Graphology & Jack The Ripper

[Marian]

edit to say: Marian, I read your last post and I'm interested. Perhaps Canadians have a particular handwriting style?

Going off memory (because it was over the phone) what he had said was that some countries do have distinct writing styles, but it's not always definitive (because people can be and are schooled in other countries, or by people from other countries). But the example he used was that for example Koreans have a very specific writing style that differs from people from the United States.

But that was really the only differences that would potentially stand out. I had thought that it might be possible to tell regional (within the US) and generational information based on handwriting style alone (ignoring content, ink analysis, paper analysis etc). Somewhat like a regional 'accent'. Which isn't possible. (Which is pretty much in line with what DrKitten, Rebecca, were saying [hope I didn't leave anyone out])

As far as Canadians having a different handwriting style from Americans, I didn't ask. I would go with the assumption that it would be no different from American regional (in that it wouldn't be possible to discern) but I didn't ask that question specifically. I did ask about UK versus United States and was told generally no, you couldn't discern it based on handwriting alone.

 

[Rat]

It was a bit more than that. She provided pretty convincing physical evidence that letters known to have been written by Sickert came from the same (very small) batch of paper as letters written by someone claiming to be JTR. The JTR letters were believed to be hoaxes at the time, but Cornwell suggested that they might not be. At the very least Cornwell demonstrated evidence that Sickert sent a hoax letter claiming to be JTR.

The rest is pretty thin, and relied on some dubious assumptions.

I didn't read too much about it, as she is clearly just desperately seeking publicity. Or mad. But nonetheless, even one of the original two premises given - that he was in the right place at the right time - was, I believe, not correct. Was he not out of the country for most of the relevant period?

Cheers,
Rat.