How strange is this

[Chris Scott]

The following link is to Chris Scott's 2004 Casebook article:

http://www.casebook.org/ripper_media/book_reviews/non-fiction/castofthousands.mrs-fiddymont.html?

Samuel Fiddymont, the presumed husband of Mrs Fiddymont was a Norfolk man who married in Yarmouth.

Regards, Bridewell.

Addresses for Samuel Fiddymont
1891
The Market Tavern, Brushfield Street
1892
The Market Tavern, Brushfield Street
1895
King Charles the Second, Lamb Street
1896
28 Gibraltar Walk, Bethnal Green
1897
28 Gibraltar Walk, Bethnal Green

[Sherlock Holmes]

sally is it "the dear boss letter"? if so i have a pic of both sides of it and a transcript

[Sally]

Hi Sherlock

No, not that one. This is a letter printed in The Ipswich Journal of 2nd November 1888, claiming that 2 women are to be murdered in Norwich 'on Thursday night' - the very same night that Kelly was in fact killed.

The letter was treated by the Norfolk police as a hoax - but what is really interestng is that the letter purports to be from 14 Dorset Street - opposite Millers Court and the home of Caroline Maxwell at the time.

Curious, huh?

[Sherlock Holmes]

This one (it's just a part of it)

[Sally]

Yes, that one. Also on this thread I believe (#47). I doubt the actual letter survives - it might I suppose.

[Sherlock Holmes]

I tried to locate a transcript. No luck. any help

Sherlock

[Sally]

There isn't one available I'm afraid. The records of the Norfolk Constabulary are at the local RO - there's a slim chance that the letter was retained and might be found in that collection.

It is a slim chance though.

[Sherlock Holmes]

Sally i'm an Aussie how much is a flight to the UK i might just go check out the archives one day

regards
Sherlock

[Ginger]

http://lifeloom.com/I3Nicholson.htm has a bit to say on the topic, and whether the letter might yet survive in archives. Interestingly, he reports that the letter arrived a week after the Kelly murder, rather than a week before.

[Sally]

Hi Ginger - thanks

So the letter does not survive in all likelihood - not surprising. It cannot have arrived at the Norfolk Constabulary on 17th November though - alhtough that would be easier to explain - because it appears in a paper dated 2nd November.

[miakaal4]

Wow! This is a bit of a bombshell, of course it could all be coinsidence, but wow! Could I just be a rascal and suggest that Ms Maxwell was a ghoul? I mean did she send the letter, and then when the murder happened up the road decide the best way to get involved would be to say something radical? Was she just an attention seeker? Just a wicked thought.

[richardnunweek]

Hi Miakaal,
A ghoul?
If Maxwell wrote that letter, and was an attention seeker , what would she have done if the next murder was several hundred mitres away, laying in some alley,would she claim to have seen that woman that evening?
I do however, find that letter [a hoax it obviously was] extremely coincidental, 14, Dorset ,street, was directly opposite Millers court, it could not have been much closer, and the author must have been gifted with an incredible insight, or did he/she have a plan for poor Mary Kelly.?
Out of all the letters, this one is the most likely to have been penned by the killer, or an accessory.
Regards Richard.

[Sally]

Mmm - Caroline Maxwell would've had to have been catastrophically stupid to send a hoax letter from her own address. I don't think that she sent it - but something was going on there, I expect.

I just can't see it being pure and simple coincidence that it came from that address and predicted a murder on the following Thursday, when the following Thursday, a woman was murdered on the other side of the street.

Then there is the fact that Caroline Maxwell's testimony was known at the time to be different (I believe that she was cautioned at the inquest) and the fact that she seems to disappear after 1888.

All very intriguing.

[richardnunweek]

Hello Sally,
Maxwell's inquest evidence, and the amazing fact that a letter sent to a police force [ regardless where] addressed from her home address, is one amazing coincidence.
There is a connection with Yarmouth. from that address in 1891[ the Smith girl] but what about 3 years earlier?
I am not a suspicious person[really Richard], but one must ask was Mrs Maxwell attempting to give someone a alibi , by suggesting the victim was seen alive at a later date,?
Th assumption would be Yes.
Regards Richard.

[curious]

Hello Sally,
Maxwell's inquest evidence, and the amazing fact that a letter sent to a police force [ regardless where] addressed from her home address, is one amazing coincidence.
There is a connection with Yarmouth. from that address in 1891[ the Smith girl] but what about 3 years earlier?
I am not a suspicious person[really Richard], but one must ask was Mrs Maxwell attempting to give someone a alibi , by suggesting the victim was seen alive at a later date,?
Th assumption would be Yes.
Regards Richard.

The problem with that assumption is that at first the police thought she was killed in the daylight hours.

But very strange and curious all round, the letter and the murder location.

curious