The Real Mary Kelly - Wynne Weston-Davies

[Gary Barnett]

Hello Gary,

Read the inquest testimony for Annie Austin's murder.

Liv

Hi Liv,

I have done. Crossingham, by then living in Romford, was guilty of failing to comply with the regulations regarding Lodging House admittance. Hardly a master criminal, I would have thought. He made his fortune by charging thousands of people a few pence a night for a bed. Whether any of his supposedly married couples were actually prostitute and client was probably impracticable for him to ascertain.

As in the case of the infamous boxing match, it was a matter of bending 'inconvenient' rules rather involvement in full-blown criminality.

Obviously not a discussion for this thread, though.

Gary.

[Edward Stow]

So what if he sells the odd dodgy motor now and again, it don't make him a villain...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UCoul5SRzA

[Gary Barnett]

So what if he sells the odd dodgy motor now and again, it don't make him a villain...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UCoul5SRzA

Ed,

My guess would be that Crossingham was more of an Arthur Daley than a Vito Corleone. But who knows?

Gary.

[Edward Stow]

He's awright

[Howard Brown]

Gary:
This link takes you to Robert Clack's excellent article on Mary Ann ( Annie ) Austin.....https://books.google.com/books?id=1n...201901&f=false

[Gary Barnett]

Gary:
This link takes you to Robert Clack's excellent article on Mary Ann ( Annie ) Austin.....https://books.google.com/books?id=1n...201901&f=false

Thanks, How.

[Debra Arif]

.....As co-respondent the papers should have also been served on McBlain, but don't seem to have been - his whereabouts apparently being unknown (another argument against detectives being involved).

Good point, Ed
WWD claims with certainty that the co-respondent was in fact Henry McBlain, timber merchant of St. Augustine's Avenue. If it was that obvious that's who Craig's Harry McBain, baker, was, why didn't they serve the petition on him?

[Edward Stow]

Yet the phantom PI thought he was a Baker and didnt know where he lived.

[Gary Barnett]

Good point, Ed
WWD claims with certainty that the co-respondent was in fact Henry McBlain, timber merchant of St. Augustine's Avenue. If it was that obvious that's who Craig's Harry McBain, baker, was, why didn't they serve the petition on him?

Would a 15-year-old baker's boy have been able to afford an upmarket prostitute?

Having only flicked through the book, I'm not sure why WWD opted for the timber merchant over, say, Henry McBean, the 19-year-old cheese porter of Brown Street. Does he explain his reasoning?

[Edward Stow]

If we are weighing up the pros and cons over how Craig obtained his information about his wife's behaviour, is there actually any indication in the affidavit that a PI was employed?
I would argue there is none at all - except it fits WWD's narrative.

[SGerrard]

I think the Harry Hobein I.Dd by Debra at least has the advantage of being in the right place, in the right profession; and of being actually cited as Harry in other documents unrelated to the affidavit.

The correspondent is named both as McBlain and McBain anyway - perhaps there was some uncertainty about his name.

Hans Harry was very young though - if it was him, was he old enough to be served? I don't know.

[Robert Linford]

"I am old enough to be served as long as I wear my scarf. And I'm not a stupid boy, am I Captain Mainwaring?"

[Gary Barnett]

"I am old enough to be served as long as I wear my scarf. And I'm not a stupid boy, am I Captain Mainwaring?"

Don't tell them your name, Hobein!

[Debra Arif]

Would a 15-year-old baker's boy have been able to afford an upmarket prostitute?

Having only flicked through the book, I'm not sure why WWD opted for the timber merchant over, say, Henry McBean, the 19-year-old cheese porter of Brown Street. Does he explain his reasoning?

I only mentioned Harry Hohbein in passing on another thread because initially he caught my eye when I thought he was 27 on the 1891 and he was working as a baker on the road where EWD allegedly committed adultery with the Harry McBain cited in the divorce who was said to be a baker.
When I looked closer and saw he was 21 it kind of knocked that on the head for me but Robert doesn't seem phased by the young age of him and he may well have looked older as Robert said.
Need he have been able to afford a high class prostitute, has it really been established EWD was a high class prostitute at all? The Holloway dives mentioned in the divorce don't suggest that.


WWD opted for the timber merchant because apparently the timber merchant's daughter may have worked with Robert John Maundrell (father of Ellen) at the post office and he lived near a bakery. I don't see how that would link Harry McBain to EWD anyway as there has been no link established between EWD and Ellen McLeod and the Maundrell's for me.

[Debra Arif]

It says in the book that a witness at Craig's wedding was his friend Edward Warren, a local rates collector. I seem to recall in the inquest reporting that one of Craig's friends who gave evidence said he had helped Craig look for Elizabeth. I forget who that was but I wonder if a local rates collector might have been an ideal person to spy on EWD for information for the divorce petition?