name the 5 best Ripper books

[The Grave Maurice]

Cullen's book is this sub-genre's one, authentic, literary-historio masterpiece, though in a minor key.

That was very well stated, Jonathan. I've re-read Cullen's book several times, not for the content, but the style.

[Jonathan H]

Thanks Grave

It is really a polemical portrait of a despicably inequitable Victorian England -- the systemic crime -- and the middle-class terrorist who decided to take direct action, mad as he was.

For example:

[Druitt] had studied the terrain as a general might study a situation map. For his life depended upon his knowledge of the area ... If Jack the Ripper was not actually of the East End ... he was omnipresent there. He hovered over this crime-infested area like some evil genius'

Ps. 212-213

Even Cullen's trip to the cemetery where Druitt is buried, as he chats with the caretaker, becomes a haunting and elegiac moment.

[AndrewL]

Jonathan, thanks for that. You've certainly convinced me that I need to get hold of Scotland Yard Investigates, it sounds intriguing.

As for Cullen's theory about Druitt as a social reformer... well, full marks for imagination but really it's just laughable and mars what is in many ways a groundbreaking and historically important book. Another flaw, for me, is the way that Cullen sometimes presumes to know people's inner thoughts when really it's all in his own head - for example, in the passage about George Hutchinson, he claims that Hutchinson:

Used to buy Mary Kelly tickets for the Cambridge Music Hall
Bought her pink gins in the Royal Britannia
Imagined himself going to bed with Kelly that night
Pulled out his empty pockets to show he was broke

As far as I'm aware, there isn't a shred of evidence for any of these assertions? But don't get me wrong, it's still a fine book and well worth reading - just approach with caution.

[lynn cates]

motive

Hello Andrew. Given you have a slight preference for Druitt and reject the social reformer aspect, which motive do you prefer?

Cheers.
LC

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi AndrewL,

You're not Andy Spallek, are you?

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[The Grave Maurice]

Given the nature of his conviction, I doubt that he would be allowed access to the internet.

[mariab]

Or that he would steep so low as to impersonate a newbie. :-)
(OK, VERY silly, inappropriate joke now, but at least I didn't start this.)

[Tom_Wescott]

Yeah. Or we could let him answer before giving him good reasons not to.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[mariab]

Don't think he knows what we're talking about, and it's better this way.

And now I'll stop, for real. (Like a dog with his bone.)

[Jonathan H]

Andrew Spalleck, who is paying his debt to society, has a legacy regarding this subject which cannot be over-estimated.

His article from 2008, 'The West of England MP -- Identified', arguably solved the mystery, in fact showed there was no 'mystery', and furthermore had not been one since 1891 (Andy never made such a bold claim. It is my interpretation of the primary and secondary sources).

People try and match up the 'West of England' MP article with Mac's Report(s), which is fine. But a more apt comparison is with the retired chief's 'Laying the Ghost of Jack the Ripper' (1914) as these two sources fit hand-in-glove; the latter being the only document by Mac for the public under his own knighted name, and which is the defacto 'third' version of his so-called 'memo'.

[mariab]

Andrew Spalleck, who is paying his debt to society, has a legacy regarding this subject which cannot be over-estimated.

Absolutely. The joking was unwarranteed and inappropriate.

[AndrewL]

Lynn - in response to your question, I don't have any particular pet theory about Druitt's motivation. I assume that a barrister / schoolteacher could have been a psychopath as easily as anybody else.

But I should clarify - I am attracted to the Druitt theory, not convinced by it. It seems to me the most aesthetically satisfying solution, at least of all the ones that are in some way plausible (the Royal conspiracy would be a fantastic story if true, but obviously it's rubbish). Without wanting to sound snobbish, I just think that a middle-class Ripper is more psychologically intriguing than a poor, anonymous Polish Jew.

Sadly, I have just never been persuaded by the evidence against Druitt. It is surely very disappointing that in the 40-odd years since Cullen and Farson first brought him to our attention, relatively little new information has been uncovered about him - and some of the stuff that has arguably points towards his innocence (ie the fact that he was playing cricket shortly afterwards some of the murderers). Of course there must have been some reason to suspect Druitt that is now lost to us, but I am discouraged by Abberline's dismissal of the theory (he must have known a lot more about it than we do) and the research into serial killers that strongly suggests the Ripper was likely to have been a local man.

So, in summary - I would be delighted if fresh evidence against Druitt turned up, but until then I have to reluctantly concede that the Kosminski-ites have the upper hand!

PS Just for the sake of clarification, I am not Andy Spallek.

[lynn cates]

interesting

Hello Andrew. Thanks for that. I, too, find Druitt a good deal more interesting than the other suspects. Wish he were JTR.

Cheers.
LC

[AndrewL]

Just wondering, has anyone read the Dan Farson book on Druitt? If so, is it worth tracking down or is it just a rehash of Tom Cullen?

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Andrew, thanks for answering my honest question. And it's funny you mention Farson. His was one of the few books I didn't have, so I recently grabbed a cheap copy off the internet. I read some of it and wasn't very impressed, although I'm sure I would have been at the time it came out. I think Farson is good to own if you want an understanding of how Ripperology advanced through the ages. But it's not necessary to own. So, if you can get a copy cheap (and you can), grab it.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott