Dear Boss letter clues

[Herlock Sholmes]

That’s the one Kattrup cheers

I thought I’d entered The Twilight Zone

[Abby Normal]

Still waiting for The Rookie Detective’s deciphered hidden message....


I believe Dear Boss to be from JtR, but the only real clue is probably that he is not a doctor.

Other vague inferences is he’s stable lower class but not lowest, and deeply religious (if one includes the Moab and midian letter).

hi kattrup
i lean towrd dear boss and saucy jack being authentic too. not sure about moab though, its provenance, is a little sketchy. i agree with your clues, but i think one can glean a bit more from them. I would add it shows some one with a bit of self depreciating sense of humor, a local, someone obsessed with knives (ive always thought the rippers main motivation was a fascination with the knife and what it could do to the female boy), sense of superiority (over both police and his victims), controlling type personality and added to what caused the the first one squealed a bit statement, an anti semitic (or at least someone that was angry or jealous of jews).

oh and we wont be hearing from rookie, he/ she disapeared when outed as pierre and i think also got distracted obsessed with haile rubenhold tweets.

[Kattrup]

hi kattrup
i lean towrd dear boss and saucy jack being authentic too. not sure about moab though, its provenance, is a little sketchy. i agree with your clues, but i think one can glean a bit more from them. I would add it shows some one with a bit of self depreciating sense of humor, a local, someone obsessed with knives (ive always thought the rippers main motivation was a fascination with the knife and what it could do to the female boy), sense of superiority (over both police and his victims), controlling type personality and added to what caused the the first one squealed a bit statement, an anti semitic (or at least someone that was angry or jealous of jews).

How do you figure local from the letters?

[Abby Normal]

How do you figure local from the letters?

hi K
it was postmarked from "London East Central"

[Kattrup]

hi K
it was postmarked from "London East Central"

Yes, ok, I Was thinking you meant from the contents.

[Al Bundy's Eyes]

hi K
it was postmarked from "London East Central"

Does that cover Fleet St?

[Spider]

Postmarks are not necessarily indicative of the senders area of residence and cannot be relied upon.

[etenguy]

I believe the Dear Boss letter and the Saucy Jack postcard were written by JtR. I think potentially the reason for the double event was not that JtR was not sated after being interrupted attacking Stride, but rather that he wanted to cut the ear off his victim as he had promised to do in the Dear Boss letter. He wanted the police to know it was really him writing. It may be a bit circular, but the letters explain the need for the double event and the double event provides some (inconclusive) evidence of the authorship of the Dear Boss/Saucy Jack letters.

In addition, I think if you subscribe to the above, then there is some reason to think the GSG was written by JtR also. The bloodied apron being left as evidence of his authorship in the same way as the earlobe being cut from Catherine Eddowes. It forms part of the same message as Saucy Jack - providing his excuse for needing to attack two victims (blaming the Jews from the club for interrupting him - if you accept that interpretation of the GSG).

None of the above is conclusive - but I think each supports the other.

If the above is the case, I think the From Hell letter then warrants further consideration.

[Abby Normal]

LOL! this thread being resurrected just reminded me--is the current The Rookie Detective who is now posting again, Pierre?

Has Pierre returned??? hahahaha

[Al Bundy's Eyes]

LOL! this thread being resurrected just reminded me--is the current The Rookie Detective who is now posting again, Pierre?

Has Pierre returned??? hahahaha

TRD is definitely not Pierre, but I thought so myself at one point! Some similar, avant garde ways of interpreting things though.

Pierre's reading of the 'Gog Magog' letter, that was something else!

[Mark J D]

I would identify that there are twenty communications written by Jack the Ripper, all of which contain clues to the killers identity, some quite simple others not so and a few probable.

I'd be very interested to see what subsets of the surviving communications people think might be from the killer, the three/four principal items aside.

Anyone want to post their personal listing?

Mark D.

[Trevor Marriott]

I believe the Dear Boss letter and the Saucy Jack postcard were written by JtR. I think potentially the reason for the double event was not that JtR was not sated after being interrupted attacking Stride, but rather that he wanted to cut the ear off his victim as he had promised to do in the Dear Boss letter. He wanted the police to know it was really him writing. It may be a bit circular, but the letters explain the need for the double event and the double event provides some (inconclusive) evidence of the authorship of the Dear Boss/Saucy Jack letters.

