THE RIPPER LETTERS

     After the Ripper had claimed his first two victims, some 27 letters were received by the Central News Agency.  The first of these was signed: Jack the Ripper, which is where his name has derived from.  Many of these letters were denounced as hoaxes.
     There was a postcard sent, dated 10/1/1888, referring to "the double event", which would have been the murders of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes (both murdered on 9/30/1888).  This particular postcard was denounced as a hoax, believed to have been manufactured by journalist Tom Bulling.  Bulling was, later, fired from Central New, due to another issue of manufacturing evidence to use in a story.
     One Ripper Letter does deserve more attention than some of the others.  In mid-October 1888, a small parcel was sent to George Lusk, who was the head of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee (like a neighborhood watch), that was set up as a result of the Ripper murders.  The parcel contained a letter from someone who claimed to be the Ripper and half of a human kidney.  The letter stated that the half kidney had belonged to Catherine Eddowes and that he had eaten the other half.  The kidney was examine by Dr.  Openshaw, the pathological curator of the London Hospital Museum.  Openshaw described this kidney as "ginny"; many of the prostitutes in Whitechapel were prone to alcoholism.  He observed that only 2 inches of the renal artery remained on this kidney, where there should be 3 inches.  The Ripper had left behind one inch of the renal artery in Eddowes body, when he took her kidney.  Finally, Eddowes suffered from Bright's Disease.  Dr. Openshaw concurred that this kidney matched up to what a Bright's kidney would look like.  This may be the one authentic Ripper letter.
     The age of the remaining letter and the possibility of contamination of this evidence make it difficult to determine anything that would be irrefutably correct.  Questions of their authenticity make it even harder to learn anything concrete.  Of the little evidence that exists of Jack the Ripper and his crimes, the letters are probably the least reliable or the most inconclusive.