How strange is this

[richardnunweek]

Hi Sam.
Yes indeed Dorset Street was known as a rough area, also Flower and Dean street , and Thrawl Street , and many more locations in that area.
It is a coincidence indeed that Number 14 Dorset Street was opposite Millers court. the location of the next murder,
It is a coincidence indeed, that Mrs Maxwell resided there, who claimed to have seen a dead woman alive.?
As you say no killer in his right mind would inform the police where he was staying, but ''It was sent to a different police force,'' and Millers court was not mentioned as the intended murder scene.
Indeed it is entirely possible that the area was under supervision , but surely only at night [ when the Ripper always struck.
If Mrs Maxwell did see Kelly on the morning of the 9th,and she was accosted by her killer in daylight hours. then any surveillance would have been lifted
I believe we should not dismiss this letter as a 'Red Herring' it may be very important to the case.
Regards Richard.

[Sam Flynn]

I just stumbled upon this thread and I noticed it stops in 2016. I find the implications intriguing, certainly in regards to Mrs. Maxwell. Anybody know anything more about this?

As Richard Nunweek, who started this thread, pointed out in his first post: "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".

Indeed, Dorset Street was quite (in)famous before the Ripper murders, and I shouldn't be surprised if it was mentioned reasonably frequently in the press as a street renowned for dossers and criminals, outside of the reports of the murders of Annie Chapman and Catherine Eddowes. If a hoaxer wanted to pick a Spitalfields street likely to harbour a murderer, then Dorset Street would have been an obvious choice. No genuine murderer is very likely to give away their real address, so one must assume that a hoaxer simply plucked the number 14 out of thin air - 14's as good a number as any - and the fact that this was where Caroline Maxwell lived could easily be coincidental.

Incidentally, it seems that the letter in question was sent even earlier than 2nd November, as I've found reference to it in the Eastern Daily Press of 31st October.

[richardnunweek]

Yes very intriguing , a letter sent to another police force, naming an address , which is not just opposite the next murder scene, but the very premises, that has connection to Mrs Maxwell , which happens to be one of the most important witnesses of the case. and also the area Sarah Lewis saw a man hanging about [ believed to have been George Hutchinson.] on the night of the Kelly Murder.
Regards Richard.

[Mr.Boodles]

I just stumbled upon this thread and I noticed it stops in 2016. I find the implications intriguing, certainly in regards to Mrs. Maxwell. Anybody know anything more about this?

[MysterySinger]

Well even if the letter was from Jack it could be his only piece of correspondence since anyone could have written the other letters and GSG. Could be someone else writing about him knowing his plans or, yes simply a prank. Not great for speculation and intrigue though that last option.

[Rosella]

Yeah, but Norwicher can also mean people from Norwich! And how common do we know that this piece of slang was in the 1880's East End?

Had the letter been sent to authories in Kent, or Gloucestershire or Cumberland I might have agreed. However, to send it to a seaside resort in Norfolk, with the two towns mentioned barely thirty miles apart, it just seems clear to me, though obviously not to others, that it's an attempt by an unknown person from East Anglia to have a joke on Yarmouth police. If this letter is from Jack then it's a Jack that's being very subtle about things in a way he doesn't seem to be in other pieces of his correspondence!

[MysterySinger]

A Norwicher was a person who took more than their fair share of something. Maybe where prostitutes were concerned it might refer to customers say, or just simply that as women they were putting it about a bit too much. The example given below refers to drink and I suspect that the victims may have imbibed too much so that could also apply. In these circumstances the murderer might possibly be someone with a downer on loose women, a rival pimp, or a fanatic from some temperance movement.

[Robert St Devil]

Hello Joshua Rogan and Ros.

I believe that you have to read this letter as though it was written by Jack the Ripper to see if any insight can be gained. That's NOT to say that he did write it, but trying to read it from anyone else's pov is an exercise in futility. Considering the suggested tone of the correspondence from the article, I seriously would doubt on it existing as a "cry for help".

So, reading into this coincidental mystery as tho it was written by the killer himself, the best question that I can derive is:

Why would Jack the Ripper alert Yarmouth authorities to 14 Dorset St., Spitalfields?

Considering it is Jack the Ripper, it could have been that he was indicating who he was intent on murdering next. But that would seriously question your profile of him since he would be less The Joker and more-so The Riddler. It would also call into question Jack the Ripper's familiarity with Dorset St. since he would need to know the backgrounds of the residence to know which women were Norwich because that seems to be the basis of his taunt. For example, if he intended on murdering this 21 yo. Helen Smith of Yarmouth who lived on her own [mentioned earlier in the thread], there would be an obvious need to claim that he knew her & her history.

[Rosella]

I think only post offices and sub post offices (like village stores) sold stamps at that time. I do think McCarthy might have sold ink, pens, a bit of stationary in his shop.

The lodger in Dorset St probably did note the names of the pubs were the same as the piers, but if it was the East London police he/she wanted to alert about locale why send a letter to Great Yarmouth?

Admittedly England is a small place but police in a Norfolk seaside resort aren't really likely to be able to help police in Whitechapel in any practical sense are they? Why not be more direct and call the places pubs and send the letter to the nearest police station?

I just can't see it being a letter with any East End allusions at all, but a warning about two women from Norwich were to be murdered at Yarmouth between the piers.

[Joshua Rogan]

The writer hoped to cause a stir in Yarmouth, have police inspecting the piers and maybe waiting there on duty all night, and him/her relatives/friends in the town could then write and give him/her the details. Good joke!

But do you think someone familiar with the names of the piers in Yarmouth would have failed to notice the nearby pubs with the same names, if they'd been living in Dorset St any length of time?

[Joshua Rogan]

Hi Ros.

I,m curious. Taking the ,,coincidental hoax,, out of tge equation...

If someone from 14 Dorset did mail the letter, would they most likely have used McCarthy,s shop?

Apologies if it,s been discussed.

It's quite possible. Probable even. No. 14 was just across the road from McCarthy's shop at no. 27 (opposite 28 and 29). I'm not sure if he sold stamps there, but the residents of no. 14 surely needed candles.

[Robert St Devil]

Hi Ros.

I,m curious. Taking the ,,coincidental hoax,, out of tge equation...

If someone from 14 Dorset did mail the letter, would they most likely have used McCarthy,s shop?

Apologies if it,s been discussed.

[Rosella]

No, I don't think it would be returned, and I don't think it was meant to be. The writer hoped to cause a stir in Yarmouth, have police inspecting the piers and maybe waiting there on duty all night, and him/her relatives/friends in the town could then write and give him/her the details. Good joke!

The police would probably pay the penny postage. It's sad really that this anonymous joker writer couldn't afford the postage.

[GUT]

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.

But would a letter to a police station be returned (stamped or not).

[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.