Millers Court - the demolition picture

[Stewart P Evans]

Elizabeth Prater

And her testimony as recorded in The Times -

[Stewart P Evans]

Elizabeth Prater

And her testimony as recorded in the Daily Telegraph -

[Stewart P Evans]

Elizabeth Prater

I see that the old debate has cropped up again. I don't intend to get involved but I do understand the arguments on both sides here. I would merely note that newspaper reports dated 10 November 1888 tend to contain more errors than the later ones. Here is Prater's inquest testimony as recorded in The Star -

[Chris Scott]

Hi Chris

Testimony at the trial of Kate Marshall, who murdered her sister in law in the room above what used to be Kelly's, says that McCarthy allowed homeless people to sleep in the middle room that one had to go through to access the front room.

Hi Stephen
The actual working of the testimony is:
"the room occupied by Amory is separated from ours by a passage and a spare room, which is used at nights to put lodgers with their children in"

[Chava]

Gosh, that nice Mr McCarthy! And there I was thinking he was a slumlord.

If he let 'homeless people' sleep there I truly believe there had to be something in it for him. Just as I can't believe he let Kelly run up a bill like she did. McCarthy sticks in my craw. If he wasn't the killer, there was something else going on with him.

[Stephen Thomas]

Just to add to the theories (!) below is another version of Prater's testimony which states that her room was "just above the gateway in Millers Court."

Hi Chris

As there was obviously no gate the word Gateway must be being used in the sense of Main Point of Entry as in Gateway to Europe, Gateway to the South, Gateway to Success, Gateway to Pleasure etc. So here's another report putting Mrs Prater's room at the front of the house overlooking Dorset Street. Testimony at the trial of Kate Marshall, who murdered her sister in law in the room above what used to be Kelly's, says that McCarthy allowed homeless people to sleep in the middle room that one had to go through to access the front room. That was in 1898 and if the same thing was happening in 1888 then Mrs Prater would have good reason to want to barricade her door whether she lived in the front or the back.

[Chava]

Hey Michael in the Beach!

I imagine the Keylers (I think that was their name) let Lewis in when she fetched up at their front door at 2.30 am. The thing about Lewis's testimony is that she must have been in a bit of a state. Sounds like her old man had been knocking her around and she got out of the way to avoid any further problem. So she may not have noticed all that much when she rushed past Mr Wideawake Hat. As for Prater's barricade, Kelly, unfortunately, didn't take the precautions Prater took. And let's remember Prater was definitely, by her own admission, drunk when she went to bed. She didn't even stop to take her clothes off! But she made certain she was securely locked-in, and I have to think there was a reason for that even though I've no idea what it might have been.

A Millers Court key-note....

If Elizabeth had no key for the door to the archway, which it seems was the case, and perhaps not even for her room...which would explain the barricades more...and Mary and Joe never did get a replacement key for their room...likely due to the arrears...did anyone in that house or court have keys I wonder.

Sarah Lewis doesnt mention having a key to the Keylers and letting herself in using it. Not that that is damning....or any of it...but it does make one wonder if true, what kind of slumlord McCarthy would be to leave all these single street workin women without the ability to lock Jack out. Mary could....until the pane broke.

Cheers

Did Prater lose her key as well? Why did she barricade her door? Other accounts have her pulling a table and a chair across it. Did McCarthy do little midnight wanders into his female tenants' rooms or what? I've never understood that stuff about barricading her door, and I don't think any one ever questioned her about it. She could be embroidering. Or she could be genuinely scared of someone. And we will never know!

Hi Chava...in LI...

The reason Elizabeth barricaded her door is likely due to the fact that it appears the door to the stairs inside the archway wasnt locked at night....she never mentions having to unlock it at 1:30am, nor does she mention locking it behind her. So literally anyone could walk in through the archway, up the stairs, and as Liz feared, get at her. And since we are in the midst of a murder-fest,... perhaps she overdid it, but we should understand why.

Interesting that what she feared never occurred, that this Jack fellow apparently longing to work by candlelight and a cozy fire, never just walked into some court somewhere and tried a door. Many think thats what happened here I suppose, but we dont have the noise, witnesses or evidence to support a blitz-krieg at the door, nor do we have the noise from Marys room, where Liz can hear things move about. Oops...maybe.

All the best Chava

[Celesta]

I read she piled two tables against the door. No matter how you look at it that was a very rough place to live. I'd be piling everything against the door.

However this is an interesting coincidence that Elizabeth had also lost her key. With just a little imagination, one could begin to see all kinds of nasty possibilities in women in that court losing keys.


Stephen, I'm glad to have the explanation for that area over the passage. I've wondered for awhile but have always forgotten to ask about it, when I'm online.

Best,

Cel

[Chava]

Did Prater lose her key as well? Why did she barricade her door? Other accounts have her pulling a table and a chair across it. Did McCarthy do little midnight wanders into his female tenants' rooms or what? I've never understood that stuff about barricading her door, and I don't think any one ever questioned her about it. She could be embroidering. Or she could be genuinely scared of someone. And we will never know!

Better toss it....

Cheers Chris.


edit..the archway window into the court might get some work here.

[Chris Scott]

Just to add to the theories (!) below is another version of Prater's testimony which states that her room was "just above the gateway in Millers Court."
Make of this what you will
Chris

Birmingham Daily Post
13 Nov 1888

[Stephen Thomas]

I know this has probably been discussed already, but who lives in the room over the passageway that you can see in all the photos and drawings of #13? There's a window over the passage, so I assume there's a room.

Hi Chava

Yes, there was a room there but it was absolutely nothing to do with #26 Dorset Street, it being the upper floor of the back extension of #27 on the same level as the room above Kelly's, though about 3 feet wider as it also occupied the space over the passageway. According to Jack McCarthy's great grand-daughter Fiona who I heard give a talk recently, the room was used by McCarthy and from the window he could observe the comings and goings of his tenants in the court.

[Chava]

I know this has probably been discussed already, but who lives in the room over the passageway that you can see in all the photos and drawings of #13? There's a window over the passage, so I assume there's a room.

According to the evidence, Prater goes up past the old defunct door in Kelly's roon, which is obviously on the wall right opposite her front door. So Prater goes up those stairs and then...I assume there is some kind of hallway. However there is obviously also a room right over Kelly's room, or close to right over, as there is a window there. The builders wouldn't waste money on a window in a hallway! At least I'm pretty sure they wouldn't. In the Tenement Museum in New York they have recreated tenement life in a real tenement that was built in 1876. There were no windows or any kind of lighting whatsoever in the tenement halls until codes changed in 1905. I imagine the same kind of cheeseparing mentality went on here,