Ripper Confidential: One on one with Tom Wescott- Part 1

[jmenges]

Rippercast is pleased to welcome back author Tom Wescott to discuss his new book 'Ripper Confidential: New Research on the Whitechapel Murders'. In this episode we discuss the murder of Mary Ann Nichols on the 31st of August, 1888.

This is part one of a two part interview.



An audio feedback Gremlin of some sort infiltrated this recording so I apologize for the occasional weird sound effects. It might be time for one of you to buy me a new, expensive microphone.

Available now to stream and download at the following link:

http://www.casebook.org/podcast/listen.html?id=158

Thanks to Tom Wescott for being on the show!

Thanks for listening...



JM

[Tom_Wescott]

Quick correction. I note that early on I say 'Collier' when in fact i meant Killeen.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[jmenges]

Thanks for the correction, Tom.



JM

[GUT]

Thanks Tom and Jon

[Steadmund Brand]

Thank you so much for this episode.....I can't wait for part II!!

Tom's books are amazing, once again he has written what I feel to be the cream of the crop in this field....I didn't think he could top his last effort but alas he has, now Tom has 2 of my top 5 "Ripper related" books of the past several years.... way to go Tom..

And Jonathan, excellent job as always... Fear not the Gremlin adds to the ambiance in a way....

Steadmund Brand

[Tom_Wescott]

Thank you so much for this episode.....I can't wait for part II!!

Tom's books are amazing, once again he has written what I feel to be the cream of the crop in this field....I didn't think he could top his last effort but alas he has, now Tom has 2 of my top 5 "Ripper related" books of the past several years.... way to go Tom..

And Jonathan, excellent job as always... Fear not the Gremlin adds to the ambiance in a way....

Steadmund Brand

Steadmund, it's posts like yours that make it worth my while to put up with the occasional pettiness emanating from the losers table. You, on the other hand, are definitely sitting with the cool kids.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Patrick S]

Thank you so much for this episode.....I can't wait for part II!!

Tom's books are amazing, once again he has written what I feel to be the cream of the crop in this field....I didn't think he could top his last effort but alas he has, now Tom has 2 of my top 5 "Ripper related" books of the past several years.... way to go Tom..

And Jonathan, excellent job as always... Fear not the Gremlin adds to the ambiance in a way....

Steadmund Brand

I completely agree, Steadman. Tom's books have provided something very rare as far as Ripper media is concerned: New information. New ideas. WITHOUT trying to sell the reader a name. Personally, I abandoned the idea of "suspects" and "candidates" years ago, and doing so only increased my interest in furthering my knowledge. Tom's books provided me the opportunity to have access to information that allows me to do just that.

[Damaso Marte]

I made it about 3/4ths of the way through the podcast before deciding to just buy the book.

[Dane_F]

Listening to it now. Quite entertaining. One thing I enjoyed with the interview is Tom goes about it in a jovial manner. I feel far too often the people writing about the JTR murders goes about it in such a somber way that it can make it, quite frankly, boring.

[Tom_Wescott]

Listening to it now. Quite entertaining. One thing I enjoyed with the interview is Tom goes about it in a jovial manner. I feel far too often the people writing about the JTR murders goes about it in such a somber way that it can make it, quite frankly, boring.

Thanks, Dane. I take the material seriously, but not myself. Also, Menges creates a pretty relaxed atmosphere for chit-chat. It helps knowing your host is himself a Ripperologist. It is sometimes hard to understand his midwestern American accent, though.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Dane_F]

Thanks, Dane. I take the material seriously, but not myself. Also, Menges creates a pretty relaxed atmosphere for chit-chat. It helps knowing your host is himself a Ripperologist. It is sometimes hard to understand his midwestern American accent, though.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

Yes I think that is a key difference to keep in mind. The material being studied is of the utmost seriousness, but that does not mean the person providing the information has to be a robot. Allowing a personality to shine through puts a human face on the research side of it - which is a good thing.

So often people only read words without ever thinking of the human on the other side.

[Tom_Wescott]

Yes I think that is a key difference to keep in mind. The material being studied is of the utmost seriousness, but that does not mean the person providing the information has to be a robot. Allowing a personality to shine through puts a human face on the research side of it - which is a good thing.

So often people only read words without ever thinking of the human on the other side.

Speaking of robots, did you notice that Menges was joined by R2D2 as his co-host for this episode? Loved it. Not sure if I mentioned this yet, but we also talked for like an hour about Goulston Street, but that got chopped. Hopefully he'll add it to the next episode or release it separately.

What a lot of people may not know is that Menges talks to his guests for a while before he starts recording. Just chit-chat and gossip and a little bit about points of discussion. That's what a professional documentarist does but a lot of podcast/radio interviewers do not.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[jmenges]

It helps knowing your host is himself a Ripperologist.

That's interesting, Tom. I'm not an author, but I would have thought that talking to a "Ripperologist" would create a little more pressure for the guest than being interviewed by someone who only knows about the Ripper basics, or less. Then again, I know I'm thought of as going 'too easy' on my author-guests so possibly my reputation precedes me and that helps put guests at ease.

JM

[GUT]

Speaking of robots, did you notice that Menges was joined by R2D2 as his co-host for this episode? Loved it. Not sure if I mentioned this yet, but we also talked for like an hour about Goulston Street, but that got chopped. Hopefully he'll add it to the next episode or release it separately.

What a lot of people may not know is that Menges talks to his guests for a while before he starts recording. Just chit-chat and gossip and a little bit about points of discussion. That's what a professional documentarist does but a lot of podcast/radio interviewers do not.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

I hope he does something with the Goulaton Street bit.

[harry]

I too quite enjoy your inputs Tom.Your views on pipeman I find particularly interesting.If a name could be given to that individual,I would say case closed.