How did you get interested in Jack.

[paul g]

Everyone on here arrived for different reasons but how did you become interested in J T R.
For me I used to spend a lot of time in the city library in Newcastle upon Tyne as youth and though it may not be the first book I read the Royal Conspiracy book by S knight and the theory behind it stayed in my mind the most. Now some 30 years later I am still as keen to know what happened and what the truth is as I was when I was younger, but sadly no nearer knowing.
Obviously the rise of the internet has helped maintain my interest.
Everyone will have a different path leading to J T R but there is mine.

[gnote]

It was the Michael Cain movie in 1988. I was 12 years old at the time and didn't know a single thing about the case. I found it fascinating. Because i hadn't seen or read anything previously it allowed me to just enjoy it as entertainment and not really consider the "solution" presented.

Since then i've read a number of books on the topic, watched documentaries etc. It didn't take much time to realize the film's outcome was pure fiction but that didn't really disappoint me. I still wanted to learn more.

To this day i still enjoy and watch it from time to time. I can't say the same for "From Hell" movie. Because i knew much more about the case i couldn't help but look at it much more critically. Putting it another way I couldn't suspend disbelief and enjoy it for what it was.

I suspect it would have been similar to older more knowledgeable members on the subject in regards to the Michael Caine film when they first saw it. On the other hand I'd guess some younger people with no knowledge of the events will be turned onto it by the Johnny Depp adaptation.

[Barrister]

My interest in JtR came through a telelvision program -- I don't remember any of the particulars -- in which it was stated that these London women had been murdered but no one was ever caught. I was intrigued because I love Victorian mysteries and unsolved ones just cry out for examination. My husband and I then visited London and took the JtR tour with Donald Rumbelow. Fascinating. For the first time, I was able to understand how truly dark it was in Whitechapel and how small the streets were. Finally, I could understand how he managed to get away unseen. It crystalized the intensity of the mystery for me and I began to read everything I could find on the case. Then, I learned of the JtR conference and could not wait to sign up. I loved it and loved the people involved. What was left for me to do but to write novel about the case? And that is what I have done. I am not alone. I taught a class on JtR at Temple University, which was well-attended and everyone who enrolled seemed fascinated by the subject. Thanks to Martin Fido, I am confident the mystery has been solved. That is the good news. Without Fido's scholarship, I would be tearing my hair out trying to figure out whodunit.

[GUT]

When I was just a nipper (maybe about 9 or 10) my Great Uncle told me somethings about Jack, now I'd heard of him before, but not paid much attention.

Uncle told me that:

1. Our family had something to do with Jacks family

2. That a clergyman from Dorset knew all about it

He also gave me my first Jack book to read.


I really didn't strike a lot of interest at the time.

A few years ago I was extremely ill and totally bed ridden, and to be frank was bored out of my head (I had been working upto 100 hours a week). I started dong some research on my Family Tree and a couple of searches bought me here.

The first search bought up a relative that died on the Alice River boat, the 2nd was Uncle's Cousin who was at Winchester at the same time as Druitt his brother was a clergyman in Dorset.

As I researched further (mainly to combat boredom) I found other possible connections to Montie and Charles Druitt and here in Australia to Thomas Druitt.

So was that somehow tied up to what the old man told me, I'm not sure.

Later I also found connections to the Lechmere family (Back a few generations, could that be it?)

Then I found that old Uncle's Uncle died in Chiswick asylum and his brother, of all things was a clergyman in Dorset, anything in that?

Now, of course, I wish I'd taken more interest in what Old Uncle knew.

Does any of this mean Jack, not really but it is how I came to be here. And probably why I'm here a lot.

[SirJohnFalstaff]

When I was around 10, I got some Mysteries encyclopedia by Reader's Digest. (yes, it was very bad, but I didn't know at the time), pulling all sorts of coincidences and stuff about Lincoln's assassination, the sinking of the Titanic etc.

There was a very brief chapter about Jack the Ripper. I admit, the name caught my attention. They ended the article saying that the killer was probably fished out of the Thames few weeks later, killed by revengeful prostitutes, and was a Canadian doctor (don't you love how Reader's Digest mix up everything?)

