When was the last letter from Jack the Ripper?

Answer 1

The last purported letter from Jack the Ripper was received on 18 October, 1888, by George Lusk, newly appointed Chair of the Mile End Vigilance Committee. This is the infamous 'From Hell' letter, accompanied by half of a human kidney. The authenticity of the letter is questionable, and has been discounted by most students of the case, as well as Chief Inspector Henry Moore and Charles Warren on 18 October, 1888.

It was Moore's belief that none of the handwriting taken from the three letters purported to be from the Whitechapel murderer matched.

The claim made that the letter revealed information known only to the killer is largely questionable. The letter was postmarked on a Monday, the same morning, though much later, of the murders.

The writer's claim that number one 'squealed a bit', is not corroborated and could very easily have been a lucky guess on the writer's part. Considering that the murder took place in a yard, with an open door, inside of which was a woman doing her evening chores who claimed to have heard nothing calls this statement into immediate doubt.

The claim that the killer would 'clip the ears off number two' to send to the police is also factually inaccurate. Kate Eddowes, whom was the only Ripper victim besides Mary Kelly to be facially mutilated, had no damage to the ears; nor was an attempt made to remove them.

The examination of the kidney was reported to have found it to be afflicted with Bright's Disease, or Ginny kindey, and that it belonged to a woman. This is obvious misreporting. Openshaw, the doctor that examined the kidney, stated in his report that it was clearly a human kidney preserved in spirits but that the differences between a male and female kidney, especially after a slight amount of atrophying, were undetectable with the small amount of the organ presented.

It is likely that all three letters were hoaxes, and ones in poor taste to boot.