From Hell: Is IT important only for the kidney?

[Howard Brown]

1. It went to a private citizen who was hunting for the Ripper.
2. It was sent to a prominent private citizen who was leading the "street hunt" for the Ripper.
3. It came AFTER the incident with Ms.Marsh the day before in her pop's shop.
4. It didn't just boast of future deeds....it may have provided the end result of a committed deed.
5. It made an enormous buzz within the police department...not to mention the press.
6. It may have been a faked act,which would certainly led to the culprit's imprisonment.
7. It might have been the actual kidney...despite the consensus of many people now.

So....did the kidney "make the letter" or did the letter have enough meat in it to make its bones ?

I believe Tom Wescott and Chris George felt the letter was worthy of investigation just a couple of years ago for the possible link to D'onston ( the use of the word praserved....which was also found in a (correctly spelled ) letter by Donston to the police). You never know....

[Tom_Wescott]

The From Hell letter wasn't so much a letter as it was a note in reference to the kidney. Without the kidney, there's no letter. And it boasted he'd send Lusk his knife. Never happened.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Howard Brown]

Good points Tom and likely true.

The reason you and C.G. were mentioned is that at that time ( 3 years ago ), both of your efforts were underappreciated on letters/RDS and other matters...which often happens....unless these areas get resuscitated.

I personally anticipate reading about the Jewish actor friend of Lusk's ( Yeah,I know...its already up on Casebook....but I want to read it first in RN ). The visitor in Ms.Marsh's pop's shop may well have been an actor.

I throw these speculative ideas up to stir the resting natives....and admit that I think if the perpetrator of the note/kidney was not this actor/MEVC member....then I do not think it was from a prankster/med student, despite reading your July 2004 RN article ( which is Dan's avatar,for all of you unsubscribers ) which discussed that very possibility.

Do you still feel that a med student was more likely to be behind the kidney?

Anyone else?

[admin tim]

Actually...

The author of the Lusk letter only said that "I may send you the bloody knif that took it out if you only wate a while longer" or something very similar to that. He didn't quite promise to send the knife.

Maybe he did and it was lost in the mails, as happens around here all too frequently.

[Howard Brown]

Thats a good point too Tim.

I see what Tom means about the From Hell being considered a note...and that the kidney was of primary significance or else the note/letter may not have been sent.

What I was discussing with a Forums member this afternoon was the fact that most or essentially all the letters have been too easily scrapped as bogus...even letters which are intriguing from a suspect-based perspective...

It might appear that we are faced with four options here ( Add as you please....):

1. The Ripper sent it.
2. An actor friend of George Lusk had a hand in the kidney-note
3. A medical student or perhaps more than one....played an awfully sick prank.
4. Some other yutz out there in London was behind it.

[SirRobertAnderson]

The author of the Lusk letter only said that "I may send you the bloody knif

May is indeed the operative word, no pun intended. Are we supposed to think it a major breach of etiquette that Jack didn't follow through ?

The From Hell letter wasn't so much a letter as it was a note in reference to the kidney.

Well, yes. But it's awkward to call it the Lusk Note Referencing Attached Kidney .

And it's the kidney that made it - shall we say - noteworthy ? I suspect Lusk wouldn't have bothered sending to the authorities the 'Box of Toys' postcard all by its lonesome.

[Stan Russo]

Why George Lusk?

Stan

[Tom_Wescott]

Why George Lusk?

Stan

I would say for one of the following reasons:

1) The Ripper felt particulary pissed off at him, because he was a private citizen heading a campaign against him.
2) The hoaxer knew Lusk and singled him out for a mean joke.
3) The hoaxer knew it would receive publicity.
4) Lusk and/or his VC colleagues perpetrated the hoax themselves to make money and to hopefully make progress in their bid for a government reward.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Joe Chetcuti]

Howdy Howard,

Another feature about this letter is that its writer was very cognizant about camouflaging his left-handedness. I had a copy of the letter studied a few years ago in Las Vegas, and the comment I received from the handwriting expert was that the From Hell author was a left-hander who pretended to write with his right hand. A Canadian graphologist who studied the letter in the 1960's also noted how crafty the author's handwriting was. That graphologist then gave his reason why the From Hell letter was "in fact written by a latent homosexual."

For those who think that this letter was written and sent by Eddowes' murderer, an interesting concept develops: We had a killer here who was mindful of his left-handedness to the point that he attempted to fake people out by altering his writing style. Would he not also try to confuse the investigators more by maybe alternating the hands in which he cut up his dead victims? It's an intriguing thought, but you'd have to be mindful of the fact that time was of the essence here when he performed the mutilations. Could he afford to be slowed down by using his weaker hand when doing his cutting?

I have a left-handed cousin named Mark. He is the most street-wise man I know. I once told him, "Come up from behind me cousin and pretend to slit my throat. Show me your technique, old boy." Well, he came up from behind me and grasped me with his left arm while making a throat slitting motion with his right. I said to him "I thought you were a left-hander."

