|
 |
 |
|
|
|
** This is an archived, static copy of the Casebook messages boards dating from 1998 to 2003. These threads cannot be replied to here. If you want to participate in our current forums please go to https://forum.casebook.org **
Archive through February 8, 2000
Casebook Message Boards: Ripper Letters: General Discussion:
Analysis of "Dear Boss" and "Lusk" letters:
Archive through February 8, 2000
Author: Michael B. Bruneio
Sunday, 06 February 2000 - 02:16 am |        | Can anyone please tell me if there have been any documented analyses of these letters by a qualified graphologist that might offer information as to the personality of the Ripper?
I seem to recall several years ago an admittedly amateur graphologist suggested that the author of the "Dear Boss" letter not only showed evident pathology typical in serial killers, but that he attempted to disguise his handwriting as well!
I don't give much - if any - credence to claims like this; however, the concept is an intruiging one. If anyone has done credible research along these lines and can back up the veracity of their claims and methodology, I'd love to read it.
Thanks for your time. |
Author: Jon Smyth
Sunday, 06 February 2000 - 12:35 pm | | Welcome Michael.
If you are honestly intrigued by palmreading, phronolgy or graphology you might be interested by Pamela Balls book, JtR - a psychic investigation, not that it covers the above elements, but it certaintly is among the 'fringe' nonesense that you find scattered throughout the case.
Michael, dont be swayed by such rubbish, there is no such animal as a 'qualified' graphologist.
Regards, Jon |
Author: Michael B. Bruneio
Sunday, 06 February 2000 - 01:14 pm | | Thanks, John!
Believe me, I am not now, nor will I ever, subscribe to flights of fancy such as this. I was merely wondering if any SERIOUS academic study had been done on graphology and would like to know the implications.
For the record, I agree with Sugden when he says that "it is unlikely we will find our man amongst the laboring poor." If the writer of the Lusk letter (which I believe to be the real Magilla) was an educated man of the middle or upper classes, it is just barely possible he might disguise his writing to seem like an uneducated man. Purely speculative, I know, but if this could be proven to a reasonable satisfaction by science, it would help to eliminate many of the tentative suspects we have now.
Thanks! |
Author: Nona Anona
Sunday, 06 February 2000 - 02:26 pm | | Graphology is akin to astrology and means nothing in a case such as this. Even Qualified forensic handwriting experts, which is a scientific field, are able to give expert opinion and not positive proof.
So if you have only opinion, and there is as much evidence, if not more, to indicate that the 'Lusk letter' is written by a hoaxer, how on earth can you say "it will help eliminate many of the tentative suspects..."?
This is old theorising and the point has been argued endlessly in the past without reaching satisfactory resolution. |
Author: Leanne Perry
Sunday, 06 February 2000 - 04:58 pm | | G'day Micheal,
I have written a report on the 'Ripper Letters' for the newsletter of the Australian Cloak & Dagger club.
Somewhere I came across the information that a 'Cental News Agency' journalist: Tom Bulling, was the author of these letters. Another journalist claimed that ex-journalist: Best, admitted that he and a colleague penned all 'Ripper' letters, 'to keep business alive'.
The book I found this info in, said "Best, however, was probably unaware of all 'Ripper Letters', which means that the 'Lusk' letter, at least, could be the real thing. How easy would it be for a journalist to get hold of a human kidney?
LEANNE! |
Author: Leanne Perry
Sunday, 06 February 2000 - 05:04 pm | | G'day Micheal,
I have written a report on the 'Ripper Letters' for the newsletter of the Australian Cloak & Dagger club.
Somewhere I came across the information that a 'Cental News Agency' journalist: Tom Bulling, was the author of these letters. Another journalist claimed that ex-journalist: Best, admitted that he and a colleague penned all 'Ripper' letters, 'to keep business alive'.
The book I found this info in, said "Best, however, was probably unaware of all 'Ripper Letters', which means that the 'Lusk' letter, at least, could be the real thing. How easy would it be for a journalist to get hold of a human kidney?
LEANNE! |
Author: Christopher T. George
Sunday, 06 February 2000 - 05:59 pm | | Greetings, Michael:
To give you a straight answer without the skepticism offered to you by Mishter Shmyth and Miss Anona, yes, there have been a number of studies of the Ripper letters published:
C. M. MacLeod, "A 'Ripper' Handwriting Analysis," Criminologist (London) August 1968:121-7.
Derek Davis, M.Sc.G., M.Inst.M.S.M., "'Jack the Ripper'--The Handwriting Analysis," Criminologist (London) 1974 9(3):62-9.
William Vincent, "Confessions of a Cool Killer. Or Letters from Expert Hoaxers?" Police Review Magazine (London), 10 February 1978
William Vincent, "Letters from the Ripper and the Writing on the Wall," Police Review Magazine (London), 10 March 1978
Thomas J. Mann, "The Ripper and the Poet: A Comparison in Handwriting," W.A.D.E. Magazine (Chicago, Illinois), June 1975, Vol. 2, No. 1.
