With its customary precision, Ripperology supports this fiction. Here’s what page 256 of its Ripper ‘dictionary’, The Jack the Ripper A to Z, has to say about Long’s appearance at the Eddowes inquest: ‘He was mildly criticised by a juror for not conducting a thorough search of the rooms in the building, but reasonably replied that he did not know of Eddowes’ murder.’
Imagine, if you will, consulting a source of supposed reference, a dictionary of zoology by way of example, looking for ‘dog’: ‘Dog – A member of the cat family, such as ducks.’
I exaggerate the point only to make it. Never mind the editorial slant – ‘reasonably replied’ – this entry is so inaccurate it qualifies as fiction. PC Long knew perfectly well of Eddowes’ murder in Mitre Square, and said so at her inquest: ‘When I found the piece of apron I at once searched the staircases leading to the buildings. Having searched I at once proceeded to the station. Before proceeding there I had heard of a murder having been committed, I had heard of the murder in Mitre Square.’4
And so had Arnold. And so had Bro Dr Bagster Phillips. I love the way Phillips is presented here, as though he was just hanging around at the police station for the doughnuts. In fact he and Arnold had been busying themselves at Dutfield’s Yard: ‘The arrival of the Superintendent [Arnold] took place almost simultaneously with that of the Divisional Surgeon [Phillips].’5 Soon after, Phillips was on his way to Mitre Square. ‘Before we moved the body,’ deposed Dr Gordon Brown at the inquest, ‘Dr Phillips was sent for, as I wished him to see the wounds, he having been engaged in a similar case recently.’6
While Warren was still in bed, Acting Commissioner of City Police Major Sir Henry Smith was already on the scene. ‘By the time the stretcher had arrived,’ he recorded, ‘and when we got the body to the mortuary, the first discovery we made was that about half the apron was missing. It had been severed by a clean cut.’7
This missing piece of apron instantly became the motor for frenzied City enquiries – find the other half, you might find the murderer. Bro Dr Phillips was in and out of all of this, involved well before PC Long rushed in with his bloody half of the apron. It was a startling piece of evidence, and given Long’s admitted awareness of the Mitre Square murder, a potentially vital link between Eddowes and the writing on the wall. Yet Long’s concoction thirty-six days later, on 6 November, makes no mention whatever of the significance of his find. The Mitre Square Eddowes/Goulston Street link had been quite forgotten.
Detective Halse of the City Police gave evidence that he too was at Goulston Street at precisely the time PC Long reported that he was there: ‘I came through Goulston Street at 2.20 a.m.,’ he said. And PC Long said: ‘I passed the spot where the apron was about 2.20.’ It therefore seems logical to suppose that Halse himself was the probable source of Long’s information about the second murder. Detective Halse was in plainclothes, PC Long was not, and as the former was desperately looking for a murderer and a piece of apron, it is likely that he would have quizzed the uniform about anything he might have seen.
But when Long actually found the bloody piece of apron and pitched up with it at Leman Street police station forty-five minutes later, Superintendent Arnold immediately did absolutely nothing.
While City cops sweated their arses off in Whitechapel’s streets, Arnold scratched his at the police station. He sent nobody to secure Goulston Street, and nobody to search the building. What he did was to telegraph Bro Charlie Warren at home, who couldn’t get his socks on fast enough to get down to Goulston Street and destroy the evidence.
Chief of the City Police Detective Department, Inspector James McWilliam, also put out a telegraph: ‘I wired Scotland Yard [at 3.45 a.m.].’ Result: nil. Nothing. The City had more than half a dozen of their top detectives on the street; Scotland Yard sent nobody, showing no more interest than Arnold. If it wasn’t a waste of ink, one might well ask what happened to the Met’s senior detectives, such as Frederick Abberline, Walter Andrews and Henry Moore?
Meanwhile, PC Long had his feet up at Leman Street, with nothing to do. He says he stayed at the police station until he went back on duty at 5 a.m., but it is a challenge to believe it. Long says nothing in his statement about the arrival of three of Commissioner Smith’s detectives, minutes after his own, and nothing of what importance they attached to his discovery.
They were City officers – DC Halse, DS Lawley and DS Hunt – hotfoot from Mitre Square, who had heard of the writing and the piece of apron found under it, and were aware of its vital importance, even if Superintendent Arnold was predisposed to ignore it.
At the inquest, where PC Long was put up as a tongue-tied patsy, Detective Halse had this to say: ‘I came through Goulston Street at 2.20 a.m. and then went back to Mitre Square and accompanied Inspector Collard to the mortuary. I saw deceased stripped and saw a portion of the apron was missing. I went back with [Commissioner] Major Smith to Mitre Square where [we] heard that a piece of apron had been found at Goulston Street. I then went with Detective Hunt to Leman Street police station. I and Detective Hunt went on to Goulston Street where the spot was pointed out where the apron was found.’
Who did the pointing out? Neither the unnamed Met Inspector who had accompanied Long to Leman Street, nor the unnamed PC who was then on guard duty at Goulston Street was called at the inquest to give his version of events. I suggest that the most logical person to have pointed out where the apron was found would be the man who found it. And seeing that Long had nothing to do at Leman Street, I suggest that it was he who did the pointing. To contest what is a virtual certainty would also require an explanation of why neither Long nor Arnold made any mention of the arrival of the City detectives in their respective fabrications. Perhaps neither of them noticed Detectives Halse, Lawley or Hunt? Perhaps they were on the toilet, or brewing tea? Perhaps indeed it was some other anonymous person from the Tinkerbell Squad who took this phalanx of City detectives back to Goulston Street to point out where the apron was found? Perhaps the nameless Inspector, or a copper whistled up from the adjoining beat? But neither of these had found the bloody piece of cloth, and, like the professional investigator he was, Halse would have wanted to know exactly where such momentous evidence had been discovered. Was it to one side of the writing to which it referred, or the other? Or directly beneath it? Lacking any detective from the Met, Halse and his fellow City men would have wanted to know all and everything, including Long’s first thoughts and immediate actions when he had discovered such a prize.
According to Halse, he saw some chalk writing on the black facia of the wall: ‘I remained there and sent [a message to McWilliam] with a view to having it photographed.’ City Inspector McWilliam takes up the narrative:
I had been informed of the murder [of Eddowes] and arrived at the detective office at 3.45 after ascertaining from [Inspector] S.S. Izzard what steps had been taken in consequence of it. I wired to Scotland Yard informing the Metropolitan Police of the murder and went with D.C. Downes to Bishopsgate Station & from thence to Mitre Square. I there found Major Smith, Superintendent Foster, Inspector Collard & several Detective Officers. Lawley and Hunt informed me of finding the apron & the writing on the wall, the latter of which I ordered to be photographed and directed the officers to return at once and search the ‘Model’ Dwellings