In the UK, the letter of Jack the Ripper went under the hammer for $41 thousand
While the auction house does not give a 100% guarantee that the message actually written by a serial killer.
LONDON, April 30. /TASS/. Letter to the police, the author of which could be world-famous serial killer Jack the Ripper, went to the UK with the hammer for almost £30 million ($41 thousand). This was announced Monday by the Agency Press Association.
According to him, a small post card size of 7 to 12 cm was put up for auction auction house Auctions from Grand Kent County. The letter was taken to the police station London Ealing 29 Oct 1888, 11 days before he was stabbed the last victim of Jack the Ripper — 25-year-old Irish Jane Kelly.
Written in black ink the message the killer warns that “his knife is still in good condition.”
The card belonged to a policeman from Scotland Yard who gave her the memory of when retirement in 1966. Ever since she was ten years was kept at his home, and put the letter up for sale, after the death of the guardian of the law decided his widow.
The struggle for rarity unfolded between the American and British collector, and finally won by the latter. The auction was completed at around £30 million ($41 thousand), exceeding the initial estimate for the lot of 40.
Thus the determination of collectors to part with a serious amount wasn’t even affected by the fact that, as warned in the auction house, 100% guarantee that the message written by the hand of a serial killer, no.
“No one can prove that Jack the Ripper himself wrote it, but no one can prove otherwise”, — said the representative of the auction house Jonathan Riley.
The result of trading he called natural, given that the letter with such a history and such an origin has never been put up for auction. “The most unusual thing about this card is that it is rare. None of such letters to the police provenance was not present at the auction,” said Riley.