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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.
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.
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