The Complete History of Jack the Ripper

The book is essentially a comprehensive gathering together of evidence. The author does an excellent job of explaining where common assumptions are false, whether made up by newspapers, or just part of folklore. A lot of the book is made up of chapters which discuss the individual murders and circumstances surrounding them and the author makes his own tentative and uninfluenced conclusion at the end. Towards the end of the book we then see chapters on possible suspects and the evidence and circumstances are discussed. The author then discusses, on balance, how likely it is that the suspect is Jack the Ripper. No one of course truly knows who Jack the Ripper was and I am glad the author doesn't really assert anything. His conclusion at the climax of the book simply states that X is probably the "least unlikely to be Jack the Ripper". I found this so refreshing, where other studies have an agenda and seem to try and make the evidence fit. A prime example was a relatively recent BBC documentary (Jack the Ripper - Case Reopened). Using modern technique they attempted to persuade that the Ripper was almost certainly Kosminski. The main evidence was tarted up a bit but seemed to boil down to the fact that he lived in Whitechapel. They also used descriptions given of Kosminski and compared them with witness descriptions of the Ripper but were picking and choosing and ignoring at will to suit their conclusion. They also concluded that it must be Kosminski because the murders stopped when he went into an asylum in 1888. In this book Sugden researches further and clarifies that he was committed in 1892, not 1888, also he was a sickly 7 stone (not the stocky figure the Ripper witnesses described). Sugden also explains that Kosminski was a lunatic but not deemed violent or murderous by his carers/doctors and his insanity manifested itself in a refusal to work, a habit of eating out of the gutter and reluctance to clean himself. This is just one example of many where I was impressed by the author's veracity and absolute dedication to the facts. There were no assumptions, no stones unturned, just a pure analysis of what can possibly be known. No evidence is taken as gospel, witness statements are scrutinised and the police are criticised and praised where it is right to do so. I found this refreshingly intelligent and it means we have a comprehensive textbook on the Ripper, in the form of this book, that generations can read without being unnecessarily influenced in one way or another. 100% recommended.

Quite simply the definitive work on the subject of the Whitechapel murders. This book grips you from the off and then just doesn’t let you go. Historical and informative but most importantly, not speculative. Concentrating only on the facts this book clearly explains what happened, when it happened but not necessarily why or by whom. You would imagine that living through these times the Whitechapel community would be living a life of pure fear and terror, but I get the impression that for many life just carried on. Horrific murders in a horribly run down and depressed part of London with the killer never being brought to justice sets the tone for one of the greatest unsolved crimes in history. Personally my interest in the Ripper case is not about what he did but rather as to why the police never caught him. A chilling account of a unique time in British history that is so easy to read and follow I had difficulty in putting it down. If you’re curious about the Whitechapel murders and would like to learn more about them then this book is all you need. Remember, this book is not just about the gruesome details of the murders it also covers in great detail the police investigation and how it was carried out. Some would say amateurish, some would say clueless and chaotic, some would say they did the best they could with the resources and technology available to them at the time. So who was Jack the Ripper? It’s safe to say that that’s something we will never know.

