Record revealed
Hoax letter signed by ‘Jack the Ripper’
This is one of hundreds of letters in police files claiming to have been written by the infamous Whitechapel Murderer – otherwise known as 'Jack the Ripper'.
Series
Home Office: Criminal Petitions, Series II
Catalogue reference: HO 18
What's it about?
HO 18
Original petitions made by convicted persons seeking the revocation or reduction of their sentences. Attached to some petitions are related papers and some returns, made by the governors of convict prisons, of convicts recommended for early...
Full description and record details
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Reference (The unique identifier to the record described, used to order and refer to it)
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HO 18
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Title (The name of the record)
- Home Office: Criminal Petitions, Series II
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Date (When the record was created)
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1839-1868
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Description (What the record is about)
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Original petitions made by convicted persons seeking the revocation or reduction of their sentences. Attached to some petitions are related papers and some returns, made by the governors of convict prisons, of convicts recommended for early release for good behaviour.
The petitions were made between 1839 and 1853; some of the related papers are dated after 1853. Earlier petitions are in HO 17.
PLEASE NOTE: Electronic images of selected pieces of these records can be searched online through our partner website. Pieces 1-79, 82-111, 113-280, 282-293, 295, 299-303, 305-318, 320-334, 336-364, 366-367, 369-381 only have been digitised at this time (June 2015); further releases within this series to follow.
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Note (Additional information about the record)
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Catalogue entries for this series are being enhanced as part of a project supported by volunteers begun in 2019. As well as creating a separate description of each item, this is supplying more accurate and precise dates.
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Arrangement (Information about the filing sequence or logical order of the record)
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Arrangement
The original arrangement of the petitions into bundles has been maintained. This is broadly chronological but the exact basis for it is not known; it may reflect when the Home Office filed the first paper for each case. The dates of the individual petitions overlap considerably between one bundle and another.
The original bundle number and a paper number for each item have been maintained in the current references, e.g. bundle 6, paper 5 is HO 18/6/5.
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Held by (Who holds the record)
- The National Archives, Kew
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Legal status (A note as to whether the record being described is a Public Record or not)
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Public Record(s)
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Language (The language of the record)
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English
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Physical description (The amount and form of the record)
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381 bundle(s)
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Access conditions (Information on conditions that restrict or affect access to the record)
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Open
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Subjects (Categories and themes found in our collection (our subject list is under development, and some records may have no subjects or fewer than expected))
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- Topics
- Food and drink
- Crime
- Prisons
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Administrative / biographical background (Historical or biographical information about the creator of the record and the context of its creation)
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Record URL
- https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C8882/
Catalogue hierarchy
Over 27 million records
This record is held at The National Archives, Kew
1,719,919 records
Within the department: HO
Records created or inherited by the Home Office, Ministry of Home Security, and related...
You are currently looking at the series: HO 18
Home Office: Criminal Petitions, Series II
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