Video - PC William Smith and the Murder of Liz Stride

This is my 6th in a series of videos looking at how the London police dealt with the Jack the Ripper murders. This one looks at the evidence surrounding the Berner Street beat policeman. PC William Smith was the police officer on patrol around the area where Liz Stride was discovered murdered.

On the 4th day of the inquest, PC William Smith said:

“On Saturday last, I went on duty at ten p.m. My beat was past Berner Street and would take me twenty-five minutes or half an hour to go around.

I was in Berner Street about half-past twelve or twenty-five minutes to one o'clock, and having gone round my beat, was at the Commercial Road corner of Berner Street again at one o'clock.

I was not called. I saw a crowd outside the gates of No. 40 Berner Street. I heard no cries of "Police."

When I came to the spot, two constables had already arrived. The gates at the side of the club were not then closed. I do not remember that I passed any person on my way down.

I saw that the woman was dead, and I went to the police station for the ambulance, leaving the other constables in charge of the body. Dr. Blackwell's assistant arrived just as I was going away.”

So where was he at 12:30?

From this statement, “I was in Berner Street about half-past twelve or twenty-five minutes to one o'clock, and having gone round my beat, was at the Commercial Road corner of Berner Street again at one o’clock.”

From this statement, he was at the Commercial Road corner of Berner Street at 12:30 am.

So 15 minutes later, he would be halfway around, which means he would be passing along Fairclough Street near the south end of Berner Street at 12:45.

For the 15 minutes after that he is west of Berner Street as he continued along Fairclough Road, up Back Church Lane and then left onto Commercial Road to get to Gowers Walk before turning back along Commercial Road to arrive at the corner of Berner Street at 1:00 am.

Louis Diemshutz said that it was one o’clock when his pony shied, and he discovered the body of Liz Stride. Louis was going by the clock on the Baker’s shop at the corner of Fairclough Street and Berner Street.

PC Smith doesn’t say where he got the time. Policemen were not issued with watches, so he presumably went by a church or shop clock, or he just guessed.