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  • I dissect the ‘Dear Boss’ letter.

    I dissect the ‘Dear Boss’ letter and pronounce it filled with Francis Thompson. This reading of the ‘Dear Boss’ letter will be comparing it to Thompson. If you dislike him as a suspect, stop reading. If you dislike Ripper articles, filled with writer bias, stop reading.

    The history of the ‘Dear Boss’ letter is that On Thursday September 27 1888, it arrived at the Central News Agency in New Bridge Street, London. The Central News was the centre of news distribution in London. A woman mail sorter first opened the letter, before calling journalist Thomas John Bulling to look at it. The letter bore an East London Postmark dated September 27. It had a one-penny Inland Revenue stamp, and it was addressed to 'The Boss.' Jack the Ripper is remembered as the murderer of a cluster of 5 women in the East End. The press widely reported that the wanted man was some of sexual lust murderer. The papers published somewhat conflicting articles upon the serial murders, saying that police thought the murders were the work of a butcher, other that the killer’s skill in anatomy meant it might even be a doctor. The criminal would usually kill his victims with great speed. He would first strangle them. Then once the heart had stopped pumping blood, the killer would lie his victim’s down on the ground, further reducing blood flow. He quickly cut into them with a long sharp blade. The writer of the letter claimed to be the person who had already killed at least two women. He promised to kill more. Nobody seems to know where the writer gained his pen name, but the last well publicised multiple murders occurred in 1811, with the Ratcliffe Highway murders, when a tool described as a ‘ripping hook’ was used to kill a family. Pressman Bulling, was unsure what to make of this letter. He first thought it was probably kind of sick joke, till it dawned on the enterprising journalist that possibly the prostitute murderer dubbed 'Leather Apron' by the press, had given himself a new name. Most Ripperologists suspect Bulling for having written the letter. Assistant Commissioner, Dr Robert Anderson, was placed in charge of the murder investigation. He seemed be pointing the finger at Bulling, when he wrote of where he thought the letter had originated. Anderson’s remark, is used by Ripperologists to discount it as a forgery. The Assistant Commissioner wrote, [Bold mine)

    'The "Jack the Ripper" letter is the creation of an enterprising London journalist...I am almost tempted to disclose the identity of the murderer and the pressman who wrote the letter.'

    Particulars on Francis Thompson when the ‘Dear Boss’ letter arrived to Bulling, Thompson was living in the East End, perhaps in Limehouse, looking for work as a journalist. He had been just ended a yearlong affair with a prostitute. He was living as a vagrant, sometimes walking the streets around Mile End Road in the East End. His bed, if he could find it, was in one the night shelter for the homeless. Thompson’s shelter had narrow wooden boxes for the men to sleep that were covered by a leather apron. Thompson was known to joke often about the leather apron, saying it was all the fashion. Thompson, having studied for six years to become respected surgeon, was a failed doctor who was now reduced to wearing rags. He endured three London winters, largely sleeping on the pavement before being ‘discovered’, at the end of 1888, as a journalist. Thompson, the seemingly gentle writer and poet, lived a solitary life. It was one as secret and contradictory as the dissecting scalpel from his hospital days, which he kept concealed under his clothes, while he walked Mile End Road. Thompson’s outlook can be summed up by his favourite motto. One that said that under extreme conditions, we are bound to fail,

    'Every scope by immoderate use turns to restraint.’

    Thompson’s relationship, with his prostitute, ended in a massive argument. He had gone to tell her that finally a magazine had published his work and his dream of becoming a journalist had come true. Thompson had included, with an article sent to a magazine editor, a few specimens of poetry. One poem, never published, was about a ‘knight’ who amuses himself by roaming the land after dark, hunting down and killing women. The night slices open their stomachs with a knife. Here is some of it and the main verse. [Bold mine)

    ‘…A lusty knight,
    Ha! Ha!…
    A rotten mist,
    Ha! Ha!…
    No one life there,
    Ha! Ha!…
    'Swiftly he followed her
    Ha! Ha!…
    Into the fogginess
    Ha! Ha!…
    Into the fogginess
    Ha! Ha!
    Lo, she corrupted
    Ho! Ho!
    Comes there a Death..

