Free Jack the Ripper: The Secret Police Files by Trevor Marriott Page B

opposite direction to Kelly tapped her on the shoulder and said something to her, they both burst out laughing. I heard her say, 'Alright,' to him, and the man said, 'You will be alright for what I have told you,' he then placed his right hand around her shoulders. He also had a kind of a small parcel in his left hand, with a kind of strap round it. I stood against the lamp of the Queen’s Head public house and watched him. They both came past me, and the man hung down his head with his hat over his eyes. I stooped down and looked him in the face, he looked at me stern .
    “They both went into Dorset Street, I followed them. They both stood at the corner of the court for about 3 minutes. He said something to her, she said, 'Alright my dear, come along, you will be comfortable.' He then placed his arm on her shoulder and gave her a kiss; she said she had lost her handkerchief. He then pulled his handkerchief, a red one, out and gave it to her. They both then went up the court together .
    “I then went to the court to see if I could see them, but could not. I stood there for about three quarters of an hour to see if they came out, they did not, so I went away. The man was about, 5ft 6" in height and 34 or 35 years of age, with a dark complexion and dark moustache turned up at the ends. Wearing a long Astrakhan coat, a white collar with black necktie, in which was affixed a horseshoe pin. He wore a pair of dark spats with light buttons over button boots and displayed from his waistcoat a massive gold chain. His watch chain had a big seal with a red stone hanging from it. He had a heavy moustache curled up, and dark eyes and eyelashes, he had no side whiskers and his chin was clean-shaven. He looked like a foreigner. He carried a small parcel in his hand, about 8 inches long and it had a strap round it, he had it tightly grasped in his left hand, it looked as though it was covered in dark American cloth. He carried in his right hand, which he laid upon the woman's shoulder, a pair of brown kid gloves. One thing I noticed, and that was that he walked very softly. I believe that he lives in the neighbourhood and I fancied that I saw him in Petticoat Lane on Sunday morning, but I was not certain.”
    It is a very detailed statement, which I would suggest doesn’t stand up to close scrutiny. As well as Hutchinson hearing every word spoken between the two, he goes to great lengths to give such great detail about the man and items of clothing the man was wearing and also the jewellery the man was wearing, despite very poor street lighting around Miller’s Court.
    The statement of Hutchinson has raised a doubt amongst researchers for many years. Was he there or did he make it up, and if he did make it up for what purpose? There are a number of different ways of looking at Hutchinson and his statement. The first was why it took him so long to come forward with his statement. Was he afraid that the police might think he was the killer? If that were the case then why bother to come forward at all? It could be that he was telling the truth about what he saw, and remarkable as it may seem, gave us the best eyewitness description we have of Jack the Ripper.
    The second way is that he was in fact telling the truth, but his statement was exaggerated to please the press and the police. The third, which I don’t believe for one moment is that he lied and was in fact himself her killer.

    He noticed the man was well dressed and looked wealthy and hung around waiting for the man to appear on his own, was that with the intention of robbing him? Perhaps the reason he hung around so long was that it was Mary Kelly he was keeping an eye on, and was besotted with her, possibly even stalking her. She had previously said to friends that she was frightened of someone other than the Ripper, though did not say who.
    He could have had nowhere else to go and hung around for so long because he had no money for a bed and was just passing time. He had told