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Rachel Kirby
Police Constable
Username: Rachel
Post Number: 5
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 9:47 pm: |       |
I don't know if this has been asked and answered before, but just how common was it for large amounts of letters confessing/taunting/other to be sent to papers and/or the police, prior to 1888? Are there any particular crimes that are notable for this, or were the Whitechapel murders the start?
Rachel |
Leanne Perry
Detective Sergeant
Username: Leanne
Post Number: 53
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, March 14, 2003 - 4:43 am: | |
G'day Rachel,
'Letters From Hell' says of this: 'It had been seen before and would be seen again. However, in this case letter-writing was to become a true sensation spawning a deluge of postal communications the like of which had never before been experienced, a deluge that would continue for almost two years before dwindling to a trickle...The 'Dear Boss' letter hit the news again almost a century after it's first exposure. A headline in the Sun of Friday 19 August 1988 said it all: 'Ripper Taunts Police Again 100 Years On'.
LEANNE. |
MF
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 18, 2004 - 2:48 pm: | |
Where has anything like this been seen before?
Can anyone find anything approaching Dear Boss prior to 1888. I can't. No taunting letter from a serial killer. No devilish warning from a saboteur, not even a threatening missive from a terrorist.
Black Hand Letters sent to extortion victims of the mob are friendly by comparison. Even with the threat of familial destruction so severe not even the ashes remain, a Black Hand can't touch Dear Boss for fiendishness.
Yours Truly is an original. |
Christopher T George
Chief Inspector
Username: Chrisg
Post Number: 614
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2004 - 11:37 am: | |
Hi MF
I would suggest that the police set themselves up for the deluge of letters they received all emulating "Dear Boss." By printing the 25 September letter and the Saucy Jacky postcard received 1 October on a broadside asking if anyone recognized the handwriting, whether they were totally convinced or not that the letters came from the killer, and that wording appears to show that they did believe the missives may have come from the killer, they seemingly showed that they were combatting a clever and playful adversary. In any case, the broadside was a virtual invitation for members of the public to join in on the game.
Best regards
Chris |
MF
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Friday, February 20, 2004 - 2:08 pm: | |
Dear Boss on a billboard? That's a great idea; even if you don't catch the killer, you may discover a decent criminal profiler.
And if all else fails, you promote English literacy.
Ever read callmefred from the Green River?... |
Christopher T George
Chief Inspector
Username: Chrisg
Post Number: 623
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Monday, February 23, 2004 - 9:27 am: | |
Hi MF
I didn't say Dear Boss was on a billboard. It was on a broadside, which is to say a flyer that was handed out or posted on bulletin boards and pasted on walls, etc. Not at big as a billboard.
Chris |
MF
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 24, 2004 - 11:33 am: | |
The billboard idea worked in Tampa to catch Oba Chandler.
And with only a scrawl on a brochure. No Dear Boss here.
In the art of serial killer correspondence, the Americans haven't made much progress....
Zodiac's the best: I LIKE TO KILL KILLING IS SO MUCH FUN ITS BETTER THAN HUNTING GAME....
And in the Everyone wants to be a profiler category, Chris, I give you The Green River's callmefred thingsyouneedtoknowaboutgreenriver hechewsgum. Doesn't it remind you of Reasons for Supposing Jack the ripper a tailor letter attributed to Dick Sickert?
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