The number of books about JTR...

[Chris Scott]

This evening I was idling away some time doing the JTR quizzes on funtrivia.com
One of these quizzes is prefaced by the unattributed quote (at least it is in inverted commas) that:
"Yet apart from Jesus Christ, more books have been written about Jack The Ripper than any other historical figure."

I don't know how true this claim is - any thoughts?

[Phil Carter]

Chris,

I would imagine that Churchill or Hitler may have something to say about that, not to mention a certain person by the name of JFK?
To be honest, I do not know though. It is possible I suppose!

best wishes

Phil

[The Grave Maurice]

This same sort of nonsense was being spouted on another thread recently. Go to any large library's website, say the Library of Congress online catalogue, and search the name of a major historical figure, say Abraham Lincoln or Richard III, and look at the number of books listed. JtR doesn't even come close.

[Toofew]

Let's not forget George A. Custer and the battle of the Little Big Horn,

But even the Custer Cluster would pale in comparison to Lincoln books.

Billy

[Tom_Wescott]

There's no way Churchill would have more books than the Ripper.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[The Grave Maurice]

The British Library online catalogue lists 440 books about Winston Churchill.

[Toofew]

There's no way Churchill would have more books than the Ripper.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

Are we including those he wrote himself? (Sorry, I had to get rid of that animated smiley)

Best,

Billy

[Tom_Wescott]

Why on earth would there be 440 books about Winston Churchill.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Pinkerton]

I don't know guys...If were talking the TOTAL number of books on a historic figure you're probably right. However it seems like about 5-10 Ripper books come out EVERY YEAR. Do 5-10 books about Kennedy, Lincoln, or Richard III come out EVERY YEAR? MAYBE they do, or maybe they don't.

Although to be fair I don't think the Ripper books started really being cranked out until..what...the 1970's maybe?

[The Grave Maurice]

Here's the list of books on Amazon.com about Lincoln that appeared in 2009. Some are obviously reprints or new editions, but quite a few are brand new. I'm not going to count them.

[Tom_Wescott]

Yeah, Manhunt was supposed to be made into a film with Harrison Ford. Don't know what happened to that. A good book, though.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[joshua19691]

Hi, I'm pretty new and thought I would introduce myself. I don't know many books I have been written about Jack, but up to now I have read about six ebooks so far out of a collection of about 30. What I have been wondering is has anybody used the FBI profile used in 1988 and compiled a book with those suspects that line up with the profile and then try to narrow it down from there. Just a thought!

[John Wheat]

Hi, I'm pretty new and thought I would introduce myself. I don't know many books I have been written about Jack, but up to now I have read about six ebooks so far out of a collection of about 30. What I have been wondering is has anybody used the FBI profile used in 1988 and compiled a book with those suspects that line up with the profile and then try to narrow it down from there. Just a thought!

To Joshua19691

I'm not aware of anybody compiling a list of suspects from the FBI profile used in 1988. However certain suspects including Joseph Barnett and William Henry Bury match the 1988 FBI profile well. A good book about Joseph Barnett is Jack the Ripper: The Simple Truth by Bruce Paley. Two excellent books about William Henry Bury are The Trial of Jack the Ripper: The Case of William Bury (1859-89) by Euan Macpherson and Jack the Ripper Unmasked by William Beadle. In his book Beadle talks extensively about the 1988 FBI profile and how Bury largely matches it.

Cheers John

[GUT]

G'day Joshua19691

Welcome aboard.

John {I think] Douglas applies FBI profiling in his book, "Crimes that Haunt us", only a chapter and comes to a conclusion as to a suspect who he says would fit the profile. Bus as you would expect from any competent profiler, does not say "That's the one."

Douglas was one of the fathers of modern profiling.

As you probably know many people are very skeptical about the value of profiling.

[John Wheat]

To Gut

I am aware that many people are skeptical about profiling. Even some of it's advocates refer to it as an art form rather than a science.

Cheers John