Author: Christopher T George
Sunday, 08 December 2002 - 04:01 pm |        |
Hope for the Lusk Kidney Yet?
Well the following is actually a spoof article on the art world but it might give us a bit of hope that the Lusk kidney might be similarly "prasarved" somewhere and come to light in order to be of use in the investigation. 
Van Gogh's Ear To Be Sold at Auction
We can but hope!
Happy holidays to all!
Chris  |
Author: David O'Flaherty
Sunday, 08 December 2002 - 04:29 pm | |
Chris,
I forgot you said this was a spoof until I read the article three times through (laugh). I thought, 'this can't possibly be!'
Not only have I hoped the Lusk kidney might someday resurface (unlikely, as you have clarified), but also some of the other organs taken from the victims, preserved in a jar and forgotten in someone's attic. Strange things do happen sometimes, though admittedly this is more a fantasy than a real possibility. But I can dream, can't I? 
On the subject of Sotheby's sometimes dubious auctions, there's a book called 'The Poet and the Murder' by Simon Worrel, which is about the 1997 auction of an Emily Dickinson poem that turned out to be a forgery. People interested in the Maybrick Diary might give it a read. Haven't read it myself yet, but I saw the author on Book TV and he gave a riveting talk.
Cheers,
Dave |
Author: Julian Rosenthal
Sunday, 08 December 2002 - 07:39 pm | |
G'day Chris, Dave,
Wasn't the Pinchin St torso eventually intered in a lead coffin filled with Bourbon (or some other preservative)?
That should be worth a bit at an auction.
Jules |
Author: Dan Norder
Sunday, 08 December 2002 - 08:03 pm | |
Jules,
Bourbon dipped torso aged for a hundred years? Ewwwwww...
I thought the worm at the bottom of a bottle of tequila was a little odd, but this takes the cake.
Dan
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Author: Chris Jd
Monday, 09 December 2002 - 01:44 am | |
Hi Chris et al,
"L’Aube" sounds like "lobe", right?
E.R. L'Aube
:-))
Christian |
Author: Christopher T George
Monday, 09 December 2002 - 09:31 am | |
Smart, Christian, smart. 
Incidentally, those same people who wrote the spoof article on Van Gogh's ear also wrote an article on the Elgin marbles claiming that the marbles are rightfully owned by the British and not Greece since were actually carved by an ancient Briton who just happened to adopt a Greek name!!!
Jules, I don't know whether the Pinchin Street torso was preserved in bourbon or some other spirits. That's the first time I have heard THAT story. It was though common practice to preserve bodies for shipment in alcohol. Thus, Nelson's body was famously, legend has it, preserved in rum after he was killed during the battle of Trafalgar in 1805 for shipment back to London.
All the best
Chris |
Author: Stewart P Evans
Monday, 09 December 2002 - 01:23 pm | |
Christopher T,
You should be ashamed of yourself, and I thought you read my books.
(See The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook [Companion] pages 512 - 515 for Inspector Henry Moore's detailing of the preservation of the Pinchin Street torso in spirit).
Best Wishes,
Stewart |
Author: Peter R.A. Birchwood
Monday, 09 December 2002 - 06:16 pm | |
Back in the 1930's the first exhibition in the US of Van Gogh's art was held at the Met in New York. The newspapers of the time were more interested in the scandalous nature of his life than of his art. An artist named Hugh Troy decided to see what the public thought. Using minced beef and colorants he shaped a model ear which he put in a box with a card reading "This is the ear that Van Gogh cut off to send to a prostitute..." He managed to smuggle the box into the exhibit and noticed over a period that much more notice was taken of his "ear" than of the paintings!
Maybe this is the ear that is now for sale? |
Author: Julian Rosenthal
Monday, 09 December 2002 - 07:54 pm | |
Apologies all,
The body which I was thinking of was one from an unsolved murder over here. It lay in a glass aquarium for a number of years while people filed past her trying to identify her.
After some time (A couple of years), the novelty wore off and the authorities decided to bury her still enclosed in her presaevative state.
As far as I know she still remains that way.
I'll get back to you with the rest of the story tomorrow.
Cheers
Jules |
Author: Christopher T George
Monday, 09 December 2002 - 11:43 pm | |
Hi, Stewart:
Having just seen Patricia Cornwell's Learning Channel (BBC) special on her Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper -- Case Closed I have been sent running to its pages to learn every nuance of her book.... er, you mean I have to memorize your book as well? Maybe you will let me off though since I was careful to plug your book, Stewart, both during her WAMU Radio appearance when I called in to ask a question, and at her Smithsonian lecture that evening?
Hiya Peter:
When the cast and I gave the special performance of songs from the musical Erik Sitbon and I have written on the Whitechapel murders, Jack--The Musical, at the Ripper convention in Bournemouth, my wife Donna and I drove Pierre-Yves Duchesne (Jack) and Thierry Gondet (George Lusk) down to the Suncliff Hotel on the resort's Overcliff Drive. We had a few hours to rehearse before lights went up on our performance that evening in the downstairs bar with me as the narrator-barman of The Ten Bells. It was suggested that we needed a prop for a kidney...
We had stopped at a motorway café and one of the singers had got a slice of apple pie in a cardboard box. The pastry having been consumed, the box was available to serve as the box received by George Lusk, wrapped in brown paper to simulate the actual parcel. I furthermore took a screwed up napkin (serviette to you) from behind the bar, and sprinkled it with Tobasco sauce. It now looked pink and stank to high heaven. Needless to say it made a good prop and evoked the correct response from the appalled actors.
Add that to the fact that Duchesne was wielding a real knife with "Suncliff Hotel" engraved on the blade, and you can appreciate we had a fairly realistic performance that night! 
All the best
Chris |
Author: Julian Rosenthal
Tuesday, 10 December 2002 - 07:20 pm | |
The body I was talking about was that of the 'Pajama Girl' who was found just outside Albury in 1934. Her body was laid open for inspection for 10yrs and 10dys before she was finally laid to rest.
I'm sure there's bound to be a website on her somewhere, so if you're interested, go surfing.
Jules |
