Originally posted by New Waterloo
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Unfortunately we don't have any evidence to back up the story that Packer did really get genuinely tested, and really did identify Stride. We rely on Packer and Le Grand, and if Le Grand was after a share of the reward, then "they would say that, wouldn't they?" Le Grand seems to have been responsible for the development of the story that Stride had grapes in her hand, the alleged finding of grape stalks, the taking of Packer to see the bodies, shielding Packer from Sgt White, and taking him to Scotland Yard. I believe that the story of the sisters Harstein and Rosenfeld finding a bloodstained grapestalk and white flower petals in the passageway at Dutfield's Yard originated from Le Grand, and I can find nothing about it in police records. Even that story has a big question mark against it, in that the flower petals were said to be white, and Packer referred to Stride wearing a red and white flower like a geranium, but the police say it was a red rose with a maidenhair fern.
Le Grand was, of course, a known confidence trickster with a criminal record, and his alleged fellow detective, J H Batchelor, was probably James Hall, who gave evidence against Le Grand at his blackmail trial in 1891, stating that he worked for Le Grand as a clerk 1888-1889.
I don't deny the faint possibility that Packer was telling the truth (though I don't believe it), but the evidence that we have is totally conflicting, and it is impossible to be sure of anything!
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