The Crimes of Jack the Ripper

[Mike Covell]

A thread for discussion, reviews and questions on The Crimes of Jack the Ripper, Paul Roland.

[Mike Covell]

Here is a link for those wishing to purchase the book,

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crimes-Jack-Ripper-Investigation-Intriguing/dp/0572032854/ref=pd_bbs_12?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203341140&sr=8-12

Regards Mike

[Bob Hinton]

Bloody Cheek!

I've just got hold of a copy of this book and am a bit taken aback when on page 187, the author recounts the attacks on Annie Millwood and Ada Wilson.

He comments : "Curiously, neither woman has even been considered as a possible Ripper victim"

If you would care to see my book 'From Hell' pages 10,11 and 12 you will see that I have done just that, eight years before Crimes was published.

I am a bit surprised that there is no bibliography in Crimes.

[Mike Covell]

It is one of the biggest ripper books I have ever read in terms of the size of the pages, but I would equate it to reading a book on the ripper in a school library! Just not enough in it!!

[Dan Norder]

Hi Bob,

It's clear the only reason Paul Roland had heard of the women in the first place is because they had already been considered possible Ripper victims, so that statement seems rather bizarre.

There are some other odd bits of phrasing in there too. I didn't realize I was a mathematician, for example, just because I used some math in an article showing that positions of the crime scenes were very possibly random and not statistically significant. But then I was impressed that the author was on top of things enough to know about that article and use it in the section about D'Onston. Whether I am a mathematician or just someone who knows enough about math to not be hoodwinked by some reckless claims doesn't make a huge difference for the point he was making, I guess.

I think it's a nice coffee table book overall, with about the same level of quality as other books of its kind. It's obviously aimed more at people with a general interest in the case and not people who already know a fair bit about it.

[Wolf Vanderlinden]

If anyone is interested, these are a few notes I made at the time of reading Roland’s book:

"A well written first chapter on Victorian London gives way to an error filled book. For example, the author, speaking of Annie Millwood and Ada Wilson, states ‘Curiously, neither woman has even been Considered as a possible Ripper victim…’ Calls psychological profiling ‘practically infallible.’ Says of his suspect ‘the finger points to a suspect no one, to the best of my knowledge, has seriously considered before – a mad Jewish butcher named Jacob Levy.’ (Mark King would have a thing or two to say about that). Unfortunately has a short section on La Bruckman and the Carrie Brown murder taken from Conlon. Dan is now a mathematician. Also, although I am not sourced my translation of a letter from Walter Sickert to Jacques Emile Blanche appears on page 136. Disappointing."

Wolf.