This handwritten letter on Metropolitan Police Office headed paper dated 8
th Feb 1895 is written by Melville Leslie Macnaughton or Mac as he liked to be known who joined the Metropolitan Police in 1889 when the killer known as Jack the Ripper was still thought to be active in the Whitechapel area of London. Macnaughton was actively involved in the investigation into the murder of Alice Mackenzie in July 1889 as well as the investigations into the murders of the Pinchin Street torso victim and Frances Coles which took place in September, 1889 and February, 1891 respectively. Many who knew him had no doubt that he had an unrivalled knowledge of the Ripper case.
Macnaughton would later devote a chapter to Jack the Ripper in his autobiography, ’Days Of My Years’ which was published in 1914. In that chapter he discounted Emma Smith and Martha Tabram as having been victims of the ripper, and stated emphatically that the first real Whitechapel murder took place on 31st August, when Mary Ann Nichols was found in Buck's Row with her throat cut. Macnaughton’s work established the idea of the ‘canonical five’ victims of Jack the Ripper naming Mary Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Kelly as the 5 victims and stating with the utmost certainty that the murder of Mary Kelly, on the 9th November, 1888, was the last of the series. Macnaughton made several major changes and reforms to the way the Metropolitan Police operated during his tenure at Scotland Yard, one of the major ones being a greater willingness to share information with the newspapers and press.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Handwritten letter on Metropolitan Police Office blind stamped paper date 8.2.95. In very good and legible condition. The letter is written to ‘Dear Hastings Lees’, the first Chief Constable of the Isle of Wight Police and recommends the handwriting expert Thomas Henry Gurrin of 59 Holburn Viaducts. Signed ML Macnaughton. Attached to the reverse is a List of Members of Crown Inspectors of England and Wales dated May 1896.
