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John Ruffels
Inspector
Username: Johnr
Post Number: 229
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 9:01 am: |       |
Because there seems to be no concrete scientific evidence to point to any of the letters written having been sent by the murderer him/herself, we are left to searching for minutae for clues.
I understand the Stewart P Evans book LETTERS FROM HELL is an excellent primer for those seeking to wrestle with this epistolatory connundrum.
Since none of us really knows if any of the JTR letters are real, I'd like to add my few cents.
The title of this thread is Are the Ripper Letters) Work of a Journalist?
Others have pointed to several ( not all ) of the letters being addressed to the" Central News Agency" suggesting a newspaper insider because few outsiders would know of the Agency's existence.I believe that makes sense.
Regardless of which letter we are talking about, it is quite obvious the writer/s kept right up to date with the latest news stories.Did this mean
they could not only write but read as well?
Somebody suggested the letters with their music-hall Irish dialogue could have been written by a
vindictive Cockney.("Mishter Lusk").If that were true then the "Box of Toys" letter might be a return volley by the other side.
My own opinion is that when the press gleefully derided the police for not solving the Ripper murders, several antisocial police-haters from all over the British Isles jumped on the bandwagon. Or if the Lusk letter was real (and I like the observation about the jagged strokes in its caligraphy) then it is more than likely immitators provided most - if not all, the letters which followed.
I think Bulling the drunken journalist wrote several. Probably coined the name "Jack The Ripper"..
And probably, a goodly number of Scotland Yard's chief suspects for the actual murders, were suspected of being the Ripper by their families solely on an imagined recognition of their handwriting in the publicised Ripper letters. |
Frank van Oploo
Inspector
Username: Franko
Post Number: 288
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 4:50 pm: | |
Thanks for the info, Alex! |
James Eric Carter
Sergeant
Username: Archangel261973
Post Number: 44
Registered: 7-2003
| | Posted on Monday, June 07, 2004 - 5:34 pm: | |
Many of you keep saying that Jack was a local man and of low intelligence. He most likely was local or atleast spent a good deal of time in the east end. But, he was not of low od even of below average intelligence. Just look at the serial killers of today yes, they are antisocial and most are amoral and all of them are a few cans short of a six pack. But, they are intelligent, no one could pull off the killings without it Jack could read and write. I really think part of the mutlations were a form of vanity on his part.
As to why he would write to the CNA, the police couldn't hide the info from them that way. In fact it would be up to the CNA to include the police. They could have just run the letters with out letting the police know. Did Jack want to be known? At first maybe not, after the news stories and the capture of "leather apron" I think his vanity got him and the letters started and the name choosen.
Latters, Eric |
Thomas C. Wescott
Detective Sergeant
Username: Tom_wescott
Post Number: 123
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Monday, June 07, 2004 - 9:43 pm: | |
Hello all,
Doesn't say a lot for Scotland Yard or the numerous vigilance committees if Jack was of low intelligence, now does it? Ha ha. Personally, I don't see any reason to think he was of below average intelligence.
Yours truly,
Tom Wescott |
James Eric Carter
Sergeant
Username: Archangel261973
Post Number: 46
Registered: 7-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 09, 2004 - 4:01 pm: | |
Hey Tom,
I've been thinking about the letters you talked about a few weeks back and the writer of them. After reading them again its possible that they were all "penned" by the same person but not written by the same hand. The only problem is that again we get into a pair of killers or at least a second person who might have known about it or ould guess about it.
Just some thoughts.
Latters,
Eric |
Thomas C. Wescott
Detective Sergeant
Username: Tom_wescott
Post Number: 128
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 09, 2004 - 8:48 pm: | |
Eric,
I can't see any reason to discount the possibility that some of the primary letters (i.e. Dear Boss, From hell, Openshaw) were written by the same hand, although it's not entirely likely. I'd say it's less likely that one person composed them and had others write them, because then you're increasing the dynamic and, statistically, it's just not as likely. Pure speculation and fantasy, but then, theorizing often is!
I don't know what you mean about 'a second person who might have known about it or could guess it'...guess what?
Yours truly,
Tom Wescott |
James Eric Carter
Sergeant
Username: Archangel261973
Post Number: 48
Registered: 7-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 09, 2004 - 10:34 pm: | |
Tom,
What I was thinking is that Jack coined the primary letters and one other person write some of them (Openshaw, From Hell, Box of Toys) and wrote some of them himself (Dear Boss, Saucy Jack, and the Witness letter, and maybe the Dear God).
I agree with you about including others in the plot and its what I ment about the second person in my last message. I know that the norm is a single killer but pairs have happened.
