from the shabby fellow in Edowes´company.
This said, we are still left with our mutual agreement that witnesses get things terribly wrong at times. But that equally could apply to your assertion that the two were of the same general age and height plus the cap - maybe the witnesses got THAT wrong!
All in all, from what we have, it seems the two were not one and the same. And why would they be...?
The best,
Fisherman
"it could be a mistake, of course, but knowing what we know of witnesses descriptions, BS and Sailor Man aren't necessarily two different guys. Age, cap, both rather short, etc....
Witnesses can have different words to describe the same thing.
And I don't think BS was so classy."
Don´t tell me about witnesses, David - I know full well of the discrepancies that may surface! But in this case, I think that very much speaks against a coupling between the two. It must be kept in mind that Marshall, Smith and Schwartz ALL spoke of a respectably clad man, if we take on board the report from the Star. This calls for some interest, whichever way we look upon it. And Marshalls description is extremely close to Schwartz ditto, meaning that they may well have seen the exact same guy - a respectably clad man. Bear in mind that there is no other description of BS man´s general appearance than the one Schwartz gave to the Star! Each and every scrap we have thus points away from the shabby fellow in Edowes´company.
This said, we are still left with our mutual agreement that witnesses get things terribly wrong at times. But that equally could apply to your assertion that the two were of the same general age and height plus the cap - maybe the witnesses got THAT wrong!
All in all, from what we have, it seems the two were not one and the same. And why would they be...?
The best,
Fisherman
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