Jack the Ripper's Secret Confession-(Monaghan, 2010)

[John Bennett]

I heard you were in a documentary about him.

Sure - but all I did was show Mei Trow where the Whitechapel mortuary was. Doesn't mean I believe the theory!

[Jeff Leahy]

Thats not the story Mei told me

[Tom_Wescott]

Thanks for setting me straight, John. So who would you say is currently your preferred suspect?

Yours Truly,

Tom Wescott

[John Bennett]

Thanks for setting me straight, John. So who would you say is currently your preferred suspect?

Yours Truly,

Tom Wescott

Truth be told, I don't have one. Or not one we would have heard of in any case. Sounds like the proverbial cop-out, but 'local nonentity' suits me fine.

JB

[Septic Blue]

Just last week I ordered a stack of Ripper books, so I wouldn't be completely behind the loop as far as suspects go, ...

Food for thought:

Time was I used to read every new Ripper book when it came out. Now I seldom bother - I don't even acquire them all. Some books are necessary, even essential, if you are a student of Ripper studies, but most can be safely ignored.

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Septic,

I completely agree with Stewart, which is why I haven't been keeping up with the books. But I needed something to read, could afford it, and at least Andrew Cook's book had new information regarding the Ripper letters. Plus, since I'm currently researching for my own book (which will be an 'essential' one), it's good to know what other people are putting out there.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[belinda]

I too agree with Stewart. I haven't got the money to buy every book that comes out alas.

It's sorting the wheat from the chaf that's the hard bit. What of the more recent books if any, would you reccommend for the impercunious

[David Monaghan]

Hi All,

I did wonder, years ago, whether Walter and his secret life could have been connected in any way with the Whitechapel Murders. I may even have voiced as much on the message boards at some point.

I just hope the latest theory in print has something more behind it than "this author reckons...".

At least it might make a refreshing change, in the run up to a decade of 'minimalist ripperology', to revisit the funny old idea that one man was repeatedly acting out extreme fantasies about what can be done with and to the female body that he would not have been able to see in print or share with another living soul.

Love,

Caz
X

Well spotted for connecting Walter to the Ripper crimes. I had made a UK Channel 4 documentary about the anonymous sex diarist Walter before I wrote "Jack the Ripper's Secret Confessions". I hadn't spotted the link till later, the first inkling when the connects himself to one of the Thames Torso murders saying he was spurned lover of the victim. But Walter's text ten years ago was only readily available in the bowdlerised versions. the availability of word scannable uncensored edition a few years ago took me back to the text. I began analysing it for Walter's geography, and for his sex crimes. I knew he was obsessed with prostitutes, and with "low whores". I had completely missed the his blood fetish, sexualised knife use, his connection with sex and hunting, and the extent of the virgin buying driven by his "defloration mania". Walter's relationship with "Mary Davis" - an Irish prostitute behind in her rent in a one room bordello in an area matching Whitechapel - was intense and intriguing. As Mary Davis is Mary Kelly's married name, and Walter dated his books as 1888, Walter seemed either linked to the crime, or wanting to be linked. By the end of my research, Krafft Ebing's 1886 warning that abdominal mutilation murders with removal of body part as a symtom of men suffering the virgin breaking obsession of "defloration mania", I was certain I had a case worth putting into the public domain. I am looking forward to testing of my candidate from those who can see stomach the coarse pronography of Walter's text and see it's more subtle psychological meaning.

[Magpie]

Plus, since I'm currently researching for my own book (which will be an 'essential' one)...

Which will hopefully be out in time for the sesquicentennial celebration of the case!

[Tom_Wescott]

Which will hopefully be out in time for the sesquicentennial celebration of the case!

I should learn to keep my mouth shut.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi David, good to see you. I checked Amazon this morning and my copy of your book shipped yesterday. I'm curious to see which cover it has, as there are two on amazon, both good ones. I hope you stick around to talk about the book after we've all had a chance to read it.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[j.r-ahde]

Hello David!

Thanks a lot for adding "wanting to be linked!"

All the best
Jukka

[Magpie]

I should learn to keep my mouth shut.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

Take it as a compliment. Your books' been on my "most anticipated" list for around half a decade now.

[Tom_Wescott]

If I had written a book five years ago, it would be on an altogether less flattering list now. I'm writing a book now because I have to, not because I merely want to. That's how I think it should be.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Pinkerton]

The "MOST"

I'm also with Stewart Evans on this one. Too many books on the Ripper, and very few of value. According to the television program "The Most" on the History Channel more books have been written about Jack the Ripper than ALL of the President's of the United States COMBINED! At first I doubted this statistic, but after thinking about it for awhile I think it is absolutely true...

No wonder there is so much schlock out there!