How strange is this

[Rosella]

Congratulations on your promotion, Robert! Australian beer OK? We make some good beer here, I'm rather partial to a lager myself!

[Robert St Devil]

UGH ROSELLA! Now you are going to make me read thru that thread again, and i got my plate full with The Echo right now. Haha. Or maybe it was Norway which is a country, i hear. Hope your enjoying a pleasant weekend. Hey! I made CONSTABLE. Whose buying first round?

[Rosella]

Are we talking about Norwich, which is the capital city of Norfolk, (where I grew up) or Yarmouth, which is an old seaside town on the Norfolk coast, or Ipswich, which is in Suffolk? All very different places.

As for letters anyone could (and still can) arrange for the postman to leave their mail 'care of' at a shop or post office, as Mary supposedly did with her post from Ireland, leaving it to be picked up at McCarthy's shop.

[Robert St Devil]

I just couldnt downplay the research done in that thread tying Maxwell to this Yarmouth or Norwich(?) area where the letter was sent. You have a good question; had i wrote the letter, its for the purposes of having johnny law pay her residence a visit. Which leaves us with - did the norwich(?) police do anything at all?

[SirJohnFalstaff]

Who could receive mail at the time in London? Was it only people with permanent addresses, or anyone living there, even temporarily?

[Shaggyrand]

Better question then is, how would the Norwich police follow up on receiving this letter? Is the implication that somebody at this address is wanted by them?

While I agree thats a better question... I am more inclined to- how did the letter's author think the Norwich police would react upon receiving the letter?
I assume that it was sent to Norwich to get more attention than it would at any City or Met police station. While including the address could be just a stupid mistake, it might not be. Did they think that making a future threat in another city would bring police to the address listed? Maxwell saw the impossible (improbable if you prefer) and repeatedly swore to it. I do not think this letter being an earlier attempt to place herself in the investigation and get her 15 minutes is a big stretch.
I'm sure this has already been said. Should have read whole thread better.

[Robert St Devil]

Better question then is, how would the Norwich police follow up on receiving this letter? Is the implication that somebody at this address is wanted by them?

[Abby Normal]

I would posit that since the letter was a hoax, the address is coincidental.

[Robert St Devil]

MR HOLMES. I understood this thread to be speculating on a smaller mystery within the primary mystery ("Who was Jack the Ripper?"). On its own, the letter would seem a common hoax. Its the time relation to the Mary Kelly murder, the 14 Dorset St. address on the envelope, and the residents who lived there THAT make the question intriguing. There's a better question to ask rather than "Why would the murderer implicate this address?", but i dont know what it is yet.

[Sherlock Holmes]

Hi,
As this has not been brought up on Casebook, let me start the ball rolling.
A letter was published on the 2ND November 1888[1 week before Kelly's death] in the Ipswich Journal, which was a obvious hoax, however it stated that 'Lets hope the police here, can do better then the London police'
The content is not so important as the address, from which it was sent.14 Dorset street.Spitalfields.
How strange is that, it mentions an address just a few doors away from Millers court.
Even stranger it was the address of Caroline Maxwell ,one of the most discussed witnesses in the Ripper case, the woman who claimed to have done the impossible... seeing and talking, to someone after their death....
We know that 14, Dorset street, was a dwelling comprising of 39 inhabitants [ my favourite number ha] in 1881, and was still a lodging house in 1891.
I just find it strange that just over 7 days before Mary Kelly's death, someone addressed a letter to the Norfolk police , allegedly sent from 14 Dorset street, and what's more, that was the home of Mrs Maxwell.
I should add that all of this is currently to be found on Forums, but needs to be viewed here on Casebook , as it could be important.
It should be mentioned that by the 2ND November , Dorset street had been mentioned in the press, as Chapman had resided there, and Kate rumoured to have lived in the shed, nevertheless it is a very strange coincidence, that a letter sent to the police mentioning that on the Thursday [ 7days prior to the eve of Kelly's death] the killer would strike[ hoax] and the killer claimed to live just a few doors away from Millers court..the home of the witness who stated the impossible.
It was once suggested that Maxwell was giving the killer an alibi, by suggesting that Kelly was alive at a later time, it was even suggested that maybe she was protecting her husband.?
Lets face it,,she went to extreme lengths just for five minutes of fame,informing the police, and swearing on oath.
food for thought , and something different to discuss.
Regards Richard.

Dear Richard
While you do make an interesting point I find it just a trifle hard to believe that for all these years amateur sleuths and professional Ripperologists have been searching for a man, when in fact they should have been looking for a woman. She would HAVE TO HAVE BEEN an abnormally strong woman to slash throats to the bone and manage the level of mutilation found on Eddowes and Kelly.

Regards
Mr Holmes

[RockySullivan]

Hi Rocky,

I hope I didn't offend you, I wasn't laughing at your suggestion, it's just 'yar mouth' made me think of a jamaican accent.



Thanks for the info Mac.

Of course not! Was only a joke but I do wonder if there are some puns in the letter

[Natasha]

Is it possible the letter was sent to Yarmouth as a pun for yar mouth? Out there I know but was this a joke in 1880s? Could the letter writer have been a pun-ter?

Hi Rocky,

I hope I didn't offend you, I wasn't laughing at your suggestion, it's just 'yar mouth' made me think of a jamaican accent.

Yarmouth in German means murderous liaison at the hands of a Tommy Cutbush jobbin'. And, it was no joke. You wouldn't want to be on the wrong end of Tommy's 7 starred, Chinese machete.

Thanks for the info Mac.

[GUT]

Just because the return address said it came from that address doesn't mean it did. No one checked up on these things. It could have been sent by anyone from any address. However, putting that specific address on it probably means the person was at least familiar with the area and knew that a lodging house existed at that address. Really, what better way of staying completely anonymous while looking legit than using a large lodging house as a (fake) return address?

Tick!

[Fleetwood Mac]

Is it possible the letter was sent to Yarmouth as a pun for yar mouth? Out there I know but was this a joke in 1880s? Could the letter writer have been a pun-ter?

Yarmouth in German means murderous liaison at the hands of a Tommy Cutbush jobbin'. And, it was no joke. You wouldn't want to be on the wrong end of Tommy's 7 starred, Chinese machete.

[Natasha]

I wonder weather Barnett sent it, to scare Kelly. Didn't she mention to him that she was scared of a man? And asked him to read about the murders in the papers? Could it be possible that he was trying to scare her, so that she would agree to let him back home?

I don't know how Yarmouth figures in all this, but here's an idea maybe we should try and find out if Mary Kelly lived there at some point.

If she had relatives living in Yarmouth and they saw the news article, they would say something about it to her.

How Kelly's murder fits with this idea, coincidence aside, I don't know.