As you may know, I will be presenting a paper on the Ripper letters at the upcoming conference in Park Ridge, New Jersey, and will be making use of some of the observations of some of these writers as well as those of the Ripperologists in the regular books.
Chris George, Editor
Ripper Notes
Casebook Productions, Inc.
Organizer, "Jack the Ripper: A Century of Myth"
Park Ridge Marriott, Park Ridge, NJ, April 8-9, 2000
conference@casebook-productions.org
http://www.casebook-productions.org/conference.htm |
Author: Christopher T. George
Sunday, 06 February 2000 - 06:06 pm | | Greetings, Michael:
To give you a straight answer without the skepticism offered to you by Mishter Shmyth and Miss Anona, yes, there have been a number of studies of the Ripper letters published:
C. M. MacLeod, "A 'Ripper' Handwriting Analysis," Criminologist (London) August 1968:121-7.
Derek Davis, M.Sc.G., M.Inst.M.S.M., "'Jack the Ripper'--The Handwriting Analysis," Criminologist (London) 1974 9(3):62-9.
William Vincent, "Confessions of a Cool Killer. Or Letters from Expert Hoaxers?" Police Review Magazine (London), 10 February 1978
William Vincent, "Letters from the Ripper and the Writing on the Wall," Police Review Magazine (London), 10 March 1978
Thomas J. Mann, "The Ripper and the Poet: A Comparison in Handwriting," W.A.D.E. Magazine (Chicago, Illinois), June 1975, Vol. 2, No. 1.
As you may know, I will be presenting a paper on the Ripper letters at the upcoming conference in Park Ridge, New Jersey, and will be making use of some of the observations of some of these writers as well as those of the Ripperologists in the regular books.
Chris George, Editor
Ripper Notes
Casebook Productions, Inc.
Organizer, "Jack the Ripper: A Century of Myth"
Park Ridge Marriott, Park Ridge, NJ, April 8-9, 2000
conference@casebook-productions.org
http://www.casebook-productions.org/conference.htm |
Author: Christopher T. George
Sunday, 06 February 2000 - 06:18 pm | | Greetings, Michael:
To give you a straight answer without the skepticism offered to you by Mishter Shmyth and Miss Anona, yes, there have been a number of studies of the Ripper letters published:
C. M. MacLeod, "A 'Ripper' Handwriting Analysis," Criminologist (London) August 1968:121-7.
Derek Davis, M.Sc.G., M.Inst.M.S.M., "'Jack the Ripper'--The Handwriting Analysis," Criminologist (London) 1974 9(3):62-9.
William Vincent, "Confessions of a Cool Killer. Or Letters from Expert Hoaxers?" Police Review Magazine (London), 10 February 1978
William Vincent, "Letters from the Ripper and the Writing on the Wall," Police Review Magazine (London), 10 March 1978
Thomas J. Mann, "The Ripper and the Poet: A Comparison in Handwriting," W.A.D.E. Magazine (Chicago, Illinois), June 1975, Vol. 2, No. 1.
As you may know, I will be presenting a paper on the Ripper letters at the upcoming conference in Park Ridge, New Jersey, and will be making use of some of the observations of some of these writers as well as those of the Ripperologists in the regular books.
Chris George, Editor
Ripper Notes
Casebook Productions, Inc.
Organizer, "Jack the Ripper: A Century of Myth"
Park Ridge Marriott, Park Ridge, NJ, April 8-9, 2000
conference@casebook-productions.org
http://www.casebook-productions.org/conference.htm |
Author: Christopher T. George
Sunday, 06 February 2000 - 06:36 pm | | Hello all:
Please accept my apologies ror inadvertently posted three times on the message boards re the JtR letters when I thought my system was not working! :-(
Chris |
Author: Jon Smyth
Sunday, 06 February 2000 - 09:07 pm | | Even though thou saith it thrice Chrith, that dont make it tho. :-)
Graphology is poppycock,...Oh, and incidently, I will stick my neck out here and tell you....Nona Anon is a male (I have a gut instinct for the presence of certain people) :-)
(he never did learn to bake cakes)
:-)
Regards, Jon |
Author: Leanne Perry
Monday, 07 February 2000 - 12:20 am | | G'day all,
Chris, you may have the same problem with posting messages as me. Everything I click on, takes ages to show up, including 'Post this Message'. I wait and wait and wait an unusually long time and then my computer says 'navigation time out', so I press 'Post this Message' again and my post shows up twice.
Administration: What's going on?
LEANNE? |
Author: NickDanger
Monday, 07 February 2000 - 12:29 am | | Hi All,
I just managed to access this site after hours of trying. The site has been slow before but nothing like this.
I seem to remember reading somewhere that Sue Iremonger, who is I belive a qualified document examiner, was going to do an analysis of all the Ripper letters. Does anyone have any information on this?
