New light has been shed on the mysterious 'Jack the Ripper' letters, thanks to a forensic linguist.
The identity of the killer, believed to be responsible for at least five killings in Whitechapel, London in 1888, has never been discovered.
During the murders, police and the newspapers received over 200 letters supposedly written by the killer - the very letters that made Jack the Ripper as widely known and 'famous' as he became.
However, many people believe the letters were, in fact, written by journalists as a way to boost sales - but now, new research has found that two of the most famous and well-known 'Ripper letters' were written by the same person.
Dr Andrea Nini, from the University of Manchester, also linked the letter to one that was believed to be a hoax by a news agency.
After carrying out a 'cluster analysis' of the 209 letters purported to be sent by the Ripper, Dr Nini began looking for similarities within.
Police received four letters before they began publishing them, and it's believed that the publication of the letters led to copycats by people claiming to the killer.
Dr Nini chose to focus his attentions on two of the earliest letters - the Dear Boss and the Saucy Jacky texts. The Dear Boss letter, written in red, was received by the Central News Agency on 27 September 1888, who sent it on to Scotland Yard.
This was followed by a postcard - signed Saucy Jacky - on 1 October 1888, which was also forwarded on to police.
Using linguistic techniques, Dr Nini found commonalities between the two letters. He said: "My conclusion is that there is very strong linguistic evidence that these two texts were written by the same person.
"People in the past had already expressed this tentative conclusion, on the basis of similarity of handwriting, but this had not been established with certainty."
He also found a link between these two letters and the Moab and Midian letter, which was believed to be a fake by the Central News Agency.
Dr Nini said: "In addition to the historical value of my findings, they could help forensic linguists to better understand the important issue of individuality in linguistic production.
"Since all the hoaxers tried to mimic the style of the original 'Jack the Ripper', we can use the database of the letters to understand how people fake writing style - and how successful they are at imitation.
"The results indicate that it is very difficult to do so."
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Source: University of Manchester
Featured Image Credit: Credit: University of ManchesterTopics: UK News