 Scotland Yard published facsimiles of the " Dear Boss " letter and the postcard on 3 October , in the ultimately vain hope that someone would recognise the handwriting . Charles Warren explained in a letter to Godfrey Lushington , Permanent Under @-@ Secretary of State for the Home Department : " I think the whole thing a hoax but of course we are bound to try & ascertain the writer in any case . " On 7 October 1888 , George R. Sims in the Sunday newspaper Referee implied scathingly that the letter was written by a journalist " to hurl the circulation of a newspaper sky high " . Police officials later claimed to have identified a specific journalist as the author of both the " Dear Boss " letter and the postcard . The journalist was identified as Tom Bullen in a letter from Chief Inspector John <unk> to George R. Sims dated 23 September 1913 . A journalist called Fred Best reportedly confessed in 1931 that he and a colleague at The Star had written the letters signed " Jack the Ripper " to heighten interest in the murders and " keep the business alive " . 
