Dear Boss

[lynn cates]

Indeed?

Hello Steven. Are you serious? The one on pp. 16 & 17 (LFH) is in disrepair, as you say, but the margins are quite different. The facsimile (Casebook) contains different folds (business envelope) compared to the original (small envelope). It is also a good deal neater.

Cheers.
LC

[Steven Russell]

Hello All. Oops. The "Dear Boss" here on Casebook seems to be the police facsimile. If so, and given it is hand written and not a photograph, the margin wandering may be on behalf of the transcriber.

Cheers.
LC

Hello, Lynn.
The version of Dear Boss on here and the one in LFH are obviously the same document. The one in the book appears faded, has picked up some more creases, and has a small piece missing. But they are clearly the same document photographed at different times.

Best wishes,
Steve.

[mariab]

Thanks Lynn.

Your proposal above is sound.

Sound and not indecent.

[lynn cates]

craftsman

Hello Maria. Yes, he was a good craftsman and had even saved a request letter from Davitt many years before. He used that as a copy from which to work on the Davitt forgeries.

Your proposal above is sound.

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

original

Hello All. The original "Dear Boss" is (I think) reproduced on pp. 16 & 17 of "Letters from Hell."

Although difficult to read the letter itself, the margin shift is hardly noticeable on the first side; some shift to right on back.

Cheers.
LC

[mariab]

That would indicate that the transcriber was not Piggott. (Heh-heh)

So Piggot was a tidy transcriber? :-)

[mariab]

Neilson of Wealdstone

Pertaining to the unnamed PI agency, there's a rumour circulating about a “Neilson of Wealdstone“ mentioned in the SB ledgers.

Lynn, a small highjack as I'm in a hurry (conducting research for Rob here in Lyon): I'm ordering the AFs from N.Y. (I'll pay), and Michael (and possibly 2 more people) will conduct the search. You're only required to scan the AFs and send them over to Michael on a CD-ROM. Would that be OK? I'll email you when I find a minute.

This has ZILCH to do with the “Dear Boss“ letter, but since Lynn's the capo di tutti i capi AKA the big boss in the AF translation project, maybe it fits after all...

[lynn cates]

mea culpa

Hello All. Oops. The "Dear Boss" here on Casebook seems to be the police facsimile. If so, and given it is hand written and not a photograph, the margin wandering may be on behalf of the transcriber.

That would indicate that the transcriber was not Piggott. (Heh-heh)

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

Kirby

Hello Trade. I just read your post #214 a bit more carefully. I believe that the Kirby to whom you allude is the same Kirby found on the old ledger page that contains the references to John and Catherine Kelly.

Now there's a mystery to be solved!

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

ledgers

Hello Tom. Those are still in the mix. But, heck, I'm still not sure whom Catherine Kelly was and on whom she was informing. (heh-heh)

Cheers.
LC

[Tom_Wescott]

Thanks Lynn, though that doesn't tell me anything. LOL. Last I knew we had McGrath and the goings on of an unnamed PI agency.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[lynn cates]

names

Hello Tom. Well, there is a thread, but with your other qualifications . . . (heh-heh)

Short version: I believe that Trevor located a Wilson AND an O'brien. Probably just a ripperological coincidence.

Cheers.
LC

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Lynn, is there a thread that covers all the various SB ledger finds, that isn't impossible to navigate with reams of nonsense and fighting? I don't believe I yet have a good understanding of these finds, but I'd like to have.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[lynn cates]

O'Brien

Hello Trade. Thanks for that.

Turns out that Sinclair was actually Matthew O'Brien. O'Brien worked with Red Jim McDermott on some phoney dynamite schemes. Later he turned to blackmailing Sir Edward Jenkinson--he claimed he had 2 letters that would bring him down. Sir Ed was in a panic.

Another alias for O'Brien was Wilson. Odd, when you look at those new ledger names that Trevor dug up.

Cheers.
LC

[TradeName]

Michael Davitt mentions Hurlbert in his 1904 book:

The Fall of Feudalism in Ireland: or, The story of the Land League Revolution (London: Harper, 1904), Pages 559-560
by Michael Davitt

Another person who was intelligently interested in behalf of The Times in Mr. Sheridan's opinions and possible action was the late William Henry Hurlbert, one-time editor of the New York World. He wrote a book, Ireland under Coercion, during the sitting of the special commission, which was intended to show that Mr. Parnell and the National League, and not Mr. Balfour and Dublin Castle, were the true coercionists in Ireland. What the purpose or motive of the book was has remained a mystery. He addressed the following letter to Mr. Sheridan:

"12 Southwell Gardens, Cromwell Road, S.W.,

"April 6, 1889.

"Dear Sir,—I do not know how fully or accurately the proceedings taking place now before what is called the 'Parnell Commission' may be reported in America, and I should be much surprised to find that they are reported either accurately or fully there. But if your recollection of a very interesting conversation which I had with you in my office in New York, on an occasion of much importance to yourself, in 1883, is as vivid as is mine, you will quite understand, I am sure, the impulse which prompts me now to invite your serious attention to the elaborate efforts which are now making here to convert parliamentary Parnellism from an Irish and revolutionary into a British and Radical organization. Wm. Henry Hurlbert."

Page 617

"SINCLAIR"

The most mysterious and romantic of the many strange people who figured directly or otherwise in The Times commission was the secret agent Sinclair. This is not his real name; it is only one of several assumed names. He was a handsome man, in the prime of life, with light hair, blue eyes, strong, resolute face, lightish mustache, military bearing, and no beard. He bore some resemblance to William Henry Hurlbert, already alluded to; a fact which adds another romantic chapter to Sinclair's history, if Hurlbert's testimony in the case made against him in London by a lady in 1892 be true—namely, that one "Wilfred Murray," and not Hurlbert, was the gallant gay deceiver in the case in question. The description given of Wilfred Murray corresponds with that of Sinclair, who had been at one time in Hurlbert's service.