So what brought you here?

[SaraCarter33]

thanks for the warm welcome phil.

[richardnunweek]

Hi,
I guess it was my nan, she was born in 1879, and I remember I asked her about the man called Jack The Ripper [ about 1958] and she told me that her mum and dad used to call us in[ her sisters] when bedtime was near, with echoes of 'Before the London bogey man comes out'
She never forgot that , and I guess it all started off from there.
It just highlights how the name 'Jack' was so infamous during the late victorian period.
Regards Richard.

[Phil Carter]

Hello Sara and welcome!

(No Monty...Sara not related, to my knowledge at least...!)

best wishes

Phil

[SaraCarter33]

That is very true indeed it's nice to talk to fellow ripper buffs.

[Stephen Thomas]

So what brought me here, my love of history and true crime and my interest in Jack the Ripper, and Mary Kelly, and the other victims

Welcome Sara

It's a combination of history and mystery that draws people to this case

Let's call it a mistory (mists of time and all that)

If JTR had been tried and hanged nobody would be interested these days

[Monty]

Noctural habits bought me here.

Monty

[SaraCarter33]

Hi you all new here btw.

So what brought me here, my love of history and true crime and my interest in Jack the Ripper, and Mary Kelly, and the other victims .


Please pardon my typing.

[coral]

My interest started after reading Dan Farson's book. But it didnt really kick in until I found myself chauffering my ex-husband to 2nd hand book fairs where he was searching for old books on sport - not my cup of tea. I decided to start my own collected of JTR books. I now have a massive collection - sadly I have not found the time to read them all.

Coral

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi all,

Being a metalhead child of the 80's, I've always had an interest in serial killers, but it wasn't until 1998 when I stumbled across David Abrahamsen's book on the Ripper in a used bookstore that I became 'hooked'. I checked out other books at the library and found Casebook.org. This was actually the first website I visited on the internet, if you can believe it, and still the one I visit most often.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Madam Red]

Also:
It's kinda hilarious to see me correct my Dad about Jack the Ripper. "That theory is the weakest of them all, Dad," I'll sigh.

[Madam Red]

Who got me into Jack the Ripper was my Dad. When me and my sister were younger and traveling by train, he would tell us these amazing stories that he'd heard somewhere.

On one such ocassion, he told us the story about Jack the Ripper. Before then, I barely recognized the name; I didn't know who he was. Now, even though Dad is a Master Freemason, he held stock in the hypothesis that the murderer was Prince Albert or even the prince's very own doctor. And that's the first Ripper-related story I was ever told.

Afterwards, I was always fascinated by the case whenever it popped into my life. I remember sitting very close to the television, in my pjs, watching an old documentary. Years later, when "From Hell" was in theaters, I was pissed because the movie was rated R and thus I wouldn't be allowed to see it.

I can't recall exactly how it happened, but I was suddenly hooked in my early teens. I would spend hours upon hours reading articles and fiction on Casebook, good thing this site was there. It probably occurred during my fanfiction.net phase, I would spend most of my hours on the Internet in this way. Possibly because I was a Harry Potter fan as well as of other series based in England: I wanted to know everything about London.

From then on, I could never fully abandon my intrigue about the Ripper. I would take long breaks from it, but eventually I would be drawn back like always. There was once a year where I went as Saucey Jack for Halloween.

Recently, my interest arose and exploded, I'm absorbed into the events of late 1888 again. I've gotten into the Kuroshitsuji fandom, a manga set in Victorian London and well renown for its extensive research. I'm cosplaying as Madam Red, {{warning: SPOILER}} one member of the two-person team known as Jack the Ripper, {{SPOILER over}} and I want to know everything about this case. I would also like to write essays and fiction about it.

[TomTomKent]

Sorry if this thread is a bit of a dead horse flogged into a gooey mess by previous threads and chatroom conversation... But what drew you fine folks into an interest in JtR, and mysteries, criminals or the macabre in general? I mean I make no qualms about admitting that I am not a crimenologist, academic or even an armchair detective with a personal theory. I'm just a bloke who has an interest in the area. And yes, it can sometimes be a bit of a strange interest to explain:

Person i work with: So what are you reading?
Me: Oh it's called the Monster of Florence. It's about journalists who think they have solved a serial killer case.
Person I work with who is now backing away: Okay.... Bye.

Personally I got interested while I was still young enough to own a paper round that took me about an hour each morning. I had a tape walkman, and was not really into music (besides the average album cost an awful lot of my pay packet for awfully little content). Low and behold "MArtin Fido Investigates..." Double tapes were a third of the price and three times the length. Bargain. The first I bought was JtR, and it was interesting enough to get me to buy a few more. After that I bought more traditional paper books like Zodiac, or True Crime Something Something Something. Which has been a fairly regular habit since. Not my only habit of course. Give me a book with a maverick soldier who plays by his own rules, a drunken cop who believes in Justice over Law, or spaceships, ninjas, zombies or super-types in spandex and I will read it, but now and again I will hunt down a book about a real mystery.

And yes, before you ask, Mr Fido still appears on my ipod, as does the rippercast which piqued my curiosity about this very site.

What about you guys?