my views

[corey123]

Hi Martin,

Indeed. Hmm... James Kelly? We don't know if he was in Whitechapel during the murders. He was too busy stabbing his wife with the penknife.

Kindey was a Kidney was a kidne.

Yours truly

[martin wilson]

Hi Corey
If you wanted to, you could at least try a connection to the GSG as the spelling in the 'Dear Boss' letter and the GSG is pretty consistent.
There is also a suspect to look into, James Kelly (dont mind me giving the trade name), a few minutes googling finds that 'Ripping out' is an upholstery term and James Tully shows a picture of a ripping chisel in his book 'The secret of prisoner 1167'
I'm still puzzling over the 'From Hell' letter.With aplogies to Gertrude Stein,'a kidney is a kidney is a kidney'
Except when it isn't, I have found a reference that states that kidney was slang for alike or resemblant, i.e similair, and in the case of the double murder temptingly significant.
There are all sorts of meanings to kidney in the Bible and the Torah, there is another thread started asking if Jack may have been a catholic, and of course Aaron Kominski was a jew, no evidence that he was particularly obsessed with religion but you never know, he may have been, I think there is a similarity between some of his behaviour and the most severe of the Rabbinic punishments called the 'Cherem' or 'Herem', so he may have been trying to atone in his own strange way.
My favourite theory however is typically 'out there' I wonder if it was one of Jacks 'funny little games' given that Elizabeth Strides fellow was called Kidney!
all the best martin

[corey123]

David,

'Boss' is the equivalent of Mr. or Ms. I don't see how it is an American term but I guess it is. So yes, I think it is informal.

[spyglass]

If the letters were written by JTR , and he being Maybrick
I guess the English equivalent at that time would be " Allright our kid "

.

[DVV]

Hi Corey,

I think "boss" is originally informal, isn't it ?

Amitiés,
David

[corey123]

Gman,

I don't know if the term 'boss' was considered or is still considered a american term. Americans stem from mostly past British indaviduals so, maybe it is a bit of both.

I don't know why they say it was an american term but I know some do.

I await them to answer.

Anyways there were tens of letters, as you probally know, that were titled "Dear Boss,".

[Gman992]

Weren't there two Dear Boss letters?

And is there an American/English lingo dictionary somewhere? Everyone says "boss" is an American expression. What would be the English expression?

[DVV]

The Star had exonerated Pizer as early as the 12 Sept.
It had thus little to fear from him.
On the other hand, there is a restriction in the article: "at least not the Leather Apron who has been the terror and the blackmailer of the women of Whitechapel."

I'm not sure there were two vicious Leather Apron in Whitechapel.

Amitiés all

[lynn cates]

magazine

Hello Corey and Abyss. there is an excellent piece on leather apron in the last regular edition of the Ripperologist.

Cheers, lads.
LC

[corey123]

Abyss,

Oh, my apologys. No I dont think Pizer is the apron. Not at all.

[Into The Abyss]

Apologies, Corey, for my brevity in relation to my previous comment on "the Leather Apron story" - I was referring to John Pizer being named as "Leather Apron", and did not mean to imply that the Leather Apron character was fictitious.

The actual point that I was trying to make was that the reporter Dam, had been directly responsible for naming Pizer as Leather Apron (allegedly on very little evidence) and as a result (it is claimed) had cost The Star some small amount of money in compensation paid to Pizer, in order for the newspaper to avoid a costly libel action. (Whether Pizer would have possessed, or could have acquired, the necessary funds to launch such an action is a moot point).

The fact is, if true, this story about Dam could show that he has previous for embellishing "facts" and creating his own copy. What better way to do this than through the DB letter (an inspired piece of journalistic licence) using the freelance penny-a-liner, Best, to actually write the letter (no idea why; perhaps Best's handwriting was better than his; or pehaps it would look more "English"; perhaps it would be less recognisable than Dam's own; who knows?).

It has also been noted by some authors and language experts that the DB letter apparently contains a number of American idioms of the time.

[corey123]

There are many a candidate for the "Leather Apron" so I dont really think thats just a story.

You have John Pizer,Julious Lipman, and many others.

Though Im not sure who "Leather Apron" really was.

If you haven't already done so take a look at the comparison to Thomas Bullings handwriting to the Ripper letters.

They are oddly similar but inconclusive.

yours truly

[Into The Abyss]

(Copied this over from the Media thread, as it seems more appropriate here - apologies for the repetition)

Just watched the programme on Sky Anytime and MacKenzie, ex-editor of the Sun, claimed that Frederick Best, a journalist with The Star newspaper at the time of the Whitechapel Murders was responsible for writing the "Dear Boss" letter, possibly under the tutelage of T P O'Connor, the newspaper's editor.

Mackenzie together with a writer/historian (sorry can't remember his name) had obtained a document allegedly written by Best (I believe it was something to do with a will bequest) and had that compared with the "Dear Boss" letter. The lady graphologist they used is apparently very familiar with the DB letter and was able to show some fairly believable comparisons between both documents.

Prior to this comparison, Mackenzie had produced a letter ("never before seen") from a major shareholder of The Star to the editor, expressing concern that the newspaper had known that DB had been written by one of their reporters, but had not done anything about the matter.

This story is borne out to a degree by a section in Paul Begg's, JtR - The Facts (pages 203-4, 2009 edition) where he relates a story from an anonymous contributor to Crime and Detection in August 1966, who claims to have met with a reporter named Best ("a penny-a-liner on The Star newspaper" in 1888) who said that he and a provincial colleague were responsible for ALL the Ripper letters.

Interestingly, Harry Dam, an American reporter also working on The Star at the relevant time, has been "fingered" previously as the author of DB. Perhaps it was a joint effort between Best and Dam, with Best doing the actual writing.

NB Am I correct in thinking that Dam was suspected of being the author of the "Leather Apron" story as well?

[corey123]

I must agree,
Although I think Bullings handwriting is extremily similar to that of the three letters sent by "Jack the Ripper" that we are discussing.

So hes my top candidate,

yours truly

[j.r-ahde]

Hello you all!

Yes, Best is the best candidate for the real writer of the letter!

But I cannot help saying this once more;

I hope, that he isn't related to George Best or Peter Best!

All the best
Jukka