Stephen Knight documentary

[miss marple]

Someone I know who was a close friend of Stephen Kinight, has given me a Vhs tape of an old 1980 Australian documentary featuring Stephen Knight talking about the final solution to a reporter called Ray McGregor. It is quite funny. Mcgregor melodramatic and Knight serious and pedantic. Inaccurate [ for example showing Katherine Eddoes P.M photos as Annie Chapman's]
From this distance in time.
The Final Solution now seems such utter tosh, it's amazing people believed in it.
Ripper studies has changed so much since the seventies .We now have such increased knowledge of all the main charactors, and factors involved, in a strange way, the identification is easier, not his name but the type of man he was.
I wonder if Knight would have revised his opinion had he lived, I doubt it, he was fixated on a conspiracy theory and used hearsay, speculation and flawed information to fit his theory
For his theory to work all the victims would have to have been close friends.Never mind everything else that was wrong.
Miss Marple

[Stewart P Evans]

Interesting

It is also interesting to note that the man who first blew Knight's theory out of the water, our very own Simon Wood, is still posting on the forums.

[Suzi]

Hi Stewart-
Verry interesting..... Hmmmmmm
Strangely though a lot of people took one look at Knight's book with that strangely evocative cover and thought WOW! and here we all are now!
Hands up!- I was a convert - for a short time-! As I'm sure a lot of posters here were! - Gawd we're showing our age!!!

Suzi x

[John Bennett]

I was just watching the opening scenes. When Ray McGregor starts interviewing Knight, he sounds like an Australian David Frost!

I was waiting for him to ask "why didn't you burn the tapes?"

Oh, and beware the map. Ouch.

[Andrew Firth]

Oh, good lord, my head hurts looking at that "map"!

I fail to see how the person who produced that could have in any way consulted a real map, or indeed done any kind of research at all.

"We need to produce some kind of map for this here documentary"

"Ah, sod it, it's Friday afternoon, and I want to get down the pub. Just scribble a few random lines on a tatty bit of card. Joe Public won't notice, or even care that it's all wrong"

Andrew

[Natalie Severn]

While I have no truck with Knight"s conspiracy theory,I do acknowledge the astonishing amount of research he unearthed at that time and it was Don Rumbelow who first pointed this out and generously praised Knight"s efforts while at the same time going to great lengths to demolish Knight"s theory.
Knight was actually a very thorough and painstaking researcher most of the time, despite fixing his beam on his own trajectory to the exclusion of all else.
Norma

[perrymason]

It is also interesting to note that the man who first blew Knight's theory out of the water, our very own Simon Wood, is still posting on the forums.

Hi Stewart,

I got quite friendly with Simon for some time here......(we share a fascination for the facts concerning the final murder in the alledged "series" among other things)... and he never divulged that fact. Im obviously impressed with his research and his candor, and now with this tidbit. Thanks for mentioning that.

My best regards

[Graham]

To be fair, Knight put Ripper studies right at the forefront of popular history. I think that he, together with Colin Wilson and the often-overlooked Daniel Farson, are the 'fathers' of modern Ripperology.

Like many who read his book when it was published, I was immediately hooked, if for no other reason than it said what I wanted to hear: that the identity of JtR could be found at the very top of Society. We all love a good conspiracy, after all. Knight really was a good investigative journalist, and it still surprises me a little at how easily he was taken in by Joseph 'Hobo' Sickert, who must have been of a more persuasive nature than I'd have given him credit for. But having said that, weren't we all taken in a bit by old 'Hobo'?

Graham

[John Bennett]

While I have no truck with Knight"s conspiracy theory,I do acknowledge the astonishing amount of research he unearthed at that time and it was Don Rumbelow who first pointed this out and generously praised Knight"s efforts while at the same time going to great lengths to demolish Knight"s theory.
Knight was actually a very thorough and painstaking researcher most of the time, despite fixing his beam on his own trajectory to the exclusion of all else.
Norma

Yes indeed. He was one of the first to have access to the official files before they were opened to the public. But like you say, it's a pity he had to use it to bolster THAT theory.

If he had kept true to the material contained within, he would most certainly be a very important figure in the field.

[Magpie]

I wonder if Knight would have revised his opinion had he lived, I doubt it, he was fixated on a conspiracy theory and used hearsay, speculation and flawed information to fit his theory

Not only that, but he also indulged in pure invention and manipulation of sources to bolster his theory. From accounts within the Ripper world, it's quite clear that Knight knew that his theory was factually bankrupt, but went ahead and put it out there anyway. His theory was largely based on his ardent anti-freemasonry beliefs, and it's obvious that no amount of fact (or lack of them) was going to change his opinion that the evilist group in history was responisible for the evilest crime of that century.

[Graham]

You have a very good point there, Magpie. I'd almost forgotten that Knight's next book was an expose of Freemasonry. There were even suggestions that the Brotherhood had him bumped off for it - total rubbish, though. (I hope).

His Ripper book is still a damn good read, all the same.

Cheers,

Graham

[John Bennett]

You have a very good point there, Magpie. I'd almost forgotten that Knight's next book was an expose of Freemasonry. There were even suggestions that the Brotherhood had him bumped off for it - total rubbish, though. (I hope).

Total rubbish indeed. Unless the Freemasons know how to implant a brain tumour!