October 29, 1888
Old boss you was rite it was the left kidny i was goin to hoperate agin close to your ospitle just as i was going to dror mi nife along of er bloomin throte them cusses of coppers spoilt the game but i guess i wil be on the job soon and will send you another bit of innerds
Jack the Ripper
O have you seen the devle
with his mikerscope and scalpul
a-lookin at a kidney
with a slide cocked up.
On October 29 1888, Thomas “Tommy” Openshaw received a letter through the post addressed to “Dr. Openshaw, Pathological curator, London Hospital, Whitechapel” and was postmarked “LONDON E’, ‘OC29 88.” Consequently, the letter has become known as the “Openshaw Letter.”
Dr. Openshaw had examined the kidney sent to George Lusk, chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, along with the “From Hell” letter earlier that month and his name had become widely connected with the case of Jack the Ripper in the Press. He had identified the organ as human and having been removed form the left side, hence the writer’s comment that “you was rite it was the left kidny.” The kidney is blieved to be that of Catherine Eddowes. The use of the term “old boss” is a reference to the “Dear Boss” letter signed “Jack the Ripper.”
Author Patricia Cornwell used the “Openshaw Letter” as evidence for her argument that Walter Sickert was Jack the Ripper. She claimed that the paper used for the letter came from the same manufacturers as paper used by Sickert and that mitochondrial DNA extracted from the stamp on the envelope could not be ruled out as being the same as that found on other Sickert letters. However, the paper was a brand of stationery that was widely available at the time and mitochondrial DNA is not regarded as a definitive test of identity – the sequence found by Cornwell’s team of experts could be from any one of some half-a-million individuals.
A copy of the letter is on display with other Ripper items in the Royal London Hospital’s museum in Whitechapel.
The Letters of Jack the Ripper
“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.