In addition, I think if you subscribe to the above, then there is some reason to think the GSG was written by JtR also. The bloodied apron being left as evidence of his authorship in the same way as the earlobe being cut from Catherine Eddowes. It forms part of the same message as Saucy Jack - providing his excuse for needing to attack two victims (blaming the Jews from the club for interrupting him - if you accept that interpretation of the GSG).

None of the above is conclusive - but I think each supports the other.

If the above is the case, I think the From Hell letter then warrants further consideration.

In 1931 at the age of 70, Frederick Best purportedly confessed that he and a colleague at the Star newspaper had written all the letters signed "Jack the Ripper" to "keep the business alive" The possibility that 'Best' and company were responsible for all the Ripper letters is unbelievable, considering how many were sent and the various locations they were posted from. Best's confession first appeared in a 1966 edition of "Crime and Detection" and is set out below as described by Best to author Nigel Morland

"Returning homewards with me, Best discussed murders, the Whitechapel Murders in particular. With much-amplifying detail, he talked of his days as a penny-a-liner on 'The Star' newspaper. As a freelance, he had covered the Whitechapel murders from the discovery of Tabram. He claimed that he, and a provincial colleague, was responsible for all the Ripper letters, to 'keep the business alive'.

However, this is not conclusive that Best was ever involved in the writing or sending of any of the Ripper letters, however with the opinions of the police officers at the time, it certainly makes a strong case to suggest he was involved in some of the letters, and in particular the first-ever mention of the name Jack the Ripper in the Dear Boss letter.

In addition as some form of corroboration

Sir Robert Anderson, in his 1910 reminiscences, thought Jack “the creation of an enterprising London journalist . . . I am almost tempted to disclose the identity of . . . the pressman who wrote the letter . . . but no public benefit would result”

In 1913 ex-Chief Inspector Littlechild, in a private letter to journalist George R. Sims wrote, “With regard to the term ‘Jack the Ripper’ it was generally believed at the Yard that Tom Bullen of the Central News was the originator, but it is probable Moore, who was his chief, was the inventor

In 2009 after examining the handwriting of Bulling, Moore, and Best a handwriting expert concluded that Frederick Best was the most likely author of that letter, along with the “Saucy Jack Postcard” also received at the offices of The Central News agency on October 1st 1888, just as The Dear Boss letter had been.

In his 1914 memoirs, Sir Melville Macnaghten felt that he could “discern the stained forefinger of the journalist—indeed, a year later, I had shrewd suspicions as to the actual author!”

As another pointer to Frederick Best here is an extract from a letter from the major shareholder of The Star Newspaper 1891 “Furthermore, Mr. Best's attempt to mislead Central News during the Whitechapel Murders should have led to an earlier termination of his association with the newspaper”

www.trevormarriott.co.uk

[Abby Normal]

I'd be very interested to see what subsets of the surviving communications people think might be from the killer, the three/four principal items aside.

Anyone want to post their personal listing?

Mark D.

GSG-Def from the ripper
Dearboss/saucy jack-good chance from the ripper
From hell-Maybe
openshaw- just maybe
moab-just maybe
1896 winters coming-maybe

[Mark J D]

GSG-Def from the ripper
Dearboss/saucy jack-good chance from the ripper
From hell-Maybe
openshaw- just maybe
moab-just maybe
1896 winters coming-maybe

Nothing from the hundreds of others??

If I may ask you, old bean: since you know your Lechmere theory as well as anyone, why would he, specifically, want to put out written messages? What would he gain, in any of the cases you've listed?

Genuine question. I'm not having a go at you.

Bests,

Mark D.

[Abby Normal]

Nothing from the hundreds of others??

If I may ask you, old bean: since you know your Lechmere theory as well as anyone, why would he, specifically, want to put out written messages? What would he gain, in any of the cases you've listed?

Genuine question. I'm not having a go at you.

Bests,

Mark D.

I own letters from hell, and nothing from the others really stand out.
why do any serial killers write letters or leave messages? who really knows, but they gain some kind of satisfaction from it no matter who it is specifically.