Suggestion

[DJA]

No doubt they'll be found behind secret doors!

Prolly wardrobe doors.

[Pierre]

Pierre, if the killer entered the room by the secret door where the bed was, how did the arterial spray get on the wall/door while it was right next to the wall/door? Because the bed would have had to be moved for him to get in.

Hi Brenda,

Good question. So now we discuss the:

"space between the door and the bed"

Was there any space?

Our hypothesis is that the bed is in front of the door as shown in MJK1.

Now we try som hypotheses to answer the question: "Was there any space?

1) Behind the bed we see a bundle which may have been placed on a small table. If so, there is a small space between the bed and door.

2) If the police moved the bed to it´s approximate original place it might be closer to the door in the photograph than it was at the time of the murder. Then there might have been a space.

3) If we are really bold we could hypothesize that there is splatter on the door but only around the area in the doorway where the killer stood with the door closed or almost closed behind him. Then we could interprete this area as the shadow of Jack the Ripper:

Regards Pierre

[DJA]

But I see no reference to a source for the hypothesis of 26 Dorset Street having large gates and later on - when? - getting windows.

The archway originally had gates. Try Google. Drawing 'n' all.

The house was built with windows.

It was a town house!

Windows in the lofts were a selling point for weavers.
Pretty much what Prater was residing in.

After the weavers went broke,the place was used for low economic accommodation.

[Pierre]

The rooms in McCarthy's rents were tiny really, 12 feet by 8 feet. You can imagine it being a bit crowded with several large policemen and the doctor inside!

With regard to the front room of No. 26, (the room used as a storeroom) the Evening Express of 12 November noted 'The room was formerly left open and poor people often took shelter there for the night but when the Whitechapel murders caused so much alarm the police thought the place offered too much temptation to the murderer and so the front was securely boarded up'.

Thank you Rosella. This was the article I could not find by myself.

And now to the question:

WHY did the police border up 26 Dorset Street?

Do we have any reason to think the statement about "temptation to the murderer" is correct? Or can we think of any other reason?

Regards Pierre

[David Orsam]

3) If we are really bold we could hypothesize that there is splatter on the door but only around the area in the doorway where the killer stood with the door closed or almost closed behind him. Then we could interprete this area as the shadow of Jack the Ripper:

If we are even bolder, we could hypothesize that you are talking nonsense.

[DJA]

WHY did the police border up 26 Dorset Street?

No eye deer what you are babbling on about.

The police closed the whole street initially.

[Pierre]

No eye deer what you are babbling on about.

The police closed the whole street initially.

I am babbling about this, DJA:

Regards Pierre

[Wickerman]

Hi,

I see a picture of a costermongers barrow and hear some argument to which I could agree.

But I see no reference to a source for the hypothesis of 26 Dorset Street having large gates and later on - when? - getting windows.

I would really appreciate such a reference if you have it.

Regards Pierre

Yes, it annoyed me too because on Howards JTRForum we had debated this same issue and I wrote there that the press mentioned the gate access to the storage area, but I provided no reference - unusual!

Ok, I had to search the BNA archives, and in the Freeman's Journal of Nov. 10th, we read:
"The ground floor of the house to the right of the court is used as a store, with a gate entrance, and the upper floors are let off in tenements"

Ah, it is also in the Irish Times here on Casebook (I had already looked on here once...duh!!!)

http://www.casebook.org/press_reports/irish_times/18881110.html

[Pierre]

The archway originally had gates. Try Google. Drawing 'n' all.

The house was built with windows.

It was a town house!

Windows in the lofts were a selling point for weavers.
Pretty much what Prater was residing in.

After the weavers went broke,the place was used for low economic accommodation.

Not talking about the archway.

Talking about 26 Dorset Street.

Regards Pierre

[DJA]

I am babbling about this, DJA:

Wrong pane and people in the street.

Barricades erected for storage of Costermongers' carts.

Very poor providence.

[Rosella]

At this moment I am looking in my book of the 'London of Jack the Ripper' page 138, which contains a photo of 26 and 27 Dorset St with the archway between them as photographed by Leonard Matters in the summer of 1928.

That archway looks incredibly narrow. It, and the passage, were supposedly 2 feet 10 ins wide, (according to the Whitechapel Board of Works Annual Report of 1878) and if it once had a gate it must only have been a single one.

I know it's forty years later but the brickwork of the front of number 26 looks as old (and filthy) as that of McCarthy's old shop which has one broad window, in contrast to No 26's two small windows. No 26 also has a door to the street which was put in later than 1888, I presume, hope they didn't re-use the original!

[DJA]

At this moment I am looking in my book of the 'London of Jack the Ripper' page 138, which contains a photo of 26 and 27 Dorset St with the archway between them as photographed by Leonard Matters in the summer of 1928.

That archway looks incredibly narrow. It, and the passage, were supposedly 2 feet 10 ins wide, (according to the Whitechapel Board of Works Annual Report of 1878) and if it once had a gate it must only have been a single one.

Yep. Single gate. Could have been one at both ends.

Google will give you "your" photo,taken the Year after McCarthy left, and an early drawing.

The backyard was not residential initially.

House proper was accessed from the front door.

The loft from the archway.

Back parlor or servants quarter from beyond the archway.

My doorways are 2 foot 6.

[Sam Flynn]

Ah, it is also in the Irish Times here on Casebook (I had already looked on here once...duh!!!)
http://www.casebook.org/press_report.../18881110.html

Interesting, Jon: "Opposite the court is a very large lodging-house, of a somewhat inferior character. This house is well lighted and people hang about it nearly all night."

Come in, Mr Wideawake, your time is up!

[Wickerman]

At this moment I am looking in my book of the 'London of Jack the Ripper' page 138, which contains a photo of 26 and 27 Dorset St with the archway between them as photographed by Leonard Matters in the summer of 1928.

That archway looks incredibly narrow. It, and the passage, were supposedly 2 feet 10 ins wide, (according to the Whitechapel Board of Works Annual Report of 1878) and if it once had a gate it must only have been a single one.

I know it's forty years later but the brickwork of the front of number 26 looks as old (and filthy) as that of McCarthy's old shop which has one broad window, in contrast to No 26's two small windows. No 26 also has a door to the street which was put in later than 1888, I presume, hope they didn't re-use the original!

The gate mentioned by the press is nothing to do with the passage.

[Fisherman]

Interesting, Jon: "Opposite the court is a very large lodging-house, of a somewhat inferior character. This house is well lighted and people hang about it nearly all night."

Come in, Mr Wideawake, your time is up!

Well, well...! So the killer purportedly placed himself at a well lighted place, hoping for people to pass by, getting a really good look at him?
Once I decided that this man was in all probability not George Hutchinson, I kept the door ajar for him possibly having been the killer.
That door just closed a significant bit more.