Lusk Letter sent to George Lusk of the vigilante committee

[JTRSickert]

Hi JTR and Damaso,

That's a question that used to be asked a lot but for some reason isn't any more. Why Lusk? He was not a big player at the time. In fact, he's only so well known to us now because of the letter. Basically, he sat around writing letters asking for donations and petitioning for an award. It doesn't make sense that either the Ripper or a hoaxer would choose to waste a human organ (difficult to obtain no matter who it was!) on Lusk.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

So Tom, in your opinion, do you believe the package he received was authentic, or just another hoaxer wasting everyone's time?

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi JTR and Damaso,

That's a question that used to be asked a lot but for some reason isn't any more. Why Lusk? He was not a big player at the time. In fact, he's only so well known to us now because of the letter. Basically, he sat around writing letters asking for donations and petitioning for an award. It doesn't make sense that either the Ripper or a hoaxer would choose to waste a human organ (difficult to obtain no matter who it was!) on Lusk.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Damaso Marte]

Well, who was the press at the time depicting as the leader of the investigation and of the various anti-ripper activities? If I were the killer and I had no pre-existing biases, I'd target whoever was most salient in the papers.

[JTRSickert]

I had a question: If we assume that the letter writer was , in fact, JTR this brings a question to mind: Why would he choose the recipient to be George Lusk and his Whitechapel committee?

While Lusk did, in fact, use his committeee to help keep the streets safe and assist the police in any way possible, he of course was not a policeman and would not know how to conduct an investigation to find the murderer. And yet, the killer chose to write to him and not one of the main policemen on the case (Abberline, Reid, Swanson, or any of the PCs on the beat).

My personal opinion is that JTR viewed Lusk as his "nemesis," someone from his own local neighborhood who was attempting to stop him in his "work," Does anyone have a different interpretation?

[Abby Normal]

And I think that is your answer. IF the real killer was responsible for any of the letters/communications I suspect that in his mind he was being very explicit and thought anyone should be able to "get it."

Communication between two friends or family members is sometimes a tricky thing. How much more so between someone like JtR with his mental state and strangers?

curious

Bingo!

[curious]

Obviously we are not dealing with somebody with a normal mind so it is hard to try and predict our killers state of mind and his motives.

And I think that is your answer. IF the real killer was responsible for any of the letters/communications I suspect that in his mind he was being very explicit and thought anyone should be able to "get it."

Communication between two friends or family members is sometimes a tricky thing. How much more so between someone like JtR with his mental state and strangers?

curious

[pinkmoon]

Again maybe if any of the communications are from the killer, maybe in HIS MIND it was enough-The apron for the GSG, the kidney for the from hell letter, the predictions and description from dear boss. What we think he SHOULD have done is irrelevant.

And then again, perhaps proving he was the killer/authenticating the writings was not the main purpose for writing them anyway.

I disagree if our killer is writing these letters it is to get a shock reaction from the general public surely the shock reaction would be more if there was no doubt they were from our killer.Like I said before it wouldn't be hard to make sure that the communications were from our killer he makes no reference to having just killed two women in goulston street graffiti which is strange.Obviously we are not dealing with somebody with a normal mind so it is hard to try and predict our killers state of mind and his motives.

[Abby Normal]

The whole point I've made about all of our killers so called communications it would not have been to hard to make sure he did something or sent something to make sure his communications were genuine .When he promised to send the ears why didn't he do so all he had to do was make sure he cut them of first and stick them in his pocket.It would have taken seconds to take a small piece of any of the victims clothing and post it with his communications.If our killer is sending communications to attract public attention then why not make sure there is no doubt they are from him and that way get more attention.

Again maybe if any of the communications are from the killer, maybe in HIS MIND it was enough-The apron for the GSG, the kidney for the from hell letter, the predictions and description from dear boss. What we think he SHOULD have done is irrelevant.

And then again, perhaps proving he was the killer/authenticating the writings was not the main purpose for writing them anyway.

[Cogidubnus]

Hi Abby

Impossible because he left it all at the GSG! ; )

I replied that "perhaps he'd run out of apron" - but it seemed to disappear into the ethernet...IMHO if any of the letters at all are genuine then the Lusk effort is the one...

And I don't think it's that "Irish" - To start with I think the "Sor" is a misreading of a badly written "Sir", and "prasarving" is actually a pretty well-established colloquial usage (vide 1805 The Jurist and others)...

If the writing is bad enough (and it is) nise can be equally well read as nice, whilst tother or t'other is as much a north country usage as Irish...as a matter of interest it was a usage my Brighton-bred paternal grandad used to employ mockingly

All the best

Dave

[pinkmoon]

Impossible because he left it all at the GSG! ; )

The lusk letter idea might have come to him later after he had already deposited the clothing he took to authenticate the GSG and perhaps he thought that half a kidney from eddowes was good enough.

The whole point I've made about all of our killers so called communications it would not have been to hard to make sure he did something or sent something to make sure his communications were genuine .When he promised to send the ears why didn't he do so all he had to do was make sure he cut them of first and stick them in his pocket.It would have taken seconds to take a small piece of any of the victims clothing and post it with his communications.If our killer is sending communications to attract public attention then why not make sure there is no doubt they are from him and that way get more attention.

[Abby Normal]

One thing though about the lusk communication how hard would it have been to included a small piece of the victims clothing to prove it was genuine.

Impossible because he left it all at the GSG! ; )

The lusk letter idea might have come to him later after he had already deposited the clothing he took to authenticate the GSG and perhaps he thought that half a kidney from eddowes was good enough.

[pinkmoon]

To Pink and Fish
Pink- good point and yes i have always thought that because of him being disturbed/seen alot on the night of the double event it spurred him to writing-the GsG and/or the from hell letter. I think him being interupted and not being able to finish with stride may have really bugged him and led at least to the GsG (which IMHO is 90/10 from the ripper)if not the lusk communication.

no major disturbance on the night of MK killing so no writing.

One thing though about the lusk communication how hard would it have been to included a small piece of the victims clothing to prove it was genuine.

[Damaso Marte]

If it's genuine, why the almost comically obvious attempt to "sound" Irish? Are we looking at a non-Irish killer trying to divert attention by blaming Paddy?

[Bridewell]

GsG (which IMHO is 90/10 from the ripper)

I'm not sure I would weigh the percentages that favourably towards the killer but, if it wasn't connected, I would expect someone to have come forward and pointed out that the writing had been there a few days previously had that been the case.

I share your views about the likely authorship of the Lusk Letter.

[Abby Normal]

To Pink and Fish
Pink- good point and yes i have always thought that because of him being disturbed/seen alot on the night of the double event it spurred him to writing-the GsG and/or the from hell letter. I think him being interupted and not being able to finish with stride may have really bugged him and led at least to the GsG (which IMHO is 90/10 from the ripper)if not the lusk communication.

no major disturbance on the night of MK killing so no writing.