History Main / FingerInTheMail

** In season two's " [[Recap/ElementaryS02E17EarsToYou Ears to You]]," the husband of a woman who disappeared four years earlier receives a pair of ears in the mail. [[spoiler:It turns out that the woman still lives ''and'' still has both her ears, despite them being a genetic and optical match for her. She staged her own disappearance/abduction and her accomplice is a surgeon who grafted a cartilage ear framework onto her back and later harvested it when the skin had properly grown in, thus providing her with suitably grisly mementos to mail for another ransom demand.]]

* ''Series/{{Elementary}}'': In "Ears to You," the husband of a woman who disappeared four years earlier receives a pair of ears in the mail. [[spoiler:It turns out that the woman still lives ''and'' still has both her ears, despite them being a genetic and optical match for her. She staged her own disappearance/abduction and her accomplice is a surgeon who grafted a cartilage ear framework onto her back and later harvested it when the skin had properly grown in, thus providing her with suitably grisly mementos to mail for another ransom demand.]]
** In "A Giant Gun Filled With Drugs," the daughter of Sherlock's former drug dealer is kidnapped and her finger is delivered to Sherlock's home as proof of life. Sherlock finds crumbs under the fingernail from food that's only available from a small number of take-out places in New York, information he uses to narrow down the potential locations she's being held in.

* In the BackStory of ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough'', the terrorist Renard took Elektra King hostage and demanded a ransom from her wealthy father who, on the advice of M, refused to pay up. So Renard cut off her ear and sent it to him to encourage payment. [[spoiler:Elektra was actually a willing participant in this.]]

* Spoofed in ''Literature/BigDeadPlace''. A galley manager in Antarctica has his new oven stolen and several parts returned with ransom notes threatening destruction unless [[ComicallySmallDemand he sings "I'm A Little Teapot"]] at the next All-Hands Meeting. He complies.

* In ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough'', Renard mutliates Elektra King's ear and sends her father the lobe as a warning. [[spoiler:Elektra was actually a willing participant in this.]]

* One episode of ''Series/{{Forever}}'' begins with a detective receiving a human heart in the mail.

* An ''astonishingly'' bizarre example occurs in ''Manga/ChainsawMan'' when a {{yakuza}} boss won't tell Makima everything he knows about contracts with the Gun Devil. She counters with a paper bag ''full'' of eyeballs from the love ones of all the gangsters present, claiming someone in Public Safety could put them back if they cooperate fully. The organization certainly has a lot of devils with strange powers like that, but we never find out if she's telling the truth.

* Spoofed in ''Big Dead Place''. A galley manager in Antarctica has his new oven stolen and several parts returned with ransom notes threatening destruction unless [[ComicallySmallDemand he sings "I'm A Little Teapot"]] at the next All-Hands Meeting. He complies.
* In Lawrence Block's ''The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian'' an envelope containing whiskers is stuffed into Carolyn's mailbox to prove that the kidnapper has her missing cat.

Compare: DemandingTheirHead and BringingBackProof when a character specifically demands a body part brought to them for a bounty.

Compare: DemandingTheirHead, when a character specifically demands a body part brought to them for a bounty.

* In ''Film/{{Gigli}}'', Louis orders Larry and Ricki to send the DA one of his kidnapped brother's thumbs. However, they find themselves unable to go through with it, so they break into a hospital morgue and cut a thumb off a random corpse in his place. Their plan, of course, backfires when the authorities receiving the digit are able to identify thumbprint and confirm it's not Bobby's, which infuriates Mr. Starkman.

* Parodied in the WebAnimation/CyanideAndHappiness short "The Note."

* Parodied in the Cyanide and Happiness short "the Note"

* Parodied in the Cyanide and Happiness short "the Note"

* Parodied on the Nickelodeon show ''Series/NedsDeclassifiedSchoolSurvivalGuide'', where the school bully, Loomer, takes the title character's Life Science baby care project doll and sends it back to them piece by piece. The horrified [[GeniusDitz Cookie]] exclaims, "What do we do now?" to which Ned smiles and replies, "Nothing." Backfires when the day before the babies are to be inspected the teacher suddenly moves up the deadline they still don't have the head.

* The serial killer variation showed up on ''Series/Millennium1996'' where a sinister figure known as "the Judge" has criminals committing vigilante killings and mailing body parts to the victims' victims.

--->'''Bodie:''' I hold up one finger and that's what you get, one finger!

* The serial killer variation showed up on ''Series/{{Millennium}}'' where a sinister figure known as "the Judge" has criminals committing vigilante killings and mailing body parts to the victims' victims.

** Lampshaded in "First Night" when criminals kidnap a foreign dignitary for ransom; one of them openly states that they are willing to cut off his fingers if needed. Later as Cowley is briefing his minister, Bodie and Doyle inform him that a package from the kidnappers has been dropped off.

** In "Where the Jungle Ends", Bodie tells a CorruptCorporateExecutive that Doyle is a murderous psychopath who is holding his schoolgirl daughter hostage in the car outside, and if Bodies doesn't get the information he wants, he'll bring his daughter inside a piece at a time.
--->'''Bodie:'''' I hold up one finger and that's what you get, one finger.

-->'''Doyle:''' They phoned the ''Express''. There's something waiting for us in a phone box in Jubilee Walk.
-->'''Minister:''' I don't like the sound of that "something".
-->'''Bodie:''' Half an ear, perhaps?
-->''(The Minister gives Bodie a DisapprovingLook and walks off. Doyle laughs.)''
-->'''Cowley:''' There are times, Bodie, when I find your ribaldry quite distasteful!

--

** Ramsay Bolton sends flayed skin from Theon Greyjoy to a number of lords. His letter mentions the inclosed "piece of prince."

* ''Series/TheProfessionals''. Lampshaded in "First Night" when criminals kidnap a foreign dignitary for ransom; one of them openly states that they are willing to cut off his fingers if needed. Later as Cowley is briefing his minister, Bodie and Doyle inform him that a package from the kidnappers has been dropped off.

* On ''Series/{{Revenge}}'', "Impetus," Charlotte has been kidnapped, and after Conrad disobeys instructions from the kidnapper, he receives a package including an ear and a video of Charlotte being beaten. The viewers know, but Conrad doesn't, that Charlotte is more or less fine; the video was faked and the ear taken from a random corpse in the morgue.

* ''Series/TheProfessionals''. Lampshaded in "First Night" when criminals kidnap a foreign dignitary for ransom and make it quite clear that they're willing to cut off his fingers if needed. Later as Cowley is briefing his minister, Bodie and Doyle inform him that a package from the kidnappers has been dropped off.
-->'''Doyle:''' They phoned the Express. There's something waiting for us in a phone box in Jubilee Walk.

-->''(The Minister gives Bodie a DisapprovingLook and excuses himself. Doyle laughs.)''