New Book on JTR

[Ron Beckett]

I noticed a book review in a weekend paper a few months ago and it took my notice as it mentioned JTR and a new suspect. I noticed the book at a cheap bookstall the other day and bought a copy. It has not been mentioned to my knowledge so I thought I would bring it to the attention of casebook's clientele. The book is THE FOX & THE FLIES, The world of Joseph Silver,Racketeer and Psychopath. The author is Charles Van Onselen. Published by Jonathan Cape, London,2007. I have read the book and it seems to be a well researched tome by an author who was not a ripperologist but is one now. It is a deep expose of some underworld gangs and the milieus in which they operated. I will leave it to the experts to pontificate on the worthiness of the JTR links but this book seems to have incredible knowledge of the London, South African, South American and New York slave trade. The book is indexed,has a bibliography, and is about 600pages.

[The Grave Maurice]

Welcome, mate.

I can see why you think we haven't talked about this book. It was discussed pretty thoroughly on the pre-crash boards, but all that, of course, has disappeared. It was picked up again a while ago on the Emma Smith thread, where you may have had difficulty finding it.

[Ron Beckett]

Thanks Grave Maurice, I'll hunt it down in Emma Smith's thread.

[Roy Corduroy]

Hi Ron,

Yes I read the book, too. The whole book. And like you I made my way here to Casebook. It's good to have you on board.

Did he do it? That's hard to say, just like any of the suspect theories. I believe the author's premise that his subject emigrated from the Congress Kingdom to the East End of London. He attempted to verify the antecedents of Bertha Silver, Joe's illegitimate daughter, who was supposedly born in London in 1888. Yet she obsfucated the circumstances of her birth the rest of her life. They all hid things, the people in that world. Some of them had more aliases than you can shake a stick at.

Again, welcome

Roy

[Ron Beckett]

The Fox & The Flies.

Thanks for the warm welcome Roy. The book is quite lengthy but new info on
the author gleaned from the London Review of Books tends to harden my impression that this tome was written by an erudite and dogged researcher. I
followed Grave Maurice's directions to the Emma Smith thread and from there was directed to the London Review of Books. Charles Nicholl calls him a "leading South African historian" and posits that the book was 30 years in
gestation. I only wrote as I could not find the book in the casebook's book reviews, and even though I was sure it couldn't slip through unnoticed, I was and am interested in other's impression of the book. I have a medium sized library of JTR books, and am continually adding to it. Books that I have enjoyed reading are The Mammoth Book of JTR, The Ripper and the Royals, Stephen Knights The Final Solution,The Secret of Prisoner 1167, and a few weighty books by Sugden, Skinner , Evans and the other afficianados who have contributed so much to JTR lore. I must admit a certain weakness for the work done by Paul Feldman in The Final Chapter, which leads on to the diary and the Watch. The pronouncements by Dr Steven Turgoose on the oxidation of the scratchings seems clearcut, more so than the claims of forgery concerning the ink and the paper. The confession of the poor man is not able to bear the scrutiny of the fact that his wife and her father saw the diary at lest twenty or thirty years before he did. The Ripper and the Royals
seems topre-echo some of Patricia Cornwell's work. I am interested in Michael Maybrick and his relations to the Queen. Apparently they were neighbours on the Isle of Wight or Jersey, Guernsey,somewhere. He was the Lord Mayor and a famous songwriter and it seems he had a big hand in James Maybricks demise. Not to mention poor old Florrie getting 14 years for having an affair -which led us to sir James? Stephen who sentenced her and then went ga-ga
supposedly. There seems to be a Royal-medical-masonic undercurrent that many have tried to fathom but still is as elusive as a butterfly in a pea soup fog. I think it's a modern form of subtle brainwashing that to mention conspiracy theory means that the mind of many instantly clicks into conspiracy theory NUT. I'm a consp. theory lover and I am not beguiled by false images, I know. IN closing I must add that the large graphic novel 'From Hell' from which the film by Johnny Depp was taken, has some beautiful artwork concerning the Spitalfields church and other buildings purportedly built by a master mason, Nicholas Hawksmoor. Christchurch, Spitalfields. The book is a trade paperback of about 300 pages with about 45 pages of annotations and is told by Abberline and James Robert Lees talking about how they have been silent for many years. It is written by Alan Moore who is well known amongst graphic novel afficianados. He was responsible for The League of Extaordinary Gentlemen and other film adaptations.

[Bailey]

Hi Ron

Thanks for drawing attention to this book at the perfect moment - I saw it in a shop yesterday but didn't buy it as I wanted to first see what was said about it here. Not sure if there's a title difference - it sounds like the same book from the author's name and the description of content, but the title of the copy I saw was (something like) The Criminal Empire Of The Whitechapel Murderer, though there may have been more to it than that.

It is written by Alan Moore who is well known amongst graphic novel afficianados. He was responsible for The League of Extaordinary Gentlemen and other film adaptations.

Mr Moore, a superb writer of graphic novels (or comics, to those of us who are not so picky about terminology) is very emphatically not responsible for film adaptations of his work, to the point where he refuses to take credit or payment for any of them, with the artists on the books generally getting credited instead. This stems primarily from the disaster that was The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, a very poor film based on two very good graphic novels (followed alas by a rather less impressive third entry, IMHO) which deeply soured Moore on having anything to do with films based on his work. Prior to this however he had never been overly enthused. Terry Gilliam had been working on Watchmen in the early 90's (I think?) and asked Moore how he'd film it, to which Moore replied, "I wouldn't." Watchmen is finally going ahead, directed by Zak Snyder (300), and the trailer which was just released looks quite superb.

Anyhoo, that's my geek rant over with! All the best!

Cheers,
Bailey

[Dan Norder]

The Ripper Notes Extra website has a review of this book by Alan Sharp.

[Bailey]

Thanks for that, Dan. Sounds like an interesting read, but not one to rush out and get in a hurry when there are so many Ripper books on the must-buy list...

B.

[Sam Flynn]

Thanks for that, Dan. Sounds like an interesting read, but not one to rush out and get in a hurry when there are so many Ripper books on the must-buy list...

A sensible conclusion to draw, Bailey, and good advice to those who might entertain buying The Fox and the Flies. It's most certainly an interesting read, very well written and researched, but it's far from being essential reading in terms of the Ripper case.