The Lusk Letter Analyzed

[Anna Morris]

So could we guess the fellow who wrote "Sor" could also have written "Jewes"? Something to think about there.

[Curryong]

Thanks for the welcome. I have a few strange hobbies!

I was thinking today of the anti-semitism that was rife throughout East London at this particular period, and speculating that maybe the writer (JTR or not) was doing a bit of nasty taunting.

Knowing that Lusk was Jewish, as were other members of the Vigilance Committee, could the writer have been having a go with 'Mishter' and imitating a stereotypical Jewish lisp?

[Anna Morris]

Hi, Curryong! Welcome...you seem familiar...

I think the letter writer was trying to be deliberately misleading, probably while drunk.

Did I misspell "Juewes" in my last post. I think that debacle just has to do with rapid, sloppy writing possibly in the dark.

[Curryong]

Yes, so do you, Anna! I wonder where...?

[Howard Brown]

Dear Curryong:
George Lusk wasn't Jewish, an easy assumption to make because many of the members of the Mile End cadre were Jews.
The lisping 'Mishter' has been associated more with an Irish accent, if I recall.
Welcome once again !

[Stephen Collyer]

If that is a genuine example of Tumblety's handwriting then I don't really see much of a match.
I instinctively think that the Lusk letter is written by the killer, for several solid reasons which have already been mentioned many many times.

[Tom_Wescott]

You're spot on, Stephen Collyer. Tumblety didn't write the From Hell letter.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Curryong]

Yeah, the I's and s's are completely different and Tumblety's crossing of his t's with an extraordinarily long stroke is very distinctive. It's interesting isn't it that the writer 'from hell', (whom I've believed for 30 years to be the killer) doesn't sign himself Jack. Not giving the 'trade name' was a repudiation maybe.

[Howard Brown]

Good work, Stephen.....thanks for the side-by-side comparision.