From "The Lighter side of my official life"
"For I may say at once that " undiscovered murders " are rare in London, and the "Jack-the-Ripper " crimes are not within that category. And if the Police here had powers such as the French Police possess, the murderer would have been brought to justice. Scotland Yard can boast that not even the subordinate officers of the department will tell tales out of school, and it would ill become me to violate the unwritten rule of the service. So I will only add here that the "Jack-the-Ripper " letter which is preserved in the Police Museum at New Scotland Yard is the creation of an enterprising London journalist.
Having regard to the interest attaching to this case, I am almost tempted to disclose the identity of the murderer and of the pressman who wrote the letter above referred to. But no public benefit would result from such a course, and the traditions of my old department would suffer."
Andersons "old deparment" suffered the moment he revealed the above. Sure he didnt reveal the name of the murderer, or the Jack the Ripper letter writer, but if he truly did not want his old department to suffer, wouldn't it have been better to say nothing at all? I think the criticism the police took for not apprehending the Whitechapel murderer, and Andersons sense of failure prompted Anderson to reveal what he did. I personaly do not think that Anderson was as sure of the identity of the murderer as he made out.
all the best
Observer
"For I may say at once that " undiscovered murders " are rare in London, and the "Jack-the-Ripper " crimes are not within that category. And if the Police here had powers such as the French Police possess, the murderer would have been brought to justice. Scotland Yard can boast that not even the subordinate officers of the department will tell tales out of school, and it would ill become me to violate the unwritten rule of the service. So I will only add here that the "Jack-the-Ripper " letter which is preserved in the Police Museum at New Scotland Yard is the creation of an enterprising London journalist.
Having regard to the interest attaching to this case, I am almost tempted to disclose the identity of the murderer and of the pressman who wrote the letter above referred to. But no public benefit would result from such a course, and the traditions of my old department would suffer."
Andersons "old deparment" suffered the moment he revealed the above. Sure he didnt reveal the name of the murderer, or the Jack the Ripper letter writer, but if he truly did not want his old department to suffer, wouldn't it have been better to say nothing at all? I think the criticism the police took for not apprehending the Whitechapel murderer, and Andersons sense of failure prompted Anderson to reveal what he did. I personaly do not think that Anderson was as sure of the identity of the murderer as he made out.
all the best
Observer
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