From Hell

October 15, 1888

From hell.

Mr Lusk,
Sir
I send you half the Kidne I took from one women prasarved it for you tother piece I fried and ate it was very nice. I may send you the bloody knife that took it out if you only wate a while longer
signed

Catch me when you can Mishter Lusk

George Lusk, chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, received a letter postmarked October 15, 1888, containing a message purporting to come from the Whitechapel serial murderer and a small box containing half a human kidney said to have been taken from one of the victims. The writer gives his address at the top of the page as “From Hell” and this has become the standard name for this document, although it is also sometimes known as the “Lusk Letter.”

The writer of the letter claimed to have removed a kidney from one of the victims, to have cooked and eaten one half and preserved the other half specifically for George Lusk to be sent at a later date. Lusk believed that the letter was a hoax and that the kidney was from an animal such as a dog; however, friends persuaded him to forward it to the authorities.

Dr. Thomas Openshaw, Curator of the London Hospital’s Pathology Museum, examined the kidney and described it as the “ginny” organ of a woman in her mid-forties afflicted with Bright’s disease, which had been removed in the previous three weeks. Openshaw later claimed that he had only identified the kidney as human and as being preserved in spirits of wine.

One of murder victim Catherine Eddowes’s kidneys had been removed by her murderer. There was, however, considerable disagreement as to whether the specimen sent to Lusk had come from Eddowes.

The “From Hell” letter exhibits a different handwriting from that of both the earlier “Dear Boss” letter and “Saucy Jacky” postcard.

“From Hell” Missing

The letter came into the possession of the City of London Police, being later transferred to the Metropilitan Police. The original letter and the kidney which accompanied it have been lost, along with other contents that were contained in the Metropolitan Police Ripper files. Fortunately, a photograph was taken of the “From Hell” letter; unfortunately, the original of this photograph has now also disappeared.

The Letters of Jack the Ripper

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“Since the murders in Berner Street, St. Georges, and Mitre Square, Aldgate, on September 30th […] no fewer than 1,400 letters relating to the tragedies have been received by the police, and although the greater portion of these gratuitous communications were found to be of a trivial and even ridiculous character, still each one was thoroughly investigated.” The Times, 12 November 1888.