Laters,
Eric |
Thomas C. Wescott
Detective Sergeant
Username: Tom_wescott
Post Number: 129
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, June 10, 2004 - 12:20 am: | |
Eric,
I've considered the possibility of two killers, particularly due to the Schwartz sighting, but think it likely that only one man was the killer. As for the letters, that's a totally different subject. All of us except Cornwell know that many, many, many independent hands wrote the collective Ripper letters, but the same man who wrote Dear Boss wrote Saucy Jacky and MAY have written others as well. And, that person may or may not have been the real Ripper. There's a case to go either way.
Yours truly,
Tom Wescott |
Frank van Oploo
Inspector
Username: Franko
Post Number: 296
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, June 10, 2004 - 5:26 pm: | |
Hi Eric,
You wrote (I only read your post just now and it seems like a reaction to one of my posts):
“Many of you keep saying that Jack was a local man and of low intelligence. … But, he was not of low or even of below average intelligence. Just look at the serial killers of today yes, they are antisocial and most are amoral and all of them are a few cans short of a six pack. But, they are intelligent, no one could pull off the killings without it. Jack could read and write. I really think part of the mutilations were a form of vanity on his part.”
I never said the Ripper was of low intelligence. What I said was that in my view he was a local man who simply wasn’t accustomed to writing, that’s all. But this doesn’t have anything to do with intelligence. I think the Ripper was at least moderately intelligent, but certainly street smart and I do think he could read and write.
Considering the mutilations, what I see, is that on the one hand they seem to have been done to destroy (the femininity of) his victims, while on the other they seem to have been a means of exploring the female body. So, I believe the Ripper feared and hated women and perhaps prostitutes in particular, while at the same time he was still very interested in them, perhaps because he had no sexual experience with them in a normal way. I don’t think vanity had much to do with it. But, that's just my view.
All the best,
Frank
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Frank van Oploo
Inspector
Username: Franko
Post Number: 297
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, June 10, 2004 - 5:48 pm: | |
I just wrote: “…, perhaps because he had no sexual experience with them in a normal way.”
Even in Dutch it’s sometimes hard to put everything into the right words, but in English it’s even more difficult. Rereading my own post I wasn’t completely satisfied with the way I wrote the above. I think it should read:
…, but perhaps incapable of having a (sexual) relationship in any normal way.
|
John Ruffels
Inspector
Username: Johnr
Post Number: 238
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, June 10, 2004 - 7:34 pm: | |
Several posters have been concerned that others might think JTR was not an intelligent person who could read and write.
I think the main point about his being able to write "Catch Me If You Can" -taunting- letters, (and the various letters show the writer/writers were keeping up with things in the newspapers), shows not that people were surprised he could read and write, but that most people, at least locals, could not afford to go to school or afford time off work to learn.
The Ripper, if he was not an educated person certainly had a big supply of cunning.
I think the Ripper and MOST of the Ripper letter-
writers were different people. |
James Eric Carter
Sergeant
Username: Archangel261973
Post Number: 49
Registered: 7-2003
| | Posted on Friday, June 11, 2004 - 2:58 pm: | |
Tom,
I had another thought. O.K. we got at least the D.B., S.J., Witness, and maybe the D.G. letters al in the same hand/tone. Then the F.H., BoT., and Openshaw were in a slightly different tone and completely different hand but again the same for the set.
So, lets say Jack wrote the first set taunting the police and the city itself. Then had a second hand write the second set of letters that was uneducated. His patsy couldn't read or write but could copy, Jack writes something out has him copy it over and then sends it in. The copier couldn't read it so it keeps Jack a lone killer.
Also, if this is true, then Jack could have put the kidney in the package and took it to Lusk.
Frank,
I didn't mean to sigle you out others have hinted at intelligence. I think he could read and write as well. I also think he could have had a normal relationship with a woman other serial killers have been married and had families. His mutilations were ment to humiliate the victims he took their womanhood and left them for any and all to see. He hated prostitutes not women in general (or any women would have been targeted). He felt wronged by them for some reason real or imagined and he wasn't going to let a woman get away with that just as I think he wouldn't let the press get away with calling him a jew or leather apron.
John,
We know that most of the letters were from different people. As the killer Jack would have followed the case and most likely came back to the scene after the police got there.
I think that Jack had both an education and cunning/street smarts.
Laters,
Eric |
esm
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 22, 2004 - 2:51 pm: | |
hi,
take a look at
http://www.jacktheripper.de/forum/viewtopic.php?t=335
it's written in german... but still it might be worth taking a look
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