Help request please re Packer and Hutchinson

[JeffHamm]

Joshua,

Thank you very much.

Interesting that is Daily News again as with Packer.

"I told one policeman on Sunday morning what I had seen, but did not go to the police station"

Surely, the policeman would have passed this on to his superiors?

Nice to have the two primary sources for this. Just what I was looking for.

I guess it's not certain that both Packer and Hutchinson were really ignored but it's a possibility.

Martyn

Hi,

I'm not sure ignored is the right word. It appears both Packer and Hutchinson were questioned by the police. However, Packer's statements were changing and morphing in ways that seemed to suggest he was adapting based upon what was coming out in the news (I'm sure his statements and how they evolved are covered somewhere, but I can't recall which book or author looks at him most closely). As a result, I think the police eventually determined that he was simply unreliable, and given how many different versions he appeared to have made, it would be unusable in court should an arrest be made, and also it was too unstable to help even guide their investigations. I seem to recall that Hutchinson was involved with walking around the area with some police officers to see if he could spot Astrakhan-man and that went on for a week or so to no avail. So, that's not ignoring him, but perhaps deciding that his contribution had run its course and didn't produce results. It's also possible they may have lost faith in the accuracy of his report as well, though I don't think there's any direct evidence of that, it would be one possible explanation for why he seems to stop being considered a primary witness. But that could also be explained as "the lead just didn't pay out" too. I guess, to me, it sort of looks like the police did pay attention to both of these potential witnesses, but for various reasons, ended up concluding their information got them nowhere, which isn't the same as ignoring the information.

- Jeff

[drstrange169]

I've just read an article dated 24 November 1888 in the Croydon Chronicle, which states the police were investigating Packer's latests claims ( about his cousin being jtr) despite not holding much stock in them. So we can definitely rule out Packer being ignored by police.