Bruce Robinson's Suspect Identified?

[barnflatwyngarde]

Apologies!

I have just posted this in the "Books" section, but in retrospect I think it should be in the "Suspects" section.


Here is a link to Bruce Robinson's suspect (book due out on 6th October).

The title of the book has a direct link to the suspect.

I am surprised that no one on the Casebook spotted it.

The suspect is..........

Oh, go on, here's the link!

http://www.withnailbooks.com/2015/06...r-suspect.html

[Sleuth1888]

Unfortunately the link seems to lead to a page that doesn't exist anymore...

[barnflatwyngarde]

Unfortunately the link seems to lead to a page that doesn't exist anymore...

Apologies!

Here is a cut and paste of the relevant article.

It is taken from the "Withnail Books" Website.

It includes a copy of sheet music for a song called "We All Love Jack" by Robinson's suspect.

Sunday, 7 June 2015
Bruce Robinson's Jack the Ripper Suspect Revealed!
Last week there was a flurry of excitement round these parts with the news that Withnail and I creator Bruce Robinson's long-awaited non-fiction magnum opus about Jack the Ripper was finally scheduled for release.

In this interview with the Independent about the forthcoming They All Love Jack: Busting the Ripper (pre-order it here folks!) Bruce was understandably not about to reveal the identity of his suspect. As the interviewer Richard Jinman points out, "his publisher wouldn't thank him if he did."

Well, sorry HarperCollins, but I can confirm who it is. (Look away now if you don't want to be spoiled).

First off though, let's see what Bruce did say in the interview. He's pretty damn sure he's got his man:

“I say in the introduction to the book that this isn’t a theory, it’s an explanation – and I sincerely believe it is. I’m not a man given to kidding himself – I wouldn’t have spent this long working on it unless I was pretty damn sure of it.”

“It’s much more complicated than some weird freak living in a lair and coming out [to kill] for no apparent reason. It ain’t like that at all.”

“He was a prick – a psychopathic prick. Somehow he’s managed to accrue this almost heroic aura, but I have no time for that. I go after the bastard.”

And if Ripperologists tell him he's wrong? “It would only be right and expected. But the book is extremely well sourced. If they want to say that’s bollocks they’ll have to say your source is bollocks.”

So who is it?

It's actually not a secret. Robinson himself revealed the identity of his Ripper suspect in an interview with the Telegraph in 1998. I've only just become aware of it, but it's still quietly sitting on the web for all to read here. It's just a snippet, in a literary diary/gossip column by 'Noggs':

***

NOGGS tags along as a somewhat hungover Bruce Robinson - the mercurial creator of the film "Withnail & I" and, more recently, the novel The Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman - goes on a spending spree for antiquarian books. "I'm in a mood for book-buying, Noggs," snarls Robinson, his handsome nostrils flaring as he picks up the scent of worn calf and vellum. Booksellers stand as still as spiders as they watch him fly about their shop, none wanting to say a word that might break the buying spell.

Later, when we repair to a pub to recuperate, Robinson explains why he has been specifically hunting for Victorian true-crime books. "I am the only person on earth who knows the true identity of Jack the Ripper," he whispers. Noggs politely observes that he himself has a foolproof technique for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, but Robinson is adamant. "His name is Stephen Adams - real name Michael Maybrick - who was quite a famous musician of the 1880s," he tells me. "He died in 1913, the Mayor of Rill [sic, should be Ryde] on the Isle of Wight." And won't Noggs be spoiling Robinson's secret if he spills the blood-soaked beans in his humble column? "Not at all," cries my companion magnanimously. "I shall be glad to establish the provenance."

***


So who is Michael Maybrick, what's his connection with a previously fancied Ripper suspect, and how did Bruce Robinson get mixed up in Ripperology in the first place? You can read the story so far in this post.

One further nugget of proof if proof be need be (as they used to say in The Day Today) is that, as Mark Ramsden points out in this excellent blog post, Robinson's book is named after one of Stephen Adams/James Maybrick's songs! Here's an old sheet music cover he found to prove it...



It's about how girls love a sailor (Jack Tar), and it came out before the Ripper murders in 1888, but still, you can see why Robinson couldn't resist it for a title.

