The envelope piece left by chapman.

[quasar]

When the first detectives arrived at the scene they found, among other things, a piece of envelope with the letters Sp and the mark of the Sussex Regiment. The Sp being from Spitafields. They also found the intial M on it. In Paul Feldman's book he dug up an old circular at the time which said they were looking for someone, in regaurds to the envelope, with the initials J and M. Thus the initial J was also present on the envelope. I am assuming Feldman did not fabricate this circular, so does that not cast suspicion on the the name of the suspect, since he was clearly playing some tricks at Chapman's crimescene. Both Druitt and Maybrick have these intitials. Thanks, Q.

[Jon Guy]

Hi Q

Chapman was seen by a fellow lodger at Crossingham`s picking the envelope up off the floor to hold some pills.

[quasar]

Hi Jon,

I am aware of how Chapman came across the piece of envelope. It was ascertained that the letters Sp and the postmark were already on it. But I think the quandry is that the police believed that a separate hand had made those other initials, which is why they put out a circular. Thanks Q.

[Jon Guy]

Hi Q

The only handwriting on the envelope were the letters M and SP.

[Jon Guy]

Hi Q

On the back of the envelope was the stamp of the Sussex Regiment, and the Police did check the handwriting on the envelope against the soldiers paybooks.

[quasar]

Hi Jon,

Will have to go back to the book. I read that in some new information they thought at first the number 2 was on it, but it might be a 'J'. Since the term used at the time was ' intiials' it was more likely the latter. This was not connected with the Sp which was part of an adress. Thanks, Q.

[George Hutchinson]

The envelope was sourced to have been sent from the Lynchford Road Post Office in Farnborough, Hants - a PO I actually used many times during an office job in my teens!

PHILIP

[PC2267]

The envelope was sourced to have been sent from the Lynchford Road Post Office in Farnborough, Hants - a PO I actually used many times during an office job in my teens!

PHILIP

I believe I'm correct in saying that in 1888, the Royal Sussex Regimental Depot was in North Camp, which would concur with the fact that the envelope in question (assuming it was sent by a soldier to his family), was sent from Lynchford Road, post office. Which barracks they were using in the days is anyone's guess. The 1st Battalion was in Preston in 1888 and the 2nd Battalion was in India. I would hazard a guess that if there is an army connection here, it would almost certainly be a recruits letter. I also believe that soldiers handwriting from their pay books was checked, a line of enquiry certainly, but a needle in a hay stack to boot. Unless they further checked pay books for soldiers having completed their training and posted onto their battalions (which I doubt). It would however be a line of enquiry for any recruits with family/friends in the Spitalfields area. I seem to recall reading somewhere that this was looked into, but proved fruitless. I also seem to remember that these envelopes were also free to be bought by the general public as well. I believe that the post master(s) were asked whether they could recall anyone posting a letter the Spitalfields that day, but they couldn't. I wonder did they check to see if anyone staying at the doss house in question knew anyone in the Sussex Regiment, again a very long shot given the very nature of doss houses at that time. This all being a very small part of the investigation, you can certainly see what the police were up against at the time.

[Bridewell]

I wonder did they check to see if anyone staying at the doss house in question knew anyone in the Sussex Regiment, again a very long shot given the very nature of doss houses at that time.

Almost certainly not, would be my guess. Once it was established that there was no reason to believe that the envelope had any connection to the killer, I suspect that line of enquiry was dropped altogether.

[RockySullivan]

Almost certainly not, would be my guess. Once it was established that there was no reason to believe that the envelope had any connection to the killer, I suspect that line of enquiry was dropped altogether.

Which is interesting because doesn't the story of the envelope originate from Timothy Donovan alone? I feel like TW showed in his book that lodging house managers might not be the most trustworthy sources