The Bank Holiday Murders by Tom Wescott (2014)

[NRTomasheski]

Really enjoying this! Picked it up when you mentioned it on the Kosminski/Shawl [s]bullettrain[/s] thread. Utterly fascinating, well-written, and compelling! I'm about 40% through, and you've pretty well convinced me of your thesis.

[Steadmund Brand]

Good day Mr. Wescott.

Just wanted to post again to say that I have finished your amazing book ( I bought it both hard copy and kindle....(because I know someone will want to borrow the hard copy and I run the risk of not seeing it again )

Again, fantastic book, as Henry said is the first book in many years that had me change the way I think about the case....not easy to do for those of us who have been reading about it for far too many years now (Make me feel old really haha)

I"m sure your bit about the shawl should be bringing you some attention, both positive and negative .. good luck with that

again, thanks for the book

Steadmund Brand--

[Tom_Wescott]

Really enjoying this! Picked it up when you mentioned it on the Kosminski/Shawl [s]bullettrain[/s] thread. Utterly fascinating, well-written, and compelling! I'm about 40% through, and you've pretty well convinced me of your thesis.

Thanks, NR! Let me know your thoughts when you're finished.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Tom_Wescott]

Good day Mr. Wescott.

Just wanted to post again to say that I have finished your amazing book ( I bought it both hard copy and kindle....(because I know someone will want to borrow the hard copy and I run the risk of not seeing it again )

Again, fantastic book, as Henry said is the first book in many years that had me change the way I think about the case....not easy to do for those of us who have been reading about it for far too many years now (Make me feel old really haha)

I"m sure your bit about the shawl should be bringing you some attention, both positive and negative .. good luck with that

again, thanks for the book

Steadmund Brand--

Hi Steadmund, thanks! Yes, the research I did completely changed my perspective as well. Not just the stuff in Bank Holiday Murders but other research I haven't yet published. I'm not entirely convinced by all my own arguments, but my hope is further research will tell us one way or the other how close to the truth I am.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[GUT]

G'day Tom

As you and I have discussed in the past I am anti-Kindle and sad, to say the least, that I can't buy the book in Australia without paying more for shipping than for the book.

However I did eventually weaken and download it. I am slowly making my way through it, and while I can't agree with everything you say, it has definitely given me material I wasn't aware of before and reason to think, which is always a good thing.

[Tom_Wescott]

G'day Tom

As you and I have discussed in the past I am anti-Kindle and sad, to say the least, that I can't buy the book in Australia without paying more for shipping than for the book.

However I did eventually weaken and download it. I am slowly making my way through it, and while I can't agree with everything you say, it has definitely given me material I wasn't aware of before and reason to think, which is always a good thing.

Hi GUT...what's this about you not agreeing with EVERYTHING I say? You should probably start at the beginning and read it again. In any event, I'm informed on another thread that all Ripper authors are just in it for the money, so since I have your money, the rest shouldn't matter to me, I suppose.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[GUT]

Hi GUT...what's this about you not agreeing with EVERYTHING I say? You should probably start at the beginning and read it again. In any event, I'm informed on another thread that all Ripper authors are just in it for the money, so since I have your money, the rest shouldn't matter to me, I suppose.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

G'day Tom

Didn't think it did matter.

[Tom_Wescott]

G'day Tom

Didn't think it did matter.

LOL. I see you've seen the thread I was referring to. Of course, we Ripper authors do care what the people who read our books think. In fact, we wish more of them would speak up, good or bad. Mainly good, but also bad. But mainly good.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[NRTomasheski]

Thanks, NR! Let me know your thoughts when you're finished.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

What an enjoyable read! Well-researched and compelling. By refocusing my attention on the milieu of Whitechapel at the time, I was able to open my mind to new ways of thinking about the murders. My pet suspect is we'll-never-know, but even I seem to have developed some entrenched ideas over the years.
Your book shattered them, which is a very good thing, and restored much of the excitement of the chase: what I love is the puzzle, and you've provided some very tasty pieces. (To somewhat mix a metaphor!)

[Tom_Wescott]

Thanks for that, NR. As a writer, my job is to try to make all the pieces fit. But I would encourage any reader to completely disregard my opinions and suppositions and just look at the facts, check to make sure I got them right, and then consider if to YOUR mind they are relevant and make sense. Some probably will and some probably won't. And after all that, hold on to the ones that do as you continue on your own journey through Whitechapel.

