...And a few terrible dog-themed puns. Those familiar with the Ripper case know that the press at the time were highly critical of the Metropolitan Police’s inability to discover the murderer's identity. Desperate to show the public that they were making progress on the case, their frustration spurred some unconventional investigative experiments. One experiment that ended up biting them … [Read more...]
The Lambeth Poisoner has His Say
A Review of Prisoner 4374 by A.J. Griffiths-Jones Make no mistake. Thomas Neill Cream was a rake, a scoundrel, and ultimately a murderer. But was he Jack the Ripper? Author A.J. Griffiths-Jones presents an accurately researched account of the life of Dr. Thomas Neill Cream, perpetrator of the Lambeth Poisoning murders and Ripper suspect. Cream came to prominence as a Ripper suspect after the … [Read more...]
Media and Mayhem: A Review of I, Ripper by Stephen Hunter
Few fictional documents dare to enter the skull of Saucy Jacky himself. They prefer to trot along on the periphery, showing us all the historical evidence we’ve seen time and time again from the same outsider perspective. Stephen Hunter, with I, Ripper, has taken all of the evidence and shown us how the murders may have happened from the Ripper’s perspective. He holds nothing back, down to … [Read more...]
Jill the Ripper: Was Jack the Ripper a Deranged Midwife?
Detective Abberline was one of the first to put forward the idea that the Whitechapel Murderer might be a woman after the murder of Mary Jane Kelly. One of the witnesses interviewed following Kelly’s murder was adamant that she had seen the murder victim alive and seriously hung over hours before her body was discovered. Mrs. Caroline Maxwell insisted that she had seen her outside the Britannia … [Read more...]
Struggling with Certainty
A Review of "Naming Jack the Ripper" by Russell Edwards My first feeling when I saw the news in September 2014 about Russell Edwards “solving” the Jack the Ripper case was a sick sense of disappointment. Inside I think most of us are averse to the idea of the Ripper case closing. There’s obviously a whole industry and subculture built around the case remaining shrouded in mystique. Also, I had … [Read more...]
