Could MJK have survived Miller's Court

[lynn cates]

gravity

Hello Rivkah.

"Certainly, the police have an interest in correctly identifying the victim, because doing so helps them identify the killer, and because if they do not correctly identify her, and then she comes strolling, live, into the public view, they have egg on their faces."

Doubtless true of almost all at the Met. Only those who had a connection to Special Branch and Sir Ed's group would have known the gravity of the situation.

Cheers.
LC

[RivkahChaya]

And a quick inquest could have kept people from knowing that the body wasn't MJK. Think of it like this: We know Barnett identified the body as MJK. We know that witnesses claimed to see MJK after that body was certainly dead. What if the coroner's examination of the body raised questions about the identity of the corpse? By closing the inquest quickly, they could dodge these questions getting to the public.

I was following, up until you suggested that the police were complicit in not correctly identifying the body. Certainly, the police have an interest in correctly identifying the victim, because doing so helps them identify the killer, and because if they do not correctly identify her, and then she comes strolling, live, into the public view, they have egg on their faces.

It's already been pointed out by another poster that if the idea was just to make MJK disappear, there doesn't need to be an incorrectly identified body. The police have no interest in facilitating an incorrect identification, or covering one up. Wasn't one of the other victims identified by a woman as her sister, but that proved to be wrong? Clearly the police have some diligence in getting things right, as opposed to simply getting the case cleared.

The only real evidence for a misidentification is the morning sightings, and that the witnesses were mistaken, or the coroner got the TOD wrong, are both much simpler explanations than any scenario where MJK is misidentified, particularly since she is never seen again after the body is found, as far as anyone knows.

[lynn cates]

Good Citizen

Hello Jon. Thanks.

Well, if the game were not bigger, he'd have seen to it that it became such.

Reminds one of a line from "Citizen Kane"--"You supply the prose; I'll supply the war."

Cheers.
LC

[Wickerman]

Well, if you notice, Ernest Parke has bigger fish to fry, he's on the trail of Jack the Ripper, in the form of a medical man who arrived in London from Birmingham.

The King is dead, Long live the king....


Regards, Jon S.

[lynn cates]

Parke

Hello Jon. Thanks. Hard to believe that Ernest Parke could be so easily dissuaded. (heh-heh)

Cheers.
LC

[Wickerman]

Hello Jon. Yes, there is always that possibility.

But if they had, do you think that the likes of "The Star" would have let it go without mention?

Cheers.
LC

Hi Lynn.

The brief coverage provided by the Star suggests to me that they went to press before the procession reached Shoreditch, so they only report it leaving the mortuary.
From what we do have in the Dailies it appears the press were kept outside the cemetery along with the great unwashed.

Regards, Jon S.

[lynn cates]

possibility

Hello Jon. Yes, there is always that possibility.

But if they had, do you think that the likes of "The Star" would have let it go without mention?

Cheers.
LC

[Wickerman]

". . . the family/friends were located . . ."

Hope you are not wagering on this one.

" . . . and the family/friends were expected for the funeral."

By the press? Of course.

The fact that Mr Walton is credited with paying the funeral expenses does suggest that either, the family did not show or, if they did, they were not able to cover the expenses.

The small group around the grave could have been Barnett and a few of her immediate neighbours from Millers Court, but as no press seem to be able to identify them, the possibility exists some family may have turned up.

Regards, Jon S.

[lynn cates]

possible

Hello Raven. Yes, something like that is possible.

Cheers.
LC

[RavenDarkendale]

And a quick inquest could have kept people from knowing that the body wasn't MJK. Think of it like this: We know Barnett identified the body as MJK. We know that witnesses claimed to see MJK after that body was certainly dead. What if the coroner's examination of the body raised questions about the identity of the corpse? By closing the inquest quickly, they could dodge these questions getting to the public. Barnett says it Mary, so it is, witnesses to the contrary be damned. In other words, where we are now, with the general opinion being the witness were mistaken on everything from the day, the time, and even to mistaking the person, but Barnett couldn't be mistaken. I believe have been wrong and the witnesses absolutely correct.

God bless

Darkendale

[lynn cates]

R I C

Hello (again) Jon. Thanks.

"Don't we read that once her murder was reported, didn't cabs full of high officials show up in Dorset St.?"

Indeed. Not to mention two lads from the RIC.

"Wasn't such a turnout, especially of the day of the Lord Mayor's Show, a little extraordinary? I mean, wouldn't these officials have had their morning planned because of the show, yet they took time out to visit a slum in Dorset St.?"

Not so extraordinary if "MJK" turns out to be one of Sir Ed's gang after all. Please to recall that both he and Nick Gosselin had RIC stationed over London as part of their intelligence network. And, yes, Sir Ed was sacked by Lord Salisbury's government at the end of 1886. But Lord Salisbury, with the help of Gosselin, took over a great bit of his organisation.

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

Great Expectations

Hello Jon. Thanks.

"The press do seem to have been under the impression that the police did look for her family/friends in Wales . . ."

I daresay.

". . . the family/friends were located . . ."

Hope you are not wagering on this one.

" . . . and the family/friends were expected for the funeral."

By the press? Of course.

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

1887

Hello Velma. Thanks. The same to you I'm sure.

I daresay MacDonald handled the inquest simply BECAUSE he could be quick. Baxter was unfamiliar with the word.

Now, why would anyone want a quick inquest? Well, for the same reason Sir Winston had to redact his message to parliament in 1910--after Sir Robert started to sing. A thorough investigation of "MJK" might have shown HM government's complicity in the affairs of 1887. And that could have brought down the whole thing.

Cheers.
LC

[Wickerman]

If "MJK" were such as I suspect her to have been, only the upper echelon at the Met--and only those with some relationship to either Special Branch or Sir Ed's group--would have known this.

A possible candidate would have been Sir Robert who made it round to Miller's Court that afternoon. He and Monro had inadvertently stumbled upon the names of many of Sir Ed's people. He also was situated with Beach (Le Caron).

Hi Lynn.
Don't we read that once her murder was reported, didn't cabs full of high officials show up in Dorset St.?

Wasn't such a turnout, especially of the day of the Lord Mayor's Show, a little extraordinary? I mean, wouldn't these officials have had their morning planned because of the show, yet they took time out to visit a slum in Dorset St.?

I find it hard to see MJK as some kind of Mata Hari but her life and death require some of the most searching questions.

Regards, Jon S.

[lynn cates]

nice and long

Hello Rivkah. Thanks.

"Maybe a body that was super-heated, and flayed, was rotting pretty quickly."

That would certainly explain a quick internment. But why not a nice, long dramatic inquest--as with Polly and Annie?

Cheers.
LC