Albert Backert at the Frances Coles inquest and a sighting

[Chris Scott]

Hi guys
many thanks for the comments
I have just typed up yet another account of Backert's involvement, this time at the time of the McKenzie. This from the Scotsman:
20 July 1889

THE WHITECHAPEL MURDERS
EXCITING SCENE
The neighbourhood of Castle Alley, the scene of Wednesday's murder, was last night again thrown into wildest excitement by an attempt to take the life of another of the "unfortunates" who have been the victims of the recent tragedies in the East End of London. It was about a quarter to ten when a woman dressed in a red bodice and wearing a white apron but no hat nor shawl was heard to say, "No, I won't," to a man, apparently a sailor, who was standing with her near Aldgate East Station. The pair were evidently strangers, and had not stood long at the corner when the woman raised the cry "Murder!" and "Jack the Ripper!" Excited inhabitants rushed to the spot, and saw a man with a long knife in one hand, while he held the woman's hair with the other, and was attacking her with the weapon. Albert Brackert (sic), a member of the Vigilance committee, with comrades and others, immediately closed with the woman's assailant; but it was not until after a deadly struggle that the weapon was wrenched from his grasp. The woman, although wounded, took the opportunity of escaping while the struggle with her assailant was in progress. The man struggled determinedly for his liberty, but by this time a large number of police, together with a crowd of about 800 people had assembled, and with the wildest yells they endeavoured to lynch the prisoner, who, cut and bleeding profusely, was conveyed to Commercial Street Police Station. A large body of police had to escort him, so determined and dangerous were the mob. In reply to the charge, the prisoner said he was a sailor, and arrived from South Shields about a week ago. He did not know where he was on the morning of Wednesday last, and did not know where he had stayed. The alleged woman tried to rob him. Another knife, together with the sailor's dicharge, was found on the prisoner.

[Monty]

Hi Chris,

Im aware of this article and agree with Scott. His statement contracts those who knew Coles by sight and state she was somewhere else.

Given Bacherts track record I feel its another attempt to get involved with the case. His testimony is similar to Jumbo Fridays.

Monty

[Scott Nelson]

About 40 yards directly to the north according to my map. Newnham St. is between Mansell and Leman Streets. It must be remembered that Bachert also injected himself into the Eddowes murder with this story of meeting a mysterious man inside the pub of the Three Nuns Hotel on the night of the murder. These two stories of seeing suspicious men with Coles and Eddowes should make Backert's accounts untrustworthy.

[Chris Scott]

Hi Mike
Agreed but this sighting of Coles not once but twice, one of them outside his own house, is stretching credibility, even for Albert!
Does any one know how far it was from Newnham Street to Swallow Gardens, as Backert claims it was very close ("only a few yards from the scene of the murder")?
Chris

[Mike Covell]

Backert sounds like he was more of an hinderance than any help!

[Chris Scott]

If there were any truth in Backert's claims as outlined in the article above surely he would have mentioned this to the Coroner - but then he would have been a witness, not a juror.

[Chris Scott]

It is well known that Backert tried to get onto the Coles jury and had an altercation with the Coroner. This is from the Cast of Thousands book:
16 February 1891

Backert was involved in an altercation with the Coroner at the inquest on Frances Coles. Backert volunteered to sit on the jury but Wynne Baxter refused this offer.

Times (London)
On the names of the jurymen summoned being called out by the Coroner's officer, it was found that only eight answered, the remainder of those present being substitutes. Some of the latter were accepted, but when Mr. Backert, the chairman of the so called Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, offered himself as a substitute in place of a Mr. Fielder, the Coroner declined to allow him to serve.
Mr. Backert: Why?
The Coroner: Because I decline.
Mr. Backert: You decline simply because I happen to be chairman of the Vigilance Committee and you think I shall fully investigate this matter. I have a right to be on the jury.
The Coroner: I have decided you are not to serve on this jury.
Mr. Backert: Yes - because you know I shall inquire into this case.
The Coroner: You have already been told I shall decline to accept you.
Mr. Backert (walking to the back of the court): You will hear more of this.
The jury, having been sworn, proceeded to view the body. On their return, Mr. Backert, addressing the Coroner, said, "It was only after you heard who I was that you would not allow me to serve on the jury."
The Coroner: If you do not keep quiet I will have you ejected from the room.

An article I found today would explain why Backert had been so insistent on being on the Coles jury. Backert claimed to have had not one but two sightings of Coles with a man shortly before she was killed, and one of them was right outside his own house in Newnham Street!
The article reads as follows:

Birmingham Daily Post
16 February 1891

Mr Albert Backert, writing on Saturday from 13 Newnham Street, Whitechapel, says:-
The woman who has been murdered was seen by a friend and myself last night at a quarter past twelve, outside Leman Street Railway Station, speaking to a man, and when I arrived home (only a few yards from the scene of the murder), it being then five minutes past one, the same woman was talking to a man opposite my house. I went inside, and later I heard some loud talking. I looked out of the window, and heard the man say, "Well, you won't come home with me?" She made some reply which I did not understand. He then said, "If you don't you will never go home with another man." They then walked off in the direction of the arches in Chambers Street. I have been called upon to serve on the jury tomorrow afternoon, and it is my intention to enquire into this case. If evidence is brought forward which can prove that it has been committed by the late Whitechapel fiend, I shall at once reform the Vigilance Committee, and appeal to the public for aid.