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of Sir Charles Warren had put down a massed demonstration by the unemployed in Trafalgar Square. The event became known as Bloody Sunday. The Whitechapel murders became a ready-made issue for the radical press. The fear generated became a way for them to say, “Look at the conditions here! What is being done? What would be done if this were happening in the West End?” The mainline papers had to pick up the story or be left behind.
    So the “Dear Boss” letter, being made public so soon after the Double Event, helped keep the case in the forefront. Yet I remain in agreement with Assistant Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dr. Robert Anderson and Chief Inspector Donald Swanson, who believed the writer to be an enterprising journalist. In fact, they both believed they knew the identity of the man.
    And just as significant as any of these considerations is that, like the Yorkshire Ripper almost a century later, this type of UNSUB would not communicate with the police in this manner. Unlike the organized antisocial type, this individual would not want to proclaim himself this way, particularly not talk about future crimes. This type thinks only of what he is doing at the moment. And he would not have come up with a nickname for himself, particularly such a flamboyant one. In my twenty-five years of experience, all of the serial offenders who communicated with the press or police and proposed names and identities for themselves leaned much more to the organized, antisocial side of the continuum than the disorganized, asocial side. I therefore believe that by disseminating the “Dear Boss” and “Saucy Jacky” communications, the police and press were actually hindering the investigation, diverting attention away from the real UNSUB .
    Now, if you’ve been paying attention to the case chronology, another important consideration for any investigator or analyst, you may have noticed that the “Dear Boss” letter was dated September 25 and postmarked September 27. The Double Event took place on the night and morning of September 29 to 30. And the writer does refer to “clip[ping] the ladys ears off and send to the police officers just for jolly.”
    Catherine Eddowes’s right earlobe was, in fact, sliced off. Was this a lucky guess? Probably. So much was done to Eddowes that the writer could have mentioned just about anything and have been right. If it was the real guy, wouldn’t he more likely have mentioned some of the major mutilations he intended to inflict? And of course, he did not send the ear to the police.
    As far as the timing, arriving just a day before the Double Event, this again may have turned out to be a lucky guess, but not an uneducated one for someone paying close attention, as an enterprising newspaperman would. The Nichols murder had taken place on a Friday. The Chapman murder had occurred a week later on a Saturday. There had been no murders for the next two weekends, so if one was going to happen at all, the weekend of September 28–29 would be a likely time. Also, with no murders in that stretch of time, the story was starting to get cold, so if you wanted to revive it, this would be the moment.
    The “Saucy Jacky” postcard then, which was posted on October 1, was an attempt to “catch up” with what had actually happened and authenticate the first communication: the “double event this time number one squealed a bit couldnt finish straight off …” People believe what they want to believe, and for a public anxious to know the monster they were dealing with, this was just the kind of authentification they needed.
    Of course, in one important sense, the “Dear Boss” letter became a real and self-actualizing part of the case. Because even if the communication was not authentic, it ensured that this series of crimes would be immortalized. Without the Jack the Ripper identity, I doubt whether this offender would have so captured history and the public imagination.

“ FROM HELL”
    The