What I don't want is for anyone to become more convinced by my suppositions than I personally am.

But I'm pretty sure there's some new stuff in my book that has a lot of merit and that should be considered by any and all reputable authors putting out books from now on. We'll see. Might have to let the old guard retire first before that happens.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[bladen7273.]

Hi Tom,

I thought that you would enjoy this, so I will share it with you.

I am currently finishing up my college degree in information technology, and I have tons of writing stuff that I have to do. One of the assignments that I just completed was a journal entry about a book that I have recently read. I had to describe what drew me to the book and what I felt made the book good. I also had to write a thank you letter to the author.

Well...I chose your book to write my journal entry about, and yep, I even wrote you a thank you letter. So, I thought I would share it with you just so you would know how much I enjoyed it.

Here it is...

I have recently finished reading a book titled The Bank Holiday Murders, by Tom Wescott. This book is a new idea of the Whitechapel murders from 1888. It introduces facts that are already in existence, but it introduces them to the reader from a different interpretation. I read almost everything I can regarding the subject of Jack the Ripper. I found it refreshing to read something new about the subject, as opposed to the same theories and layout as is always present in most Jack the Ripper books.

Dear Tom Wescott,

I wanted to write you a letter, and tell you that I really appreciate you writing The Bank Holiday Murders. This book is one of the best books on the subject of Jack the Ripper that I have ever read. I agree with your comment in regards to being closer than ever to identifying who Jack the Ripper was. I feel that if a historian were to focus more on “Pearly Poll”, then a better understanding of her involvement and participation with these crimes can be established, and if those facts can be established, then the identity of Jack the Ripper can be as well.

It was nice to read a book written in a different style than most all other Jack the Ripper books. Sometimes it gets rather monotonous reading the same thing over and over again. Your research into this subject is excellent, and I appreciate you sharing your findings and thoughts.

I am looking forward to future works that you may put out.

Respectfully,

Carl Maddox

[Tom_Wescott]

Carl,

That's quite a compliment you've paid me and I'm very flattered by it. I hope you don't mind, but I'd like to share your post on the facebook page for my book, which is fb.com/ripperbooks.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[bladen7273.]

Carl,

That's quite a compliment you've paid me and I'm very flattered by it. I hope you don't mind, but I'd like to share your post on the facebook page for my book, which is fb.com/ripperbooks.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

Tom,

Absolutely!
Once again, congratulations on the success of your book. You did an outstanding job.

Carl

[Archaic]

A Small Treatise/Rant In Defense of BOOKS

I've got Kindle software on an Android tablet, which I think works identically to an actual Kindle.

The device displays virtual pages. To turn a page, one makes a swiping motion across the screen from right to left, as though turning a physical page. Although the material is laid out in pages, remembering where something fell upon the page won't be of much use in finding it again, as the reader can vary the text size, which causes the print placement upon the pages to vary. There's a search function, and also a slider bar at the bottom that shows your approximate location in the book, so that you can look e.g 2/3 of the way through.

You can tap at the text to insert a bookmark, and there's also a function that allows you to comment the book with marginalia.

- Huh?

Don't all you e-readers miss gazing fondly upon your crowded bookshelves as they slowly collapse under the weight of your accumulated knowledge?

And when you move, your exhausted friends grunting, "What's IN all these boxes- ROCKS??"

Some collectors may frown upon this, but I need to be able to dog-ear the corner of the best pages or I just won't feel like I'm getting the full home-library-nerd experience.

Plus I'm a speed-reader, so small screens drive me crazy. I can't swipe fast enough. When I try to I always swipe way too many pages at once and lose my place. I do enough reading on my laptop... 'Macular Degeneration' is a good reason to not do all my reading on an electronic screen.

Besides, what if future generations don't use the same technology, so just toss all your modern e-reading devices in the nearest landfill and lose access to their contents?

Does anybody remember what happened to eight-track tapes, cassettes, and VHS?

Gimme a real book any day- one somebody can sit down and read 100 years from now. (That is, if they still read. )

I'll be ordering soon Tom.

Best regards,
Archaic

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Archaic,

Thanks for that. That's why my book is in paperback and Kindle. I would imagine there were a lot of people pissed when writings went from stone to papyrus. If a technology is obsolete, it will go away. If it's not, it won't. Or it will become a 'niche'. Paper books will not go away, they'll become a niche. Reading itself is more or less a niche now because it's not a dominant form of entertainment any more.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott