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** 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 **
The Openshaw Letter
Casebook Message Boards: Ripper Letters: General Discussion:
The Openshaw Letter
Author: Mark List
Friday, 20 April 2001 - 09:51 pm |        | Hey,
I'm a Journalist!
What are you trying to say?
(weep, weep!)
-Mark |
Author: Paul Begg
Saturday, 21 April 2001 - 03:11 am | | | Just to make a small correction. Donald Rumbelow obtained the letter about 30 years ago and only recently donated it to the Public Record Office. The letter was made publicly available along with other documents yesterday and the usual press call that accomapnies each batch of newly released documents was held on Thursday, hence the letter receiving such extensive newspaper coverage yesterday. |
Author: Mark List
Saturday, 21 April 2001 - 02:14 pm | | Paul,
Thanks for the clarification. What other documents were released?
-Mark |
Author: Caroline Anne Morris
Monday, 23 April 2001 - 07:15 am | | Hi All,
There was a tv prog last week in the 'Real Cracker' series (did you catch it Rick?), which featured a letter writer who targeted trolly dollies working at Gatwick, making threats if they didn't go along with detailed instructions involving his sexual fantasies. A profiler involved with the investigation, Julian Boon, made some predictions about this guy, whose letters were of the semi-literate Lusk/Openshaw type - he would most likely be a nobody without a life, who couldn't form relationships with women. Boon also observed that such creatures tended either to be 'writers' or 'doers', where their intended victims were concerned. In other words, he didn't consider that the women were in any real physical danger, however traumatic it must have been to be plagued by such letters.
Well, when they finally caught the bugger (yes, he was very much into anal fantasies), the profiler got to interview him, although he was not at liberty to go into much detail. He observed that he had been totally wrong about the offender, who was a well-educated man, holding down a good job - and a girlfriend - while committing his crimes, and had once been married. Boon gave his professional opinion that the writer pretended to be a semi-literate low-life, when 'attacking' his victims with the written word, not because he was trying to fool the police, or keep anyone else off the scent by disguising his true self, but purely because this was the way he got his kicks - by imagining the terrified responses of his victims, who would believe him to be an unthinking brute, capable of all things monstrous.
I don't have a particular opinion on how any of this may relate to 'victims' Lusk and Openshaw, or the brute(s) who targeted them. But there appear to be some striking similarities between the sick minds of the 'writers' and the 'doers' in some cases. Are they at best only cousins, once removed, I wonder?
Love,
Caz |
Author: Warwick Parminter
Monday, 23 April 2001 - 10:11 am | | Hello Caz,
I didn't see that program, but your words brought to mind my old thoughts on the situation, that is, even with our closest, we'll never know everything that ticks away in their minds, a perfect stranger, more impossible still, a mad stranger--well!! It seems to me that ordinary people can only put insane people into two catagories, dangerous and violent, or dangerous and so crafty it makes your hair curl. But when it comes to threatening letters, it's all according to the temperament of the writer. A weak mind would be content to observe and maybe abuse himself. A strong mind would eventually want to carry it further, watching wouldn't be enough, personally I think Kosminski would have come into the first catagory, and shouldn't be considered a Ripper suspect at all.
Rick |
Author: Christopher T George
Monday, 23 April 2001 - 10:43 am | | Hi Caz and Rick:
I have long thought that the use of the knife has a primitive aspect. If Jack was an educated man he might have wanted to appear less well educated to go along with this use of his chosen weapon. Using the knife after all was how he got his kicks and to act or deport himself accordingly might have given him a thrill, particularly one should think if his life as murderer was a radical change from the civilized life he lived in the real world. We might be dealing with (surprise! surprise!) a real-life Jekyll and Hyde existence.
Best regards
Chris George |
Author: Jeff Bloomfield
Wednesday, 25 April 2001 - 10:13 pm | | Dear Chris,
I don't know if it worth considering, but it
used to be said that murders by shooting were
the rarity in Great Britain. Douglas Browne
and E.V.Tullett, in their biography of
Sir Bernard Spilsbury wrote the following:
"Until two world wars flooded England with revolvers and automatics there were far more
shooting cases in rural districts, where
shotguns are common, than in London and other large towns; and even in the country, in the
hundred years since James Blomfield Rush tried
to pistol an entire household, killing two and
wounding two more, premeditated murders by this means have been very rare." Keep in mind that
their biography was published in 1952 (at least
the American version of it).
Also keep in mind, the gun would have brought
local attention to the killings faster than
Saucy Jack's use of the knife did.
Jeff |
Author: Tom Wescott
Wednesday, 25 April 2001 - 11:24 pm | | Chris and Jeff,
Even though guns are the most commonly used weapon in domestic homicides, it will be remember from the Ultimate JTR Companion that a man killed his wife within minutes of Stride's murder. While this has absolutely no relevance to the Ripper case and shouldn't have been included in the book, it does help to point out how rare death by gun was in 1888 England. Also, let's not forget that Ted Bundy used a knife and he was not at all primitive.
Yours truly,
Tom Wescott |
Author: Christopher T George
Thursday, 26 April 2001 - 12:31 am | | Hi, Tom and Jeff:
Thank you so much for the valuable points you both made. By contrast, in surfing the U.S. papers of the 1880s and 1890s for any Ripper-like murders in the United States, I have noticed that almost all of the reported homicides in the pages of U.S. newspapers were with the use of firearms.
Best regards
Chris George |
Author: Christopher T George
Thursday, 03 May 2001 - 09:13 pm | | Hi all:
There have been a number of articles in the media on the Openshaw letter that have appeared in the last ten days or so. I refer everyone to the following on-line articles:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=004851373905905&rtmo=VDk3sDMK&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/et/01/4/20/nrip20.html
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/britain010420_jack.html
I thank Alex Chisholm and Dave Yost for bringing these URLs to my attention. Additionally, Stewart Evans very kindly sent me the attached copy of an article in the Daily Mail of April 20, 2001.
Best regards
Chris George
 |
Author: John Omlor
Thursday, 03 May 2001 - 09:27 pm | | Hi Chris,
Ah, the British press.
Masters of the subtleties of layout.
--John |
Author: Christopher T George
Thursday, 03 May 2001 - 09:56 pm | | Hi John,
No it was Jack the Ripper who laid em out. 
Chris |
Author: John Omlor
Thursday, 03 May 2001 - 10:15 pm | | Hey Chris,
Who influenced whom?
--John |
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