He answered, "I sure am. I'd want to use my stronger arm to control my victim and use my weaker hand to do the less vigorous task of throat slitting. Of course, if this were a head-to-head knife fight, I'd carry the knife in my left hand, that being my stronger hand."

I still can't figure out how Mark has lived as long as he has, but anyway what the man said made sense. Determining which hand the Ripper held his knife in while slitting throats does not necessarily equate to concluding that the man was a natural left-hander or right-hander. But if you think we've obtained the killer's handwriting, then you might make more progress studying that piece of paper instead of studying slit throats. As for the From Hell letter, it was studied and determined that the handwriting came from a tricky left-hander.

[SirRobertAnderson]

I would say for one of the following reasons:


3) The hoaxer knew it would receive publicity.

The question I have is whether a hoaxer would have thought he'd get maximum bang for the buck by sending it to the Vigilance Committee. If I recall correctly, Lusk at first thought it was a hoax and I assume was thinking of just tossing it when associates convinced him to bring it to the police.

If you send the kidney to the press, you're guaranteed wide publicity for something this dramatic. Ditto the police.

My own intuition ? The murderer knew hoaxers were signing their letters "Jack" and mailing them to the press. So he decided to stand out from the crowd.

[Howard Brown]

Thanks a lot Joe for the comments on the "handedness" of your cousin. It certainly makes sense that someone who favors one hand would use that for the "grunt" work in the performance of a good old fashioned throat slittin'........which is why I stayed home from work today trying to move a couch and once more damaging my left shoulder like the idiot that I am. I would use my mighty left python to garrot a person if I was going to take a slice of Adam's apple ( with the right hand).

Anyway...I wonder what the Canadian graphologist you mentioned felt was "homosexual" about the Lusk Letter. I suppose it has to do with some of the syntax?

Bob:

I agree with you that to get the most mileage out of the letter....it would make more sense to send it to the Press or police. However,there are a couple of alternatives..... To him,it might be more enjoyable/wiser/strategic to send the package and note to Lusk in order to let Lusk "feel" that the Ripper was aware of his address.....and that Lusk's MEVC had become a serious impediment for two weeks ( after Eddowes' murder to the date Lusk recieved the package) in the Ripper's possible search for another victim in the interim of the two weeks. It might have been a bizarre "get off my back" message to Lusk to make Lusk less persistent in his efforts and subsequently the MEVC's. Cut the head off a fish and it dies ( Mafia proverb)

I don't sense the Ripper ( if it came from him ) being pissed off in the general sense of the word at Lusk in the message but rather the syntax displays a cockiness which masks a modicum of "respect" for the fact that the Ripper has to take the efforts of the MEVC seriously...so seriously in fact,that after Eddowes is killed there is a chance that no more murders emanated from him.....

This brings up the idea ( not that its new,of course...) that after the From Hell package/letter...that this was his swan song. Personally and it doesn't matter what I think,of course....I don't think it was,but its good to mention it for people to chew on.

[SirRobertAnderson]

Bob:

I agree with you that to get the most mileage out of the letter....it would make more sense to send it to the Press or police. However,there are a couple of alternatives..... To him,it might be more enjoyable/wiser/strategic to send the package and note to Lusk in order to let Lusk "feel" that the Ripper was aware of his address.....and that Lusk's MEVC had become a serious impediment for two weeks ( after Eddowes' murder to the date Lusk recieved the package) in the Ripper's possible search for another victim in the interim of the two weeks.

Agreed. I should reiterate that I was posing my statement from the point of view as a hoaxer interested in maximum publicity.

IMHO, Lusk as a recipient makes it more likely this was the genuine article for the very reasons you've mentioned.

[Joe Chetcuti]

Your wish is my command, Howard.

Here is the info on that Canadian graphologist. I took it out of Mr. Rumbellow's book. In August 1968, C. M. Macleod published an article entitled A Ripper Handwriting Analysis. Macleod wrote that the From Hell author...

"...has tremendous drive in his vicious forward thrust of his overall writing, and great cunning in his covering-up of strokes; that is, the retracing of one stroke of a letter over another, rendering it illegible while appearing to clarify."

"He has imagination as revealed in the upper zone flourishes. Those hooks on the t-bars, among other signs indicate a tenacity to achieve a goal."

"I would say he was in fact a latent homosexual (suggested by the lower zone strokes returning to the wrong side of the letter...)"

Macleod also claimed the From Hell writer was not the same man who wrote Dear Boss.

[Howard Brown]

Dear Joe:

Which Rumbelow book...The Complete?

I have that book but don't dismember reading that part about the handwriting.

[Tom_Wescott]

I have that book but don't dismember reading that part about the handwriting.

That's Freud at work, folks. Joe might have been quoting from an early edition. I think some of it got scrapped when he revised it a few years ago.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott