Duration of the inquest into the death of Mary Jane Kelly (?)

[FrankO]

NIce stuff, but let's suppose that depositions took 30-45 minutes.

Like I said, you can do as you see fit, Mike. However, 30 minutes per witness seems a long time to me, especially for witnesses like McCarthy, Venturney, Harvey, Beck - let alone 45 minutes. That even seems too long to me for Barnett and Phillips.

Frank

[FrankO]

True Mike, but an hour would not be in rhime with what the Times said: "a few minutes". I will see if I can find more newspaper articles that refer to the adjournment after Phillips' testimony.

Frank

[The Good Michael]

NIce stuff, but let's suppose that depositions took 30-45 minutes. We might have Abberline coming back from the Inquest while Badham's beginning the statement. 5 hours for an inquest seems awfully short to me.

Mike

[FrankO]

Hi all,
Trying to get a clearer picture of the start and duration of the inquest into Mary Jane Kelly’s death, I have sifted through a lot of newspapers dealing the subject. The following is what I found:

1.
Coroner Macdonald opens the inquest at 11 a.m. (Pall Mall Gazette, Times and Irish Times of 12 November, Illustrated Police News of 17 November). According to the Echo of 12 November it was “not opened until some time after, when the Court was mainly occupied by the Jury and newspaper representatives.”

2.
He shortly addresses the jury and sets the record straight about where the inquest should take place.

3.
The jury is sworn in.

4.
Then Abberline takes the jury to view the body and the scene of the crime. It takes them nearly 45 minutes (Evening News, 12 November) or nearly an hour (Times, 13 November 1888) to return back to the town hall. According to the Star of 12 November it “was thus close upon twelve o‘clock before any evidence was taken.”

5.
Barnett is sworn in.

6.
The coroner addresses the press about the matter of jurisdiction.

7.
Barnett starts his deposition.

8.
The coroner receives a note from Dr. Phillips, asking if he should attend to-day to give his evidence. The Coroner thinks he should just give them roughly an idea of the cause of death, leaving the details of his evidence for a future day, and dispatches a message to that effect.

9.
Bowyer (shortly interrupted by Inspector Ledger, G Division with regards to the plan of MJK’s room), McCarthy, Cox, Prater, Maxwell, Lewis and Dr. Phillips follow.

10.
Then the inquest is adjourned for a luncheon. According to the Times of 13 November this took "a few minutes".

11.
The coroner then inquires if, during the adjournment, somebody has spoken to the jury, saying that they should not be there today. That had come to his ears during the interval, but the jury disclaims having heard any such remarks. (Daily News and Times of 13 November)

12.
Then the depositions of Venturney, Harvey, Inspectors Beck and Abbeline follow.

13.
After a brief deliberation the jury comes to the conclusion that the inquest doesn’t need to be adjourned and the coroner concludes the inquest. (Daily News, 13 November)

The sequence of points 5, 6 & 7 is given as such by the Star of 12 November.

To get a clear picture, I attach the following number of minutes to the points above, if they’re not already mentioned by the papers:
• Points 1, 2 & 3 taken together: 30 minutes
• Point 4 took 45 minutes to an hour, so let’s suppose 60 minutes
• Point 5 & 6 together: 5 minutes
• Point 8 : 3 minutes
• Point 10 took ‘a few minutes’, so let’s suppose 10 minutes
• Point 11: 3 minutes
• Point 13: 10 minutes
This is a total of 121 minutes, but let’s round it off to 125.

If we suppose that, on average, the taking of a deposition lasted about 15 minutes, then the taking of all the depositions took about 180 minutes. That makes a total of 305 minutes, or 5 hours and 5 minutes, which would mean that the inquest ended at 4.05 o’clock in the afternoon.

Of course, anybody can fill in the number of minutes per point that they think are reasonable.

All the best,
Frank