http://www.boston.com/dailynews/109/world/Alleged_Jack_the_Ripper_letter:.shtml

Alleged Jack the Ripper letter tells grisly tale

By Associated Press, 4/19/2001 17:15

LONDON (AP) In a scrawled, smudged letter written in Cockney English, a man claiming to be the infamous serial killer Jack the Ripper described a foiled attempt to kill a woman and promised to find another victim soon.

The eerie note to a London doctor, made public by the government Thursday, is filled with spelling errors mimicking the Cockney accent and gives the gruesome details of an attempted murder.

''I was goin to hopperate agin close to your ospitle just as I was goin to dror mi nife along of er bloomin throte then cusses of coppers spoilt the game,'' it said. ''But I guess I wil be on the job soon and will send you another bit of innerds.''

The letter, dated Oct. 29, 1888, and once part of the original police file, was released Thursday by Britain's public records office under rules which require many government documents to be made public eventually.

It was given to the public records office about 30 years ago by Donald Rumbelow, a police officer. Rumbelow would not explain how he got the letter, but said police files were often mislaid before Scotland Yard hired its first archivist in 1951.

The letter also refers to a human kidney that had been sent to authorities in a cardboard box.

''Old boss you was rite it was the left kidny,'' the writer says.

The letter, signed ''Jack the Ripper'' was sent to Dr. Thomas Horrocks Openshaw, curator of a London hospital's pathological museum.

It is one of many letters purporting to be by the Victorian murderer, who killed at least seven prostitutes in London's East End during a three-month period in 1888. A person claiming to be the killer wrote a series of taunting notes to police, but the murders remain one of the most famous unsolved mysteries in British criminal history.

''Of course the letter is genuine in terms of it being sent in 1888, but if it is from the real killer, I do not know,'' Rumbelow said.

Stewart Evans, author of the forthcoming book ''Jack the Ripper, Letters from Hell,'' said it was ''better than most'' alleged Ripper letters.

''Who can say it is not genuine? You cannot categorically prove it is a hoax,'' Evans said.

On the Net:

Public Record Office: http://www.pro.gov.uk

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2001