Stride's murder occurred in the midst of the spree of murders attributed to a serial offender known prior to her death as both the Whitechapel Murderer and Leather Apron, and due to
a letter forwarded to
Scotland Yard the day immediately prior to her death as Jack the Ripper. However, unlike at least three other murder victims then-ascribed to this perpetrator (each of whom had received extensive abdominal injuries in addition to one or more slash wounds across her neck), Stride had received no mutilation injuries, with her sole injury being a deep cut measuring two-and-a-half-inches beneath her jaw, which had severed her left
carotid artery and
trachea and had terminated beneath her right jaw. As two other murders (those of
Mary Ann Nichols and
Annie Chapman) had occurred in the districts of Whitechapel and Spitalfields—both of which had been initially caused by knife wounds to the throat—within the previous month, Stride's murder was added to the
Whitechapel murders investigation, and was widely believed to have been perpetrated by the same killer. However, some commentators on the case conclude that Stride's murder was unconnected to the other canonical murders This opinion is upon the basis that the body had not been subjected to any mutilation and that this murder was the only murder ascribed to Jack the Ripper to occur south of
Whitechapel Road. Furthermore, it is believed that the blade used to cause the wound to Stride's neck may have been shorter and of a different design than that used to murder and subsequently mutilate the other four canonical murder victims. Most experts, however, consider the similarities in this case distinctive enough to connect Stride's murder with the two earlier Ripper murders, in addition to the murder of Catherine Eddowes later that same night. The murder of Stride is regarded as one of the canonical Ripper killings due to numerous factors, including the general physical and lifestyle characteristics of the victim, the day of the week she had been murdered, the time of death, the murder location, and the method of her murder. It is suspected that when Stride's murderer heard Diemschutz's horse and two-wheeled cart approaching or entering Dutfield's Yard, he ceased his attack. The killer may have still been inside Dutfield's Yard upon Diemschutz's approach, as the gate on Berner Street was the only point of entry. He may have escaped when Diemschutz entered the International Working Men's Educational Club. Less than one hour later, Catherine Eddowes was murdered in
Mitre Square, and both Stride and Eddowes had lived in Flower and Dean Street. The deaths of Eddowes and Stride sent London into a renewed state of general panic, as this was the first occasion in which two murders ascribed to the Ripper had occurred in one night. letter, received by
George Lusk of the
Whitechapel Vigilance Committee on 16 October 1888
Correspondence On 1 October, a postcard dubbed the
"Saucy Jacky" postcard and also signed "Jack the Ripper", was received by the
Central News Agency. This letter claimed responsibility for the murders of both Stride and Eddowes, and described the killing of the two women as a "double event"; a designation which has endured. It has been argued that this postcard was mailed before the murders were publicised, making it unlikely that a
crank would hold such detailed knowledge of the crime. However, the letter was postmarked more than 24 hours after the killings had occurred; long after details of the murders were known by both journalists and residents of the area. Police officials later claimed to have identified a journalist as the author of the postcard, leading this letter to be dismissed as a hoax, an assessment shared by most Ripper historians. Two weeks later, on 16 October, a parcel containing half a preserved human kidney, accompanied by a note, was received by the Chairman of the
Whitechapel Vigilance Committee,
George Lusk. This note has become known as both the "Lusk letter" and the
"From hell" letter, because of the return address used by the writer: "From hell". The author of this letter claimed to have "fried and ate" the missing half of the human kidney. The handwriting and general style of this letter significantly differ from that of the "Saucy Jacky" postcard. The section of kidney was taken to Dr
Thomas Horrocks Openshaw at the nearby
Royal London Hospital. He believed that the kidney was human and originated from the left side of the individual from whom it had been taken. Dr Openshaw also stated the organ had been preserved in spirits prior to postage. Acting Commissioner of the
City Police, Major Henry Smith, claimed in his memoirs that this kidney matched the one missing from the body of Catherine Eddowes, because the length of
renal artery attached to the kidney matched the missing length from Eddowes's body, and that the
forensic examination conducted upon Eddowes's body and the section of kidney revealed signs of
Bright's disease. Smith's story is considered by some historians to be a dramatic recollection on his part. ==Other theories==