William Bury: Jack the Ripper

[rjpalmer]

Or, as a Cockney might say,

From 'Ell, Mr. Lusk.

[Mark J D]

Also worth noting that at Bury's trial, testimony was given that he could write in several different hands, and he did produce a forged job offer letter. I wouldn't be at all surprised if you could trace all the disguised idiot hand writing to Bury - GSG, from hell, graffiti in Dundee.

Myself, I'm struck by the switch from 'stage Oirish' to 'stage Cockney' as seen between the FH and Openshaw letters. Someone was having fun representing different regional accents...

M.

[Aethelwulf]

Interesting stuff!

I know people have put in a lot of work on Bury: is there any indication that he would have found it easier than the average citizen to source a human kidney piece?

If he was living at 3 Spanby Road at the time of the Lusk letter then he wasn't all that far from Lusk's house in Alderney Road.

M.

The obvious answer springs to mind...
He has more red flags than all the other suspects combined (IMO)

[Aethelwulf]

Striking similarity!

And Bury is a proven postmortem sexual mutilator.

With the chalked grafitti found there, I think Jack has a big influence on Bury's mind and his fondness of knives, that is if Bury himself was not Jack the ripper.


The Baron

Also worth noting that at Bury's trial, testimony was given that he could write in several different hands, and he did produce a forged job offer letter. I wouldn't be at all surprised if you could trace all the disguised idiot hand writing to Bury - GSG, from hell, graffiti in Dundee.

[The Baron]

'twas Boggles/Wiggins that pointed this out years ago to be fair. There are some similarities though:

Striking similarity!

And Bury is a proven postmortem sexual mutilator.

With the chalked grafitti found there, I think Jack has a big influence on Bury's mind and his fondness of knives, that is if Bury himself was not Jack the ripper.



The Baron

[Mark J D]

Interesting stuff!

I know people have put in a lot of work on Bury: is there any indication that he would have found it easier than the average citizen to source a human kidney piece?

If he was living at 3 Spanby Road at the time of the Lusk letter then he wasn't all that far from Lusk's house in Alderney Road.

M.

[Aethelwulf]

Before someone like Jeff jumps in to talk sample size etc, the major caveat is that as From Hell has, in my opinion, been heavily disguised, it is only possible to compare individual letters – and the neater ones at that. This means the sample size is very small and, considering the late 19^th stylistic nature of cursive handwriting, the similarities undoubtedly fall into the ‘could have occurred by chance’ category. To come to any other serious conclusion, it would be necessary to compare dozens and dozens of consistent similarities to move away from the ‘could have occurred by chance’ category towards ‘something significant’. That doesn’t mean Bury didn’t write From Hell - what I am suggesting is that if the neater parts of from Hell are characteristics of the author’s true/undisguised hand, Bury’s handwriting definitely wouldn’t rule him out.

[Aethelwulf]

Images edited from some of Boggles' old stuff

[Aethelwulf]

Spot on Wulf! I think the handwriting is similar to that of the 'From Hell' letter.



The Baron

'twas Boggles/Wiggins that pointed this out years ago to be fair. There are some similarities though:

[The Baron]

Did Ellen's sister go by another (middle) name? Why was Bury addressing her as 'Mrs C Corney'? I thought her name was Margaret?

Also, I may be imagining this, but there is something ever so slightly unfriendly/menacing about Bury's handwriting. I think it stems from the word ‘Stratford’ and the bizarre, massive ‘E’ of the postcode – both have a heavy, inky look and with a bit of scruffy and grotesque embellishment, wouldn’t look out of place in From Hell (original image from an old thread by Boggles).

Spot on Wulf! I think the handwriting is similar to that of the 'From Hell' letter.



The Baron

[Aethelwulf]

Yes. It was Charles.

They were still at No. 3 Stanley Road Stratford-at-Bow in 1891, same address given at trial and on the envelope

Ah yes, hadn't occurred to me that it would be the husband!

[rjpalmer]

Was her husband's intial 'C'?

Not unusual to see woman referred to as Mrs (insert husband's name here).

Yes. It was Charles.

They were still at No. 3 Stanley Road Stratford-at-Bow in 1891, same address given at trial and on the envelope

[Al Bundy's Eyes]

Was her husband's intial 'C'?

Not unusual to see woman referred to as Mrs (insert husband's name here).

[Aethelwulf]

'From Ellen' envelope

[Aethelwulf]

Did Ellen's sister go by another (middle) name? Why was Bury addressing her as 'Mrs C Corney'? I thought her name was Margaret?

Also, I may be imagining this, but there is something ever so slightly unfriendly/menacing about Bury's handwriting. I think it stems from the word ‘Stratford’ and the bizarre, massive ‘E’ of the postcode – both have a heavy, inky look and with a bit of scruffy and grotesque embellishment, wouldn’t look out of place in From Hell (original image from an old thread by Boggles).