The number of books about JTR...

[Cogidubnus]

Hi Joshua and welcome to the boards

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!

On the face of it that's a most relevant question...as witnessed by comments above...

However, as far as I'm aware, (and I may well be wrong), despite all the hoo-haa and publicity about profiling, and all the fiction, (eg Val McDiarmid, Thomas Harris...or the much televised Cracker), in reality I don't think it's ever been directly responsible for catching a single serial killer...which begs the question whether it's worth a light...

I suppose ANYTHING which possibly casts ANY light on a serial killer has to be borne in mind...but just how much weight should be attached, (either by an investigating officer or later by a researcher), is really another question altogether...

All the best!

Dave

[Bridewell]

The number of books written about JtR would increase significantly if one of those bizarre 'famous person' suspects actually turned out to be the killer. I think they're all bonkers, personally but if, for example, Dale Larner proved his theory then every book about Vincent Van Gogh would become a JtR book, albeit unknowingly.

[Bridewell]

in reality I don't think it's ever been directly responsible for catching a single serial killer...which begs the question whether it's worth a light...

It's a long time since I read it, but I seem to recall examples in the book "Mindhunter - Inside The FBI's Serial Crime Unit". Perhaps someone who has read it more recently may confirm or otherwise.

[Andrea_P]

number of books

It would be interesting to know how many books have been written about the ripper and with regards to the quiz are they talking about just English language or all language books?
I know there are way over 300 english lang books on Marilyn Monroe (I own most of them) and over 1000 if all languauges are including.
I myself have only read about 6 books on the ripper - but will be adding more soon (run out of MM ones now)

[Rosemary]

JTR profiling

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

I would also suggest the profiler would also need to be an ethno-historian with training in the period.

[Sleuth1888]

There are hundreds of Ripper books in the English language.

Only a mere handful are worth reading though.

[Shaggyrand]

Crazy late to this but its generally accepted as true. At least it used to be, it could have changed. The three most written about subjects worldwide are Jesus, Jack and Sherlock Holmes. The order changes with old Jack often falling in third while Jesus and Sherlock take turns as numbers in the top spot.

[GUT]

Crazy late to this but its generally accepted as true. At least it used to be, it could have changed. The three most written about subjects worldwide are Jesus, Jack and Sherlock Holmes. The order changes with old Jack often falling in third while Jesus and Sherlock take turns as numbers in the top spot.

Pity Arthur didn't call Sherlock Joe

Then we'd have Jesus, Jack and Joe.

[Rosella]

How many books have been written about Adolf in German and English?

[DJA]

A Jihad on Shaggyrand!

[Mayerling]

The big ones are probably Jesus, Churchill, Lincoln, FDR, TR, Hitler, Jack the Ripper, Sherlock Holmes (the only fictional character treated by most of the public as a real person), Washington, Franklin, Napoleon I, Marilyn (first woman to come to mind, ironically), Joan of Arc, Cleopatra, Elizabeth I of England, Mary, Queen of Scots, Catherine the Great, JFK, Eleanor Roosevelt, and probably Mohammad (this list is not in order of the size of their biographies (and the fictional books where they are central figures). Others are coming up (Jefferson, John Adams, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, John Lennon, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Ulysses Grant, William Sherman).

My own interest is in obscure historical figures - how many books published on the life of Professor Samuel Langley, whose "aerodrome" crashed twice within weeks of the success of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk in December 1903? We can find books on the Ripper, Cream, and Chapman (the latter two have recent biographers we know of), and Deeming, but when was the last time anyone wrote a book about William Godfrey Youngman, who slaughtered his mother and brothers and fiancé in 1860?

I would not mind a biography on King Alexander and Queen Draga of Serbia who were cut to ribbons (literally) by a palace coup in 1903. How about a serious biography of Lord Henry Darnley, blown up and strangled at Kirk'a'field in 1567, possibly on order of Mary, Queen of Scots and her lover the Earl of Bothwell. Plenty of subjects to discuss. Nobody I know of wrote any book on the life of Emil Berliner, who designed the flat record and it's record player (as well as the microphone) in the beginning of the 20th Century.

I think we should give a rest to the better recalled historical figures, and concentrate for awhile on the terminally forgettable ones.

Jeff

[Shaggyrand]

A Jihad on Shaggyrand!

Salman Rushdie, Pokèmon, Shaggyrand

That's a much more impressive grouping... I mean I'm not as happy to have fatwa as I thought I'd be. But its pretty close.
The top three were once thought to be Jesus, RMS Titanic and the American Civil War- if that helps anyone any. No? Didn't expect it to.

[Shaggyrand]

I think we should give a rest to the better recalled historical figures, and concentrate for awhile on the terminally forgettable ones.

Jeff

Just for the record, this is one of the best ideas I've ever read.

[Rosella]

Would a book in English on King Alexander and Queen Draga sell, though, Jeff? I've only heard of them because I have an interest in history and in European royalty. Publishers are very cautious nowadays! They are very obscure even if they were put to death in a very gruesome way, perhaps a book on the whole Serbian/ Yugoslavian royal families might be better.

[DJA]

Nobody I know of wrote any book on the life of Emil Berliner, who designed the flat record and it's record player (as well as the microphone) in the beginning of the 20th Century.

Jeff

Crikey,he would be a great subject for a movie.

He modified rotary engines for helicopters/autogyros,demonstrating a helicopter for the military in 1922.

The HMV logo shows one of his gramophone designs.