All will become clear when the book is finally published this autumn (unless the publication date slips again, as it has many times before...). There is at least now a blurb for the book online, which describes it as:

"A literary high-wire act reminiscent of Tom Wolfe or Hunter S. Thompson, it is an expressionistic journey through the cesspools of late-Victorian society, a phantasmagoria of highly placed villains, hypocrites and institutionalised corruption."

Well I don't know about you, but I'm sold!

[kookingpot]

"A literary high-wire act reminiscent of Tom Wolfe or Hunter S. Thompson, it is an expressionistic journey through the cesspools of late-Victorian society, a phantasmagoria of highly placed villains, hypocrites and institutionalised corruption."

[/B]

So, is this book fiction or non-fiction? Because this description sounds awfully fictiony to me.

[barnflatwyngarde]

So, is this book fiction or non-fiction? Because this description sounds awfully fictiony to me.

It's non fiction alright.
It has been nominated for the Samuel Johnson literary prize.

[Pcdunn]

So, is this book fiction or non-fiction? Because this description sounds awfully fictiony to me.

It might be argued that Jack the Ripper suspect books are all a bit of fiction mixed with nonfiction, since they often rely on a good deal of speculation and imagination.

[Pcdunn]

Did Michael write the phony diary ascribed to James?

It's non fiction alright.
It has been nominated for the Samuel Johnson literary prize.

Now I'm wondering if the Maybrick Diary was indeed an "old hoax", written by Michael, who thought it would be a great joke to implicate James as The Ripper.
Depends on how psychopathic he turns out to be, pethaps, according to author Robinson. Could be very interesting.

[barnflatwyngarde]

Now I'm wondering if the Maybrick Diary was indeed an "old hoax", written by Michael, who thought it would be a great joke to implicate James as The Ripper.
Depends on how psychopathic he turns out to be, pethaps, according to author Robinson. Could be very interesting.

Yeah, that is interesting!

That scenario had never occurred to me.

[Shaggyrand]

I have seen elsewhere that Robison does say that the Diary is a frame up, extensively uses a source that claims the bodies were dumped and claims the kills are all inspired by mason rituals.
I haven't read it, so maybe he makes a compelling argument, but I have to say it sounds like he's tossing every popular theory into the blender and pouring out a theory that makes most ideas on the case ever connect. Like a JtR fruit salad.

[barnflatwyngarde]

I have seen elsewhere that Robison does say that the Diary is a frame up, extensively uses a source that claims the bodies were dumped and claims the kills are all inspired by mason rituals.
I haven't read it, so maybe he makes a compelling argument, but I have to say it sounds like he's tossing every popular theory into the blender and pouring out a theory that makes most ideas on the case ever connect. Like a JtR fruit salad.

Interesting!
Michael Maybrick was a Freemason.

Is this theory going to tie in Maybrickians with Freemason s?

[GUT]

It actually sort of sounds like he has tried to roll all the conspiracy theories into one.

[gnote]

It actually sort of sounds like he has tried to roll all the conspiracy theories into one.

He also reusing the theory about GSG and the spelling of juwes being a "major clue". If he spent $500,000 on research i wonder if he just really overpaid for a copy of JTR - The Final Solution.

[Shaggyrand]

Interesting!
Michael Maybrick was a Freemason.

Is this theory going to tie in Maybrickians with Freemason s?

The post in the books section has links that say so at least in their rituals being an inspiration of details. AND Knight's translation of the GSG. MM was also a noted fan of Cricket, so I won't be surprised when Druitt surfaces in it. (Get it? Because he drowned! Yeah, I am ashamed for that comment.)

[packers stem]

He also reusing the theory about GSG and the spelling of juwes being a "major clue". If he spent $500,000 on research i wonder if he just really overpaid for a copy of JTR - The Final Solution.

1 penny plus postage on Amazon at the moment

[gnote]

1 penny plus postage on Amazon at the moment

What i mean is Robinson didn't know that. Perhaps some shyster told him that it was an extremely rare document never before seen that he found it buried in the rubble of a demolished building in Whitechapel.