Charles Allen Lechmere: Difference between revisions

| image = File:CharlesAllenLechmereWasHeJackTheEstripador1912a.jpg

| alt = Portrait of Lechmere

| birth_name = Charles Allen Lechmere

Thomas Cross died in 1869, when his stepson was twenty.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/discoveryui-content/view/195260:61263?tid=&pid=&queryId=754db5ae6c1dad2ad6404e9cf270f069&_phsrc=ScD888&_phstart=successSource |title=Thomas Cross, in ''London, England, City of London and Tower Hamlets Cemetery Registers, 1841-1966,''|via=Ancestry.com |access-date=13 November 2023}}{{subscription required|s}}</ref> Charles Lechmere married Elizabeth Bostock on 3 July 1870, at Christ Church, in the parish of [[St George in the East]].<ref name=mar>{{cite web |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/discoveryui-content/view/2697134:1623?tid=&pid=&queryId=b63e6b92b68a8b9d5f6169e4580dfd50&_phsrc=ScD881&_phstart=successSource |title=Charles Allan Lechmere, in ''London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1938,''|via=Ancestry.com |access-date=13 November 2023}}{{subscription required|s}}</ref> His mother married Joseph Forsdike on 29 July 1872, at [[Bethnal Green]], and Charles Lechmere signed the register as a witness.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/discoveryui-content/view/5630003:1623?tid=&pid=&queryId=97fe929fd9e22ea382b3c07072b4ede8&_phsrc=ScD890&_phstart=successSource |title=Maria Louisa Cross, in ''London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1938,''|via=Ancestry.com |access-date=13 November 2023}}{{subscription required|s}}</ref>

In Lechmere's testimony to the Nichols inquest, he said that he left for work at around 3:30{{nbsp}}a.m. on 31 August 1888. While walking [[Durward Street|Buck's Row]], he discovered the body of Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols lying next to a gateway.<ref name=inq>{{Cite web|title=Casebook: Jack the Ripper - Daily News - 4 September 1888 |url=https://www.casebook.org/press_reports/daily_news/18880904.html |access-date=14 November 2023 |website=casebook.org}}</ref> Lechmere found Nichols at about 3:40{{nbsp}}a.m.<ref name=abb>Mary Ann Nichols (31 Aug 1888): Police report: Inspector Abberline, 19 September 1888 - MEPO 3/140 ff242-243</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Eddleston |first1=John J |date=2010 |title=Jack The Ripper - An Encyclopaedia |publisher=Metro Publishing |location=London |page=12 |isbn=9781843580461 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R-ubEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 |via=Google Books |access-date=20 November 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Cobb |first1=Richard Charles |date=2022 |title=On The Trail of Jack The Ripper |publisher=Pen and Sword History |location=Yorkshire |page=14 |isbn=9781526794819 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yZWSEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA14 |via=Google Books |access-date=20 November 2023}}</ref><ref>Begg, P., & Bennett, J. (2013). ''Jack the Ripper: The Forgotten Victims.'' New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 57.</ref><ref>Cook, A. (2012). ''Jack the Ripper: Case Closed.'' Stroud: Amberley Publishing. p. 16.</ref><ref name=police>Sugden, P. (2002). ''The Complete History of Jack the Ripper.'' London: Robinson Publishing. p. 36.</ref> According to his first press interview, Robert Paul, who was walking some distance behind, first noticed him standing "where the woman was";<ref name="Another Awful Murder In Whitechapel">{{cite news |title=Another Awful Murder In Whitechapel. A Woman Found Brutally Hacked To Death In The Street: Remarkable Statement |newspaper=Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper |date=2 September 1888 |page=7 |via=British Newspaper Archive}}</ref> in reports of his inquest testimony Paul said he saw him "in the middle of the road."<ref>{{Cite web|title=Casebook: Jack the Ripper - Inquest: Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols - Day 3, Monday, September 17, 1888 |url=https://www.casebook.org/official_documents/inquests/inquest_nichols.html |access-date=14 November 2023 |website=casebook.org}}</ref> When approached by Lechmere, Paul at first avoided him, thinking he was about to be attacked.<ref name="Another Awful Murder In Whitechapel"/> After touching Paul on the shoulder, Lechmere brought him over to look at the woman.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jack-the-ripper.org/jack-the-ripper-victim-mary-nichols.htm |title=Mary Nichols: Murdered 31 August 1888|publisher=jack-the-ripper.org |date=2 April 2010 |access-date=14 November 2023}}</ref> Because they were wary of being late for work, Lechmere and Paul left Buck's Row. They decided to notify the first policeman they came across of what they had seen.<ref name=police /> At about 3:45{{nbsp}}a.m., at the corner of [[Hanbury Street]] and [[Bakers Row|Baker's Row]], both saw PC Mizen and told him what they had found.<ref name=inq /><ref name=abb /> According to the testimony of Robert Paul, he saw Mizen no more than four minutes after Paul first saw the body of Nichols.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Casebook: Jack the Ripper - Daily Telegraph - 18 September 1888 |url=https://www.casebook.org/press_reports/daily_telegraph/dt880918.html |access-date=15 November 2023 |website=casebook.org}}</ref> No blood was described by either man, but at about 3:45{{nbsp}}a.m., when a constable (PC Neil) found Nichols,<ref>Sugden, P. (2002). ''The Complete History of Jack the Ripper.'' London: Robinson Publishing. p. 37.</ref> blood was coming from the wound in her throat (according to the evidence at the inquest).<ref>{{Cite web|title=Casebook: Jack the Ripper - Inquest: Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols - Day 1, Saturday, September 1, 1888 |url=https://www.casebook.org/official_documents/inquests/inquest_nichols.html |access-date=14 November 2023 |website=casebook.org}}</ref> Some theorists suggest that the cut to her throat was very fresh when Lechmere and Paul were present.{{efn|1=P C Neil signalled with his lamp to alert PC Thain who he saw nearby. Thain was told by Neil to go and fetch Dr Llewelleyn, at 152, Whitechapel Road, which was just 300 yards from Buck's Row.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Casebook: Jack the Ripper - A Timeline of Events in the Life and Death of Mary Ann Nichols Courtesy of Casebook Productions |url=https://www.casebook.org/timeline.nichols.html |access-date=15 November 2023 |website=casebook.org}}</ref> At about 3:55{{nbsp}}a.m., Thain arrived at the surgery and then went with Llewelleyn immediately to Buck's Row.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Terrible Murder In Whitechapel |newspaper=Pall Mall Gazette |date=1 September 1888 |page=9 |via=British Newspaper Archive}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Brutal Murder In Whitechapel |newspaper=The Lancaster Gazette |date=5 September 1888 |page=4 |via=British Newspaper Archive}}</ref><ref>Jones, Richard {{cite web |url=https://www.jack-the-ripper.org/mary-nichols-newspaper-reports.htm |title=The Murder of Mary Nichols - Press Coverage |via=Jack the ripper 1888.org |access-date=17 November 2023}}</ref> From an initial examination of the body then made at the scene, Llewelleyn estimated that Nichols had been dead for about thirty minutes.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Casebook: Jack the Ripper - Daily News - 3 September 1888 |url=https://www.casebook.org/press_reports/daily_news/18880903.html |access-date=15 November 2023 |website=casebook.org}}</ref><ref>Sugden, P. (2002). The Complete History of Jack the Ripper. London: Robinson Publishing. p. 38.</ref> }} Neither man reported seeing or hearing anyone else at Buck's Row.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Whitechapel Tragedy |newspaper=East London Observer |date=8 September 1888 |page=6 |via=British Newspaper Archive}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=The Buck's Row Tragedy |newspaper=Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper |date=9 September 1888 |page=3 |via=British Newspaper Archive}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=The Whitechapel Murders |newspaper=Reynolds's Newspaper |date=23 September 1888 |page=5 |via=British Newspaper Archive}}</ref>

