Dear Boss P.S.

[Billy Bulger]

Dear Boss letter is redundant

Hi guys,
I dont mean to be rude here, I'm in no position to be afterall but is there really any point in debating the Dear Boss letter(s)?
There has been a general consensus for some time now that the letter was written by Thomas Bullen/Bulling or by his immediate superior.

[Sam Flynn]

There has been a general consensus for some time now that the letter was written by Thomas Bullen/Bulling or by his immediate superior.

Whether a general consensus exists on Bulling being the author of DB/SJ is a moot point, Bill. Personally, I find Bulling's handwriting quite dissimilar to that of Dear Boss, even allowing for some disguising of the handwriting. (I should point out that I don't see that the handwriting in DB/SJ etc. appears particularly "disguised" anyway.) I'm not the only one who doubts that Bulling wrote them either.

Whatever, whilst it might be redundant to discuss these letters in terms of the Ripper being their author, they are quite intriguing little mysteries in and of themselves.

[Moriarty]

[QUOTE=Billy Bulger;43177]Hi guys,
I dont mean to be rude here, I'm in no position to be afterall but is there really any point in debating the Dear Boss letter(s)?
There has been a general consensus for some time now that the letter was written by Thomas Bullen/Bulling or by his immediate superior.[/QUOTE

It's sometimes fun to shake up a general concensus. That's how we know the earth isn't flat.

[#6.]

I'm new here so I apologize if this has been gone over ad nauseum before but this thread seemed to be the best place to bring my question up.

In the "Saucy Jack" letter the writer seems to be moving about the space time continuum a bit. He writes, "you'll hear about Saucy Jacky's work tomorrow double event this time..." In this statement he seems to be referring to something he's about to do. Then he follows it with this ..."number one squealed a bit couldn't finish straight off. ha not the time to get ears for police." This would seem to refer to something that's already happened.

I don't get it.

It's generally agreed by Ripperologists that he left the body of Elizabeth Stride unmutilated because he had been disturbed by Louis Diemschutz entering the yard. He only went on and slew Catherine Eddowes because he was left with the burning desire to "finish" his victim off "properly" as it were.

If the Saucy Jack letter is to be believed it was all a planned event. The writer openly states that the next killing will be a "double event". So we're led to believe from this message that he planned on killing two women that night from the start.

And why move from future tense to past tense in one run-on sentence?

Thoughts?



The whole letter:

I was not codding dear old Boss when I gave you the tip, you'll hear about Saucy Jacky's work tomorrow double event this time number one squealed a bit couldn't finish straight off. ha not the time to get ears for police. thanks for keeping last letter back till I got to work again.


Jack the Ripper

[Sam Flynn]

Hi #6, and welcome.

And why move from future tense to past tense in one run-on sentence?

He doesn't really. The part that's in the future tense is the "you'll hear about Saucy Jacky's work tomorrow" bit, rather than the Double Event itself. In long-hand, the message translates as, "You'll hear [about what I've just done] tomorrow. [It was a] Double Event this time".

[#6.]

Hi #6, and welcome.He doesn't really. The part that's in the future tense is the "you'll hear about Saucy Jacky's work tomorrow" bit, rather than the Double Event itself. In long-hand, the message translates as, "You'll hear [about what I've just done] tomorrow. [It was a] Double Event this time".

Thanks for the welcome.

Okay, I've added some missing words to make the letter read the way I believe the writer meant it to be understood taking what you said into consideration also. See what you think...

I was not codding dear old Boss when I gave you the tip, you'll hear about Saucy Jacky's work tomorrow,(It was a) double event this time; number one squealed a bit(and I) couldn't finish (her) straight off. Ha, (Did) not (have) the time to get (her) ears for (the) police. thanks for keeping last letter back till I got to work again.


It makes a tad more sense now and leaves open to interpretation whether he's simply relating the events as a "double event" or whether he planned on it being a double event from the get go.

Still, the writer claims it was the victims "squealing" that kept him from "finishing the job" rather than admit he was interrupted in his work.

Intersting.

Either it was not written by the real killer or the real killers’ ego wouldn't let him admit he was nearly caught.

Also, note how the writer used a comma in the beginning of the letter leading one to believe he understood punctuation but then failed to use any punctuation again.

[chris14]

I wonder why nobody wants to analyse the stamp on the envelope... It could contain the DNA of Jack. I'm sure they could find a gentle way for doing it, without harming the stamp/envelope.

Many people are able to write several ways. JTR was an intelligent man, I have no doubts. I'm sure he could change his handwriting-style.

[chris14]

Oh, I have to withdraw the first comment of my previous post... I've just read everything on the Victorian stampage-system in another thread.

