Writing for Fun
July 2018
Catch Me When You Can - Jeanette Rothwell
This famous ‘From Hell’ letter is a letter that was posted in 1888 along with half a human kidney, by a person who claimed to be the serial killer known as Jack the Ripper. The murderer killed and mutilated at least five female victims in the Whitechapel area of London over a period of several months, the case attracting a great deal of attention both at the time and since. The exact number of victims has never been proven and the identity of the Whitechapel killer has likewise remained unsolved.
Postmarked 15th October 1888, the letter was received by George Lusk, the chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee. The message was accompanied by a preserved section of a human kidney, the writer claimed to have eaten the other half. The police received a large number of letters claiming to be from the murderer, at one point having to deal with about 1000 letters related to the case but the ‘From Hell’ message is one of the few that has received serious attention. Opinions on the matter have remained divided.
The text of the letter reads:
‘From hell
Mr Lusk
Sor
I send you half the Kidne I took from one woman 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 while longer
Signed
Catch me when you can Mishter Lusk’
The ‘From Hell’ letter featured several errors in spelling and grammar. Scholars have debated whether this is a deliberate misdirection, as the author observed the silent k in ‘knif’ and h in ‘while’. The letter also features a cramped writing style, many ink blots indicating that the writer was unfamiliar with using a pen. The writer could also have been Irish, using the word ‘Sor’ and ‘Mishter’. It could, however, have been an educated person writing this way to add to the confusion.
One of the reasons why this letter stands out more than any other is that it was delivered with a small box containing half of what doctors later confirmed was a human kidney, preserved in spirits. It was later said by the press to be ‘Ginny’, and probably from an alcoholic, but there was no way of deducing whether it was male or female, or the age. One of the murder victims, Catherine Eddowes’ kidneys had been removed by the killer. However the organ could have been acquired by medical students and sent with the letter as part of a hoax. Lusk believed it was a hoax and did not report it until he was urged to do so by his friends. He had, in fact, received many other letters from ‘cranks’.
The possibility has been raised that all of the communications supposedly from the Whitechapel murderer are fraudulent, acts done by cranks or by journalists seeking to increase the media frenzy even more. However, the many differences between the ‘From Hell’ letter and the vast majority of the messages received have been cited as evidence to look upon it as maybe the only authentic letter.
Jack the Ripper was not the first serial murderer. Unfortunately, such people, twisted by nearly unknown forces and driven to destroy human lives for no understandable reason, have been with us forever.
But it’s safe to say that Jack the Ripper remains in a class by himself. No other killer has sparked so much interest, speculation, controversy, and intrigue for so long. Certainly, none has ever become a large industry in and of himself. I have counted at least 50 publications on the subject. I am sure there are more.
That may be explained in part by the timing of policing and detection methods which were in the infancy and newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic aggressively exploited and sensationalized crime stories to boost circulation. The Police attempted to use sniffer dogs in Whitechapel but the stinking streets rendered any detection impossible. They tried to use a Visionary who proved to be useless. Some of the Metropolitan Police dressed as women and wandered the streets of Whitechapel but they fooled no-one. Any books on the subject will list 100’s of suspects. Modern DNA was not invented but might have solved the identity of the killer immediately.
No explanation, though, fully answers the question of Jack’s enduring hold on the public’s imagination. His real identity remains an open mystery to this day.
