Why disguise the fact that JtR was educated?

[Abby Normal]

Regarding the Lusk Kidney, the basic points seem straightforward.
- There was no test in 1888 that could with certainty distinguish between the kidney of a human and a pig (it's only with DNA sequencing that we could positively do so now, but obviously that wasn't available), [just as there was no test that could reliably distinguish human from mammalian blood until Paul Uhlenhuth devised one in 1901, despite the Daily News report of 15 September regarding the Chapman killing that ' the blood-stained newspapers have been subjected to analysis, and the stains certified to have been those of human blood'. (http://www.fmap.archives.gla.ac.uk/C...loodtest.htm)]

- Anyone could buy a pig's kidney at any butcher's shop.
- Organs were generally preserved in Methylated Spirit (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3162231/), and anyone could buy this in any Chemist's or large Grocer's.

- People do hoaxes for any and every reason under the sun, or for no reason at all - here's just one of thousands of websites discussing this http://www.bestpsychologydegrees.com/hoaxes/.

Finally, I'll repost the link that someone posted earlier to what seems a pretty exhaustive discussion of the ins and outs of Lusk's Kidney, by Christopher-Michael DiGrazia, http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/dst-cmdlusk.html.

Hi mirandola

Thanks for this!!

now I have a really stupid question I just thought of. Do Pigs have a left and right kidney as do Humans? Im sure they do but just want to confirm.

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi again Chris

I too think (or thought) that From Hell and Oppenshaw letter had a good chance of being from the same hand. However, I didn't realize that the Openshaw letter was signed jack the ripper.

Now Ive got to go back to the drawing board and think about all this again! LOL!

Thanks for pointing that out!!!

Hi again Abby

Yes if you "buy" that the Lusk and Openshaw letters were by the same person, and that perhaps the individual was high on some sort of substance (an interesting debate for the killer let alone a hoaxer) possibly he got carried away with the Lusk letter and "forgot" to sign it "Jack the Ripper" or decided in that instance that "From Hell" was the better way to sign the missive.

Best regards

Chris

[Abby Normal]

Hi again Abby

Yes if you "buy" that the Lusk and Openshaw letters were by the same person, and that perhaps the individual was high on some sort of substance (an interesting debate for the killer let alone a hoaxer) possibly he got carried away with the Lusk letter and "forgot" to sign it "Jack the Ripper" or decided in that instance that "From Hell" was the better way to sign the missive.

Best regards

Chris

thanks Chris

I have often thought that the writer of From Hell was drunk. The sloppiness of it, the mis spelled words, the wild flourish of some of the letters.
The slurring of words- "mishter" (LOL-just kidding on this one).

[Errata]

Hi mirandola

Thanks for this!!

now I have a really stupid question I just thought of. Do Pigs have a left and right kidney as do Humans? Im sure they do but just want to confirm.

They do.

Not that they could swear they had part of a left kidney. Another good guess that's impossible to prove. Kidneys don't have a front and back or top and bottom. Think of two croissants facing each other. If you picked one up and handed it to me, I have no way of knowing whether you picked up the left or right croissant. And any sense of directionality I might make a logical guess at is obliterated when you just hand me a chunk of pastry, and not the whole thing.

[Abby Normal]

They do.

Not that they could swear they had part of a left kidney. Another good guess that's impossible to prove. Kidneys don't have a front and back or top and bottom. Think of two croissants facing each other. If you picked one up and handed it to me, I have no way of knowing whether you picked up the left or right croissant. And any sense of directionality I might make a logical guess at is obliterated when you just hand me a chunk of pastry, and not the whole thing.

Thanks Errata!!

Can I ask you a personal question-

How did you acquire your wealth of knowledge about everything? you seem to know a lot about a lot.

I bet your a beast at Trivial Pursuit!! LOL

[ChrisGeorge]

thanks Chris

I have often thought that the writer of From Hell was drunk. The sloppiness of it, the mis spelled words, the wild flourish of some of the letters.
The slurring of words- "mishter" (LOL-just kidding on this one).