The locations of Lechmere's home, family and place of work put him in the vicinity of several 'Ripper' murders and other, extra-canonical killings besides.{{citation needed|date=August 2023}} Holmgren argues that [[geographic profiling]], developed decades after the Ripper murders, can help narrow down likely suspects by analyzing their established movements and habitual locations in comparison to crime scenes. Criminals tend to strike in areas that are not too close to home, yet with which they are somewhat familiar and comfortable.<ref name="Holmgren2021">{{cite book |last1=Holmgren |first1=Christer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zSI4zgEACAAJ |title=Christer Holmgren: "Cutting Point: Solving the Jack the Ripper and the Thames Torso Murders." Timaios Press 2021. ISBN 9187611368, 9789187611360 |date=February 2021 |publisher=Timaios Press |isbn=9789187611360}}</ref> Given this data, Holmgren argues Lechmere is the most plausible suspect for the Ripper murders. Lechmere's logical shortest routes to work—one passing down Hanbury Street, the other down Old Montague Street—would have Lechmere pass nearby streets around the same times as [[Martha Tabram]], Polly Nichols, and arguably<ref>Wolf Vanderlinden: '"Considerable Doubt" and the Death of Annie Chapman', ''Ripper Notes'', Issue 22, April 2005</ref> [[Annie Chapman]] were murdered.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}} The murders of [[Elizabeth Stride]] and [[Catherine Eddowes]] on the same night (the so-called "Double Event") took place further south—and in the small hours of a Sunday, likely the only day Lechmere would not have been travelling from home to work. Stride was killed in proximity to Lechmere's mother's house and in the area he grew up in; the locality in which Eddowes was murdered would have been well known to him, as it was on the logical route to Broad Street from at least one of his earlier addresses.{{citation needed|date=August 2023}} However, Holmgren fails to state that the geographical profiling applied to the Jack the Ripper case by [[Kim Rossmo]] puts the likely abode of the killer as in the area of Thrawl Street and Flower and Dean Street {{citation needed|date=September 2024}}, which is nowhere near Lechmere's home in Doveton Street.