It is astonishing that a relatively short series of brutal murders in the summer and autumn of 1888 should have rocked the British Empire, which was then at its apogee, and sent reverberations across the entire civilised world. The Ripper case was in the headlines from New York to Sydney, Australia and everywhere in between. The case was a factor in the resignation of a Home Secretary and even Queen Victoria herself expressed her personal concerns that the culprit was still at large despite a massive manhunt in the crowded and impoverished East End of London. Sugden's book is a masterly feat of scholarship. His stated aim is to avoid the sensationalist speculation that surround the Ripper myth and stick to what we know. His research through police files and court records is painfully meticulous and he tersely dismisses many previous authors whom he feels have taken liberties with the facts and presented specious hypotheses as regards the killings and their perpetrator. Sugden is even-handed and sober almost to the point of dryness at times, but the book remains a compelling read right the way through its 500 pages. The Ripper's murders were a turning point for two reasons. Firstly, though serial killings had no doubt taken place in the past the phenomenon had never been formally identified. The police were utterly impotent in the Whitechapel case because they were used to detecting criminals through tracing motives. Robbery, jealousy, vengeance - a purposive trail could usually be discovered. The Ripper murders were, to the Victorian mind, completely motiveless and inexplicable. Police work at the time was a simple affair that usually involved merely questioning witnesses and potential suspects. Though the adventures of one Sherlock Holmes were being serialised at the time there was no systematic criminal profiling, no DNA testing and though fingerprinting was extant the police had yet to take it seriously as a tool for detection. The best that could be done in the face of such mindless horror was to draft in a couple of bloodhounds. But in the warren that was East London even a bloodhound's nose is next to useless. After the Ripper case, police work began to evolve into the hard science that it is today. Secondly, the case threw the world's attention onto the appalling conditions obtaining in the slums of Whitechapel. This was a dark aspect of the industrial revolution the establishment hadn't wanted to acknowledge. The population had swarmed into the cities from their traditional rural abodes looking for work. The deprivations of this new urban trend called for changes in the way cities were administered. Planned Public Health measures such as clean water, sanitation and education came hot on the heels of the end of the 19th century. Alan Moore spun an excellent yarn out of the Whitechapel case in his graphic novel From Hell. The film adaption starring Johnny Depp does not, apparently, do the book justice but it contains this line: `one day men will look back and say I gave birth to the 20th century!' There is no record of Jack the Ripper ever having said this but it is a fascinating statement and to my mind says something astute about the case of 1888. It could be argued that what made, and continues to make, Jack the Ripper so enduring a monster is that he is a symbol and personification of the new sense of urban alienation that the industrial age had engendered. The advent of mass media had made the case a global drama and that too was new. Modernity itself had evolved human consciousness into something that was becoming recognisably who we are and how we think today. In that sense the Ripper murders really could be seen to symbolise a cultural milestone and turning point. In 1888 Freud was practising in Vienna and his work would revolutionise our understanding of our selves and our hidden motives. Nietzsche published both Twilight of the Idols and The Antichrist in 1888 before going insane the following year. In these texts he further trumpeted the death of God, the obsolescence of religion, and the redundancy of bourgeois morality. In my opinion there is room for a book about the myth of the Ripper case as a world historical event. Sugden's book gives us the facts. We now need an author to explicate the meaning.

O livro é uma análise séria, feita por historiador, dos crimes cometidos pelo assassino conhecido pela alcunha "Jack the Ripper". Philip Sugden utiliza documentos disponíveis nos jornais da época, em livros publicados sobre o assunto e nos inquéritos realizados para traçar uma luz sobre os crimes e a vida pregressa das vítimas. Foi um dos primeiros (senão exatamente) livros a trazer mapas de Whitechapel e esquemas dos locais dos assassinatos, cruciais para tentar entender como o assassino fugiu. Ao final, analisa os principais suspeitos, usando racionalidade, método e perspicácia. Não procura levar o leitor a concluir por "A"ou "B". É item essencial a quem busca entender o assunto, sem falácias ou teorias malucas.

Un testo indispensabile a chi muove i primi passi nello sconfinato terreno della ripperologia. Ottime ricostruzioni dei delitti, chiaramente spiegate le basi sulle quali i sospettati vennero inclusi nei files della polizia. Dopo averlo letto si ha un quadro decisamente completo di cosa fosse realmente successo in quel lontano autunno del 1888 a Londra

Book came early and in good condition. It is by far the best, most well researched book on The Ripper, definitely recommended

Ich hatte mir dieses Buch gekauft, um meine Englischkenntnisse auf die Probe zu stellen. Es ist sehr gut geschrieben und mein Schul Englisch, was allerdings über zwanzig Jahre her ist, reicht im grossen und ganzem vollkommen aus. Eim sehr gutes Buch.

This is by far the closest thing that any would be curious person want to find out as to exactly what happened. It's brief and narrowed down to the last detail. Would certainly recommend to others.