How strange is this

[richardnunweek]

Hi Lynn,
Is it then your take, that 21 year old Miss Smith, decided to write to the Yarmouth police just for jolly, knowing that she and her parents were born there..?
I remember once as a young boy I was stopped by a policeman who asked me my name, so what did this moron do?
I said the wrong first name , but the right surname, much to my horror they managed to trace my address...
So I guess young Miss Smith did a slight error in informing the police of her address.
In the words of Victor Meldrew...''I don't believe it''
Regards Richard.

[Errata]

Hello Errata.

"Well, I was thinking that if a person who lived there sent the letter, they were morons for using a return address."

But sometimes this is the case. There are known cases of hold ups where demands were made on the person's business card.

Sometimes a bored 21 year old is not operating at genius level. (heh-heh)

Cheers.
LC

It's true. To quote Agent Casper from The West Wing "There's no amount of money, manpower or knowledge that can equal the person you're looking for being stupid." But in the end, it's sort of an unsustainable level of stupid. It's why these people get caught. It's why even if miraculously they don't get caught, they end up doing something else that takes them out of the general populace. These people take not thinking to a whole other level. And that level of dumb totally exists, it just usually part of a pattern.

On the other hand, maybe it wasn't Mary. Maybe someone else wrote the letter to divert attention to Yarmouth, believing that London would be less on alert. In which case it might be a "real" Ripper letter, where instead of trying to claim credit, it was trying to throw off the scent. Which would be a sort of mix of stupid and brilliant.

Or it might be genuine cry for help, from someone living with the Ripper. Someone hoping that a return address would bring the police, and that addressing it to Yarmouth would allow it to pass unnoticed by the person they were afraid of.

It could be anything, but if it does have something to do with the Maxwells, I guess the first question we have to ask is, what do we know about the husband?

[lynn cates]

boredom

Hello Richard. Case in point.

You recall that young people will call a tobacconist's shop and ask, "Do you have Prince Albert in a can? Then let him out." Same motive here--boredom. But, as you say, not an overly intelligent performance.

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

Maxwell

Hello Errata. Well spoke. Yes, I suppose Mr. Maxwell deserves a closer look. But if the letter were to divert attention, it may not have worked.

Cheers.
LC

[Bridewell]

Coincidences

I agree with Lynn Richard,... less coincidental might be that variations of Marys name and Dorset street address were used 2 times by the preceding "Ripper" victim as aliases in her last 24 hours.

That street may link more than we now know.

Hmm.

Best regards,
Mike R

Hi Mike,

There's another Eddowes coincidence: one of her children was born in Great Yarmouth.

Regards, Bridewell.

[richardnunweek]

Hi.
Why is it I believe we are about to enter new avenues of this case?.
Talk about all roads lead to Dorset street.
Regards Richard,

[Errata]

Hello Errata. Well spoke. Yes, I suppose Mr. Maxwell deserves a closer look. But if the letter were to divert attention, it may not have worked.

Cheers.
LC

Although it could have been the wife. There's really no reason that Jack the Ripper couldn't have been a woman, thought I gotta say that whoever killed Mary Kelly was almost certainly not a woman.

It's not statistically likely, since women tend not to kill that way. Though we do have a recent spike of women murdering pregnant women and taking the babies. The argument could be made that a little further down the pit of crazy and a woman might take a uterus to replace her own. But Mary Kelly is different. Her murder and mutilation required a whole lot of deadlifting and raw upper body strength. The other C5 victims could have been killed by someone substituting body weight for strength.

As for not being a successful diversion, I'm not sure it matters, since clearly they didn't convict someone based on the letter, nor did they convict someone for killing Mary Kelly. If the person who wrote it meant for it to be some sort of insurance against getting caught, as far as they are concerned, it worked. They didn't get caught. Probably had as much to do with his continued freedom as his choice of socks, but whatever. It's called magical thinking. "I clap my hands five times every time I use the toilet, and I've never fallen in." Okay special guy. You show 'em who's boss.

