Jack the Ripper-Case Closed

[Mike Covell]

Jack the Ripper: Case Closed
Andrew Cook

Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jack-Ripper-...491507&sr=1-65



Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Amberley Publishing (2 April 2009)
ISBN-10: 1848683278
ISBN-13: 978-1848683273

Product Description
Finally solves the mystery of the Victorian serial killer who murdered and mutilated up to 11 women in London in 1888. The most famous serial killer in history. A sadistic stalker of seedy Victorian backstreets. A master criminal. The man who got away with murder - over and over again. But while literally hundreds of books have been published, trying to pin Jack's crimes on an endless list of suspects, no-one has considered the much more likely explanation for Jack's getting away with it - He never existed. Andrew Cook goes in search of the real story of Jack the Ripper - and this story isn't set in the brothels of the East End but in the boardrooms of Fleet Street. this is a tale of hysteria whipped up by competing tabloid editors and publishers. The central thesis is that Jack the Ripper was the invention of tabloid journalists. The key evidence for the existence of the Ripper - a serial killer responsible for at least seven bestial murders - came in the form of two letters to the Central News Agency, from a man who identified himself as the killer and called himself 'Jack'. These letters can now be plausibly traced back to shadowy tabloid journalists - not intent on solving the crime, but on boosting their careers and their papers' sales. The effect of these poison pen letters combined with the gruesome crimes was to give the tabloid media its first hate figure and to boost the circulations of ailing newspapers. The media had discovered the power of a national witch-hunt.

About the Author
Andrew Cook is a critically acclaimed historian and the author. He is the historical consultant for the Channel Five Jack The Ripper - Tabloid Myth documentary (in the hugely popular Revealed strand) being broadcast in May 2009. He has also been presenter and historical consultant on a number of sucessful Channel 4 documentaries including Prince Eddy: The King We Never Had, Three Kings at War and Who Killed Rasputin? in the BBC Timewatch strand. His other books include Ace of Spies ('A myth-shattering tour de force' SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE; 'Makes poor 007 look like a bit of a wuss' THE MAIL ON SUNDAY), M: MI5's First Spymaster ('A brilliantly researched biography' STELLA RIMINGTON; 'Serious spook-history' ANDREW ROBERTS) and To Kill Rasputin ('If you thought you knew how Rasputin met his end and who was responsible, think again' ANDREW ROBERTS). He lives in Bedfordshire.

[m_w_r]

Thanks for posting this, Mike. I think I will watch through my fingers with this one!

Regards,

Mark

[perrymason]

The term "Jack the Ripper" was almost certainly a creation of hysteria and manipulation...however to my mind, there was indeed at least one serial killer active at that time. So Mr Cooks contention that the "Ripper"...a pen name for a serial killer, was a Fleet Street creation is provably inaccurate....that this Ripper killed the Canonical Group might have been fiction...but there is no ambiguity in the victims that most likely fell under "a" killers knife.

There was definitely a serial killer active, they called him "Jack" instead of Unknown or Unidentified Subject, and they guessed who he may have killed within a group of some 13 murders over a period of years.

The Legend of the Ripper is fiction....but the crimes they assumed he committed were very real.

Cheers Mike.

[The Grave Maurice]

I must admit to looking forward to this one. It sounds like a combination of Patricia Cornwell and Peter Turnbull.

[Fisherman]

I have to say the product description chills me to the bone ...!

Fisherman

[sdreid]

Like 90% of the books in the JtR "flavor of the week", this will be replaced by another and in the bargain bin a year from now. There's a sucker born every minute.

[Bob Hinton]

New?

This is hardly new, it is precisely what Turnbull posited in 'The Killer that Never Was'.

I'm unsure what position this book is taking. Is he saying that the women weren't murdered? Or that the newspapers killed them or what?

If not and he agrees several women were killed then obviously someone killed them, and believing them to be the work of one person the papers called him Jack the Ripper. I don't see anything earth-shattering in that.

[anna]

I suppose all this interest in Jack's been dug up because of the anniversary.


Oh goody gum drops......another Jack the Ripper tv programme...just what we need....

Oh well,(sigh).........let's hope if there's a Ripperologist in this one...we are shown in a better light.


That'd be nice.

[Fisherman]

Stan writes:

"There's a sucker born every minute."

Poor mother!

The best,
Fisherman

[Uncle Jack]

Don't think I will bother putting this one on my list!!