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

[timsta]

I think I'll reserve judgement until I see Powell's steaming pile of nonsense.

Timsta

[Pippin Joan]

What an interesting thread! Did no one have the same reaction as I did to "Light-Hearted Friend"? Sheesh! It made me want to go wash my hands every time I put it down. The whole business with anagrams for Lewis Carroll's writings said heaps more about the author than about Carroll. I tried to imagine the time he spent working out obscene anagrams and got thoroughly creeped out.

Stephen Knight is close to the bottom of my list, a complete prat on many subjects. A sign of my fanaticism was my Jack the Ripper Loo in my last apartment. I put all my JTR books, pictures, etc. in the downstairs lavatory for the amusement of guests. They would noticeably spend a considerable length of time in there. I was often asked which ones were good or not, and I would point out that Knight was only there because it was vaguely on the subject.

Like someone else on here, Tom Cullen's Autumn of Terror was my first Ripper book, too. I read it in 1968, when I was 16. It scared me to death and got me totally hooked on JTR. Funny how coinciding events meld together -- while reading the book, the song "Sealed With a Kiss" played, and even today if I hear it, I'm transported to 1888 Whitechapel.

[George Hutchinson]

^ Joan, wasn't there some anagram Wallace made from one of Dodgson's writings naming Mary Jane Kelly, but the poem itself was actually written years before we presume she was born?

PHILIP

[Bailey]

^ Joan, wasn't there some anagram Wallace made from one of Dodgson's writings naming Mary Jane Kelly, but the poem itself was actually written years before we presume she was born?

PHILIP

No doubt, Sir Phil, this is why she picked that particular pseudonym to hide her real identity so we couldn't find any record of her 120 years later

B.

[SaucyJacky]

Paticia Cornwell's book was the first book I ever bought after a visit to the London Dungeon's a couple of years ago and enjoyed it quite a bit when I read it.
Since then I've read better books (Begg, Sugden, Rumbelow) and never even opened Cornwell's again. it's collecting dust on the shelf.

Luckily I can still enjoy some Jack the Ripper related things eventhough I know the theory is rubbish like the Hughes brothers "From Hell" movie (I don't have the graphic novel) for instance

[Mike Covell]

The Graphic novel of "From Hell" is really well done, it is well presented, quite dark, and has footnotes and references. It is quite a heavy read, and in equally graphic, both in terms of the gore factor, and sexual contents, but it is worth getting.

[dmcdonald@onwight.net]

Hey Debbie

Well, I was thinking of the dreaded trinity I read recently of Murder & Madness, Prince Jack and Death Of a Prince. I doubt you'd have much hope of coming off worse than those ones! However, I'm sure you're very interesting Your book is on my must get list... long list, tho, so it make take a while.

B.

I think you will find it much more 'sensible' than those other books - and all based on fact (Stephen's mother's diary, Eddy's hospital data, info re his relationship with Tennyson's daughter in law, info from the Royal Archives and much more). So hope you will enjoy it.

Regards
Debbie

[Bailey]

"Sensible?" Forget it then...

B.

[Veritas]

The worst book Was the Stephen Knight book.

[Simon Wood]

Hi Veritas,

The worst book Was the Stephen Knight book.

But still the most compelling.

We continue to argue its merits [or lack thereof] thirty-something years after publication.

Regards,

Simon

[The Grave Maurice]

The worst book Was the Stephen Knight book.

Veritas, you're a Liar. (Latin joke).

Admittedly, there was much wrong with Knight's book; but, despite its flaws, it is not completely without merit. It was Knight who unearthed Israel Schwartz's testimony, Sgt. Stephen White's report on his interviews with Matthew Packer, Abberline's report on Mary Ann Nichols, and a police copy of the Goulston Street graffito. Knight's fanciful theory also helped reawaken interest in the Whitechapel murders, and the reaction to it led to a great deal of new, and far more accurate, research. Those of us interested in this subject owe at least a small debt of gratitude to Stephen Knight.

[DVV]

It was Knight who unearthed Israel Schwartz's testimony.

I have Rumbelow's "fully revised and updated" edition (2004), and still there is no mention of Schwartz. (I don't mean it's the worst ripper book I've ever read, of course!)

Amitiés all,
David

[Fisherman]

I´m not sure, but my hunch is that Roland Marx book "Jack the Ripper and the Victorian Nightmares" is the worst book ever to have plagued the realms of Ripperology.
The reason I can´t be totally sure is that I have never been able to finish it - I fall asleep long before I´m halfways whenever I give it a try.

The best, all!
Fisherman

[DVV]

Ah, Fish,
I can't miss this opportunity to agree with you!
What a boring book, both pretentious and empty.
There is more about the Ripper in Caesar's "Guerre des Gaules"!

Amitiés,
David

[Sam Flynn]

I have Rumbelow's "fully revised and updated" edition (2004), and still there is no mention of Schwartz.

Knight certainly mentions Schwartz and his testimony - from memory, there's even a chapter entitled "Lipski!".