    And its paunch [stomach] was rent
    Like a brasted [bursting] drum;
    And the blubbered fat
    From its belly doth come
    It was a stream ran bloodily
    Under the wall
    O Stream, you cannot run too red…’


    Everard Meynell, the son of Thompson’s publisher and a biographer, detailed the final conversation, between this Ripper suspect, and his, since vanished, secret admirer. Meynell told of and her growing resemblance to Thompson’s dead mother and dead sister, [Bold mine)

    'After his first interview with my father he had taken her his news "They will not understand our friendship." She said and then, "I always knew you were a genius." And so she strangled the opportunity; she killed again the child, the sister; the mother had come to life within her.'

    After this final fight, Thompson’s prostitute disappeared, never to found. Thompson came to hate this profession. He equalled them to the puss filled ulcers he encountered on the many cadavers he had cut into. When he hoped to get work one day as a Doctor, [Bold mine)

    'These girls whose Practice is a putrid ulceration of love, venting foul and purulent discharge- for their very utterance is a hideous blasphemy against the sacrosanctity [sacred ways] of lover's language!'

    Although having become a man of letters, Francis Thompson, held a trait of dumbing down his writing style, shown here by this example,

    ‘Onurd Sir,
    I see. Now, wot I ave to say is, as I ‘ave no personal animosity… I ‘ave ‘im set this food while, bein’ a man of critical taste as keeps a oservant eye on his fellow-litteratures; and I size ‘im up as a gent of some littery ability, take my tip, and look at me…I don’t take much stock of potes as writers of Bleedin... I sign myself by a name-de-plum. Fly-by-night.’


    Thompson was paradoxical in many ways. He wrote that it was his fear of the sight of flowing blood, as his reason for leaving medical school, yet he worshiped and feared the colour red itself as grand and powerful in its connection to blood, [Bold mine)

    'Red has come to be a colour feared; it ought rather to be the colour loved. For it is ours. The colour is ours and what it symbolises is ours. Red in all its grades...to that imperial colour we call purple, the tinge of clotted blood,...proudly lineal; a prince of the Blood indeed.'

    The son of Thompson’s publisher wrote on this Ripper suspect’s behaviour, when mailing letters to the press, [Bold mine)

    'he sitting in gray lodgings, who crowded into the chilly ten minutes before 3 am, the writing of a long letter to be posted, after anxieties over address and gum [glue] of which we know nothing and a stumbling-journey down dark stairs, in a pillar-box still black with threatening dawn.'


    Here is the threatening ‘Dear Boss’ letter, sent to the press, one very early morning - the one supposedly sent by an‘enterprising’ journalist.

    'September 25th
    Dear Boss,
    I keep on hearing that the police have caught me but they wont fix me just yet. I have laughed when they look so clever and talk about being on the right track. That joke about Leather Apron gave me real fits. I am down on whores and I shant quit ripping them till I do get buckled. Grand work the last job was. I gave the lady no time to squeal. How can they catch me now. I love my work and want to start again. You will soon hear of me with my funny little games. I saved some of the proper red stuff in a ginger beer bottle over the last job to write with but it went thick like glue and I cant use it. Red ink is fit enough I hope Ha ha. The next job I do I shall clip the ladys ears off and send to the police officers just for jolly wouldn't you. Keep this letter back till I do a bit more work, then give it out straight. My knife's so nice and sharp I want to get to work right away if I get the chance. Good Luck.
    Yours truly
    Jack the Ripper
    Dont mind me giving the trade name'


    Richard Patterson.2014. Paradox.
    Author of

    "Jack the Ripper, The Works of Francis Thompson"

    http://www.francisjthompson.com/

  • #2
    It's solved!!!!! again.For years I believed the "dear boss " letter genuine but I've come to the conclusion now that is fake.There is nothing in that letter which points to it been written by our killer and I think the whole fact it was posted to a news agency screams JOURNALIST why not simply post it to one of the big newspapers if the envelope was addressed to the Times London or any other large newspaper it would have got there .I have to admit it does add a great twist to this story as do all the other letters and chalked messages but in reality written by our killer I think not.
    Last edited by pinkmoon; 12-17-2014, 03:24 PM.
    Three things in life that don't stay hidden for to long ones the sun ones the moon and the other is the truth

