Use of "Buckled" To Denote Arrest

[Jon Guy]

The "Dear Boss" letter uses the word "buckled"
quote: "I am down on whores and I shan’t quit ripping them till I do get buckled".
I believe this was a challenge to the efficiency of the Yard and it's investigation The Ripper was challenging the police to catch him.
Mr Holmes

Surely the letter would have been sent to the police if a direct challenge to them ? Why send it to the press and then ask them to hold it back ?

The fact that it was sent to the Central News Agency, and the details in the letter, to my mind, show that the author, like the whole country, was following the story in the newspapers.
Although most newspapers carried basically the same stories, it may be possible to find a newspaper that mentions the Central News Agency, and "that joke about Leather Apron" and other details mentioned in the letter. Possibly, a newspaper printed close to when the letter was written.
Certainly, the Chapman inquest was concluded possibly on the same day the letter was written.

[Bridewell]

The "Dear Boss" letter uses the word "buckled"
quote: "I am down on whores and I shan’t quit ripping them till I do get buckled".
I believe this was a challenge to the efficiency of the Yard and it's investigation The Ripper was challenging the police to catch him.
Mr Holmes

Only if the Ripper wrote the letter.

[Rosella]

Is this an attempt then by the writer to implicate the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and their financial supporters and operatives in the US, in this series of murders, plus hopefully smear Parnell at the same time?

A young, politically minded journalist as writer, perhaps?

[Outlaw]

Hello Beowulf. A: The Parnell Commission hearings.

Cheers.
LC

Again....my thoughts exactly..

[Outlaw]

Hello Beowulf. One idea I've played with is to emulate NOT just an American but an IRISH American. Bit of a stretch, however.

Cheers.
LC

My thoughts exactly

[Outlaw]

Double post - Sorry

[Sherlock Holmes]

The "Dear Boss" letter uses the word "buckled"
quote: "I am down on whores and I shan’t quit ripping them till I do get buckled".
I believe this was a challenge to the efficiency of the Yard and it's investigation The Ripper was challenging the police to catch him.
Mr Holmes

[Stewart P Evans]

Buckled

From my Victorian dictionary of slang -

[Sherlock Holmes]

It is my belief that the "Dear Boss" letter was intended for the boss of Scotland Yard. I believe he wanted to get caught.
Mr Holmes

[lynn cates]

brandy

Hello Beowulf. Well, very familiar to all news readers at that date. In fact, a certain brandy company used it as a humourous intro for their cherry brandy.

Cheers.
LC

[Beowulf]

Hello Beowulf. A: The Parnell Commission hearings.

Cheers.
LC

Is this something known by all English schoolkids? Or is it something historians, especially Ripper historians, are well aquainted with?

I would have never guessed that in a millionbillion years, because I've NEVER heard of it.

But it does make for a fascinating addition to that time and all it's historical references, and I'll have to read up on it, (as I have already started to) and see how it fit into the minds of the population of the time.

So Buckled and Boss could take on an almost insidious meaning.

[lynn cates]

bilingual

Hello Chris. Doubtless. More and more people on both sides the pond are becoming bilingual.

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

oops!

Hello Don. I stand corrected. Sport first. (heh-heh)

Cheers.
LC

[ChrisGeorge]

I think we underestimate the speed with which slang terms cross the Atlantic -- in both directions. This is particularly so when it is borne in mind that lexicographers seek the first usages of words in print and many words -- especially those of slang -- exist for a long time among the barely literate classes before gaining published currency.

In an article I wrote several years ago I pointed how, just a short time after the first "Jack the Ripper" letter an elderly New York spinster actually found a man under her bed during her ritual nightly check and went running into the street, in nightgown, screaming "Jack the Ripper, Jack the Ripper!!"

Granted, Jackie and his depredations were a special case, but I would still suggest slang terms and catch phrases crossed the Atlantic more rapidly than some academics would allow.

Don.

Hi Don et al.

As we know, the American press was carrying articles from the British press on the Whitechapel murders and other British news along with pieces written by their correspondents, and the British press was carrying American news, so there had to be some cross-pollination in terms of British and American expressions being picked up by the consumers of newsprint in both countries.

All the best

Chris

[Supe]

Lynn,

You may tout the Commission all you wish, but as Jennifer Pegg (Shelden) and I wrote in Rip in 2008: Some Ripperologists are fond of quoting the movie line attributed to Jack the Ripper ”I gave birth to the 20th Century”, but truly William McGregor has a better claim on that bit of fame.

And what did that canny Scot do? He created the English Football League, whose first games were played while police were still searching the backyards of Hanbury Street.

Don.