Maria Coroner

[Harry D]

Appparently an attractive and respectable young woman with a morbid hobby. She is the only author of a Ripper letter to have been identified. I'd be interested to know what became of Maria after her little brush with the law. Have any of our eminent researchers managed to track her down?

[KeithDavid]

Maria Coroner

Maria Coroner's Ripper connections do not quite end with her hoax letters. In 1888, Coroner was having a 'romantic friendship' with Bradford hangman William Berry. The same executioner who would later hang Ripper suspect, William Bury in Dundee.
Precious little is known about Coroner after her prosecution. My theory being she may have returned to live out her life back in her native Oldham. Her actions terrified the people of Bradford after her letters were published in the Bradford Telegraph. Many were actually convinced that Jack the Ripper had come to town. I would imagine Maria would have had a difficult time if she had remained in Bradford?

[ChrisGeorge]

Maria Coroner's Ripper connections do not quite end with her hoax letters. In 1888, Coroner was having a 'romantic friendship' with Bradford hangman William Berry. The same executioner who would later hang Ripper suspect, William Bury in Dundee.
Precious little is known about Coroner after her prosecution. My theory being she may have returned to live out her life back in her native Oldham. Her actions terrified the people of Bradford after her letters were published in the Bradford Telegraph. Many were actually convinced that Jack the Ripper had come to town. I would imagine Maria would have had a difficult time if she had remained in Bradford?

People around the world from 1888 onward were being told that "Jack the Ripper had come to town" because of hoax letters, or an actual murderer that the local press called "Jack the Ripper," or because of mere rumor.

[Howard Brown]

Appparently an attractive and respectable young woman with a morbid hobby. She is the only author of a Ripper letter to have been identified. I'd be interested to know what became of Maria after her little brush with the law. Have any of our eminent researchers managed to track her down?

Harry...actually, there were at least three people, all women, who wrote hoax letters and were identified.
Miriam Howells was one....I'll locate the other one for you. Nina Brown found the third one, but I can't remember her name offhand.

[Howard Brown]

The third female was a young servant girl named Charlotte Higgins ( 14 years old ) nabbed for sending a threatening letter to a Reverend, purportedly from the 'Whitechapel Murderer'. Bristol Mercury, December 14, 1888.
Nina Brown put some information pertaining to Maria Coroner in issue 128 of Ripperologist Magazine.

[Howard Brown]

Furthermore, one of the two 'Tunbridge Wells' youths ( Gower & Dobell ) penned a letter to the Tunbridge Wells Advertiser right after the Tabram murder and just before the Double Event claiming to be from 'Another Whitechapel Murderer', although their crime spree had nothing to do with the Whitechapel Murders.

[SirJohnFalstaff]

In Letters From Hell, they also mention a young man from Glasgow. He is not named and got a slap on the wrist.

[Howard Brown]

Since my previous post on this thread, I found two more females who wrote 'Ripper' missives and were caught.
Sarah Elizabeth Gough & Martha Biden now join Miriam Howells, Maria Coroner, and Charlotte Higgins.

[SirJohnFalstaff]

My theory being she may have returned to live out her life back in her native Oldham.

I've seen information saying that she was born in Canada in 1867. Any more information about Maria Coroner is welcome.