DB, SJ & Lusk Letter By The Same Hand?

[Bridewell]

This is a bit of a kite-flying exercise, but we'll see where it leads. Whilst the Dear Boss & Saucy Jack appear to be written in the same hand, the Lusk Letter (& possibly the Oppenshaw also) seem to be in another. It occurs to me, though that, at that time, left-handed children were forced to write with their right hand. Might the formal "copperplate" of the Dear Boss & Saucy Jack be written with the right hand by such an individual, with the Lusk letter, with its obvious rage, being written by the left (or even vice versa)? In short, is it dangerous to assume that, because they appear so different, they were, of necessity, written by different people?
(This thread is not about whether or not the letters are genuine, but whether or not the same person could have written them).

[ChrisGeorge]

Hello Bridewell

I would put Dear Boss and Saucy Jack down to the same hand, possibly a journalist or some other trouble maker. I have always thought the Lusk letter and Openshaw letter could be by the same writer. In fact some years ago I wrote an article and made a presentation at the first U.S. convention in April 2000 that theorized Roslyn D'Onston could have been responsible for the latter two as he was a known alcoholic and was in the London hospital to which the Openshaw letter was addressed. There are some similarities between the Lusk and Openshaw letters and the letter D'Onston wrote to the City of London police on October 16, 1888, the same day the Lusk letter with the half a kidney was received by contractor George Akin Lusk, the head of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee.

Best regards

Chris

[mariab]

I'm seeing handwriting similarities between the "Dear Boss" letter & postcard and the October 6, 1888 letter (of "send your ears to your wife“ fame) plus, like Chris George said, similarities between “From Hell“ and the Openshaw letter. During the Xmas holidays I'm hoping to find some time to re-study Letters from Hell and SY investigates and, among else, to compare the handwriting.
In theory someone could have changed their handwriting by alternating between right and left hand or by other means. There's even a Ripper suspect who documentedly engaged in such activity.

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi all. I don't see DB and FH as the same hand at all. in fact, I'm wary of saying FH and Openshaw are related, though it's certainly possible. There's no question about DG and SJ as the post script of DB is a dead ringer for SJ. The Oct. 6th 'threat letter' was written after the posters went up and the papers came out showing the 'Dear Boss', so someone adept at copying hand could easily have mimicked the style.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi all. I don't see DB and FH as the same hand at all. in fact, I'm wary of saying FH and Openshaw are related, though it's certainly possible. There's no question about DG and SJ as the post script of DB is a dead ringer for SJ. The Oct. 6th 'threat letter' was written after the posters went up and the papers came out showing the 'Dear Boss', so someone adept at copying hand could easily have mimicked the style.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

Hi Tom

Both the "From Hell" letter and the Openshaw letter are, as has been discussed before, written in sort of a jokey dialect style, Irish in the case of From Hell and Cockney in the case of Openshaw. Both contain blatant intentional mispellings such as "knif" in From Hell and "hoperate" and "devle" in Openshaw, even though the envelope of the Openshaw missive shows that the writer could spell "Dr Openshaw, Pathological Curator" perfectly well.

All the best

Chris

[Abby Normal]

Hi Tom

Both the "From Hell" letter and the Openshaw letter are, as has been discussed before, written in sort of a jokey dialect style, Irish in the case of From Hell and Cockney in the case of Openshaw. Both contain blatant intentional mispellings such as "knif" in From Hell and "hoperate" and "devle" in Openshaw, even though the envelope of the Openshaw missive shows that the writer could spell "Dr Openshaw, Pathological Curator" perfectly well.

All the best

Chris

Hi Chris
From Hell letter has always struck me as having been written by someone who was extremely intoxicated and not intentionally trying to misspell. has this possibility been discussed before?

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi Chris
From Hell letter has always struck me as having been written by someone who was extremely intoxicated and not intentionally trying to misspell. has this possibility been discussed before?

Hi Abbty

Yes but there's some playacting here as well. I think the mispelling is intentional in From Hell as in Openshaw, which is signaled by the correctly spelled writing on the Openshaw envelope. If I am correct that the two communications are from the same person. One thing that has been discussed is that for instance if you were spelling "knife" phonetically you wouldn't spell it "knif" so I really think there's kidology in that spelling, maybe trying to look ignorant when the person really wasn't

All the best

Chris

[mariab]

I love “kidology“! (“Kiddology?“) Gonna be using it from now on. It's completely different from “infatilization“.

