George Hutchinson's other 'arf.

George Hutchinson is irksome. I have read he worked as a groom, presumably working with horses. He was stout and had military bearing and that is about the sum of George Hutchinson.

Sarah Lewis, a laundress of 24 Great Pearl Street gave this statement and description to the police:

He was not tall – but stout – had on a wideawake black hat – I did not notice his clothes – another young man with a woman passed along – The man standing in the street was looking up the court as if waiting for someone to come out.

George Hutchison stated that he was outside Miller’s court at the time commensurate with Lewis’s statement. So her description is confirmed by George Hutchinson.

Israel Swcharz’s description of the attacker – Elizabeth Stride:

At around 12.45am he turned into Berner Street and noticed a man walking ahead of him. The man stopped to talk to a woman who was standing in the gateway of Dutfield’s Yard. The man was about 5 feet, 5 inches tall, aged around 30 with dark hair, a fair complexion, a small brown moustache. He had a full face, broad shoulders and appeared to be slightly intoxicated.

William Marshall's description:

William Marshall lived at 64 Berner Street. He saw a couple kissing on the pavement outside number 63. He heard the man tell the woman that she would say 'anything but your prayers'.

According to Marshall the man was middle aged with the appearance of a clerk He was about 5 foot 6 inches tall, somewhat stout, respectably dresses and clean shaven. He wore a small, black, cutaway coat, dark trousers, and a round cap with a small sailor-like peak cap.

 The theme here is stout.

 Aliases were used, not infrequently, by army personnel – as I discovered when I found Alfred Long’s army alias and included in my book ‘Long Arm of the Law’. A terrible pun but it apes Alfred Long’s use of his alias, James Short. That sort of comedic in-joke is reminiscent of some of the ‘humorous' Ripper letters. But anyway, George Hutchinson hasn't been found (not convincingly) in the records. My guess is he used an alias. Was he known as George Hutchinson in Whitechapel? We only have his word that he was. He didn’t attend Mary Kelly’s inquest. Residents of Whitechapel couldn’t therefore accuse him of not being who he claimed he was.

I’m wondering if he too was in the 9th Lancers -- old pals with Alfred Long and working as a groom in this cavalry unit (soldiers looked after their own horses but the army employed grooms). Which takes me back to Lewis’s statement, ‘The man standing in the street was looking up the court as if waiting for someone to come out’.

Perhaps he was. 

Perhaps it was a serial killing pairing? A not unknown phenomena:

Over one third of all serial murders are committed by teams. Most involve two offenders. 13 percent of all serial killers are male-female. Without exception, every group of offenders has one person who maintains control of the other members, whether through coercion, intimidation, or other persuasive techniques. Nearly all of these "leaders" are men. Although women are frequently involved with serial murder teams, they generally are not the decision-makers or main enforcers.

Most criminal teams quickly fall apart. Typically, they make a mistake, such as leaving a witness alive, quarrelling, or going further in brutality than one partner can bear.
The most dangerous teams involve male/male pairings, and of those, the most aggressive are equals who realise they now have a partner as depraved as they are. With no moral boundaries, they work together to affirm and expand their range of criminal creativity. Katherine M. Ramsland

Purely speculation on my part BUT ...


David Wilson Professor of Criminology at Birmingham City University:
It is screaming out connection, ­connection, connection. 'There is no such thing as coincidence when you are ­dealing with serial killers.'