From Hell letter
Jack the Ripper letters |
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The "From Hell" letter (also known as the "Lusk letter")[1][2] was a letter sent with half of a preserved human kidney to George Lusk, the chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, in October 1888.[3] The author of this letter claimed to be the unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, who had murdered and mutilated at least four women in the Whitechapel and Spitalfields districts of London in the two months prior to Lusk receiving this letter, and whose vigilance committee Lusk led in civilian efforts to assist the police in identifying and apprehending the perpetrator.[2]
The letter was postmarked 15 October 1888 and was received by Lusk the following day.
Police, press, and public alike received many letters claiming to be from the Whitechapel Murderer, with investigators at one stage having to deal with an estimated 1,000 letters related to the case. However, the "From Hell" letter is one of the few articles of correspondence that has received serious consideration as to actually being genuine.[7] Nonetheless, opinions remain divided with regards to the letter's authenticity.[2]
The murders committed by Jack the Ripper have attracted much attention in popular culture for decades, with several factual and fictional works directly making reference to the "From Hell" letter.[8]
Background
The murder of
While newsmen considered this letter a mere joke, they decided after two days to notify
The letter
The letter reads:[11]
From hell
Mr Lusk,
Sor
I send you half the Kidne I took from one women prasarved it for you tother piece I fried and ate it was very nise. I may send you the bloody knif that took it out if you only wate a whil longer
signed
Catch me when you can Mishter Lusk
The letter came into the possession of the City of London Police, being later transferred to the Metropolitan Police. The original letter and the kidney which accompanied it have since been lost or stolen, along with other contents that were contained in the Metropolitan Police Ripper files, but a photograph was taken of the "From Hell" letter. The original of this photograph has now also disappeared. The image shown here is from the photograph.[11]
Analysis
Hundreds of letters claiming to be from the killer were posted at the time of the Ripper murders, but many researchers argue that the "From Hell" letter is one of a handful of possibly authentic writings received from the murderer.[10] The author did not sign this correspondence with the "Jack the Ripper" pseudonym, distinguishing it from the earlier "Dear Boss" letter and "Saucy Jacky" postcard, as well as their many imitators. Furthermore, the handwriting in the "Dear Boss" letter and "Saucy Jacky" postcard are markedly similar, but the handwriting of the "From Hell" letter is dissimilar.[8] The letter was delivered to Lusk personally without reference to the police or to the British government, which could indicate animosity towards Lusk or the local Whitechapel community of which he was a member.[12]
Opinions regarding the authenticity of the letter are divided. The possibility has been raised that all of the communications supposedly from the Whitechapel murderer are fraudulent, acts done by
The primary reason this letter stands out more than any other is that it was delivered with a small box containing half of what doctors later determined was a human kidney which had been preserved in
Arguments in favour of the letter's genuineness sometimes state that contemporary analysis of the kidney by Dr
A contemporary police lead found that shopkeeper Emily Marsh had encountered a visitor at her shop, located in
Calligraphy and linguistic analysis
The "From Hell" letter is written with a much lower level of literacy than other letters purporting to be from the murderer, in that this letter features numerous errors in spelling and grammar. Scholars have debated whether this is a deliberate misdirection, as the author observed the silent k in "knif[e]" and h in "whil[e]". The formatting of the letter also features a cramped writing style in which letters are pressed together haphazardly; many ink blots appear in a manner which might indicate that the writer was unfamiliar with using a pen.[10] The formatting of the message might point to it being a hoax by a well-educated individual, but some researchers have argued that it is the genuine work of a partly functional but deranged individual.[8][12][14]
Forensic handwriting expert Michelle Dresbold, working for the History Channel documentary series
The purported diary of James Maybrick, another man who has been proposed as a Ripper suspect, contains references to the "From Hell" letter, particularly the alleged cannibalism. However, even if the diary is assumed to be genuine, the handwriting does not match that of the letter at all.[2] A Kirkus Reviews article has referred to the diary rumour as a "hoax" that is one of several "bizarre hypotheses" relating to the case.[15]
In popular culture
The Jack the Ripper murders are regarded as the first internationally publicised set of serial killings, with the perpetrator never conclusively identified. They have attracted much attention for decades,
See also
- Jack the Ripper suspects
- Offender profiling
- Whitechapel Vigilance Committee
- List of incidents of cannibalism
References
- ^ Grove, Sophie (9 June 2008). "You Don't Know Jack: A New Museum Exhibition Opens the Case File on Jack the Ripper—and Affords a Grim Look at the London of the Time: A City Made for Murder". Newsweek. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-906-82300-9.
- ISBN 978-1-844-54982-5p. 160
- ISBN 978-1-134-17580-2p. 127
- ISBN 978-1-844-54982-5p. 52
- ^ Evans and Rumbelow, p. 170; Fido, pp. 78–80
- ISBN 978-1-844-54982-5p. 161
- ^ History Channel.
- ^ Evans and Rumbelow, p. 69: Marriott, p. 38
- ^ ISBN 978-1-780-33709-8.
- ^ a b Jack the Ripper Article on the Ripper Letters. Casebook.org.
- ^ Unearthing Ancient Secrets. Season 1. Episode 7. 2 March 2009. Discovery Channel.
- ISBN 978-0-7432-1239-7.
- ISBN 978-0-671-01830-6ch. 1
- ^ "The Complete History of Jack the Ripper". Kirkus Reviews. 20 May 2010. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
- ^ Andreeva, Nellie (17 November 2014). "'From Hell' Drama Based On Jack The Ripper Graphic Novel In Works At FX". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
- ISBN 978-1-441-19778-8.
Cited works and further reading
- Begg, Paul (2004). Jack the Ripper: The Facts. United States: Barnes & Noble Books. ISBN 978-0-760-77121-1.
- Begg, Paul; ISBN 978-1-844-54797-5.
- ISBN 978-0-671-01830-6.
- Evans, Stewart; ISBN 978-0-7509-2549-5.
- Gibson, Dirk C. (2013). Jack the Writer: A Verbal & Visual Analysis of the Ripper Correspondence. Bentham Science Publishers. ISBN 978-1-608-05751-1.
- Jones, Richard (2008). Jack the Ripper: The Casebook. Andre Deutsch Publishing. ISBN 978-0-233-00257-6.
- ISBN 978-0-7867-0932-8.
- ISBN 978-1-526-73929-2.
- Whittington-Egan, Richard (2013). Jack the Ripper: The Definitive Casebook. Stroud: Amberley Publishing. ISBN 978-1-445-61786-2.
External links
- Contemporary news article pertaining to the From Hell letter
- The Whitechapel Vigilance Committee on the Casebook: Jack the Ripper website
- The Whitechapel Vigilance Committee on the London Walks website Archived 2012-01-13 at the Wayback Machine