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 In his book Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution, author Stephen Knight linked the prominent physician Sir William Gull to Stride on the basis that both were reported to carry grapes; a theory which another author, Martin Fido, has dismissed as a "wild allegation". A grocer named Matthew Packer is known to have implied to two private detectives employed by the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee named Le Grand and Batchelor that he had sold some grapes to Stride and her murderer shortly before her death. When interviewed by the police, Packer described the man he had seen as being