Letter to the editor

[Cap'n Jack]

I hadn't come across this before, and thought it of some import:

People
London, United Kingdom
Sunday, 26 August 1888

THE WHITECHAPEL MYSTERY
TO THE EDITOR OF "THE PEOPLE."

Sir, - My attention has been drawn to a report in your issue of the 12th inst. Under the above heading. In it the following statements occur:- (1) That a number of the tenants of George Yard Buildings "let beds by the night to travellers." (2) That consequently, "men go there with women, whom they represent to be their wives." On behalf of the tenants, I beg to give these statements an unqualified denial. Beds are let by the night in this locality, but never in these buildings.

- Yours, &c.,
FRANCIS FISHER HEWITT
George Yard Buildings, Whitechapel, August 17th, 1888

It's in the press section.

[Supe]

AP,

Yes, it is an interesting letter and has been considered so for many years by Ripperologists. Among those would be Jan Coram, who included the letter in her article "George Yard Revisted" in Ripperologist 94 (August 2008) as did I "Martha Tabram: Does She or Doesn't She?" (same issue) and I am quite sure that Tom Wescott did as well in his article "The Silence of Violence" in Journal of the Whitechapel Society (October 2006). And those are just among the most recent.

And before we get another lecture about the mercenary perfidy of Ripper magazines, at least the articles put the letter from Hewitt, the George Yard superintendent, in context.

Don.

[Cap'n Jack]

For sure, but for those who don't invest in the commercial exploitation of the Ripper world it is still probably a good read.

[Supe]

AP,

The act is old and tired--find a new one. In any case, you missed an important point. To wit: In the Ripperologist articles the reason for the letter and thetext were explored.

Don (making that Yankee dollar any way I can).