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Chris,

And let's not forget that whoever wrote the Openshaw letter was a student of either obscure poetry or Cornwall lore as only one known book contained the poem he paraphrased.

Bridewell and Abby,

I'm curious if either/both of you have an idea of who wrote 'From hell'?

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Abby Normal]

Hi Chris,

And let's not forget that whoever wrote the Openshaw letter was a student of either obscure poetry or Cornwall lore as only one known book contained the poem he paraphrased.

Bridewell and Abby,

I'm curious if either/both of you have an idea of who wrote 'From hell'?

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

Hi Tom
I think it may have been from the killer when he was liquored up.
Or a hoax but not from practical joking medical students-i dont buy that a human kidney would be relatively easy to get a hold of. if it is a hoax, I like your idea of it coming from someone within the vigilance committee.

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Abby, thanks for that. I should have been more specific in that I was curious if you had settled on a particular individual as the likely sender of the Lusk kidney/letter. I too don't find the medical student hypothesis likely, nor did Lusk at the time, who was subsequently stalked, threatened to quit the committee, and sought police protection. That's not to say that a medical student couldn't get his hands on a kidney, because he could have, but it must be remembered that the WVC was not the entity we've made it out to be. It was a little group with little money who appears to only have patroled one section of the east end and for only about 2 weeks up to that point. It doesn't stand the reason that a medical student would risk his future to play a prank on someone like George Lusk when they could have sent it to Charles Warren, or someone like that, and really caused a stir.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Bridewell]

I Agree

Hi Chris,

And let's not forget that whoever wrote the Openshaw letter was a student of either obscure poetry or Cornwall lore as only one known book contained the poem he paraphrased.

Bridewell and Abby,

I'm curious if either/both of you have an idea of who wrote 'From hell'?

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

Hi, Tom.

Like Abby, I too think the FH may welol have been sent by the killer. It has a casual arrogance which none of the other letters possess in my view.
The rest seem to be trying to second-guess what the killer would write. The FH shoots from the hip, so to speak. As well as the seemingly deliberate mis-spellings it is apparent that an attempt has been made to disguise the hand-writing - the same letter is formed in different ways at different points. Logical conclusions from deliberate mis-spelling and a disguised hand? The writer could spell perfectly well and he believed his handwriting might be recognised. Like Abby (again!) I'm not convinced by the medical students' hoax argument. Medical students had a great deal to lose by such conduct and little or nothing to gain.

Best Wishes, Bridewell

[Bridewell]

I Agree

Hi Chris,

And let's not forget that whoever wrote the Openshaw letter was a student of either obscure poetry or Cornwall lore as only one known book contained the poem he paraphrased.

Bridewell and Abby,

I'm curious if either/both of you have an idea of who wrote 'From hell'?

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

Hi, Tom.

Like Abby, I too think the FH may well have been sent by the killer. It has a casual arrogance which none of the other letters possess in my view.
The rest seem to be trying to second-guess what the killer would write. The FH shoots from the hip, so to speak. As well as the seemingly deliberate mis-spellings it is apparent that an attempt has been made to disguise the hand-writing - the same letter is formed in different ways at different points. Logical conclusions from deliberate mis-spelling and a disguised hand? The writer could spell perfectly well and he believed his handwriting might be recognised. Like Abby (again!) I'm not convinced by the medical students' hoax argument. Medical students had a great deal to lose by such conduct and little or nothing to gain.

Best Wishes, Bridewell

[Tom_Wescott]

Thanks for that, Bridewell. Regardless of whether it was a hoax or from the killer (or possibly both), I find it curious that he wanted to point the finger of blame at the Irish.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi Chris,

And let's not forget that whoever wrote the Openshaw letter was a student of either obscure poetry or Cornwall lore as only one known book contained the poem he paraphrased.

Hi Tom et al.

Roslyn D'Onston was certainly a student of legends, lore, and magic. His "Lovers on the Bridge" story was a recycled traditional tale.

Regardless of whether it was a hoax or from the killer (or possibly both), I find it curious that he wanted to point the finger of blame at the Irish.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

"I'm not a Yid.... I'm not a Mick...."

Messing with the heads of the authorities.

This playfulness, the intent to get a rise out of the authorities, might indicate hoax more than it signals that the communications were from the killer.

As I have remarked before, it's conceivable that the killer's only message was in the murders themselves.

And we know that D'Onston, much like Albert Bachert, inserted himself in the case at various points. He could have been, like Walter Sickert, just someone who was fascinated with the case and wanted to get involved somehow, a busybody and not the killer.

Best regards

Chris