Suggestion

[Michael W Richards]

Yes, Mike, that was what I was thinking (we agree for once!)
There was a discussion here years ago about this, and I think you can see the number 26, on the door.

Sam Flynn pointed out the faded #26 to me on that thread Jon. And yes...nice to agree.

[Elamarna]

My dear Pierre

You are suggesting that the killer entered via secret door.
You suggest MJK3 is the postioned shown by you as a barricade.

Therefore could you please explain the following( and please remember I have been following this case since the 1970 and you are not an expert as you tell us who has been looking at this for a few months):

1. Please explain MJK1? ARE YOU SAYING THE POLICE MOVED IT ALL BACK?

2. If the door is boarded up please explain how murder gets in with out waking MJK who just sits there and let's it happen to her.

3. If you are saying that point 1 is correct please tell us why?

4. You are claiming that Dr Phillips and the police lied is that correct?

[Robert St Devil]

Here's the story I got so far:
1. The killer knew that Mary Jane would be discovered in her bedroom before or during the LMS procession.
2. The killer used a secret passage to enter her room.
3. The killer knows that Mary Jane is alone & asleep and noone will be coming home during the duration of the murder. Not Maria, Joe, Julia.
4. The killer may or may not have known about her fireplace.

A. The police surgeon most involved with this case gives dubious information.
B. The police dont report the door blockage or the secret passage.

{my head hurts!}

[Sam Flynn]

Sam Flynn pointed out the faded #26 to me on that thread Jon. And yes...nice to agree.

Thanks for remembering, Mike!

[Michael W Richards]

Thanks for remembering, Mike!

Cant forget one of the true gentlemen here Gareth.

[RockySullivan]

I can't seem to understand what I'm seeing here all I can make out is the hand. Can anyone explain this to me?

[DJA]

If you look at the apartment plan above - do you still think so?

If you do - do you have a source for that?

Regards Pierre

Yes.
Fair chance the door was functional.
We don't know when "Mary's room" was partitioned off.
Access was via a door in the archway just before Mary's.

https://books.google.com.au/books?id=cHlOondey1oC&pg=PA145&lpg=PA145&dq=back+parlor+millers+court&source=bl&ots=hL2aj-FnE8&sig=l5sEkqR0ea6xMrMbHmoLbZjHADw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiC8OHEg7HJAhUhMaYKHdnFDUoQ6AEIIzAB#v=onepage&q=back%20parlor%20millers%20court&f=false

[DJA]

I can't seem to understand what I'm seeing here all I can make out is the hand. Can anyone explain this to me?

The bed Mary Kelly was lying on was moved away from the "partition door" to take one or more photos.

Her hand will give you good perspective when you look carefully at the photos.

[IchabodCrane]

Well, who were "the other witnesses" that was at the murder site on the 9th of November?

And why did they board up the windows in nr 26 from the outside?

Regards Pierre

Hi Pierre,

with witnesses I mean inquest witnesses who were there when the room was entered. These were Abberline and McCarthy. If Dr. Philips had come up with a bold lie about how they entered the room, it would surely have been checked by Abberline.

Here is another question re your contention:
Did the secret door open into the hallway or into the room?
If into the room, did Mary move her bed first in expectation of a secret rendezvous? And as asked by Elarmana, did the police then move the bed back for MJK1.
If into the hallway, I assume you stick to your point that Dr. Philipps lied to the coroner when he stated the door hit a table next to the bed?

Since you seem to be enjoying having the information wormed out of you, I am now really looking forward how the storyline continues.

Thanks and cheers,
IchabodCrane

[Sam Flynn]

There are enough mysteries surrounding Kelly's death without making up new ones of our own.

[Michael W Richards]

Just to clarify about the partition wall, the door doesn't open...it is part of that wall. It doesn't function as a door. Behind that wall is the staircase that Prater climbed each night, and its probable that the light and noise she did not see at around 1:30am was from looking through cracks in that partition wall. If youre wondering why they would use and old door for the wall, it would be considerably cheaper than making a new plaster wall.

Marys room was the salon or lounge area for the house originally, and it would have been accessed using the doorway inside the archway that led to the stairs. The partition wall and her door that accessed the courtyard were constructs for the remodeling of the space for rental.

So, now that you know there is no "secret door", and no access to the interior stairs, carry on...........

[packers stem]

MJK3 is a fake anyway isn't it with the toy hand,hacksaw,artificial light and a thumb where a pinky should be...lol

[MysterySinger]

Well here's a theory from 2005...

http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/room-13-millers-court.html

[Pierre]

I can't seem to understand what I'm seeing here all I can make out is the hand. Can anyone explain this to me?

I am suggesting you are looking at the entrance door to Mary Kelly´s room from inside of it. It has hinges to the left on the photograph where the light also shines through. In front of the door is a table and the bed.

The door is often believed to having been locked. But I suggest that the killer wanted to make sure that no one could enter the room while he was at work there. So he barricaded the door with the table and the bed.

Because of this he had planned not to use this door for his escape after the crime. He escaped through the other door which is a door in the apartment of number 26. This doorway is in the apartment plan from 1890 and is showing the door being opened into number 26. It is marked "S" for shop but was often called "the shed". Prater lived above it and Mary´s room was a part of it in the apartment plan.

I suggest the killer broke up the door before the murder and closed it again so it looked normal. On the night of the 9th he opened the door when Mary Kelly was asleep and killed her in her sleep.

He got into her room, closed the door behind him and moved the table and bed in front of the door to barricade it so no one could get in.

During the inquest the coroner asked Prater if she had heard any beds or tables being pulled around in Mary´s room. So it is likely to have happened. The coroner must have gotten the information from Abberline.

This would also explain all the misunderstandings about the door being locked, the key beein missing, the police waiting for dogs and so on. The police at first couldn´t get into the barricaded room.

But since the saw the other door, leading to number 26, through the window, and since they must have been told about the entrance from the street into number 26 by McCarthy, they entered number 26 from the street.

And heaven knows what they might have found in there.

The windows in that apartment were boarded up.

In the Evening Express (I have no copy but if someone has they might want to share it) I think they wrote that the police boarded it up because they were afraid the killer would return and "use" the place.

I think Abberline kept silent about many things on this day, as did of course McCarthy (not wanting business to get any worse than it already did after the murder of Kelly) and Phillips. After all, Phillips must have taken the advice of the police.

Regards Pierre

[Sam Flynn]

He escaped through the other door which is a door in the apartment of number 26... [the killer] closed the door behind him and moved the table and bed in front of the door to barricade it so no one could get in.

There was no other functioning door in Kelly's room, only the one (with the lost key) that opened into the passageway/courtyard of Miller's Court itself. The other "door", if such it was, was just one piece of (fixed) wood that formed the partition separating Room 13 from the hallway/stairwell of 26 Dorset Street. Kelly's bed was originally close to, and parallel, to this partition, and it seems it remained there until her body was found.

If the bed was moved away from the partition, it was by the police or and/or photographer, not the killer. If moved, it need only have been far enough to allow the close-up photograph of Kelly's mutilated pelvic area to be taken.