Question About The Dear Boss Letter

[c.d.]

How likely is it that an anonymous letter with nothing on it which would identify the author and simply addressed to "The Boss" could make its way through multiple layers and employees at the newspaper into the correct hand who then determined that it might be authentic and turned it over to the proper authorities?

No dog in the fight simply asking a question.

c.d.

[Kattrup]

Very likely, I’d say, considering that it happens even today, when people send emails.

I work in an organization with a central administration of 300-350 people; there’s a dedicated mail sorting team that go through incoming correspondence and send them on to the relevant offices.

An anonymous email confessing to a recent local crime spree would of course be sent on to the relevant superiors.

In Victorian times, when written correspondence was even more the norm, this bureaucratic function worked as well, and more systematic too, which is why in the archives we have ledgers from various ministries and public bodies detailing and enumerating all incoming letters.
While the Central News was not a public office, they would, by virtue of being a Victorian office with a high level of correspondence, be accustomed to managing letters of all sorts.

[erobitha]

Just to be clear the letter was not sent to a specific newspaper. It was sent to the central press agency, the equivalent of what would be Reuters today.

This has never sat well with me. Why would a killer send this letter to a central news agency and not a specific paper. It demonstrates inside knowledge of how the press works and how syndicating content works.

Thats why I am on the side of the police who believed this and saucy Jack postcard were done by someone within the press industry.

[Geddy2112]

This has never sat well with me. Why would a killer send this letter to a central news agency and not a specific paper. It demonstrates inside knowledge of how the press works and how syndicating content works.

I 100% agree with this statement. Insider knowledge to get the point made.

[c.d.]

Just to be clear the letter was not sent to a specific newspaper. It was sent to the central press agency, the equivalent of what would be Reuters today.

Did not know that. Always assumed it was a specific newspaper. Sometimes, if you pay attention, you can learn things on here. Thanks.

c.d.

[Jon Guy]

Just to be clear the letter was not sent to a specific newspaper. It was sent to the central press agency, the equivalent of what would be Reuters today.

This has never sat well with me. Why would a killer send this letter to a central news agency and not a specific paper. It demonstrates inside knowledge of how the press works and how syndicating content works.

Thats why I am on the side of the police who believed this and saucy Jack postcard were done by someone within the press industry.

The area was crawling with journalists looking for stories
Why not that the writer was drawn to this specific news agency ?

[Geddy2112]

The area was crawling with journalists looking for stories
Why not that the writer was drawn to this specific news agency ?

Maybe he worked for the news agency.

[Jon Guy]

Maybe he worked for the news agency.

Possibly Geddy.
Certainly, Bullen and Best may have written a hoax letter or two, but not Dear Boss or Saucy Jack

[Mike J. G.]

Does anyone have any information on the letter that supposedly precedes the Dear Boss one? From the 24th September, I believe. I can't find any threads on here about it.

[Scott Nelson]

Bulling worked for the Central News, Best worked for the Star. Why couldn't either man have written the Dear Boss or Saucy Jack letters?

[Jon Guy]

Bulling worked for the Central News, Best worked for the Star. Why couldn't either man have written the Dear Boss or Saucy Jack letters?

Didn`t they claim to have written all the letters signed Jack The Ripper ? - this can`t be true as there were hundreds of JTR signed letters, and only Dear Boss and Saucy Jack were written by the same hand.

Didn`t they say they wrote it to "keep the business alive" ? There was no need to keep "the business alive" in Sept/ oct 88

[Michael W Richards]

In reality there are many letters beginning "Dear Boss", something which some people may not be aware of. There are several letters in Sept..the 17th, 25th, then in Oct on the 4th, Oct 5th telegram, Oct 19.....several more in Nov 1888..and also in July 1889, Sept 25 1889, Oct 29th 1889, ...thats all I found with the letter beginning "Dear Boss". But some others do use "Boss" in the content of the letter. Stewart Evans has graciously provided us with many photocopied letters and telegrams from the Ripper files. Check the Photo Archive section here.

I found it interesting that the origin of the usage of the word "Boss" referring to an authority figure was Dutch...from "baas", and was adopted in America for usage when referring to a Slave owner, socially preferable to using "Master" which had been the convention earlier in the late 1700-early 1800's. In England it was initially adopted as workmans slang for "leading man", or "swell".

So the connotation of the word seems pretty consistent with Americans and the British around this time, the reason Im mentioning this is because people have suggested that the phrase reveals a likely US background of the writer. But there were people on both sides of the pond using the term in that way at that point in time.

What its does suggest to me though is that the writer of at least some of these might well have been from the labouring classes, someone used to inferior/superior work environments and its common dialogue...which would then likely indicate East End living accommodations. That could indicate that the writer of at least some of these Dear Boss letters was East End based.