Bury's handwriting

[Andersen]

Can anyone post a copy of one of the letters written by Bury please?

I consider him a strong suspect to at least one of the JTR murders and I'd very much like to see his handwriting.

Cheers!

[johns]

This is the last part of his confession letter witnessed by the Rev Gough.

I've got some more examples somewhere if I can lay my hands on them.

[johns]

Not the greatest bit of photography in the world but I hope this helps. The first page of Bury's confession.

[Wyatt Earp]

He seems to get all excited when he writes the word "strangulation." Look how large the letter "s" is compared to that letter in other words. It doesn't seem to be a capital letter, as the capital letter in "Street" ("Princes Street") appears to be formed differently (although it's blurry and a bit hard to tell).

[Andersen]

Cheers very much Wyatt Earp
Greatly appreciated

Yea that is an interesting detail you point out there. I'll have a proper look at it all.

Cheers!

[Wyatt Earp]

Cheers very much Wyatt Earp
Greatly appreciated

Hi Andersen. It's John you want to thank for the scans, not me.

[Cogidubnus]

He seems to get all excited when he writes the word "strangulation." Look how large the letter "s" is compared to that letter in other words. It doesn't seem to be a capital letter, as the capital letter in "Street" ("Princes Street") appears to be formed differently (although it's blurry and a bit hard to tell).

The same construction though is present in solemnly State - albeit the capitalised S doesn't appear to be quite so large...

The Capitalisation doesn't seem to be entirely consistent throughout though - eg "to make Public" and then later "Pardon of Almighty God" - God, well yes, Almighty is perhaps understandable (though the "A" is I think the largest capital on the page), but there's no real reason for Pardon or Public...

I think we could all too easily Read too much into This..

All the best

Dave

[Andersen]

So it is - cheers a lot Johns

[johns]

No problem old bean.

I thought I had a copy of the letter he wrote offering work in Dundee but I'm mistaken.

[Wyatt Earp]

I just realized that this confession letter is reproduced on page 208 in Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell by Evans and Skinner. With the better reproduction, it's evident that what I thought was "strangulation" should be "Strangulation," as the "S," while at a different angle, is indeed formed like the "S" in "Street." I'm not sure why Bury would choose to capitalize this word. Also, Bury appears to have spelled the word without the "u."

[Cogidubnus]

Hi Wyatt

As I observed in post #7 though, he does seem to capitalise certain words randomly, so the Strangulation isn't necessarily that significant in itself...

All the best

Dave

[Bridewell]

Hi Wyatt

As I observed in post #7 though, he does seem to capitalise certain words randomly, so the Strangulation isn't necessarily that significant in itself...

All the best

Dave

Hi Dave,

And the possibility of a condemned man playing word games in a confessional document prior to his execution seems an unlikely one.

Regards, Bridewell.

[Cogidubnus]

Surprised

Hi Colin

Quite...although having read, (and re-read), MacPherson, Bury does actually make quite an interesting suspect...sadly a lot of the alleged supporting evidence, (eg the chalk messages on the cellar door), is, IMHO at least, pants...but I certainly wouldn't rule him out altogether...

All the best

Dave

[Wyatt Earp]

And the possibility of a condemned man playing word games in a confessional document prior to his execution seems an unlikely one.

I'm not sure I would class this as a word game. I suppose we normally go out of our way to capitalize words when we wish to attach some special significance to them, so it could simply be suggested that strangulation was of some significance to Bury.

I don't agree with Dave's suggestion that words might be randomly capitalized throughout the letter. Apart from "Strangulation," the only words that appear to be capitalized are proper names and words that stand at the beginning of a sentence.

I think what has fooled Dave is that Bury at times writes some rather large lower-case letters. The words "public," "publicly" and "pardon" aren't capitalized at all. To see what Bury's capital "P" looks like, take a look at "Prison" (at the top of the document) and "Princes" (in the phrase "Princes Street").

[Cogidubnus]

Hi Wyatt

"solemnly State"..."Almighty"...sorry I can see where you're coming from but am not quite convinced!

What occurs to me though is what a generally well formed hand it is for the son of a rural fishmonger...

All the best

Dave