Jack the Ripper

Today in history - September 30th, 1888 - Jack the Ripper kills his 3rd & 4th victims, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes.  Here are ten books on Jack the Ripper and his crimes.

The Complete Jack the Ripper A to Z by Paul Begg, Martin Fido, and Keith Skinner - Hugely respected, extensively quoted and widely regarded as the 'bible' of Ripper studies, The Complete Jack the Ripper A to Z is the ultimate reference for anyone fascinated by the Jack the Ripper mystery. This new, rewritten, up-to-date edition includes sources and well over 100 photographs.The Complete jack the Ripper A-Z has an entry for almost every person involved in the case, from suspects and witnesses to policemen and journalists, plus the ordinary people who became caught up in the unfolding drama.Written by three of the world's leading authorities on the case, it takes a completely objective look at theories old and new, describes all the key Ripper books and gives potted biographies of many of the authors.Whether you are new to the mystery of Jack the Ripper or an experienced 'Ripperologist' The Complete Jack the Ripper A-Z will keep you turning the pages. Fascinating and entertaining reading in its own right, it is the essential reference to have beside you when you venture into the dark alleys of Victorian Whitechapel.

The Complete Jack the Ripper by Donald Rumbelow - 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 D sseldorf Ripper and the Yorkshire Ripper in an attempt to throw further light on the atrocities of Victorian London.

Deconstructing Jack: The Secret History of the Whitechapel Murders by Simon Daryl Wood - Will Jack the Ripper ever be identified? The answer is an emphatic "No." But not because he was a quasi-supernatural entity able to perform lightning-fast curb-side surgery whilst running split-second rings around two London police forces. Jack the Ripper did not exist - except within the minds of his creators and those who for one reason or another have attempted for over one hundred years to turn the myth into a reality. In 1976 Simon Daryl Wood revealed Stephen Knight's hugely popular Royal Conspiracy to be a farrago of nonsense, and since then has written extensively on the Whitechapel Murders."Deconstructing Jack: The Secret History of the Whitechapel Murders," the result of over twenty years' research, casts a skeptical eye over the continuous stream of lies, invention, misinformation, self-publicity and opportunism which has kept this Victorian bogeyman alive in the darkest reaches of our 21st Century imaginations. Can history ever bring itself to shrug off almost 130 years of dogma and cherished beliefs, and at last smile ruefully at having been suckered in probably the greatest shell game of all time? Or will this heretical challenge to orthodoxy be peremptorily dismissed as revisionist nonsense, thus allowing the time-old parlor game of Pin the Tail on the Ripper to continue ad infinitum? Read the book and judge for yourself.

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold - Polly, Annie, Elisabeth, Catherine and Mary-Jane are famous for the same thing, though they never met. They came from Fleet Street, Knightsbridge, Wolverhampton, Sweden, and Wales. They wrote ballads, ran coffee houses, lived on country estates, they breathed ink-dust from printing presses and escaped people-traffickers. What they had in common was the year of their murders: 1888. The person responsible was never identified, but the character created by the press to fill that gap has become far more famous than any of these five women. For more than a century, newspapers have been keen to tell us that "the Ripper" preyed on prostitutes. Not only is this untrue, as historian Hallie Rubenhold has discovered, it has prevented the real stories of these fascinating women from being told. Now, in this devastating narrative of five lives, Rubenhold finally sets the record straight, revealing a world not just of Dickens and Queen Victoria, but of poverty, homelessness and rampant misogyny. They died because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time--but their greatest misfortune was to be born a woman.

Jack the Ripper and the Case for Scotland Yard's Prime Suspect by Robert House - An investigation into the man Scotland Yard thought (but couldn't prove) was Jack the Ripper. Dozens of theories have attempted to resolve the mystery of the identity of Jack the Ripper, the world's most famous serial killer. Ripperologist Robert House contends that we may have known the answer all along. The head of Scotland Yard's Criminal Investigation Department at the time of the murders thought Aaron Kozminski was guilty, but he lacked the legal proof to convict him. By exploring Kozminski's life, House builds a strong circumstantial case against him, showing not only that he had means, motive, and opportunity, but also that he fit the general profile of a serial killer as defined by the FBI today. The first book to explore the life of Aaron Kozminski, one of Scotland Yard's top suspects in the quest to identify Jack the Ripper; Combines historical research and contemporary criminal profiling techniques to solve one of the most vexing criminal mysteries of all time; Draws on a decade of research by the author, including trips to Poland and England to uncover Kozminski's past and details of the case; Includes a Foreword by Roy Hazelwood, a former FBI profiler and pioneer of profiling sexual predators; Features dozens of photographs and illustrations. Building a thorough and convincing case that completes the work begun by Scotland Yard more than a century ago, this book is essential reading for anyone who wants to know who really committed Jack the Ripper's heinous and unforgettable crimes.

