Was Jack the Ripper a Teacher?

[Natalie Severn]

Quink ink! I still use it from time to time Suzi -still got a bottle somewhere.
But did the ripper write that graffiti? I dont know---it doesnt make sense so I guess he must have since nothing else made sense to anyone apart from him thats for sure!

[Suzi]

Not sure about who wrote that Nats- My opinion would be that it was there for ages/or at least a few days and was probably just part of the day to day scribblings of which I'm sure there were many...mind you there is the pinny with all it's unpleasantness dumped underneath it...I still can't believe that the two were connected though Just my thoughts - must go to bed now will pick up tomorrow

Suz x

Glad you've still got the Quink!!!

[Wickerman]

The writing was half an inch high and written in a "neat,schoolboy hand".Tailors chalk is usually round and flat so you can let it work around cuffs, collars etc.

Hi Natalie.
Did you try write with taylors chalk?
I don't see how you can, that kind of chalk is alot harder than school chalk, and on a hard painted surface? - kinda tough!

Hi all- I did post on 'The Chalk Line ' thread when it was suggested that Policemen carried chalk to draw lines around unfortunate murdered bodies found in the streets...

Not in the late 19th century Suzi. They preferred to get the deceased up off the ground and into the mortuary ASAP!
They washed the sidewalk, they had no forensics, took no photographs of the murder scene (Kelly's was the first), hence had no need to outline the body with chalk, that practice came much later.

regards, Jon.S.

[Chava]

Costermongers etc used chalk all the time, so whoever wrote that graffito could well have just seen a piece of chalk lying in the road, picked it up and used it. My problem has always been that, although we have a direct link between the killer and the apron piece, there is no such direct link between the killer and the graffito-writer. He might have written it, he might not have written it. He might have wanted specifically to cast suspicion on the Jews, but if that was the case, I'd expect 'I dunnit!!! signed Abraham the Ripper'. It's more than likely, in my opinion, that someone had had an argument with some Jewish guy, had gotten the wrong end of it, and wrote that stuff to vent his feelings. The only link between the graffito and the Ripper is the fact that the apron was dropped just below it. Possibly the killer saw it and thought he'd use it to implicate the Jews, but I doubt it was too visible to someone getting out of there in a hurry. And too dangerous for him to come back specifically to drop that incriminating piece of material.