Of course "mishter" is not a misspelling but an emulation of how the Irish were portrayed in the music halls. This isn't exactly politically correct in our day, of course, but the Irish in the Victorian period were the butt of jokes in the theatre or equally in the press and in satirical magazines such as Punch. So the letter writer clearly knew that, and it was all part of the "put on" in the Lusk letter and equally so with the very similar banter employed by the writer in the Openshaw communication.

Cheers

Chris

[Pcdunn]

Re the Irish in the press, here are some 19th-century images of the Irishman (and woman) depicted as brutish and ape-like. :

https://www.google.com/search?q=irish+caricatures+19th+century&tbm=isch&imgil=JkXd5IcRPVZA5M%253A%253BJSdeGRIh58qP1M%253Bhttps%25253A%25252F%25252Fthesocietypages.org%25252Fsocimages%25252F2011%25252F01%25252F28%25252Firish-apes-tactics-of-de-humanization%25252F&source=iu&pf=m&fir=JkXd5IcRPVZA5M%253A%252CJSdeGRIh58qP1M%252C_&usg=__fKJ1Y0FAYhW7UbuscydkouJRC9s%3D&biw=1093&bih=478&ved=0ahUKEwiZ15TNlJHLAhVBmoMKHRYDALoQyjcIKw&ei=AQjOVtnSD8G0jgSWhoDQCw#imgrc=g-MyqRhk2bpxlM%3A

[Errata]

Thanks Errata!!

Can I ask you a personal question-

How did you acquire your wealth of knowledge about everything? you seem to know a lot about a lot.

I bet your a beast at Trivial Pursuit!! LOL

I am. Freak memory. I can remember the names of the bones I learned in freshman biology 25 years ago, but not that February means I need to put on a damn sweater. And it's a bit of a self selecting population, so I have tons of medical trivia, and I'm on a board where that might come in handy. If you wanted to know how my car works, all I can offer in the way of explanation is gnomes. Many mechanically inclined gnomes.

And my dad is a retired doctor/surgical historian. So sometimes I just ask. To his credit, not once has he asked why I want to know. He's worn down over the years of random questions I guess.

Cheating, I know.

[Mirandola]

Hi all, referring to this contentious kidney again:

Left and right kidneys in mammals are differentiated by position and obviously by what other structures in the body they are associated with; apart from a slight difference in size (left is usually marginally larger) there's no physiological difference (as Errata says, imagine two croissants - which is the left one?).http://www.differencebetween.com/dif...-right-kidney/

[ChrisGeorge]

Re the Irish in the press, here are some 19th-century images of the Irishman (and woman) depicted as brutish and ape-like. :

https://www.google.com/search?q=iris...yqRhk2bpxlM%3A

Yes, well found.

There's the famous Punch cartoon showing one of the assassins in Phoenix Park, Dublin, illustrated below. But note that the characterization of denizens of the East End slums was often viciously primitive as well, as shown in "Blind-Man's Bluff" that also appeared in Punch. So it was also a class thing, not just a put-down of the Irish.

[Pcdunn]

Thanks, ChrisGeorge.

I didn't know for many years how the Irish were depicted in old drawings and cartoons, until I saw an exhibit about immigrants at a library. Gave me pause to think, indeed, as did reading Thomas Gallagher's book Paddy's Lament: Ireland 1846-47: Prelude to Hatred http://www.amazon.com/Paddys-Lament-.../dp/0156707004

In "Blind Man's Bluff", the laughing bearded fellow is probably meant to be Jewish, the one in the right foreground is perhaps from Russia, given his fur cap, the fellow in the right background is likely an Irishman, and the pick-pocket-- perhaps an Englishman?!
Class and "foreign-looking", both, I think.

[Errata]

I wonder if there is a dominant kidney? Everything else I have two of has a dominant. I wonder if one is just kicking back and the other one is burning all out to pick up the slack? Way to go dominant kidney.