Question re: Dear Boss Letter

[alucard]

Bear with me as I'm a newbie, but having not read the Ripper Diary I was wondering if Maybrick claimed he wrote the Dear Boss letter?

Thanks.

[steje73]

There's nothing to assume that Maybrick even wrote the diary! hehehe.
Let the games begin...

[alucard]

Sure I'm doubtful too but that's not what I asked? Do I have to buy the diary myself or can somebody of a less cynical nature help? My question is very simple: did the person/s who penned the diary (allegedly written by Maybrick, thank you) also claim they wrote the Dear Boss letter?

[John Hacker]

Sure I'm doubtful too but that's not what I asked? Do I have to buy the diary myself or can somebody of a less cynical nature help? My question is very simple: did the person/s who penned the diary (allegedly written by Maybrick, thank you) also claim they wrote the Dear Boss letter?

Yep. The whole thing is written in the style of the Dear Boss letter. It was clearly the template used to create a "personality" for the Maybrick character.

[Scott Nelson]

Or maybe the person who wrote the Dear Boss letter also penned the diary...

[Jessica Pisces]

what a job it would be if I could gouge an eye out and leave it by the whores body for all to see ha ha

Jack the Ripper Diary, Wikisource

I believe the ha ha here is underlined too. The are many other ha-has and the diary ends "Yours Truly Jack the Ripper".

[perrymason]

Its clear that you can occasionally be accurate historically when using all known historical references to construct a story with in the first place.

I think that Dear Boss and Saucy Jack and perhaps others were penned ultimately for economic gain. As thought by some of the contemporary officials.

Best regards

[alucard]

Thanks for the assistance, this underlines for me Mr (or Mrs) Barrett being the author of this riddiculous forgery.

[Graham]

The first (and so far the only) attempt to link James Maybrick with the Whitechapel Murders is The Diary. Until the Diary appeared Maybrick was notorious only in connection with his (supposed) murder at the hands of his jealous wife. Therefore had Maybrick ever 'claimed' authorship of the Dear Boss Letter, that claim has not come down to us. In all the (older) scholarly works describing the Maybrick Case (which at the time was as sensational as Jack the Ripper) there is, so far as I know, not one single mention of Maybrick as a possible Ripper candidate, or having any unusual knowledge of, or interest in, Jack the Ripper. Whoever wrote the damn Diary was the first to make any 'claim' that Maybrick wrote any JtR letter.

As to the Barretts, well, there is at least one person posting to these boards whose knowledge of them is far superior to mine, but for my money Mike Barrett was not capable of either composing the Diary or actually writing it. That is not to say that he had no input into its inspiration (for want of a better word), assuming of course that it genuinely is a modern forgery.
Anne Barratt's involvement, particularly as described by Paul Feldman, is somewhat more puzzling - as Martin Fido remarked 'she could have written it with one hand tied behind her back'. Again, that is not to say that Anne had any direct input into its production.

I agree 100% with P Mason's assertion that the Ripper Letters (at least the more notorious of them) were written for financial gain; that, or a merry jape.

Like many others, I am very, very intrigued with regard to the origin of the Diary and the reasons for producing it - money was made courtesy of the Diary, no doubt about that, so if that was the sole reason for its production then it succeeded in that aim, I suppose, but ultimately caused a lot of heartache for a lot of people.

All the debated anachronisms and contentious anachronistic usage of vernacular English aside, the one aspect of the Diary that, for me at any rate, puts it as a forgery, is its style, which seems in parts to be an almost comic-book attempt to 'write Victorian' in a manner I don't think anyone writing for his or her personal edification, rather than possible publication, would adopt. Like modern extensions of the Sherlock Holmes stories, written to echo the style of Conan-Doyle, it's almost there, but not quite...it just don't sound right to me.

You around, Caz?

Cheers,

Graham

[caz]

You around, Caz?

Cheers,

Graham

No, Graham. She's not.

Love,

Mrs Nobody
XXX

PS If people want to carry on believing that one or both Barretts had the means, motive or opportunity to create this portrait of 'Sir' James as the ultimate bogeyman, I'm thinking it may be simpler - and kinder - just to let them get on with it?

[Chris Jones]

Bear with me as I'm a newbie, but having not read the Ripper Diary I was wondering if Maybrick claimed he wrote the Dear Boss letter?

Thanks.

The person (or persons) who wrote the Ripper Diary state in a passage after one of the murders:

'before my next will send Central another to remember me by.'

The Dear Boss letter was addressed to Dear Boss, Central News Office, London City; therefore the implication of the reference above is that the writer of the Diary could well have been the author of the Dear Boss letter.

Of course, on the other hand, you can see the passage as yet another attempt by a clever forger to try and add a degree of authenticity to the document.

It is also worth pointing out that the handwriting of the author of the Dear Boss letter does not appear to match James Maybrick's handwriting.

Best wishes, Chris Jones

[Kaz]

How much truth is there in a Journalist from the Star writing it? Apart from graphologist's saying it matches.

[caz]

Hi Kaz,

Well it's either true or it's not, but opinions differ.

IMHO the evidence doesn't really prove or disprove it beyond reasonable doubt.

Love,

Caz
X

[Kaz]

Hi Kaz,

Well it's either true or it's not, but opinions differ.

IMHO the evidence doesn't really prove or disprove it beyond reasonable doubt.

Love,

Caz
X

Caz

The whole handwriting thing is my biggest issue.
I find it incredible that only a few signatures have ever materialised? 1 from the will and 1 from his freemasons declaration. Or is there more that I've not found?

[John Hacker]

Caz

The whole handwriting thing is my biggest issue.
I find it incredible that only a few signatures have ever materialised? 1 from the will and 1 from his freemasons declaration. Or is there more that I've not found?

It's not suprising that there aren't more samples of his writing. Records preservation isn't great over 100 years.

The handwriting is a killer for the diary, samples of Maybrick's writing or not. The author of the thing is clearly emulating tthe Dear Boss letter and that's a sufficient sample to show that the diary writing does not match the handwriting.

Additionally, there is a great question as to whether the writing style is appropriate. Some have claimed that it might possibly be late Victorian, others say it's not. But James Maybrick was in his 50s and his education would have taken place decades before and would appear mid-Victorian. People do not typically update their letter formation to match current trends in education.

In the end, the diary doesn't match any of the samples it should and the writing style is incompatible with what we should expect from Maybrick.