Ripperology - Jack the Ripper Book Recommendations

I translated The Five by Hallie Rubenhold into Dutch and was very touched by it. I think she did a great job of telling their story and showing us, like you say, that Jack the Ripper was a criminal. This is one of these projects that as a translator, will stay with me for a very long time.

I too recommend Philip Sugden's "The Complete History of Jack the Ripper". Not flashy, but succinctly presented material.

I really enjoyed this. It was very informative. I have added several of these books to my list! Thanks so much.

Thank you for your very interesting and critical review of Ripper books. I use to really be into Ripperology , now I would like to start reading some of the books I had not read or was aware off. Also I must agree about your feelings about the victims. Connected to what I said earlier, I read a lot of true crime and it always bothered me how the victims were portrayed, especially if they were prostitutes. So I am really looking forward to reading the book about the five you recommended. Grim reading but essential. I just found your channel, I must say very impressive, keep up the good work. Also merry Christmas and happy new year.

Nice collection of books on a fascinating topic!

Well that was a bit of a rollercoaster! I have no idea why this video turned up in my YT sidebar of suggestions...but I'm really glad it did. I've only really been peripherally interested in 'Ripperology'; largely because of films that I've inadvertently ended up watching over the years. But I do find 'True Crime' quite fascinating. Having just had you take me on a bit of a magical mystery tour down a rabbit-hole I hadn't had any previous inclination to investigate, I must admit you now have me wanting to dip into a lot of the books you've included. In fact, I've just gone and got myself a Kindle copy of 'The Five' at your recommendation, which I'm sure will probably just create another brand new obsession in me that will warrant coming back to this very video to re-watch all the titles you talked about and why they're good/bad/useful/fiction/theory etc. Quite when I'm going to get around to reading 'The Five' I don't know, as I had Tolstoy, Dickens, Charlotte Bronte and a re-read of 'Infinite Jest' on my planned TBR. Maybe I should just jump in with 'The Five' first...seeing as how it's so conveniently downloaded onto my Kindle, lol. I appreciate the angle that 'The Five' has taken, in giving these women a much deserved backstory; if only because it seems rather improper that some of the most famous murder victims ever to have been written and read about, should ever really have been allowed to take a back-seat to the identity of the potential killer. But that's just human nature. It's very easy to see ourselves in the mundane lives of victims, but incredibly difficult for most of us to imagine ever becoming a murderer at all; never mind one who killed so many women and in such a violent and disturbing manner. We will always seek to want to know and understand that which we cannot see in ourselves, so when a killer goes uncaught, that's an unknown quantity we can never truly put to bed in our own minds. We can't get that security of satisfaction that this particular brand of evil has been named and is no longer unknown to us. As for whether or not the women were prostitutes, it's not something I've ever questioned up until now. But what you said about 'The Five' would make sense in Victorian London. And if the vast majority of people who have heard of these murders all assumed that the victims were sex workers, there's still a chance that they were misidentified as such by the killer himself. A local would probably have had a better idea as to who were and were not prostitutes, but an outsider - especially someone more monied - might simply have assumed that any woman sleeping rough in Whitechapel was simply a sex worker who hadn't done enough trade on any particular night to allow herself a place to bed down indoors. And as we know from more modern serial killers, prostitutes are often targeted because it is assumed they will be missed much less and have fewer people notice their absence. So there's no reason to assume a similar way of thinking wasn't being employed by the real 'Jack'...even if he wasn't necessarily correctly identifying prostitutes. See? Now you've got me interested. Now I'm going to have to go and read this book first aren't I? As soon as I've finished John Cooper Clarke's autobiography, I think I'll have to get stuck into 'The Five'. Thank you for a surprising little discovery of a video this Sunday morning. You've given me lots to look into and that's definitely worth a sub. Have a lovely Sunday, Bex x

I would certainly add Christer Holmgren's book "Cutting Point" on top of the list when dealing with suspects and identity of JTR. In the documentary "Missing Evidence" (also found on YT though under name "Compelling Evidence"), QC James Scobie said the material collected is good enough to go to the modern court.

Thank you very much. Smiles.

Well done!!!

I am slowly reading Hallie Rubenhold's book with fascination. I have always felt that we didn't know enough about the women

Remember watching the series in the 70s and remembered the theme tune until hearing it again on you tube 40 years later. The script was excellent and the flashbacks to the 1880s were well directed and acted. Better acting than any of the so called tvctors 'stars' of today. The women were prostitutes. All be it desperate individuals

I really enjoyed this look at the many theories swimming around Jack the ripper. TY for placing the women in a better, more humane light as well.

I enjoyed the book, and I understand the commendable desire to recast these women as human beings rather than mere walk-ons in the grotesque pantomime of Jack the Ripper. But that's as far as anyone reading this book should go in extrapolating any theories regarding Jack's identity or MO. Whether they were prostitutes or just members of the Victorian East End flotsam may be an important distinction to make in 'clearing their names' for posterity, but it really makes no material difference to the bigger story of Jack the Ripper. They may or may not have been sometime prostitutes (and I'm not sure Rubenhold can disprove this so far removed from the events and with so little reliable evidence), but the basic factors and the end result were the same: they lived a precarious existence, periodically finding themselves on the street or in workhouses, they were alcoholics, and that put them firmly in Jack's demographic. There is a danger, in trying to give these poor women a voice, that they are nostalgically elevated and recast as somehow noble poor, like Hugo's Fantine. As for who Jack the Ripper was, I've read more than my fair share of books on the subject over the years, but in my opinion Bruce Robinson's 'They All Love Jack' renders them all obsolete. Before that book was published it was like all Ripperologists were just arguing about precisely how the planets revolve around the earth...and then along came Copernicus.

No one has ever claimed the victims deserved what happened to them. I think that's an old straw man.

What about Cutting Point by Christopher Holmgren ? Thank You So Much 😊 Cheers 🍻 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇺🇸

If one has to own a single book on the case, it is still Philip Sugden's magisterial "The Complete History of Jack the Ripper" which, pace Hallie Rubenhold, is one of many serious books that treat the victims with dignity, sympathy and, indeed, treats the case with rather more objectivity than Rubenhold's book itself. Excellent video, by the way. I really enjoyed it :)

Sir William Gull was the Ripper in From Hell. I think you misspoke.

I'm 1 minute into watching the video and I'm already wondering why on earth you don't have a million followers.

Bruce Robinson ~ They all love Jack...#1

I watched this with my grandad when I was 11 yrs old, it was fascinating at the time but dated, there’s more information since