What was your first Ripper book?

[Doug Irvine]

I live in a small city in Western Canada and although I was interested in Jack the Ripper for long time, but there were no books about him available to me at the time. I had to make do with with a few snippets and blurbs about Jack in books with subject matters such as weird mysteries and books listing terrible crimes or criminals. The first book I read that was totally dedicated to the subject of Jack the Ripper was, Jack The Ripper: The Summing Up and Verdict, by Colin Wilson and Robin Odell. According to the Casebook it is good for every experience level except beginner, nice. I have finally gotten around to reading Jack the Ripper, The Final Solution and the Casebook of Jack The Ripper, but only in the last say five or six years. I was able to find them at used book stores and charity book sales.

[Monty]

I live in a small city in Western Canada and although I was interested in Jack the Ripper for long time, but there were no books about him available to me at the time. I had to make do with with a few snippets and blurbs about Jack in books with subject matters such as weird mysteries and books listing terrible crimes or criminals. The first book I read that was totally dedicated to the subject of Jack the Ripper was, Jack The Ripper: The Summing Up and Verdict, by Colin Wilson and Robin Odell. According to the Casebook it is good for every experience level except beginner, nice. I have finally gotten around to reading Jack the Ripper, The Final Solution and the Casebook of Jack The Ripper, but only in the last say five or six years. I was able to find them at used book stores and charity book sales.

Blimey Doug,

A long, forgotten tome. I too have Wilsons & Odells.

Thanks for taking me down memory lane.

Monty

[The Grave Maurice]

Ditto. With all the new books in the market, I've tended to overlook some of the classics. Thanks for the reminder, Doug.

[Wickerman]

My first Ripper book was McCormicks, The Identity of Jack the Ripper. I bought that in 1970 initially as a gift for my father. He never read it but I began to read it several months later and became totally obsessed with the "Ripper". I ordered every book from the library that had been written on the Ripper up until that point.

Let me see if I can get them all up until 1970.

Jack the Ripper, or When London Walked in Terror, Woodhall, 1937.
Jack the Ripper: A New Theory, Stewart, 1939.
The Mystery of Jack the Ripper, Matters, 1948.
Jack the Ripper in Fact and Fiction, Odell, 1965.
Autumn of Terror, Jack the Ripper his Crimes and Times, Cullen, 1965.

I bought every one except "A New Theory" (Stewart) which I thought was a silly idea. The last time I looked that book was thee most expensive Ripper "collector" book out there.

What struck me after reading them all was, how can these authors be so convinced about their theories when they all have a different suspect!


Sad to say, 40+ years later nothing has changed...

Regards, Jon S.

[Heinrich]

I never had an interest in reading about the crimes until 1992 when I saw Stephen Knight on TV. That show got me interested and I bought my first Jack the Ripper book, The Final Solution.
Since then I acquired about 5 or 6 but when I was moving house in 2002 I gave away all of them.
The one that most impressed me was Bruce Paley's, Jack the Ripper: The Simple Truth.

[Matty]

Glad to see I am not alone in saying it was Donald Rumbelow's Complete Jack the Ripper! It was a black covered edition from back in the early 80’s I think. Though it’s been superseded as far as factual accuracy by the likes of Sugden and Begg its was in its time a refreshingly factual and unbiased read, especially compared to some of the other books I first read in the 80’s.

[DVV]

The first I read was "Jack the Ripper and the Pink Giraffe" by Enid Blyton, and it still influences most of my posts.

[Robert]

David, the pink giraffe would have stood out like a sore thumb in Whitechapel. A brown one, yes...but pink?

[DVV]

That's a problem, Robert, I'll grant you that, but everything else fits so well.

[Robert]

Indeed, David, this squares with the numerous reports of second floor residents concerning "a new window cleaner with a very strange face."

[DVV]

Yes, Robert, and the fact that he was finally sent to the zoo with hands tied in the back seems to back up Anderson.

[Robert]

David, we have to be sure that this wasn't garbled. If Kosminski had his hands tied behind his back, and said "Gerroff" while it was being done, could this have given birth to the giraffe story?

[DVV]

I don't think so, Robert (the Swanson Marginalia ending by "The suspect was a giraffe").

[Robert]

Hi David

I'm sure this is the answer at last.

[DVV]

Sadly, Mike and others are still disputing this most ascertained fact.