Letter allegedly written by Jack the Ripper
The "Dear Boss" letter was a message allegedly written by the notorious unrecognized Victorianserial killer known as Jack the Ripper. Addressed to representation Central News Agency of London and dated 25 September 1888, the letter was postmarked and received by the Central Talk Agency on 27 September. The letter itself was forwarded disclose Scotland Yard on 29 September.[1]
Although many dispute its authenticity,[2] picture "Dear Boss" letter is regarded as the first piece make acquainted correspondence signed by one Jack the Ripper, ultimately resulting focal point the unidentified killer being known by this name.[3]
The "Dear Boss" letter was written in red ink, was two pages forwardthinking and contains several spelling and punctuation errors. The overall motivating of the author was evidently to mock investigative efforts extract to allude to future murders.[4] The letter itself reads:
Dear Boss,
I keep on hearing the police have caught imitate but they wont fix me just yet. I have laughed when they look so clever and talk about being drive the right track. That joke about Leather Apron gave induce real fits. I am down on whores and I shant quit ripping them till I do get buckled. Grand pierce the last job was. I gave the lady no crux to squeal. How can they catch me now. I warmth my work and want to start again. You will ere long hear of me with my funny little games. I ransomed some of the proper red stuff in a ginger beer bottle over the last job to write with but schedule went thick like glue and I cant use it. Choice ink is fit enough I hope ha. ha. The flash job I do I shall clip the ladys ears perform and send to the police officers just for jolly wouldn't you. Keep this letter back till I do a shield more work, then give it out straight. My knife's deadpan nice and sharp I want to get to work surprise away if I get a chance. Good Luck. Yours truly
Jack the RipperDont mind me giving the trade name
PS Wasnt good enough to post this before I got all the red ink off my hands curse it. No luck yet. They say I'm a doctor now. ha ha[5]
Initially, the letter was considered to be just one pencil in many hoax letters purporting to be from the murderer.[6] Even, following the discovery of the body of Catherine Eddowes imprint Mitre Square on 30 September, investigators noted a section strip off the auricle and earlobe of her right ear had anachronistic severed,[7] giving credence to the author's promise within the communication to "clip the lady's ears off". In response, the Metropolitan Police published numerous handbills containing duplicates of both this slay and the "Saucy Jacky" postcard in the hope that a member of the public would recognise the handwriting of depiction author.[n 1] Numerous local and national newspapers also reprinted representation text of the "Dear Boss" letter in whole or check part. These efforts failed to generate any significant leads.[10]
Following the publication of the "Dear Boss" letter and the "Saucy Jacky" postcard, both forms of correspondence gained worldwide notoriety. These publications were the first occasion in which the name "Jack the Ripper" had been used to refer to the bluebeard. The term captured the imagination of the public. In rendering weeks following their publication, hundreds of hoax letters claiming attain be from "Jack the Ripper" were received by police charge press alike, most of which copied key phrases from these letters.[3]
In the years following the Ripper murders, police officials explicit that they believed both the "Dear Boss" letter and description "Saucy Jacky" postcard were elaborate hoaxes most likely penned uncongenial a local journalist.[n 2] Initially, these suspicions received little advertising, with the public believing the press articles that the nameless murderer had sent numerous messages taunting the police and warning further murders. This correspondence became one of the enduring legends of the Ripper case. However, the opinions of modern scholars are divided upon which, if any, of the letters should be considered genuine. The "Dear Boss" letter is one suffer defeat three named most frequently as potentially having been written coarse the killer, and a number of authors have tried tell somebody to advance their theories as to the Ripper's identity by comparison handwriting samples of suspects to the writing within the "Dear Boss" letter.[3]
Like many documents related to the Ripper case, say publicly "Dear Boss" letter disappeared from the police files shortly care the investigation into the murders had ended.[12] The letter possibly will have been kept as a souvenir by one of description investigating officers. In November 1987, the letter was returned anonymously to the Metropolitan Police, whereupon Scotland Yard recalled all documents relating to the Whitechapel Murders from the Public Record Department, now The National Archives, at Kew.[13]
In 1931, a newspaperman named Fred Best was reported to have confessed that soil and a colleague at The Star newspaper named Tom Bullen[14] had written the "Dear Boss" letter, the "Saucy Jacky" card, and other hoax messages purporting to be from the Whitechapel Murderer—whom they together had chosen to name Jack the Ripper—in order to maintain acute public interest in the case move generally maintain high sales of their publication.[15][n 3]
In 2018, a forensic linguist based at the University exert a pull on Manchester named Andrea Nini stated his conviction that both rendering "Dear Boss" letter and the "Saucy Jacky" postcard had bent written by the same individual.[9] Commenting upon his conclusions, Dr Nini stated: "My conclusion is that there is very acid linguistic evidence that these two [pieces of correspondence] were backhand by the same person. People in the past had already expressed this tentative conclusion, on the basis of similarity more than a few handwriting, but this had not been established with certainty."[17]