The letter to MJK!

[j.r-ahde]

Hello you all!

I just noticed, that there is no thread about this subject!

OK, there is obviously very little harsh realm information about the letter sent from Ireland to MJK.

Except, that the one, who told about the letter was McCarthy. So, as the landlord he is a pretty reliable source.

Then, Joe Barnett told MJK not to be in contact with her family. A pretty reliable source too.

Why this contradiction?! What might have happened to the letter?!

All the best
Jukka

[Mike Covell]

It will probably turn up on EBAY now!

[j.r-ahde]

Hello Mike!

I wonder, who will make sure its authenticity...

And what there might be in the letter:

"Dear Mary!

Despite your name isn't Mary... You will make a group of people wondering about a murderer being puzzled about your own backround..."

OK, seriously; what really happened to the letter, what do you think, people?!

All the best
Jukka

[halomanuk]

Well if Barnett didn't want her to be in contact with her family for whatever reason he may have persuaded her to get rid of the letter.

[j.r-ahde]

Hello Halomanuk!

Or perhaps MJK burnt the letter in the fire-place. This might explain too, why Barnett told Mary not to be in contact with her family...

All the best
Jukka

[kensei]

Didn't I read that Mary Jane received not just one but a number of letters from her mother in Ireland? The book "Will the Real Mary Kelly...?" by Christopher Scott talks of McCarthy seeing them as well as an unnamed Christian missionary that she also showed them to. As Mary's literacy is in some doubt with the way Barnett used to read newspaper articles to her, one must wonder if she showed her mother's letters to others in order to have them read to her as well.

Barnett urging her not to have anything to do with her family? From what I've read, Mary seems like the kind of girl who would have made decisions like that all on her own. Before she was with Barnett she had a boyfriend named Fleming, of whom it was said she was very fond and who wanted to marry her, but he was also abusive to her. She'd formerly lived with a landlady named Mrs. Carthy before going off to live with Fleming, but had then returned to Mrs. Carthy's house one night at two in the morning asking if she could stay there that night- a breakup had just occurred. She couldn't stay with Fleming anymore, which shows great character on her part. Fleming was a man she "was very fond of" and wanted to marry her, yet when he became too abusive she did not follow the traditional path of the battered woman and stay with him and forgive everything. She left, even though she loved the man. She also seemed to have stayed "just friends" with Fleming after begining her relationship with Barnett, as Barnett related that Fleming sometimes visited her and that he had met him.

Barnett was also quoted in The Star on November 12th 1888 as saying, "She lived in a fashionable house in the West End of London, but drifted from the West End to the East End, where she took lodgings in Pennington Street. Her father came from Wales, and tried to find her there; but, hearing from her companions that he was looking for her, Marie kept out of the way. A brother in the Second Battalion Scots Guards came to see her once, but beyond that she saw none of her relations, nor did she correspond with them."

IF Barnett was telling the truth, this paints a picture of Mary as someone who drew her own very fine lines as to how much or how little contact she wanted to have with her family. That, combined with her leaving a major romantic relationship when it had grown abusive and she knew she just needed to, makes me see her as a woman who definitely knew when to make her own decisions and did so all on her own.

[j.r-ahde]

Hello Kensei!

One must ask the following question; Is the claim about the missionary "Will the real Mary Kelly...?" possible to confirm from another source?!

And... if Mary's mother sent letters to her daughter, then she pretty obviously knew her daughter to be litterate!

What it comes to Joe Barnett reading newspapers to her: 1. It was a common habit at the time, 2. If MJK had some difficulties with her eye-sight (short-sightedness, for example!), the point nr. 1 was a pretty good way to hide the fact!

Had there been more than one letter, it's pretty obvious, that some of them would have remained! Besides, probably there would have been some talks about the contents!

That is, unless, of course; if MJK burnt them in the fire-place!

Since Joe Barnett obviously didn't know about the letter from Ireland, obviously MJK destroyed that to hide her back-round.

All the best
Jukka

[kensei]

I suppose if Mary was illiterate her mother could have expected that she could always find someone to read things to her, but of course it's just speculation.

[j.r-ahde]

Hello Kensei!

An interesting point, indeed;

A mother being litterate and a daughter not...

And; If MJK had her letter read by an outsider, surely there would have been some gossip about the contents of the letter? Ending up to the ears of the coppers and thus we wouldn't be making these "who she really was?" presumptions?!

All the best
Jukka