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by pinkmoon View Post
      It's solved!!!!! again.For years I believed the "dear boss " letter genuine but I've come to the conclusion now that is fake.There is nothing in that letter which points to it been written by our killer and I think the whole fact it was posted to a news agency screams JOURNALIST why not simply post it to one of the big newspapers if the envelope was addressed to the Times London or any other large newspaper it would have got there .I have to admit it does add a great twist to this story as do all the other letters and chalked messages but in reality written by our killer I think not.
      The police, investigating the Whitechapel murders, believed the ‘Dear Boss’ letter was genuine.
      The ‘Dear Boss’ letter is synonymous with the Whitechapel murders, and the name of the perpetrator.
      The Ripper Casebook owes its name to this letter.
      This thread owes its name to this letter.
      You think it is ‘fake’ and, I guess, worthless to the continued investigation. Thanks for your premium contribution !!!!! You are very welcome to your opinion.

      Respectfully,
      Author of

      "Jack the Ripper, The Works of Francis Thompson"

      http://www.francisjthompson.com/

      Comment


      • #4
        Here's Francis Thompson's handwriting compared to the handwriting in the 'Dear Boss' Letter.

        Author of

        "Jack the Ripper, The Works of Francis Thompson"

        http://www.francisjthompson.com/

        Comment


        • #5
          Richard,

          They are similar, but then much Victorian handwriting is.

          If you look at letters like the p in proper/paint and the r in proper/cruelties, they are very different.

          MrB

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by MrBarnett View Post
            Richard,

            They are similar, but then much Victorian handwriting is.

            If you look at letters like the p in proper/paint and the r in proper/cruelties, they are very different.

            MrB
            Hi Mr Barnett.
            I would say that r and p might be different. This is seems odd, considering they are used to make the word Ripper. People have told me that Victorian handwriting is very similar, but have never shown me proof, by matching a sample to the 'Dear Boss' letter. When I have looked for handwriting that is a closer match, I have never found it. Perhaps you could present us with a link to such an example, rather than mine from, an actual Ripper suspect, Francis Thompson.

            Thank you.
            Last edited by Richard Patterson; 12-18-2014, 04:40 AM.
            Author of

            "Jack the Ripper, The Works of Francis Thompson"

            http://www.francisjthompson.com/

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by pinkmoon View Post
              There is nothing in that letter which points to it been written by our killer and I think the whole fact it was posted to a news agency screams JOURNALIST why not simply post it to one of the big newspapers...
              There are at least two missives that may have preceded the famous Dear Boss. There's the September 17th Dear Boss They say I'm a Yid and the I am not a Yid poem. We don't know where they were sent and they were not made public, probably because of the Jewish reference.

              But the Ripper could have tried the newspapers or the police first and then the news agency. We don't know. There's even a theory that a newspaperman copied from the September 17th letter...

              As for the 'Ha Ha', it was fairly common by then, used by Shakespeare and Dickens. The question is, who would have latched on to it the most? And where do they come from?

              https://books.google.ca/books?id=xdj...ickens&f=false
              Last edited by MayBea; 12-18-2014, 09:17 AM.

              Comment


              • #8
                Hi,

                Personally I dont see a great definitive similarity there at all. Can you tell me why Thompson would have written the letter in the first place and then sent it to the Central News agency .... if he was the killer of course.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by MayBea View Post
                  There are at least two missives that may have preceded the famous Dear Boss. There's the September 17th Dear Boss They say I'm a Yid and the I am not a Yid poem. We don't know where they were sent and they were not made public, probably because of the Jewish reference.

                  But the Ripper could have tried the newspapers or the police first and then the news agency. We don't know. There's even a theory that a newspaperman copied from the September 17th letter...

