Originally posted by Herlock Sholmes
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The evidence includes the fact that the both the laneway and footway were stony hard ground. Neither were made of dirt, and therefore neither turned to mud when it rained. Stride was found to be very muddy down her left side. A statement was made to the police indicating that the murdered woman had been thrown to the ground. Putting two and two together, suggests that it was during this assault that Stride ended up muddy.
The evidence from this statement also includes the witnesses response to the assault - it was thought to be a man and his wife quarrelling, and consequently no notice was taken of it. No running away, or chasing away another man.
This evidence alone, is enough to cast severe doubt on the statement given by Schwartz.
So what difference does it make when we consider that you personally cannot think of a reason for Schwartz lying? Nothing. Or mentioning that Abberline was experienced? Nothing. The evidence remains the same.
Now as to where and when the assault did happen, there is not much to go on. However, we know from the testimony of William Marshall that Stride and a male companion did walk into Ellen street at about midnight. Marshall gave a description of the man to the coroner. This description is fairly similar to the description Schwartz gave of his first man (build, cap, clothing). It is even closer when using the age given in the assault statement. Schwartz gave the address 22 Ellen street to Abberline - presumably his new address. When all this is considered together, I think it reasonable to suppose that the assault may have taken place in or close to Ellen street.
The only reason that we have to place any doubt against Schwartz is a) The Star interview, where it’s hardly a stretch of the imagination to suggest that any small differences might have been down to errors of interpretation or Press exaggeration, and b) the fact that no one else appeared to have seen the incident. An incident that couldn’t have taken more than a very few seconds with Stride ‘screaming’ but not very loudly. It’s was hardly a full scale riot or a marching band.
The 'over in a few seconds' claim is compete nonsense, and the actual timespan is in some ways irrelevant - how long does it take to hear someone shout 'Lipski'?
By the way, screaming but not very loudly is an oxymoron. This was a blatant attempt by Schwartz to explain why no one heard the cries.
Schwartz could have been mistaken in that the confrontation between BS Man and Stride might not have been as violent a confrontation as he first thought. His timid nature might have caused him to assume more aggression than was actually present.
Maybe it wasn’t Stride that he saw? But we have no reason to doubt that he was where he was, when he said that was (give or take a reasonable amount of time) and that he pretty much saw what he said that he did or that he reported what he thought that he saw. To dismiss him we need for, far more and we just don’t have it.
DT: A young girl had been standing in a bisecting thoroughfare not fifty yards from the spot where the body was found. She had, she said, been standing there for about twenty minutes, talking with her sweetheart, but neither of them heard any unusual noises.
FM: A young man and his sweetheart were standing at the corner of the street, about 20 yards away, before and after the time the woman must have been murdered, but they told me they did not hear a sound.
This and other related evidence doesn't go away, because we refuse to look at it.
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