Jack the Ripper: The Hand of a Woman Read Online Free PDF

Barnett could be troublesome, she told the police in her statement that she was unconcerned about leaving the two of them alone together, and she departed.
    Many think that it should have been Tom Cullen’s proposition that Harvey returned to Miller’s Court early the following morning, and murdered Kelly in a fit of jealous rage. But Cullen veered away from the idea and proposed instead Montague Druitt, a failed barrister, who committed suicide a month after the murder of Mary Kelly; Inspector Abberline cleared him as a murder suspect, later describing it as ‘another idle story’. It was a missed opportunity to consider a woman as a suspect for the crime, and there was even a plausible motive. However, there was not a single shred of evidence connecting Maria Harvey with Mary Kelly’s death, or for that matter, the four previous killings, and Abberline never considered Harvey as a suspect.
    On 29 September, exactly three weeks after the murder of Annie Chapman, the infamous ‘Dear Boss’ letter was delivered to Scotland Yard. It had been received by the Central News Agency two days before, but had been considered a hoax and the Agency delayed passing it on to the police. At first, it appeared to be just another one of the many hundreds of letters that Scotland Yard had received about the Whitechapel murders up to that time. The authors of some of these letters taunted the police in their efforts to capture the murderer. Others berated them for not having done so, while even more claimed the dark and dubious distinction of being the actual murderer. All these letters had to be investigated, which took up valuable police time and resources, and a handful of hoaxers were arrested and charged, including two women. But what was different about this particular letter, the text reproduced here in full, was not that its author claimed to be the murderer, but that it appeared to be spattered with blood, and the disturbing name signed at its end.
    25 Sept 1888
 
Dear Boss
     
    I keep on hearing the police
have caught me but they won’t fix
me just yet. I have laughed when
they look so clever and talk about

being on the right track. That joke
about Leather Apron gave me real
fits. I am down on whores and
I shant quit ripping them till I
do get buckled. Grand work the last
job was. I gave the lady no time to
squeal. How can they catch me now.
I love my work and want to start
again. You will soon hear of me
with my funny little games. I
saved some of the proper red stuff in
a ginger beer bottle over the last job
to write with but it went thick
like glue and I cant use it. Red
ink is fit enough I hope ha ha.
The next job I shall do I shall clip
the lady’s ears off and send to the
police officers just for jolly wouldn’t
you. Keep this letter back till I
do a bit more work then give
it out straight. My knife is so nice
and sharp. I want to get to work
right away if I get a chance.
     
    Good luck.
 
    Yours truly
 
Don’t mind me giving the trade name 
     
    Written on the bottom of the letter at right angles to the main body of the text was:
    wasn’t 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
 
Jack the Ripper
     
    The ‘name genie’ had escaped from the bottle, never to be returned, and that was part of the problem. Up until this time, the murderer had acquired the androgynous title ‘The Whitechapel Murderer’ and, as such, could have been either male or female. Jack the Ripper, however, was specifically male and the name now became synonymous with the Whitechapel murders. But a forensic investigation and comparison of handwriting samples carried out by Dr Andrew Cook, in Jack the Ripper: Case Closed (2009), proved beyond reasonable doubt that the letter was written by Frederick Best, a journalist. He was employed by Thomas P. O’Connor, journalist, politician and editor of the London Star newspaper, founded the previous