Best regards,
Nick |
Author: David M. Radka
Monday, 07 February 2000 - 12:36 am | | Nona,
So glad you are so au fait on this graphology nonsense, I was beginning to worry for us all.
Alf Grayte, now, he was the one for graphology. You ought to contact him.
Mishter George,
I'd love to get hold of the papers to be presented at the conference, and will pay any price. How may I obtain them? Thank you.
David |
Author: Caroline Anne Morris
Monday, 07 February 2000 - 07:25 am | | In the case of the Yorkshire Ripper, a graphologist was hauled in to look at the letters sent to the beleaguered George Oldfield by the Geordie who turned out to be a time-wasting and sick hoaxer.
The graphologist hindered the investigation by reporting that the letter-writer was indeed a dangerous man. But the hoaxer also sent a tape and his voice (regardless of the message) still chilled the blood well after the right man was caught.
So, even if people were not so sceptical, and trusted a graphologist who said that the writer of a ripper letter was abnormal or dangerous, it would be meaningless. I would not like to meet anyone who sends that kind of stuff anonymously, prank or not. I think they all have a screw loose somewhere.
(I'm waiting for Alf to turn into Robert the Bruce and be scared off by Boris :-) )
Love,
Caz |
Author: Christopher-Michael DiGrazia
Monday, 07 February 2000 - 09:20 am | | Welcome back, Michael. I thought perhaps we'd scared you away for good after the "one man" discussion!
The validity of the "From Hell" letter must be proven by the Lusk Kidney, not the other way round. If the kidney is a hoax, then the letter is useless, and all the graphology, astrology, psychology nonsense in the world won't help.
In my considered opinion, the kidney is most likely a fake. This cannot, as yet, be proven, but I believe it is so beyond a reasonable doubt.
The proper course is not to look at the letters and try to come up with an insight into the writer's behaviour (if the Diary taught us anything, it ought to have taught us that "experts" are the true whores - willing to say anything for a price), but to determine how likely it is that the Ripper would write such missives, and how much "inside" knowledge the writer possessed (much as was done with the Zodiac letters in 1969 - 1979). The arguments against "Dear Boss" and "Saucy Jacky" are well known, and I shan't go into them here. Those of you who have read my posts on the medical boards know why I cast a cold eye on the "From Hell" letter.
Apologies for brusqueness; much work to do today, and this site most difficult to access.
CMD |
Author: Michael B. Bruneio
Monday, 07 February 2000 - 10:28 am | | Dear Posters,
I'd like to thank you all for responding to my graphology questions. Your answers further confirmed my feelings about this line of inquiry. Speculation like this can be fun, but it gets us everywhere and nowhere.
I must admit to a little confusion when reading CMD's response. I'm afraid you've lost me with your mention of the "one man discussion." I think something is wrong with the Casebook: I could not access it at ALL yesterday, and I did not receive email notification of all these posts! So if it seemed as if I was not replying, it was not for lack of trying. (Hey, that rhymed!) ;-)
For the record, I have just begun to re-examine this case, and hopefully, with the help of Mssrs. Sugden and Begg, I will soon be able to contribute posts on par with the rest of you.
I hope the site comes back up to speed. I'd hate to miss more posts. |
Author: Leanne Perry
Monday, 07 February 2000 - 06:01 pm | | G'day All,
Looking at the 'Lusk' letter and the misspelling of the word 'knif': Here the the 'e' was most likely left off on purpose, by someone pretending to be semi-literate. (journalist?)
A genuinely semi-literate person, I feel, would be more likely to leave of the silent 'k'.
On the other hand, a genuinely semi-literate person, who had attended school, could have remembered his lesson on silent letters, but forgot to add the 'e'.
I agree with CMD in that the 'Lusk' letter must be proven by the kidney. How easy could it have been, for a journalist or other hoaxer, to get hold of a human, 'ginny' kidney, not charged with autopsy fluid?
LEANNE! |
Author: Christopher-Michael DiGrazia
Tuesday, 08 February 2000 - 08:52 am | | Just a slight correction, Leanne. There is no such thing as a "ginny kidney;" alcohol does not damage the kidneys, and the term comes from the mistaken Victorian belief that it did. The term was not used - to the best of my knowledge - by any medical man connected with the case, and seems itself to have been a journalistic filip.
I am currently researching the difficulties inherent in locating a piece of extracted viscera, whether by layman or professional. At the moment, I believe the "medical student prank" theory to be the most promising, but more on this later.
Michael - the "one man" reference concerned your posting on the "How do we know all the victims were the work of one man?" board. Nice to have you with us, however.
CMD |
Author: Michael B. Bruneio
Tuesday, 08 February 2000 - 09:39 am | | | Thanks for the welcome and clarification, CMD! If I had half a brain, I'd be dangerous! Or a politician. |
|
|
|
|
