# George Lusk

* This article is part of a series aboutJack the Ripper
Whitechapel murders
Annie Chapman
Catherine Eddowes
Mary Jane Kelly
Mary Ann Nichols
Elizabeth Stride
Speculated
Emma Elizabeth Smith
Martha Tabram
Thames Torso Murders
Whitehall Mystery
Locations
Buck's Row
Dorset Street
Flower and Dean Street
Hanbury Street
Mitre Square
Ten Bells
Letters and clues
"Dear Boss" letter
"Saucy Jacky" postcard
"From Hell" letter
Openshaw letter
Goulston Street graffito
Investigators
Frederick Abberline
Robert Anderson
Walter Andrews
Thomas Arnold
Walter Dew
George Godley
Melville Macnaghten
Henry Moore
Edmund Reid
Donald Swanson
Charles Warren
Adolphus Williamson
Whitechapel Vigilance Committee
George Lusk
Doctors and coroners
Wynne Edwin Baxter
Thomas Bond
Roderick Macdonald
Thomas Horrocks Openshaw
George Bagster Phillips
Witnesses
George Hutchinson
Joseph Lawende
Charles Allen Lechmere
Israel Schwartz
Suspects
Montague Druitt
Jacob Isenschmid
George Chapman
Aaron Kosminski
Michael Ostrog
John Pizer
James Thomas Sadler
Francis Tumblety
William Henry Bury
Thomas Neill Cream
Thomas Hayne Cutbush
Frederick Bailey Deeming
Carl Feigenbaum
Robert Donston Stephenson
Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale
Joseph Barnett
Willy Clarkson
William Gull
George Hutchinson
James Kelly
Charles Allen Lechmere
Jacob Levy
James Maybrick
Michael Maybrick
Walter Sickert
Joseph Silver
James Kenneth Stephen
Sir John Williams, 1st Baronet, of the City of London
L. Forbes Winslow
Mary Pearcey
Legacy
In fiction
Jack the Ripper Museum :
vte :
George Akin Lusk (1839—25 October 1919) was a British builder and decorator who specialised in music hall restoration. He was the chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee during the Whitechapel murders, including the killings ascribed to Jack the Ripper, in 1888.

## Background

George Lusk was the son of Margaret Elizabeth (née Murray) and John Arthur Lusk, a solicitor's clerk, in 1839. In January 1863, he married Susannah Price in Stepney. They had seven children: Albert Arthur Lusk (1863–1930); Walter Leopold Lusk (1865–1923); George Alfred Lusk (1870–1918); Edith Rose Lusk (1872–?); Maud Florence B. Lusk (1875–1967); Selina Grace Lusk (1877–?), and Lilian Violet Lusk (1881–1962).
Lusk was a Freemason, having been initiated into the Doric Lodge on 14 April 1882, but he was excluded from his membership of the Lodge in 1889 for non-payment of dues. He was also the churchwarden of his local church.

## Chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee

Lusk was elected chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee by other members of the committee, all local businessmen, on 10 September 1888. His name was printed on the numerous posters pasted up around Whitechapel appealing for information during the murders. He and the committee's treasurer, Joseph Aarons, wrote a letter to The Daily Telegraph, addressed to the then-Home Secretary, Henry Matthews, stating that the offer of a substantial reward from the government would "convince the poor and humble residents of our East-end that the government authorities are as much anxious to avenge the blood of these unfortunate women as they were the assassination of Lord Cavendish and Mr Burke."

## From Hell letter

In October 1888 Lusk came to believe that his house was being watched by a sinister bearded man, and requested police protection. He received a small package in the evening mail at his home, 1 Alderney Road, Mile End. On opening the package he found a letter addressed to himself, inside which was half a human kidney. The letter read:
    "From hell
    Mr Lusk
    Sor
    I send you half the Kidne I took from one women prasarved it for you tother pirce I fried and ate it was very nise I may send you the bloody knif that took it out if you only wate a whil longer.
    signed Catch me when
    you Can
    Mishter Lusk."
This letter is referred to as the "From Hell letter" by Ripperologists.
Convinced the letter was a practical joke, Lusk placed the box and the kidney in his desk drawer. At a meeting of the committee the next day he showed it to other members. Joseph Aarons, W Harris and two other members called Reeves and Lawton visited Lusk at home to inspect the letter and the kidney. Lusk wanted to throw both away, but he was persuaded to take them to Dr Frederick Wiles, who had a surgery nearby on the Mile End Road.
Wiles was out, so his assistant, F S Reed examined the contents of the box and took the kidney to Dr. Thomas Horrocks Openshaw at the nearby London Hospital. The kidney was handed over to the City Police in whose jurisdiction Catherine Eddowes had been murdered.
Lusk is also mentioned in the 17 September 1888 'Dear Boss' letter, but this letter is regarded by many Ripperologists as being a modern hoax, surreptitiously placed into archived records.

## Film and television portrayals

* In the 1988 made for TV film Jack the Ripper, starring Michael Caine, Lusk was played by Michael Gothard. In the film, Lusk is portrayed as a violent Marxist and power-hungry politician, though in real life he was known for his peaceful nature.
* In the 2001 film From Hell, starring Johnny Depp, Lusk was played by Vincent Franklin.
* In BBC One's Ripper Street (2013) he was played by Michael Smiley, who reconvenes the Vigilance Committee, in spite of its official disbandment, to persecute a young boy suspected of a violent murder.

## Footnotes

* ↑ England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858–1966 Record for Susannah Lusk, Ancestry.co.uk. Accessed 15 March 2024.
* ↑ London Metropolitan Archives London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754–1921 Record for George Aken Lusk, Ancestry.co.uk. Accessed 15 March 2024.
* ↑ 'Why are we obsessed with Jack the Ripper?', BBC News 26 November 2004
* ↑ Casebook: Jack the Ripper – Ripper Letters at www.casebook.org