EVIDENCE VAN GOGH DROPPED JACK THE RIPPER LETTERS
On October 4, 1888, two Jack the Ripper letters were found on the street in London which relate to Vincent van Gogh. One was dropped on Vincent Square. The other was found near where he had lived.
Imagine you are a detective in 1888 London, perhaps Chief Inspector Swanson. You have been examining letters sent to the police and to newspapers purporting to be from Jack the Ripper. You are evaluating whether they are possibly from the killer or hoaxes. On Oct. 4 you receive a letter signed Jack the Ripper found on the street in front of 6 Vincent Square, Westminster. Finding this address on a map, you see there is also a cross street named Vincent Street. At this point no other Ripper letters had been found left on a street. Would you view this as a clue given by the killer to his actual name?
I certainly would. Vincent was having some fun. The letter being dropped to be found in the southwest of London and not in the Ripper’s territory in the East End suggests the street was chosen for a purpose—the name. But there’s more. On that same morning another Ripper letter was found, not on the street, but in a pillar box. Written on the front of the envelope was “From Jack Ripper,” so the postman noted the address of the pillar box where he found it “opposite 304 Brixton Road.” The relevance relates to this being a short distance from where Vincent lived at a boarding house at 87 Hackford Road in 1873-74.
It looks as if Vincent wanted to visit his previous home where he had lived with the Loyers and fell in love with his landlady’s daughter, Eugenie. He told her of his love, but she was secretly engaged to another. Vincent was rejected and depression followed. It was during that time he made his second Torso kill. He chose a prostitute as a substitute for his desire to kill Eugenie. This was in 1874.
Dropping a Ripper letter in a pillar box after his visit and then crossing the River Thames and dropping another on Vincent Square, Vincent knew there was no possibility the police could link him to either letter. They wouldn’t know it meant his name was Vincent, and they would have no idea he lived just off Brixton Road so long ago. The Ripper was up to his little games. Vincent van Gogh was Jack the Ripper. (look at the docket# for the Vincent Square Ripper letter, eerie isn't it)
