Suggestion

[Rosella]

Yes indeed Mayerling, the Victorians were a sentimental people, as the many lachrymose paintings and drawing room ballads of the time testify.

One can imagine this song appealing to a young Irish-born woman, far away from her family and childhood haunts, even if her mother was still alive.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0yyBAB8usQI

[MysterySinger]

Exactly my thoughts Rosella - how could they possibly reach with their hand (and not cut their arms on the broken glass for one thing)? The distance seems too great. Yet they seemed to make out it was possible.

If it's not possible to open the door from the window, then either:

1) The killer entered the room with MJK (and if Michael is correct that she didn't take clients back then it had to be a friend - someone she knew) or;
2) He had the key or;.
3) Mary didn't shut the door properly or;
4) She answered a knock on the door and was attacked or;
5) It was another woman who took a client there (and was murdered) or;
6) Pierre's theory makes sense.

More possibilities?

[DJA]

Rosella,

Just count the bricks.Fairly standard size.

Rest is not difficult.

Not all Poms.....

[Wickerman]

MysterySinger.
I cant decide if the headboard is flush up against the wall.

If you look careful at the 'body on the bed' photo, the wainscoting across the partition wall behind Kelly's bed, you will see that it carry's on horizontal behind the headboard. It doesn't stop at a corner, the corner of the room is further to the right just out of the picture.

The position of the bed with respect to the passage wall was something like this.

[MysterySinger]

Or at an angle - a bit like this?

[Wickerman]

In the press we have a depiction of the body being photographed, I hi-lited the floorboards drawn behind the headboard, which suggests that even the artist was aware that there was a space of undetermined dimension between the headboard and the wall.
One press account places a washstand in that corner.

[Wickerman]

Just behind the headboard we see a stand of some kind.

[Wickerman]

Or at an angle - a bit like this?

Yes, it looks like approx. three (in your rendition) panels of wainscoting behind the headboard, being only a small room there can't be a great deal of space, but it looks like there is something, maybe 18" or thereabouts? (just to throw a number out).

[Rosella]

Exactly my thoughts Rosella - how could they possibly reach with their hand (and not cut their arms on the broken glass for one thing)? The distance seems too great. Yet they seemed to make out it was possible.

If it's not possible to open the door from the window, then either:

1) The killer entered the room with MJK (and if Michael is correct that she didn't take clients back then it had to be a friend - someone she knew) or;
2) He had the key or;.
3) Mary didn't shut the door properly or;
4) She answered a knock on the door and was attacked or;
5) It was another woman who took a client there (and was murdered) or;
6) Pierre's theory makes sense.

More possibilities?

^ I think it's a bit of 1 and 3. As has been suggested before Mary may well have left the door on the snib when she left home. After all, she had nothing of value in her home. She would lock the door and probably barricade it with a chair or table when she was alone at night. As I believe Mary brought Jack home with her (and I don't agree with Michael that she wasn't prostituting, out of desperation and hunger) she would merely have turned the knob on the door and let him in.

[Robert St Devil]

Hello Wickerman.
You, MysTerySinGer, and Elamarma should do a dissertation. This material is great.

MysterySinger.
I cant remember who but someone posted the dimensions of the bricks. I think they were 9" long (sorry! Too lazy to convert.). So looking at the courttard photo and MJK3, a person would have only have had to reach-in a foot or lesss to open the door. It wouldprobably be easier if the break in the lower pane was high (like the shadow indicates).

[RockySullivan]

Just behind the headboard we see a stand of some kind.

This makes the room look huge, so not sure how accurate it is

[Rosella]

Yes, I think the room was much smaller than that drawing portrays.

As for the window, yes the bricks look reasonably short but you also have to reach across that corner plus manoeuvre your limb through broken glass. Unless you had an exceptionally long arm I don't think it's do-able. Putting the door on the snib when you were out for a short while would be much easier.

[FrankO]

As for the window, yes the bricks look reasonably short but you also have to reach across that corner plus manoeuvre your limb through broken glass. Unless you had an exceptionally long arm I don't think it's do-able.

Hi Rosella,

This is what Abberline deposed regarding the missing key at the inquest:
"Barnett informs me that it has been missing some time, and since it has been lost they have put their hand through the broken window, and moved back the catch. It is quite easy."

All the best,
Frank

[richardnunweek]

Hi,
Where is the mystery.?, the room is what we know it to be, no secret panels, the door was opened, banging against the bedside table, the bed was against the partition, and Kelly was lying on the bed..
Simple..
The killer was invited either, directly by Kelly, or he knew off her, and saw her out and followed her back to her room, and entered .
This scenario would indicate,that the most likely T.O.D, would be daylight, when the victim would not have locked her door , once she returned to her room.
I favour this, as I do not see Mr A. being the killer, [ even if he existed] which is debatable.
I favour the middle aged porter, that Mrs Maxwell claims to have seen with Mary at 8.45 am, I believe he followed her back to her room, and entered it uninvited , and attacked Kelly instantly, while she was in the motions of getting undressed, to get dressed,into her best, the jacket and bonnet, were on the bed., thus allowing these items to become bloodstained.
Speculation, but plausible.
Regards Richard.

[Pierre]

If you look careful at the 'body on the bed' photo, the wainscoting across the partition wall behind Kelly's bed, you will see that it carry's on horizontal behind the headboard. It doesn't stop at a corner, the corner of the room is further to the right just out of the picture.

The position of the bed with respect to the passage wall was something like this.

Good job Wickerman.

I think this is a rather exact description of how the bed was originally positioned in the room.

Behind the wall with the wainscoting were the stairs where people were running up and down making noise.

So I think that could be one reason why the bed was not placed directly in the corner.

Regards Pierre