                  As for the 'Ha Ha', it was fairly common by then, used by Shakespeare and Dickens. The question is, who would have latched on to it the most? And where do they come from?

                  https://books.google.ca/books?id=xdj...ickens&f=false
                  But who would know that news agencies even existed apart from a journalist.
                  Three things in life that don't stay hidden for to long ones the sun ones the moon and the other is the truth

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Richard Patterson View Post
                    The police, investigating the Whitechapel murders, believed the ‘Dear Boss’ letter was genuine.
                    The ‘Dear Boss’ letter is synonymous with the Whitechapel murders, and the name of the perpetrator.
                    The Ripper Casebook owes its name to this letter.
                    This thread owes its name to this letter.
                    You think it is ‘fake’ and, I guess, worthless to the continued investigation. Thanks for your premium contribution !!!!! You are very welcome to your opinion.

                    Respectfully,
                    Like I said before who would know about news agencies?
                    Three things in life that don't stay hidden for to long ones the sun ones the moon and the other is the truth

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by MayBea View Post
                      There are at least two missives that may have preceded the famous Dear Boss. There's the September 17th Dear Boss They say I'm a Yid and the I am not a Yid poem. We don't know where they were sent and they were not made public, probably because of the Jewish reference.

                      But the Ripper could have tried the newspapers or the police first and then the news agency. We don't know. There's even a theory that a newspaperman copied from the September 17th letter...

                      As for the 'Ha Ha', it was fairly common by then, used by Shakespeare and Dickens. The question is, who would have latched on to it the most? And where do they come from?

                      https://books.google.ca/books?id=xdj...ickens&f=false
                      Hi MayBea

                      Francis Thompson latched onto Dickens & Shakespeare, it seems more than anyone, and certainly more than any other Casebook suspect for the Ripper crimes.

                      The wife of Thompson’s life-long friend, publisher and heir to Thompson’s estate was Wilfrid Meynell. His wife, the poetess Alice Meynell’s father, T.J. Thompson, was a close friend of Dickens. Alice knew Dickens from when she was a small girl when the writer would visit the family while they were in England and Italy. Thompson held a lifelong infatuation with Alice Meynell writing letters to her, of such overt longing, that she became to resent his attention. Thompson sometimes quoted Dickens in his letters to Alice and Wilfrid Meynell.

                      Thompson came to love Shakespeare from when he was small, through reading illustrated books on his plays. He became absorbed in these pictures writing,

                      '…I understood love in Shakespeare...Those girls of floating hair I loved; and admired the long-haired, beautiful youths whom I met in these pictures…’

                      Thompson, only living partner in his entire life was his vanished prostitute. His Biographer Everard Meynell, son of his publisher, wrote that the rest of his lovers, apart from dolls and a statue, was these portraits of Shakespeare’s’ female characters.

                      Thompson performed Shakespeare as a child in his local theatre group. When Francis turned eleven years of age, his mother Mary Thompson, who called her son her 'pet' gave him a bust of William Shakespeare. A bust he treasured all through his youth. Thompson also wrote about and published essays on Shakespeare’s plays.

                      Respectfully,
                      Author of

                      "Jack the Ripper, The Works of Francis Thompson"

                      http://www.francisjthompson.com/

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Hatchett View Post
                        Hi,

                        Personally I dont see a great definitive similarity there at all. Can you tell me why Thompson would have written the letter in the first place and then sent it to the Central News agency .... if he was the killer of course.
                        Hi.
                        I have never said that Thompson wrote the ‘Dear Boss’ letter, only that it was all about him. Neither the Ripper nor Thompson would have had an understandable motive to write or send the letter, but his Publisher, the journalist Wilfrid Meynell, did.

                        On February 23 1887, homeless Thompson let fall a crumpled parcel into, his future publisher’s letterbox. The parcel held ‘Nightmare of the Witch Babies’ with its ‘Ha Ha’ verses, as well as an essay and two other poems. Thompson's letter explained away the laudanum stains and the torn pages,

                        'Dear Sir...I must ask pardon for the soiled state of the manuscript. It is due...to the strange places and circumstances under which it has been written...on the principle of "yet will I try the last," I have added a few specimens...Kindly address your rejection to the Charing Cross post office.'