So the character stuck, as some sort of legend. But I never paid more attention to it.

Curiously, I watched a movie called Conspiracy with Kenneth Brannagh, about the horribly casual meeting where the Nazis opted for the Final Solution. Sent shivers down my spine. I was wondering, as a writer, if I could transpose this somewhere else in history and started to look. Jack the Ripper came back often in the various research I made, so I started reading more about it.

I eventually joined this site and that's when the fascination began. Not for the legend, but for the historical reality. I'm still writing my "alternate history" novella, but the fascination for the real thing is very strong, like, I consider the whole thing as "perfect example of how anything can go absolutely wrong" from the police point of view.

Jack was one of the luckiest bastard to escape police force.
I'm fine with the idea that I will never know who he was.
But reading about the era gave procured me a fascinating time.

For all it's worth, my own conclusion is that he was a man, had a job that could allow him to at least rent a room alone, and was local to Whitechapel / Spitalfield. He had at least basic anatomical knowledge, enough to avoid being splashed in blood while slicing the poor women's throat.

[I Am Sam]

My first ripper book was Donald Rumbelow's Casebook.
I was familiar with the name Jack The Ripper, but didn't know anything about the crimes. I am not really sure what made me buy that first book.

I do know why I keep coming back to it. There are a number of reasons.

First, there's the imagery of the fog and cobblestones. What an atmosphere!
The victim pictures are N0T what I am talking about here, please don't
think that.

Second is the mystery. I am never more interested in a subject than when I know very little about it. There is so much to gain when you are just starting out. Jack's identity seems so completely unknowable, that will always drive my interest.

Third is the psychological angle. What was it like for the people in Whitechapel to wake up to hear about another murder. How did the press cover it. I find these topics to be very interesting.

One other thing is I love England. This country has so much to interest me.
The Beatles are my favorite band. I am also a big Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel fan. Oh, and don't forget Stonehenge. What the heck is that about?

I have never been to England, but I really want to get there someday, it's number one on my wish list.

[Pcdunn]

I think I probably first heard about Jack the Ripper on an episode of "In Search of...", which was a sort of documentary series about mysteries hosted by the late Leonard Nimoy, back in the 1970s or so. I was intrigued by the story, and later paid attention to fictional references in books, films, and television shows.

In the 1980s, my friend and I co-authored a story called Doctor Tannek and Mr. Hyde, in which our hero discovered that the killer of several women was "Mr. Hyde", the second personality of Dr. Henry Jekyll. Yes, I know, but it was a fanzine story.
I think in another story we had the Ripper be Montie Druitt.

We did read books and watch documentaries about Jack the Ripper, and both enjoyed researching the period. I still enjoy fictional books about him, and am now trying to catch up on the new nonfiction. Enjoy Ripperologist immensely.

[Pierre]

It was the Michael Cain movie in 1988. I was 12 years old at the time and didn't know a single thing about the case. I found it fascinating. Because i hadn't seen or read anything previously it allowed me to just enjoy it as entertainment and not really consider the "solution" presented.

Since then i've read a number of books on the topic, watched documentaries etc. It didn't take much time to realize the film's outcome was pure fiction but that didn't really disappoint me. I still wanted to learn more.

To this day i still enjoy and watch it from time to time. I can't say the same for "From Hell" movie. Because i knew much more about the case i couldn't help but look at it much more critically. Putting it another way I couldn't suspend disbelief and enjoy it for what it was.

I suspect it would have been similar to older more knowledgeable members on the subject in regards to the Michael Caine film when they first saw it. On the other hand I'd guess some younger people with no knowledge of the events will be turned onto it by the Johnny Depp adaptation.

Hi,

I saw the Caine movie as well. Two men and a carriage-theory. I think the killer used a carriage for distributing the body parts in 88 and 89, since some of the parcels probably were to large and heavy to carrie any longer distance.

