UK linguist plays detective to uncover clues of infamous serial killer

LONDON, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Forensic linguist Dr. Andrea Nini shed new light Monday on one of the London's greatest unresolved mysteries, the infamous serial killer Jack the Ripper.

The identity of the Ripper, who carried out a series of brutal murders of prostitutes in the east end area of London in the late 1880s has never been solved by police.

Nini from the University of Manchester has forensically analyzed letters supposedly signed by Jack the Ripper and discovered that two of the most famous examples were written by the same person.

The so-called Whitechapel murders that terrorized London in 1888 are still remembered thanks to the legend of Jack the Ripper. His name and persona were popularized by more than 200 letters which were received following the murders.

Most of the letters signed "Jack the Ripper" were, and still are, regarded as hoaxes, said Nini.

He added: "After the first four were received, the police decided to publish them, after which hoaxers began to send copycat letters claiming to be written by him."

Nini decided to focus on two of the earliest letters, a famous "Dear Boss" letter, in which the Jack the Ripper name was first written, and also a "Saucy Jacky" postcard.

Nini used modern techniques to analyze the letters, which uncovered certain shared distinctive linguistic constructions. He also found evidence that a link exists between these letters and another of the key texts in the Ripper case.

He said: "I came across the Jack the Ripper letters a few years ago and I was surprised that there had not been any forensic linguistics analysis of them, so I thought that I could apply modern forensic linguistic techniques to uncover evidence about their author."

His conclusion is that there is very strong linguistic evidence that two texts he analyzed forensically were written by the same person.

"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."

Nini told Xinhua: "There is no evidence that links any of the 200 letters to the real killer. This does not necessarily exclude that the killer wrote one or more of them but we will never know with certainty.

"The most widely accepted theory nowadays is that the earliest letters, not all four of them, were hoaxes created by journalists. The linguistic evidence found so far is consistent with this explanation and reveals strong evidence that these two letters were written by the same person."

The notorious murdered is said to have attacked as killed as many as 11 women prostitutes who lived and worked in the slums of London's East End.

Many of the victims suffered the same gruesome fate, their throats cut prior to abdominal mutilations. The removal of internal organs from at least three of the victims led to speculation the killer had some anatomical or surgical knowledge. Enditem