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JTRSickert
12-16-2009, 10:51 PM
Hello everyone. It's Philly boy here again to once again make another comment concerning the various Ripper letters. One point I wanted to bring up is this. As I have stated before, I personally believe it is possible that one or more of the Ripper letters may have come from the killer, and not necessarily just the 3 famous ones (Dear Boss, Saucy Jacky, and From Hell). However, one of the criticisms that have been raised by those that claim that every Ripper letter is a fake point out that most of the letters come in a different variety of handwritng, making it unlikely that the same person could have written 2 or more different letters. Well, I recently came across something interesting. Please forgive me as I do not have the sources right in front of me, but I had read somewhere that a person who undergoes a frequent change in personality (i.e., from rational and lucid to violent and delusional...a la "Jekyll & Hyde") would be able to manifest it physically. One of the examples would be a change in handwriting. When an individual is calm and calculated, the handwriting would reflect this in a neat, cursive grammatically-accurate letter, whereas when this same person is in a different state of personality (such as feeling violent, angry, or suffering from some delusional state of mind), the handwriting will be become more sloppy, scribbled, and be more focused on just stating the message rather than caring about grammar, neatness, etc.

Now, as far as the Ripper letters go, there are many that are neat, have a distinctive vocabulary, and are grammatically correct. There are also just as many that are badly written with little regard to punctuation, texture, and neatness. Now, most people look at this as signs that the author of those letters are 2 different people. But, if the writer was suffering from dramamtic changes in personality, he could write some letters neatly in a lucid frame of mind while at other times the sloppy, misspelled ones would come at a time when he was in a deranged state of mind. So, if some letters did, in fact, come from the killer, the neat ones could be written when he decided to brag about his crimes and the sloppy ones would come at a time when he was in the grasp of his dementia, like maybe shortly before or after he had attacked or killed someone.

Another possible explanation would be that the killer may have written some of the letters with the other hand that he normally does not write with.

I hope to hear back from some of you about this.

Sam Flynn
12-17-2009, 03:21 PM
Another possible explanation would be that the killer may have written some of the letters with the other hand that he normally does not write with.
... if the Ripper was in fact Aaron Kosminski, that's a distinct possibility :)

JTRSickert
12-18-2009, 04:33 PM
Or maybe Druitt a la the "sexually insane" remark.

Caroline Morris
12-22-2009, 05:34 AM
Discounting all the missives from various far-flung parts of the country or abroad, you may have a point there, JTR.

It certainly works perfectly in the context of Dear Boss and Saucy Jacky, and the author of both seems to have grasped your concept with both hands and run with it all the way to the post box. The letter was supposedly written in a cool, calm and collected way, by a man who was planning his next job, while the postcard was meant as a "told you so" note of triumph, dashed off straight after that next job, while the adrenaline was still high.

Smart hoaxer, this one.

Love,

Caz
X

JTRSickert
12-22-2009, 05:27 PM
Thanks Caroline. That's what I was thinking as well.

Of course, those two epistlesare the ones most will claim originated from a journalist (the most likely candidate being Tom Bulling, according to George Littlechil of Scotland Yard's Special Branch) but it has never been definitively proven.

I'm also currently looking at letters that originated in the same London districts where ht emurders were committed to see if a notice a pattern; even if handwriting is different, the tone of the letter, spelling, and overall message may be similar. It's a little side project I am working on.