Maxim Jakubowski and Nathan Braund - The Mammoth Book of Jack the Ripper

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Acknowledgments

To Murder One, without whom (MJ)

Special thanks to Kirsten, Adam Gamble, Marcus Moore and Mathew Risdon for their help and support. (NB)

Constable & Robinson Ltd
3 The Lanchesters
162 Fulham Palace Road
London W6 9ER
www.constablerobinson.com

First published in the UK by Robinson, an imprint of Constable & Robinson, 1999

This edition published in the UK by Robinson, 2008

Copyright Maxim Jakubowski and Nathan Braund, 1999, 2008

The right of Maxim Jakubowski and Nathan Braund to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-84529-712-1

Printed and bound in the EU

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Contents

Undisputed Facts

Key Texts

Current Views

Further Evidence

Introduction

When I was approached back in 1998 to put this book on Jack the Ripper together for the Mammoth list, I was initially somewhat taken aback. After all, I considered myself more of a crime and mystery fiction writer than a true crime specialist and the little I then knew of the notorious case was dizzying in its multiple choice solutions and endless speculation. No theory about the identity of the culprit stood out as the logical one, and despite the plethora of specialists, historians and ripperologists around, no one could provide an ideal answer to the eternal question of, who was Jack the Ripper?

It soon became apparent that it would work best, in my opinion, if the book did not actually pretend to provide any specific answers, but instead gave an idea of the sheer complexity and contradictions the case offered. My colleague Nathan Braund, who was then in charge of the true crime section at Londons Murder One bookshop, was recruited and did an incredible job sorting out the theories, the facts and the claims and we hit on the idea, for the central part of the book, of asking some of the more prominent experts on the case each to summarize their opinions and views.

Of course, they all strongly disagreed but, I think the final result was both enlightening and fascinating for the lay reader who then had to make a personal choice amongst all the suspects and possibilities presented to him or her.

It seems this approach was welcomed by the public and the book remained in print for many years. While updating the bibliography of books on Jack the Ripper for this newly revised edition, I was truly amazed to see that the interest in this subject has not abated in the least, with handfuls of new books still appearing in the UK and the US every single year since, including the notorious intervention of leading US crime writer Patricia Cornwell, which made headlines worldwide. There have been yet further theories and fingers pointed and it was felt the time had come to update the book. Weve excluded some of the original essays and have welcomed five brand new writers to the fold, some of whom have actually published some of the more interesting books on the Ripper case since our initial edition appeared. Barry Forshaw, of Crime Time Magazine, examines the whole Patricia Cornwell affray with wit and insight, and there is also a curiosity; a short essay by the late Derek Raymond written for a small French magazine and which has never appeared in English previously, with a novelists distinct take on the affair.

I have no doubt as we march into the twenty-first century in earnest that more books and theories will keep on surfacing on a regular basis as this unsolved mystery keeps on fascinating new generations. For now, these are some of the facts and possibilities. You pay your money and choose your solution!

Maxim Jakubowski, 2008

Introduction to the First Edition

Who was Jack the Ripper? This question has plagued policemen, doctors, journalists, historians and enthusiasts for over a hundred years.

Jack the Ripper has been portrayed as a slaughterer, fishporter, lodging-house keeper, policeman, barrister, doctor and clergyman. In fact, it would be easier to list the things he has not been described as.

A whole host of individuals have been labelled Saucy Jack: Montague John Druitt, Aaron Kosminski, Michael Ostrog, William Henry Bury, Dr Francis Tumblety, Joseph Barnett, James Kelly and James Maybrick. There are famous suspects like Prince Albert Victor (the Duke of Clarence), Dr William Withey Gull (Queen Victorias physician) and Lord Randolph Churchill (Sir Winston Churchills father). Even childrens friends like Doctor Barnardo and Lewis Carroll have been eyed with suspicion.

In 1988, one hundred years after the autumn of terror, the FBI produced a psychological profile of Jack the Ripper for a TV docudrama. They suggested that he was an employed, white, single working-class male in his late 20s who had been abused as a child. He had no police record and no anatomical knowledge. Obviously, the FBI offered the profile as a form of speculation but, if we accept the assessment, it simply adds to the mystery because it does not name a particular individual.