The Jack the Ripper Files: The Illustrated History of the Whitechapel Murders by Richard Jones - Jack the Ripper has haunted the world’s imagination since his murderous reign drew to a close in 1888. Exploring the social context of the crimes, this invaluable survey includes police reports, letters purporting to be from the notorious killer, and newspaper clippings from the time. These documents enable readers to become armchair detectives, sifting through the evidence, sorting out the complex and contradictory theories, and assessing all the clues and conclusions gathered through the decades.

Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell by Stewart Evans and Keith Skinner - Between August and November 1888, 6 prostitutes were found mutilated in Whitechapel in the east end of London. The murders provoked massive interest in the press, and dozens of letters appeared, all of which claimed to have been written by the killer. This is the first publication of the 208 surviving letters, all allegedly from the killer with all the key letters reproduced for the first time in colour.

The Man Who Hunted Jack the Ripper: Edmund Reid - Victorian Detective by Nicholas Connell & Stewart Evans - In 1888 the unknown brought death and terror to the streets of Victorian London's East End. The Man Who Hunted Jack the Ripper is the story of Detective Inspector Edmund Reid who was head of the Whitechapel detective force. Having joined the Metropolitan Police Force, Reid rose through the ranks and was eventually transferred to the notorious East End. It was at this time that he assumed responsibility to lead his men in a relentless pursuit of Jack the Ripper; his pursuit of the Whitechapel murderer spanned the years 1888 to 1891. Reid retired from the police force in 1896 but, in the subsequent years, he often reminisced on his involvement in the hunt for the infamous serial killer; from the comfort of his armchair he carefully considered any new theory that came to light about the identity of Jack the Ripper. The Man Who Hunted Jack the Ripper recounts the full story of a series of murders that shocked the world.

Ripper: The Secret Life of Walter Sickert by Patricia Cornwell -  From New York Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell comes Ripper: The Secret Life of Walter Sickert, a comprehensive and intriguing exposé of one of the world's most chilling cases of serial murder--and the police force that failed to solve it.
Vain and charismatic Walter Sickert made a name for himself as a painter in Victorian London. But the ghoulish nature of his art--as well as extensive evidence--points to another name, one that's left its bloody mark on the pages of history: Jack the Ripper. Cornwell has collected never-before-seen archival material--including a rare mortuary photo, personal correspondence and a will with a mysterious autopsy clause--and applied cutting-edge forensic science to open an old crime to new scrutiny.

They All Love Jack: Busting the Ripper by Bruce Robinson - In a literary high-wire act reminiscent of both Hunter S. Thompson and Errol Morris, Bruce Robinson offers a radical reinterpretation of Jack the Ripper, contending that he was not the madman of common legend, but the vile manifestation of the Victorian Age's moral bankruptcy.
In exploring the case of Jack the Ripper, Robison goes beyond the who that has obsessed countless others and focuses on the why. He asserts that any "gentlemen" that walked above the fetid gutters of London, the nineteenth century's most depraved city, often harbored proclivities both violent and taboo--yearnings that went entirely unpunished, especially if he also bore royal connections. The story of Jack the Ripper hinges on accounts that were printed and distributed throughout history by the same murderous miscreants who frequented the East End of her Majesty's London, wiping the fetid muck from their boots when they once again reached the marble floors of society's finest homes.
Supported by primary sources and illustrated with 75 to 100 black and white photographs, this breathtaking work of cultural history dismisses the theories of previous "Ripperologists." A Robinson persuasively makes clear with his unique brilliance, The Ripper was far from a poor resident of Whitechapel . . . he was a way of life.