                        This was before the Ripper murders had begun. The Journalist, Wilfrid Meynell, did not open this parcel for almost a year. When he did, Thompson was still lost on the streets, and his publisher assumed he was dead, through exposure to the elements or suicide. (Thompson had already attempted suicide by then at least once.)

                        In April 1888, Meynell, thinking Thompson was dead, placed one of Thompson’s poems, from the set Thompson submitted, in his magazine. On
                        April 14 1888 the publisher got another letter Thompson,

                        'Dear Sir-...I forwarded to you for your magazine a prose article...and accompanied it by some of the verse...To be brief, from that day to this, no answer has ever come into my hands...I am now informed that one of the copies of verse...is appearing in this month’s issue...I have no doubt that your explanation, when I receive it, will be entirely satisfactory to me.'

                        Thompson gave his postal address as a chemist in Drury Lane. Meynell approached the chemist where he was told that the poet still owed money for his previous purchases of opium. Wilfrid paid Thompson's debts and asked the chemist to direct Thompson to contact him at his “Merry England” office. When, a month later, Thompson failed to respond, Wilfrid Meynell continued to publish Thompson's poems with “Dream Tryst” (which was about Thompson’s dismay at losing his prostitute) in May and his essay in June 1888.

                        The canonical Ripper murders began at the end of August 1888. Sometime in September Thompson briefly visited Meynell for the first time. Thompson was dressed as a vagrant and very disturbed by the loss of his prostitute. He accepted a sum of money from his publisher who instructed Thompson to buy himself new clothes and clean himself up. Thompson refused offers to be given accommodation and leave the streets. Thompson said he wished to return to vagrancy to find his prostitute. He left the publisher’s office and did not return for many months.

                        Meynell was a journalist of many years experience. The ‘Dear Boss’ letter was received by the Central News on September 27th.

                        If Thompson was the Ripper, then Meynell may have come to connect Thompson to these crimes. By now this publisher had become hopelessly tangled up with Thompson, having already published his work and having received, the poem ‘Nightmare of the Witch’ babies, which was about hunting down and killing women with a knife. He had even paid Thompson to buy a new suit, so that he would appear more decent and attractive to the victims. Meynell searched the streets for Thompson but failed to find him. I believe that Meynell could not afford the scandal and possible conviction if he approached the police. (No offer of pardon to accomplices had yet been offered by the government.) Meynell had run out of options. Maybe Meynell, being an enterprising journliast, had arranged that the letter be written and sent to flush Thompson out, make him to fearful to kill more women, and lure him out of hiding. Only Thompson and the Meynell family knew about Thompson’s murder poem and the circumstances of his relationship with the prostitute. Only both knew that there was a trained surgeon on the streets with a scalpel looking for a prostitute. When the ‘Dear Boss’ letter was released to the public, Thompson would have seen the veiled references to him and recognised the ‘Ha Ha’ in it (Which was underlined.) He would have no doubt seen that it was from Meynell to him, showing that his game was up. Thompson did not take the bait, and went onto kill further women, while Meynell had only gotten himself more deeply involved with Thompson and the Ripper crimes.

                        When Thompson returned to Meynell exhausted, in what would have been probably mid-November, Meynell had no choice to but continue to keep his suspicions secret and send Thompson to the country monastery. The one that had attack dogs, high walls and a room for the on the top floor.

                        Respectfully,
                        Author of

                        "Jack the Ripper, The Works of Francis Thompson"

                        http://www.francisjthompson.com/

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Sounds good. When is the movie coming out?

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by gnote View Post
                            Sounds good. When is the movie coming out?
                            You tell me. I'm so pleased that you were able to understand it.
                            Author of

                            "Jack the Ripper, The Works of Francis Thompson"

                            http://www.francisjthompson.com/

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Hi,

                              Well you have certainly thought things through.

                              When you say that Thompsn was looking for his lost love, what do you think he intended when he found her?

                              Comment

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