New book - 'The Five' by Hallie Robenhold.

[ChrisGeorge]

Not that it makes any difference, but that comment about a 'thicker skin' was written by a woman.

Also, as Howard Brown has pointed out (thanks, Howard), the post read, 'In all the years I have chosen to hang around the ripper related message boards, and despite the various individuals I have managed to rub up the wrong way, I have never felt any personal hatred or hostility towards me, either as a co-author of a book on the hated Maybrick diary, or as a female, and the vast majority of my fellow posters have been welcoming and tolerant of views I have expressed, no matter how far removed they may be from their own.'

I wonder if the "friend" will mention that?

I have a feeling that the intent is to insulate Ms. Rubenhold from the Hounds of Ripperology in case we drag her onto the "dung heap" of our forums.

Cheers

Chris

[PaulB]

I don't know about "scavenging from the dung heap", but that's more like "retrieving the needle from the haystack". In the hundreds, perhaps thousands of comments referring to Rubehnhold and her book, her "friend" managed to zoom in on one like this. How desperate is that? One wonders how balanced her friend's piece about ripperology is going to be.

Not that it makes any difference, but that comment about a 'thicker skin' was written by a woman.

Also, as Howard Brown has pointed out (thanks, Howard), the post read, 'In all the years I have chosen to hang around the ripper related message boards, and despite the various individuals I have managed to rub up the wrong way, I have never felt any personal hatred or hostility towards me, either as a co-author of a book on the hated Maybrick diary, or as a female, and the vast majority of my fellow posters have been welcoming and tolerant of views I have expressed, no matter how far removed they may be from their own.'

I wonder if the "friend" will mention that?

[Sam Flynn]

Relationship doesn't appear to be mendable. Hopefully she will rethink her mudslinging.

Haille Rubenhold @Hallie Rubenhold May 20

A friend of mine writing a piece about Ripperology's response to The Five has sent me something he scavenged from the dung heap of their forums. Remember, these people love and respect the victims and would never blame them for their own deaths.

I don't know about "scavenging from the dung heap", but that's more like "retrieving the needle from the haystack". In the hundreds, perhaps thousands of comments referring to Rubehnhold and her book, her "friend" managed to zoom in on one like this. How desperate is that? One wonders how balanced her friend's piece about ripperology is going to be.

[ChrisGeorge]

Relationship doesn't appear to be mendable. Hopefully she will rethink her mudslinging.


Haille Rubenhold @Hallie Rubenhold May 20

A friend of mine writing a piece about Ripperology's response to The Five has sent me something he scavenged from the dung heap of their forums. Remember, these people love and respect the victims and would never blame them for their own deaths.

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi all

Taking time out from planning RipperCon 2020 in Baltimore Friday, April 24 to Monday, April 27. Don't miss on our Jack the Ripper - True Crime conference!

I've just started my consideration of Ms Rubenhold's book The Five: The Lives of Jack the Ripper's Women (Rubenhold, February 2019).

I come to the book and the author's approach to the victims with an open mind, even though I am a "Ripperologist."

I should hope we scholars of the case could engage with author Hallie Rubenhold in a reasonable dialogue.

Dipping my big toe in the current I note some disquieting statements by the author on Twitter written within the last day:


Hallie Rubenhold @HallieRubenhold 6 hours ago

Latest twist in the Ripperology hate-narrative: I disrespect addicts and blame them for their own illness.


Hallie Rubenhold @HallieRubenhold 6 hours ago

Which is especially painful since someone very close to me has suffered with addiction issues.


Hallie Rubenhold @HallieRubenhold 6 hours ago

This is the thing about deciding to hate people you don't know - you don't know them, so whatever assumptions you're drawing are based on guess work & your own prejudices. It takes a lot of hubris to attack someone personally when you haven't the faintest clue who they are.

[Ginger]

And, that wasn't a very nice thing to have said, for which I apologize, if any were offended.

[Ginger]

I posted a question about this photo on Twitter and the lady herself replied with this:

"Ah, no, that's not Polly Nichols and no again, I had no say in the selection of the photos and was unaware that the piece was even being written. But hey, any excuse to question my research and abilities, yet again."

"We glorify the Ripper [...] We have fixated on this, and never really thought about the women, who they were when they were killed."

If the Telegraph has quoted her correctly, then "poor research skills" and/or "inability to write a clear expository sentence" seem among the more charitable explanations for such a statement.

[Sam Flynn]

I posted a question about this photo on Twitter and the lady herself replied with this:

"Ah, no, that's not Polly Nichols and no again, I had no say in the selection of the photos and was unaware that the piece was even being written. But hey, any excuse to question my research and abilities, yet again."

I don't recall anyone here using this as an excuse to question her abilities. I assumed the error in the montage was down to a BBC researcher's error, and wrote to them in like vein.

[richardh]

I posted a question about this photo on Twitter and the lady herself replied with this:

"Ah, no, that's not Polly Nichols and no again, I had no say in the selection of the photos and was unaware that the piece was even being written. But hey, any excuse to question my research and abilities, yet again."

I haven't read The Five but I'm sure if Rubenhold had turned up a photo of Polly I would of heard about it.
So I take it that the photo credited as Polly in the BBC piece linked to below is not really Polly.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/art...lly-being-told

I also noticed on the BBC website, for opera lovers, on Radio 3 last Saturday and on iPlayer at the moment is Jack the Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00057g5

[Albert]

I find it ironic that the image the BBC uses on its website for Annie Chapman is the one that I believe was discovered by Neal Shelden and used on the cover of his excellent 2007 book 'The Victims of Jack the Ripper', and I think was the first book dedicated to the women and not the murderer!

[Sam Flynn]

No change to the BBC's page I see. Maybe they don't work weekends and bank holidays!

I got an automated acknowledgement, but that's about it!

[Ozzy]

No change to the BBC's page I see. Maybe they don't work weekends and bank holidays!

[Sam Flynn]

I haven't read The Five but I'm sure if Rubenhold had turned up a photo of Polly I would of heard about it.
So I take it that the photo credited as Polly in the BBC piece linked to below is not really Polly.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/art...lly-being-told

That's some researcher's mistake, probably, as no "life photograph" of Polly is known to exist. What's worse, that woman looks nothing like her. I've sent the BBC some feedback to that effect.

Thanks for spotting this!

[Ozzy]

I haven't read The Five but I'm sure if Rubenhold had turned up a photo of Polly I would of heard about it.
So I take it that the photo credited as Polly in the BBC piece linked to below is not really Polly.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/art...lly-being-told

I also noticed on the BBC website, for opera lovers, on Radio 3 last Saturday and on iPlayer at the moment is Jack the Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00057g5

[PaulB]

Thanks Jonathan. I just spat my tea out.

That's another sin that can be levelled at The Five, the waste of good tea. That's sacrilege in my house, that is. With respect, Psych Nurse may have read loads of books on the subject, but seems to have been singularly unlucky in the ones chosen if they haven't taught anything about the victims.