The Proper Red Stuff In A Ginger Beer Bottle

[Madam Red]

Hey Madam Red,

Interesting thoughts, but to be honest I don't think he needed to be Einstein to work out that blood will clot and dry up very quickly if not preserved in the right way. Especially if it had been sitting around for 3 weeks before he actually wrote the letter....

"From Hell" is the best shot at a genuine Ripper letter, in my view.

Cheers,
Adam.

You make a good point.
And I agree with you about the "From Hell Letter."

[Adam Went]

Hey Madam Red,

Interesting thoughts, but to be honest I don't think he needed to be Einstein to work out that blood will clot and dry up very quickly if not preserved in the right way. Especially if it had been sitting around for 3 weeks before he actually wrote the letter....

"From Hell" is the best shot at a genuine Ripper letter, in my view.

Cheers,
Adam.

[Madam Red]

"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."

I had always thought that the "Dear Boss" letter was a hoax, but recently this line has caught my attention.

If the letter is a hoax, why on earth would the writer know that penning with blood is so difficult? And, if he wasn't just trying to rouse the reader but telling the truth, why did he have blood in his possession?

He described the traits accurately: blood drops won't stay as liquid for long, they have the tendency to stick together and turned into a jelly-like substance. I guess this is because of blood's clotting ability that our bodies rely on so much.

It's hard to use as ink, you can't simply dip the pen in it and expect to draw a complete word. You would either have to funnel it into the pen's internal reservoir (where the ink is stored), but risk the chance of it clotting and drying up inside, or use a paint brush, which might give you the best result.

Unless I'm entirely mistaken, this wasn't common knowledge back in the day. While there are countless mentions of "written with blood" in stories, I doubt that many people have actually tried it.

I only found this information out because one night I had a bloody nose (I get them a lot during the change of seasons) and took the oppurtunity to try to recreate this letter, wondering if using blood would be as hard as the author had said. I failed miserably.

There are plenty of ways to get blood without killing someone, whether it's his blood or someone else's. The author might've been injured or gotten a nosebleed, or had been a doctor or a butcher who obviously had that kind of access. The possibilities are endless.

I'm really curious as to what you guys think about this.