[Stewart P Evans]

Significant

Just an observation, but the facsimiles allow us to see the P.S. before the ravages of ageing took hold.
The photos of the Dear Boss letter in Stewart and Keith's book (and my own personal experience at the PRO) reveal that the postscript is virtually unreadable now...
JB

Picking up on this rather significant observation of John's I thought it would be interesting for readers to see the the below images, the first a black and white photograph of the postscript taken in 1988 before the letter was sent to the PRO and the second a colour shot of it in 2000 after the PRO had treated it -

[Stewart P Evans]

Obvious

Two things that are obvious on the above photo's are the markings made on the actual document by the PRO and the attempt to remove the piece of white repair tape on the fold, which tape also seems to indicate that the letter has been folded after its initial return.

[Shelley]

I wonder why nobody wants to analyse the stamp on the envelope... It could contain the DNA of Jack. I'm sure they could find a gentle way for doing it, without harming the stamp/envelope.

Many people are able to write several ways. JTR was an intelligent man, I have no doubts. I'm sure he could change his handwriting-style.

The Victorians did not have the type of technology we have today, i think that the DNA issue can be a bit of a loss Chris, as for one we would have to have a good enough validation of a suspect, also DNA is lost over time and maybe non-existent in any of the bits from the JTR case. There has to be a good amount to get a reasonable DNA sample to make a match, then the awful question is what would this DNA sample ( If any possible to draw on) would be matched to, to whom? I think that there may be much too much privacy in consideration towards suspects in testing DNA, then also any body of Government or council would make allowances for such costs to a case that is so old, it would have to be drawn from private funding, however the ' Privacy ' question would not allow for such a substantial search. Besides i do not think that the Dear Boss letter was anything to do with Jack at all, i am sure that this was the sensational work of a Journalist, as i checked years ago it matched the handwriting of ' Bulling ' ( i think that's his name).
There was another case similar to the ripper killings in Victoria London, i believe it was around 1830's of a woman that was found under a cart, so this type of killing had not been unheard of before 1888 ( And in England....i recall it only vaguely).
What i did find interesting in my amatuer handbook of ' Handwriting ' was a letter that was written by Frederick Abberline himself, it sparked an intelligent man with a christian/religious background and also a hand at music, so i wonder if it could ever be found that Abberline played an instrument?

[Shelley]

Two things that are obvious on the above photo's are the markings made on the actual document by the PRO and the attempt to remove the piece of white repair tape on the fold, which tape also seems to indicate that the letter has been folded after its initial return.

I can see on the black & white copy that there is some faint writing under the letter as it is read, is this possibly just some kind of copy smudging at the bottom from the actual letter Stewart?
I can see what you mean about the white tape, however there seems to be faint red ink writing on the far side, just on the edge, but this doesn't seem to show up on the black and white copy, is it possible to get a blown up version of it to see what it may or may not be Stewart?

[Stewart P Evans]

One Sheet

I can see on the black & white copy that there is some faint writing under the letter as it is read, is this possibly just some kind of copy smudging at the bottom from the actual letter Stewart?
I can see what you mean about the white tape, however there seems to be faint red ink writing on the far side, just on the edge, but this doesn't seem to show up on the black and white copy, is it possible to get a blown up version of it to see what it may or may not be Stewart?

The 'Dear Boss' letter is written on a single sheet of letter paper and is thus written on both sides, the postscript being at right angles to the actual letter text and written on the bottom half of the second page. Thus all the 'faint writing' that you refer to is actually the script from the first page showing through the paper, nothing more. It has 'bled' through slightly and this shows up a bit more obviously in the colour photo.

[Shelley]

Thanks Stewart,
Ah, yes of course i'd forgotten that it was compiled on a single sheet of paper, so it's only the writing bled through from the otherside ( i've got so used to writing letters on single sheets myself, so my letters end up in two papers or more). However what's the writing that seems to be written on the edge? Is it just blurred and bled through? Or anything else? I'm still convinced that it was written for sensationalism and by the Journalist ' Bulling ' i think his name was. By the way when did Tumbelty die eventually?

[Stewart P Evans]

Thanks Stewart,
Ah, yes of course i'd forgotten that it was compiled on a single sheet of paper, so it's only the writing bled through from the otherside ( i've got so used to writing letters on single sheets myself, so my letters end up in two papers or more). However what's the writing that seems to be written on the edge? Is it just blurred and bled through? Or anything else? I'm still convinced that it was written for sensationalism and by the Journalist ' Bulling ' i think his name was. By the way when did Tumbelty die eventually?

The writing isn't written on the edge, it appears to be because I scanned only the half of the letter with postscript on it. Tumblety died on Thursday 28 May 1903 in St Louis.