The Jack The Ripper Murders

Miscast in the media for nearly 130 years, the victims of Jack the Ripper finally get their full stories told in this eye-opening and chilling reminder that life for middle-class women in Victorian London could be full of social pitfalls and peril.

Two Ripper experts examine unsolved murders—from Great Britain and around the world—that occurred during the era of the notorious killer. The number of women murdered and mutilated by Jack the Ripper is impossible to know, although most researchers now agree on five individuals. These five canonical cases have been examined at length in Ripper literature, but other contemporary murders and attacks bearing strong resemblance to the gruesome Ripper slayings have received scant attention. These unsolved cases are the focus of this intriguing book. The volume looks at a dozen female victims who were attacked during the years of Jack the Ripper’s murder spree. Their terrible stories—a few survived to bear witness, but most died of their wounds—illuminate key aspects of the Ripper case and the period: the gangs of London’s Whitechapel district, Victorian prostitutes, the public panic inspired by the crimes and fueled by journalists, medical practices of the day, police procedures and competency, and the probable existence of other serial killers. The book also considers crimes initially attributed to Jack the Ripper in other parts of Britain and the world, notably New York, Jamaica, and Nicaragua. In a final chapter, the drive to identify the Ripper is examined, looking at suspects as well as several important theories, revealing the lengths to which some have gone to claim success in identifying Jack the Ripper. “When it comes to the meticulous details of a murder, the minute-by-minute examination of a crime and its policing, Messrs. Begg and Bennett are the very best in the true-crime genre.”—Judith Flanders, Wall Street Journal

"Roland provides a well-balanced overview ... extensively illustrated and with timely coverage of some of the latest theories and research." -Stephen P. Ryder, Editor, Casebook: Jack the Ripper More than a century after he stalked the streets of London's East End, Jack the Ripper continues to exert a macabre fascination on the popular imagination. After scrupulously re-examining official documents of the time, investigative journalist Paul Roland strips away decades of myth and misconceptions to reveal the identity of a brand-new suspect who has never been seriously considered until now. If you are expecting a finger to be pointed at one of the usual suspects, be prepared to have your assumptions turned on their head. If these crimes were being investigated today, what would the authorities consider to be the vital clues? How would their profilers describe England's first serial killer and who would they be looking to convict? As Roland makes clear in this book, nothing about the Whitechapel murders can be taken at face value.

Fully updated and revised, Donald Rumbelow’s classic work is the ultimate examination of the facts, theories, fictions and fascinations surrounding the greatest whodunit in history. The Complete Jack the Ripper lays out all the evidence in the most comprehensive summary ever written about the Ripper. Rumbelow, a former London Metropolitan policeman, and an authority on crime, has subjected every theory – including those that have emerged in recent years – to the same deep scrutiny. He also examines the mythology surrounding the case and provides some fascinating insights into the portrayal of the Ripper on stage and screen and on the printed page. More seriously, he also examines the horrifying parallel crimes of the Düsseldorf Ripper and the Yorkshire Ripper in an attempt to throw further light on the atrocities of Victorian London.

An in-depth look at the lives of the women murdered by the infamous, 19th-century London serial killer. Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly are inextricably linked in history. Their names might not be instantly recognizable, and the identity of their murderer may have eluded detectives and historians throughout the years, but there is no mistaking the infamy of Jack the Ripper. For nine weeks during the autumn of 1888, the Whitechapel Murderer brought terror to London’s East End, slashing women’s throats and disemboweling them. London’s most famous serial killer has been pored over time and again, yet his victims have been sorely neglected, reduced to the simple label: prostitute. The lives of these five women are rags-to-riches-to-rags stories of the most tragic kind. There was a time in each of their lives when these poor women had a job, money, a home and a family. Hardworking, determined, and fiercely independent individuals, it was bad luck or a wrong turn here or there that left them wretched and destitute. Ignored by the press and overlooked by historians, it is time their stories were told. “Hume presents us with clear and concise biographies of the Ripper’s victims, and while it is tempting to think of them as all being prostitutes . . . their backgrounds, gone into in this much detail, shows them as something completely different. You will have to, you must read this brilliant book, it puts a whole new perspective into the canon of literature about the most infamous murderer of the last two centuries.” —Books Monthly

An international organization of Jack the Ripper experts reveal the most likely suspects in this ultimate true crime guide. Jack the Ripper is the ultimate cold case. While the Whitechapel Murders of 1888 have remained unsolved for more than a century, hundreds of theories have been suggested as to the killer's identity. Despite numerous books claiming to unmask the infamous Victorian villain, none have come close . . . . until now. The H:Division Crime Club is the world's largest body of experts on the Jack the Ripper murders. Now leading members of H:Division share their research into each suspect, drawing on original police reports, eye witness accounts and authoritative analysis. With each chapter discussing a separate suspect in detail, H:Division uses 21st century profiling techniques, H:Division reveals the men most likely to have been Jack the Ripper.

Reassesses the evidence and unmasks the celebrated East End killer.

THE ULTIMATE COLD CASE From 1888 to 1891, London s East End was rocked by a series of brutal murders. The victims were prostitutes whose corpses were left gruesomely mutilated. These crimes came to be known as the Whitechapel murders and were attributed to an unidentified fiend who named himself Jack the Ripper . The search for his true identity consumed an enormous amount of police resources and generated more than 1,600 pages of reports but the case was never solved. Now, after 120 years of speculation and debate, this infamous serial homicide case is reexamined by a leading cold case investigator. Using modern investigation techniques and technology, author Robert A. Snow takes a fresh look at the mystery of the Whitechapel murders and the serial killer who got away with his vicious crimes. The Ripper left nothing usable at the scene of his crimes and he came and went like a ghost. It is possible, even likely, that he was interviewed by the police at some time during the course of their investigations, but was able to allay their suspicions. Jack may have been insane, but he wasn t stupid.