Bury's handwriting

[Wyatt Earp]

I really can not accept that the examples in the photos are even in the same Hand, look at the J in Jack and the R in Ripper or even the T in the, aside from the cross-bar the shape of the letter is all different, and the "pp"'s are very dissimilar.

GUT, I agree with you that the messages appear to be in two different hands. Assuming that Bury chalked the messages, he was evidently trying to make it look like they were written by a couple of different kids. This fits with my theory of the messages, that Bury chalked them to scare kids away from the residence following Ellen’s murder (perhaps he had an incident with kids snooping around out back and these messages were his version of “get off my lawn”). He obviously would not have wanted to chalk a message like “Jack Ripper is at the back of this door” in his own hand.

[Abby Normal]

GUT, I agree with you that the messages appear to be in two different hands. Assuming that Bury chalked the messages, he was evidently trying to make it look like they were written by a couple of different kids. This fits with my theory of the messages, that Bury chalked them to scare kids away from the residence following Ellen’s murder (perhaps he had an incident with kids snooping around out back and these messages were his version of “get off my lawn”). He obviously would not have wanted to chalk a message like “Jack Ripper is at the back of this door” in his own hand.

Hi Wyatt
Given that Bury was strongly against wanting to be identified as the ripper, I doubt he would have written that graffiti.

That being said, I find it highly interesting that he was SO adamant about not being the ripper (the phrase- me thinks thou protest too much... comes to mind). and the graffiti implicating him also an odd coincidence.

I actually think that both these things linking him to the ripper can be seen as check marks for his viability AS the ripper.

[Wyatt Earp]

Hi Wyatt
Given that Bury was strongly against wanting to be identified as the ripper, I doubt he would have written that graffiti.

Kids can be pretty obnoxious. If he had a problem with kids snooping around out back, he might have felt that extreme measures were necessary.

[Wyatt Earp]

He had a dead body in that back room. He would have been very touchy about anyone getting anywhere near that back room.

[Wyatt Earp]

I’ve identified a second handwriting characteristic which suggests that the two Princes Street messages were written by the same person, William Bury.

In the message on the left, note in the word “at” that the initial letter, “a,” is detached from the rest of the word (which in this case is the single letter “t”). In the message on the right, in the word “seller,” the initial letter “s” is similarly detached from the rest of the word. The presence of detached initial letters in both messages is further evidence that the two messages were written by the same person.

This handwriting characteristic can be specifically linked to William Bury. For example, it can be observed with a lower case “a” in the word “address” on the first page of Bury’s “Letter from Ellen.”

This handwriting characteristic is also present in the Lusk letter. You can observe it with a lower case “s” in the second occurrence of the word “send” in that letter.

[Wyatt Earp]

Here is "address" from the "Letter from Ellen."

[Wyatt Earp]

Here is the second occurrence of "send" in the Lusk letter.

[John Wheat]

Excellent work Wyatt.

Cheers John

[Cogidubnus]

Christ Wyatt...even Boggles suggests caution in ascribing the "sellar" handwriting one way or the other...and I've a huge regard for Will...

Yet you're quite happy to proceed on the basis of a handwriting comparison between some handwritten on paper Bury specimens and a photocopy of a provincial press interpretation of an undocumented reporters interpretation of items of urban graffiti, allegedely chalked on a vertical surface in the dark...

Good Luck

[GUT]

Christ Wyatt...even Boggles suggests caution in ascribing the "sellar" handwriting one way or the other...and I've a huge regard for Will...

Yet you're quite happy to proceed on the basis of a handwriting comparison between some handwritten on paper Bury specimens and a photocopy of a provincial press interpretation of an undocumented reporters interpretation of items of urban graffiti, allegedely chalked on a vertical surface in the dark...

Good Luck

And then compare an "s" to an "a"?

[Wyatt Earp]

Excellent work Wyatt.

Cheers John

Thanks, John.

One of the reasons that establishing Bury as the author of the Princes Street graffiti is important is that it would strengthen the writing links between Bury and two noteworthy texts in the case, the GSG and the Lusk letter.

For the GSG:

• chalked message (PSG)
• youthful hand (PSG)
• misspelling (PSG, handwriting samples)
• odd behavior with capitalization (handwriting samples)

For the Lusk letter:

• misspelling (PSG, handwriting samples)
• odd behavior with capitalization (handwriting samples)
• occasional occurrence of conjoined words (handwriting samples)
• detached initial letters (PSG, handwriting samples)
• words that are split in other ways (e.g., "Ki dne"; handwriting samples)
• use of more than one form of a letter within the same document (handwriting samples)
• i-dot that is predominantly high-right but can drift back to the left (handwriting samples)
• inconsistent presence of t-bar (PSG)

People should not be distracted by the wild look of the handwriting in the Lusk letter. It's not unusual for disguised handwriting to have a grotesque or exaggerated appearance. It's a mistake to assume that the author of the Lusk letter was drunk (which would hardly rule Bury out) or uneducated.

[Boggles]

Hi Wyatt,
Thanks good observations

I think the PSG is interesting as it shows a behavioral similarity with the GSG. While its not fashionable to link GSG with JTR these days i personally think it fits well in the context of the nights proceedings, JTR had every reason to be down on whores.

Comparing the Lusk letter with the now available Bury handwriting is defiantly worth doing more work on. Unfortunately we no longer have genuine Lusk letter which is a shame because I suspect the note paper is the same as letter to his sister in law.

Also while im not a expert myself I know every pen stroke of that lusk letter and having physically held one of Burys letters in my (gloved) hand have felt the chill down my spine as I know it could well be the same person! (look again at envelope of letter to sister in law)

Going back to PSG - What method of reproduction the PSG the journalists used i dont know but a long time ago I did get one handwriting expert (i forget who) to compare the PSG with lusk letter, it was a negative, They did comment on unusual exaggerated upstrokes though - we see this in burys handwriting aswell. He had a student write up and someone has posted this report somewhere on this message board in bury section (i had no bury handwriting at the time and like you had thought the reproduction of the PSG to be accurate enough - i now doubt this and Dave right pointing out, most errors in analysis is down to reproduction).

[Boggles]

that said, if you are confident that the PSG reliable reproduction then thats yet another reason to wo the day they washed that chalk off before photographing it

[Wyatt Earp]

(i had no bury handwriting at the time and like you had thought the reproduction of the PSG to be accurate enough - i now doubt this and Dave right pointing out, most errors in analysis is down to reproduction).

Boggles, why do you doubt the accuracy of the reproduction? Please flesh this out if you can.

I'd also love to see the write-up on the handwriting comparison with the Lusk letter, but cannot seem to find it. Do you know if this handwriting expert is a professional forensic document examiner?

[Wyatt Earp]

a long time ago I did get one handwriting expert (i forget who) to compare the PSG with lusk letter, it was a negative, They did comment on unusual exaggerated upstrokes though - we see this in burys handwriting aswell. He had a student write up and someone has posted this report somewhere on this message board in bury section

I missed this earlier, but I think you must be referring to the "interesting link" thread in the Bury section. The link to that write-up no longer works.