On the 24th of September, the closing day for the inquest into the death of Annie Chapman. A rather worrying event occurred. An unknown author sent a letter to Sir Charles Warren, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner. The police however didn't take this missive seriously. Indeed, crank letters were becoming a fairly common thing. The significance of this letter, however, is that it was a precursor to hundreds of such letters that would bring the police investigation into the Jack the Ripper Murders close to meltdown. The letter bore a LONDON. S. E postmark and was headed "on her majesty's service." It read:-

Dear Sir

I do wish to give myself up. I am in misery with a nightmare. I am the man who committed all these murders in the last six months...I am a horse slaughterer...I have found the woman I wanted, that is Chapman and I did what I called, but if...