What is the worst Ripper book you've ever read?

[Mrs. Fiddymont]

Patricia Cornwell's opus wins hands down for the worst Ripper book ever written. I mean, she actually claims to have researched it!!!

Sickert my eye!

And puh-leeze no more speculation about Sickert's alleged "fistula", that has to be one of the most bizarre theories I've ever heard--and I've heard a lot of bizarre theories!!

As for others mentioned--well, yes. A lot of them stink like a Body Farm (sorry, couldn't resist, lol.)

The difference for me is that I always thought Cornwell was a pretty good writer, and that she knew a considerable amount about forensics etc.

To sum up: I can forgive the stupid for being stupid, but I cannot forgive the intelligent for trying to outdo their stupidity.

[Mrs. Fiddymont]

I'm going to write a book naming Gladstone as the Ripper. The evidence is he used to search for prostitutes in his spare time to 'reform' them, the suspect was seen with a GLADSTONE bag, he was a religious maniac who used to self-flagellate himself after the tete-a-tete with the prostitutes to atone for his sinful thoughts and Queen Victoria couldn't stand him, probably because she knew he was JtR. There, I've just provided more evidence messing about than many Ripper books have offered in the entire books.

Elizabeth

Well, I for one am convinced.

Gladstone it is.

[Mayerling]

I always find an interest in whatever is written on the Ripper, because something might by noted by one writer that is by another (even a bad writer). The Clarence biography of Harrison is useful, but not very deep. The proof of Stephen as a substitute Ripper candidate is curious at best. Frank Spiering's book Prince Jack is well written but weaker than Harrison because it lacks real evidence (names and places) for its facts. But it has an interesting bibliography.

I like all the references earlier to THE ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOES.


"I think I'll miss her...a member of the house of Saxe Coburg Gotha killed my
sister...."

Jeff

[AmmanValleyJack]

forgive me if it has been mentioned (it must have surely) for I havent gone through the full pages on this thread but for me personally it is "Uncle Jack" by Tony Williams.

As someone who lives essentially a stone's throw away from some of the settings in the book and the area where Dr John Williams grew up I was especially intrigued at the potential local aspect of the Ripper case to me personally. Then I read the book. How did they allow it to be published on the most flimsy circumstancial evidence and almost sully a very decent man's reputation. This is the person who gladly and greatfully created the National Library of Wales. Tony Williams states his brother his not happy with him. ofcourse not you pleb!

EDIT: i can see on previous pages people have savaged the book and rightfully so. grrrrrr.

[The Grave Maurice]

Yep, we never start one of these "Worst Books in Ripperdom" threads without Uncle Jack receiving its fair share of well-deserved abuse.

[steje73]

Finally finished the Cornwell monstrosity.
Happy that I now never have to wade through it again.

[Hunter]

Probably the appropriate question - and would comprise a very short list - would be what few Ripper books are worth reading?

[RavenDarkendale]

The Agony of Lewis Carroll and sequel Jack the Ripper: Light Hearted Friend

Although R Wallace has a point with his psychic evaluation and profile concerning Lewis Carroll, his unswerving plunge into all those completely useless, not to mention ungrammatical and crude, totally ludicrous, anagrams would drive anyone mad!

[snoo]

I read through the whole of David Abrahamsen's Murder and Madness: The Secret Life of Jack the Ripper... paperback version with Day-Glo cover perviously mentioned.

It holds a special place in my heart because it is the book that made me really understand how much the human race can really gargle from the Fountain of Knowledge. Championship gargling, marathon gargling. But perhaps I only list it because I never read a "Lewis Carroll was Jack" book.

[Phil Carter]

I read through the whole of David Abrahamsen's Murder and Madness: The Secret Life of Jack the Ripper... paperback version with Day-Glo cover perviously mentioned.

It holds a special place in my heart because it is the book that made me really understand how much the human race can really gargle from the Fountain of Knowledge. Championship gargling, marathon gargling. But perhaps I only list it because I never read a "Lewis Carroll was Jack" book.

Hello snoo,

David Abrahamsen was born and brought up in Norway, and moved to the USA in young middle age, if I remember correctly. (37?)

As regards his book, I read it both in English and in Norwegian, his native tongue. When it came out in Norway, it made headline news. The Norwegian community embraced it with open arms. Still today here in Norway, I am reminded of his theory by people who only remember Abrahamsen's writing.
After 32 odd years here, it has been a long road trying to explain to individuals how badly put together and badly presented that book actually was.

Yup...it is poor.

best wishes

Phil

[Tom_Wescott]

I read through the whole of David Abrahamsen's Murder and Madness: The Secret Life of Jack the Ripper... paperback version with Day-Glo cover perviously mentioned.

It holds a special place in my heart because it is the book that made me really understand how much the human race can really gargle from the Fountain of Knowledge. Championship gargling, marathon gargling. But perhaps I only list it because I never read a "Lewis Carroll was Jack" book.

This was my first Ripper book.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[snoo]

Phil, that is interesting. Norway's embrace of her native son is a bit more endearing to me then, say, the media's nearly whole hearted embrace of Patricia Cornwall.

Tom: Oh, dear. And I look at those who started with Cornwall with pity. (Mine was a spontaneous gift of Rumbelow's The Complete JtR from my father to his just teenaged daughter, starting me on a solid footing. Ah, family bonding. )

[John Wheat]

Jack the Rippers Secret Confession is terrible on every level. The chances of 'Walter' being Jack are virtually zero. Walter if he ever existed is a paedophile and I get the impression the writers have exploited the case for some quick cash.

[Barnaby]

I can't remember my first Ripper book but it definitely was in the "young readers" section of my public library (in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania), had a hard cover, was very thin and contained lots of pictures. I would have read it around 1988 at the impressionable age of not yet a teenager. Given it was at my public library, it probably wasn't brand new. Anybody got any ideas what this might have been?

Edit: It wasn't necessarily a bad book but I don't really remember it.

[Barnaby]

This was my first Ripper book.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

I'm not familiar with this particular book, but is this the value of these poorly researched and often outlandish books aimed at the masses: they get people interested in the case?

If the Van Gogh book gets people interested in the Ripper and Van Gogh, is its value doubled?