Executioner’s letter sells for triple estimate

You may have read the news about the Jack the Ripper postcard which sold down south for £22,000. The card had been received by Ealing Police Station in 1888, written by someone claiming to be the Ripper. It was estimated to reach just £600-£900.

Closer to home, I Illustrate a Dundeerelated letter penned a year later in which the executioner James Berry states: “I have just arrived back from Dundee where I have had an Execution of a fine young full develloped (sic) man of good stature. He was the last man that I should judge to carry out such a murder or mutilation case I never was so taken in before with such a cool and collected thought to the last all that saw his end was astonished at his nerve,” further adding, “I have sent you a paper with full particulars for you to read at your leisure hour, also a Cambrian paper with the Execution of Allen the negro at Swansea.”

Written to the Irish actor Lewis Strange, the letter relates to the execution in Dundee of William Bury, a murderer associated with the Ripper, who had killed five women in London.

Bury was hanged by James Berry in Bell Street, having been found guilty of the murder of his wife. Bury allegedly confessed to being Jack the Ripper shortly before his execution.

His proximity to Whitechapel at the time of the Ripper murders, his violent nature and the murder of his wife all contributed to him being suspected of being the anonymous London killer – but the Ripper crimes remain unsolved to this day.

The letter sold for a triple estimate £1,300 at International Autograph Auctions of Nottingham.

Picture: Executioner’s letter, £1,300 (International Autograph Auctions)