Researcher Establishes Two Jack the Ripper Letters Authored by a Single Person 29 January 2018

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Researcher establishes two Jack the Ripper letters authored by a single person 29 January 2018

A forensic linguist from The University of evidence that these two texts were written by the Manchester who analysed letters supposedly same person. People in the past had already signed by Jack the Ripper has concluded that two expressed this tentative conclusion, on the basis of of the most famous examples were written by the similarity of handwriting, but this had not been same person. established with certainty. I also found evidence that could link the author of these two letters to the The Whitechapel murders that terrorised London in so-called 'Moab and Midian' letter, which some 1888 are still remembered thanks to the legend of people believe was a hoax created by the Central Jack the Ripper, who was never caught. In addition News Agency of London." to the gruesomeness of the murders, Jack the Ripper's name and persona were popularised by "In addition to the historical value of my findings, more than 200 letters which were received they could help forensic linguists to better following the murders. These letters are essentially understand the important issue of individuality in what made him famous, and it has often been linguistic production. Since all the hoaxers tried to suggested that they were written by journalists to mimic the style of the original 'Jack the Ripper', we sell more newspapers. can use the database of the letters to understand how people fake writing style—and how successful Most of the letters signed 'Jack the Ripper' were – they are at imitation. The results indicate that it is and still are—regarded as hoaxes. After the first very difficult to do so." four were received, the police decided to publish them, after which hoaxers began to send copycat More information: Andrea Nini. An authorship letters claiming to be written by him. Therefore, analysis of the Jack the Ripper letters, Digital forensic linguist Dr. Andrea Nini decided to focus Scholarship in the Humanities (2018). DOI: on two of the earliest letters—the 'Dear Boss' letter, 10.1093/llc/fqx065 in which the Jack the Ripper name was first written, and the 'Saucy Jacky' postcard.

He used modern techniques to analyse the letters, Provided by University of Manchester which uncovered certain shared distinctive linguistic constructions, such as the use of the phrasal verb to keep back (to withhold), in two of the most iconic early texts. He also found evidence that a link exists between these letters and another of the key texts in the case, the 'Moab and Midian' letter.

"I came across the Jack the Ripper letters a few years ago and I was surprised to know that there had not been any forensic linguistics analysis of them, so I thought that I could apply modern forensic linguistic techniques to uncover evidence about their author," said Andrea.

"My conclusion is that there is very strong linguistic

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APA citation: Researcher establishes two Jack the Ripper letters authored by a single person (2018, January 29) retrieved 29 September 2021 from https://phys.org/news/2018-01-jack-ripper-letters- authored-person.html

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