'it was nice' Observation

[mklhawley]

Hi Mike,

Interesting thoughts. The only concern I would personally have is a pretty basic one from a logic point of view, and that is why the killer would find it necessary to hide his true writing style in the first place? In the days before such letters could be properly scientifically analysed, with hundreds of other letters bearing the name of the killer or purporting to be from the killer pouring in to various individuals and departments, what could he achieve by falsifying his writing style?

Unless of course it was simply another part of the games he was playing in his own mind....

Cheers,
Adam.

Hi Adam,

Very true, and even today there's controversy about it. I do know Scotland Yard had been comparing letters with suspects (Assistant Commissioner CID Anderson requesting handwriting samples from San Francsico and Brooklyn in the case of Tumblety in November 1888), so there was some activity around this. It would seem circumstantial at best.

Mike

[Adam Went]

Hi Mike,

Interesting thoughts. The only concern I would personally have is a pretty basic one from a logic point of view, and that is why the killer would find it necessary to hide his true writing style in the first place? In the days before such letters could be properly scientifically analysed, with hundreds of other letters bearing the name of the killer or purporting to be from the killer pouring in to various individuals and departments, what could he achieve by falsifying his writing style?

Unless of course it was simply another part of the games he was playing in his own mind....

Cheers,
Adam.

[mklhawley]

Greetings all,

This may have been discussed earlier, but I would like to present an observation on the ‘From Hell’ letter.

Assumptions:
1) The ‘From Hell’ letter came from the killer.
2) The Letter was written in such a way as to masquerade the author’s true writing style.
3) I know what I’m doing

If the author was attempting to hide his style of writing, it most likely occurred at the beginning. Notice that these letters tend to be vertical and wide, as if they were written slowly and deliberately. Starting around the phrase ‘it was nice’, notice the letters are slightly slanted to the right and narrower, as if the author was writing faster and automatically, as if he temporarily forgot to hide his writing style. One can also see it at, ‘send you the bloody knife’, and ‘if you only wait’. The fact that is occurs more than once in the short letter seems to reinforce this observation.

If true, any comparison with possible suspects should be done at these areas.

Any thoughts?

Mike