[La fee verte]

Hi

I just found a web site with a Goad Fire Insurance plan/map of Dorset st with the street numbers on not sure what year the maps from but its helped me to understand where number 14 Dorset st was in relation to Millers court.

link below hopefully-

http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/4844/1/4844.pdf

The map on page 7

[Sally]

Yeah. There's more to this than meets the eye, I think. Whether it'll be possible to find out what; or to even come close to finding out - well, that's another matter.

[Cogidubnus]

I just found a web site with a Goad Fire Insurance plan/map of Dorset st with the street numbers on not sure what year the maps from but its helped me to understand where number 14 Dorset st was in relation to Millers court.

Hi La Fee Verte

I'm not sure why you're that interested in Number 14 Dorset Street, but it was almost opposite the arched entrance to Millers court, (which ran between numbers 26 and 27 Dorset Street)...Funny old source that PDF...I haven't read it in any detail but note that it describes the murder of MJK as having taken place in No 9 Millers Court rather than 13...Sounds like the researcher might've been on the old Green Fairy too!

Cheers!

Dave

[richardnunweek]

Hi,
A rather good guess by the writer of the 14, Dorset street letter, do you not think? right opposite where the next murder happened, and where Mrs Maxwell of the same address , saw Kelly at a much debated time.
I have heard of strange coincidences, but surely this one has implications?
Regards Richard.

[Cogidubnus]

No 14

I still feel it's a red herring...but oh well!

All the best

Dave

[richardnunweek]

Hi ,
Yes definitely ''Fishy''.
It is a fact [ actual newspaper account] that a letter claiming to be from the killer, was addressed 14,Dorset street, and was published exactly one week prior to the Kelly murder in Yarmouth, and we now know that number 14 was approx opposite Millers court .
I am of the opinion that is beyond coincidence, it surely was not a wild guess by some prankster, Whitechapel/Aldgate is a vast area, and to advertise an address right opposite the next Ripper site, has to be far from a red herring..
We even have Mrs Maxwell living there, and although yet to be ascertained, possibly a family born in Yarmouth, or at least one Miss Smith aged 24 , in the 1991 census of the same heritage.
What it all means is even beyond, my imagination .it could be a bored resident, a grudge, or malicious doing, or a cry for help ,if not from the killer themselves, a tormented partner, but a lucky guess surely not..
Regards Richard.

[Michael W Richards]

Hi,
A rather good guess by the writer of the 14, Dorset street letter, do you not think? right opposite where the next murder happened, and where Mrs Maxwell of the same address , saw Kelly at a much debated time.
I have heard of strange coincidences, but surely this one has implications?
Regards Richard.

Hi Richard,

Yes, there are connections of many figures in these cases to Dorset Street, going right back to Martha. That a hoax letter would also originate from an address on that street is interesting, but nothing more.

Remember, thousands were sent in.

As for Mrs Maxwell, we know that she likely barely even knew Mary by sight, having spent months across the street from each other without talking or chatting. Odd that the morning of her death Mary is now speaking with her and calling her "Corrie".

Best regards,

Mike R

[richardnunweek]

Hi Michael,
Yes indeed quite a few roads lead to Dorset street, we have Pearly Poll[ Tabram's pal],Annie Chapman, possibly Eddowes, and of course last, but not least Mary Kelly.
I have read the vast majority of Ripper correspondence , and I have yet to find another letter headlined Dorset street, sent to the police.
As for Maxwell's knowledge of MJK.she did explain her sighting , and living opposite, would at the very least, have known her by sight, she admitted that she did not know her well, but explained she had spoken to her a couple of times.
I don't often see a nearby neighbour of mine, but I know her name, she knows mine, and I can identify her easily , even if I have hardly conversed with her.
So I cannot see the angle with Maxwell.
If she was being honest , its a mystery, if she was telling fibs, then she must have had a real good reason, maybe the answer lies in that property?
I can't help having a suspicious mind Mike.
Regards Richard.