How strange is this

[Rosella]

Did the letters allude to the two piers being pubs though? Maybe it's because I'm Norfolk born and bred myself, but I find that letter, sent to Norfolk police, full of allusions to my home county. The Great Yarmouth piers, the two Norwich women etc and the fact that the letter was sent to police at Yarmouth just speaks to me of a person from the Great Yarmouth or Norwich area (not very far apart) lodging in London and sending a rather stupid anonymous letter to the police back home warning of Jack killing again, this time in Yarmouth. Probably hundreds, if not thousands of these anonymous letters warning of local killingd by Jack were sent to police all over the country during the Ripper hunt.

It's the fact that it was written from lodgings in Dorset St and near a murder site that gives this letter any significance, and in my view it is simply one of those strange coincidences that sometimes bob up in life. Probably the East Anglian born sender of the letter was both shocked and fascinated when the murder occurred.

[SirJohnFalstaff]

How probable is this?

There is unfortunately no way to prove this, and it is far fetch...

BUT

What if the point of the letter, being unstamped, was to be returned to 14 Dorset street, which would be the actual recipient of the message, including the allusions to the piers being the pubs. Either to warn or scare? someone knowing that the killer would strike the next Thursday.

I don't actually buy it, but it's fun to juggle with this idea for a while.

[SirJohnFalstaff]

Could the Skin eruption be some type of STD perhaps?

Chancroid?

[Sherlock Holmes]

"The first rule of survival in the east end"? is that "Keep your mouth shut" or "watch what you say"?

Either way is it possible that someone in that pub didn't want to speak up about what they saw that night. I know that the "east End" was London's "Dirty Little secret" and that murders and other crimes. So these had to be something extraordinarily brutal to get such attention from the print media of the day.

Regards
Mr Holmes

[Wickerman]

If the bartender or bartenders on shift that night had served them. I'd money two to one on that they were the last to see Mary alive. Now please feel free to correct me if I have this wrong but wouldn't being the last person to see Mary alive make you the prime suspect in the Yard's eyes for her murder?

Regards
Mr Holmes

In this case, they might if there was only the two of you in the pub.
As that was unlikely, I think Scotland Yard would cut you some slack

What might be more of a concern for the bar staff is if they said something to make life awkward for Blotchy, and he just might have some friends that will wait out the back of the pub for you, to remind you of what the first rule of survival is in the East End...

[GUT]

If the bartender or bartenders on shift that night had served them. I'd money two to one on that they were the last to see Mary alive. Now please feel free to correct me if I have this wrong but wouldn't being the last person to see Mary alive make you the prime suspect in the Yard's eyes for her murder?

Regards
Mr Holmes

Being the last person yes.

Being the last known person, not necessarily.

[Sherlock Holmes]

Is it possible that the bar tender didnt speak up for fear of being a suspect

And theres nothing from the bartenders? Or maybe i don't understand the London bar scene in 1888 London. I would have thought that some ody would have said, "yea, i served the two. They ordered a Fosters."

If the bartender or bartenders on shift that night had served them. I'd money two to one on that they were the last to see Mary alive. Now please feel free to correct me if I have this wrong but wouldn't being the last person to see Mary alive make you the prime suspect in the Yard's eyes for her murder?

Regards
Mr Holmes

[Robert St Devil]

And theres nothing from the bartenders? Or maybe i don't understand the London bar scene in 1888 London. I would have thought that some ody would have said, "yea, i served the two. They ordered a Fosters."

[GUT]

But it wasnt Jack or Tom Bowyer, right? Like, maybe the wife ,or do we know?

As far as I know, no one knows. It could have been any of them, McCarthy also had kids, for all we know one of them may have served Mary, just no idea.

[Robert St Devil]

The police probably did, just we don't have it anymore.

But it wasnt Jack or Tom Bowyer, right? Like, maybe the wife ,or do we know?

[GUT]

As for MCCarthys, i thought somebody in the shop would have gave a statement, like "she came in here and bought a candle. I asked 'bout the rent."

The police probably did, just we don't have it anymore.

[Robert St Devil]

ROSELLA. Not so much their drinking habits... The people who served them the night they were murdered Like at the Bricklayer Pub or the Britanniw. Or where Catherine gets drunk midday. Anybody who would have served them.

As for MCCarthys, i thought somebody in the shop would have gave a statement, like "she came in here and bought a candle. I asked 'bout the rent."

[GUT]

A Fosters then! Goes down very nicely, especially on a hot day!

Can't be real Aussie if you drink that rubbish.

[Rosella]

A Fosters then! Goes down very nicely, especially on a hot day!

Mary bought her halfpenny candle from McCarthy's shop. I can't remember reading of any barmen or barmaids who actually gave testimony about the drinking habits of these ladies that have turned up in books. There are just bits and bobs here and there about Mary being seen drinking at Ringers and with Joe Barnett's brother, etc.

[Robert St Devil]

Name a brand. I know a place that carries'em all ROSELLA

Do you know if theres a book that tells the statements of the bartenders who served these women, or the person who sold Mary Kelly her candle?