Pierre

[Pierre]

Everyone on here arrived for different reasons but how did you become interested in J T R.
For me I used to spend a lot of time in the city library in Newcastle upon Tyne as youth and though it may not be the first book I read the Royal Conspiracy book by S knight and the theory behind it stayed in my mind the most. Now some 30 years later I am still as keen to know what happened and what the truth is as I was when I was younger, but sadly no nearer knowing.
Obviously the rise of the internet has helped maintain my interest.
Everyone will have a different path leading to J T R but there is mine.

Hi,

I´d heard about the case sometime, don´t know when I first did. Love to watch horror movies and serial-killer movies and saw the movie with Michael Cane too, among all the other movies. Cane is a brilliant actor.

Then I just happened to buy Sugdens book. I read through it and became suspicious of something in the book. Followed that as a clue, found some pieces of data known and unknown and think I now have found the killer. Stupid of me!

Apart from that I have no interest in the case, it was never anything special I thought, he was just another common serial killer. Well, that assumption was wrong. He is different and that´s why they didn´t manage to put him away.

Regards Pierre

[curious4]

I visited Madame Tussauds and saw the Dear Boss letter, which for some reason made my hair stand on end. When I got back to my student hostel in the East End, I realised that it was exactly in the middle of where the murders happened and worked out that at a pinch he could still be alive (early 1960s). Slept with the light on for ages after that! I can actually make out the window of my old room in some of the photos of the East End. Asked my mother what she knew (my grandfather having been a policeman in Kent - but not at the time), and she came up with the young doctor who drowned himself in the Thames version.

Interest revived when I came across this site.

C4

[Rosella]

Interesting that you were in the heart of Ripper territory, C4. However, Jack would have had to have been a very elderly serial killer indeed, wouldn't he, to have still been alive in 1961 or 62? He would have had to have been aged at least 90 and, judging by several of his descriptions, probably nearing 100. You would have been able to fight him off!

[curious4]

Interesting that you were in the heart of Ripper territory, C4. However, Jack would have had to have been a very elderly serial killer indeed, wouldn't he, to have still been alive in 1961 or 62? He would have had to have been aged at least 90 and, judging by several of his descriptions, probably nearing 100. You would have been able to fight him off!

Not sure of that, Rosella, everyone knows maniacs have superhuman strength lol!

And it was my first time away from home. :-)

Best wishes
C4

[Sleuth1888]

My interest in the Whitechapel Murderer started when I found out my parents lived at 1 Alderney Road, the home of George Lusk.

My mother grew up in the East End and the Ripper story had passed into folklore by then.

[All4One]

I can't remember when I first became aware of the Ripper case but I remember the stuff around the 1988 centenary (I was 16 at the time). But then at college I remember my history lecturer suddenly breaking off from the subject of 19th century cotton mills and spending the rest of the lesson talking about the Annie Chapman killing.

It sparked my imagination. How did this person manage to kill and disembowel a woman in the back yard of a house where a dozen people lived who were already getting up, dressing and getting ready for work? He must have had one hell of a nerve and a sackful of luck not to get caught. It was like a ghost story but all the scarier for being real.

It just raised so many questions. And every time I thought I had an answer it just turned out to be more questions. A riddle inside an enigma inside a murder.

Earlier this year I ticked off an item on my bucket list by going on a Ripper tour. I actually stood on the very spot where Catherine Eddowes died, in the shadow of Norman Foster's Gherkin. It was amazing how one could be in a modern 21st century street with McDonalds and mobile phone shops then turn a corner and suddenly be back in the 19th century streets which hardly seem to have changed at all. And then we had to sing Happy Birthday to the tour guides nephew who had just turned 14 - one of the more surreal experiences of my life.

I never did learn anything more about cotton mills.

[Wickerman]

Back in the 60's I thought Jack the Ripper was just another character like Dracula, Frankenstein, and the rest. Then I saw a book entitled, The Identity of Jack the Ripper, by Donald McCormick, this was in 1970, it had just been reprinted.
After reading that I went to the library and ordered all the known Ripper books, like those by Odell, Matters, Woodhall, Stewart, etc.

Later that year, or the next, I went to London with a friend, to walk the streets where the murders took place, I was about 16-17 at the time, but I was hooked. My biggest regret is that it never occurred to me to take a camera.