Jack the Ripper: There’s a Prequel…

SallyB2
By SallyB2 Last edited 186 months ago
Jack the Ripper: There’s a Prequel…
0609.ripper.jpg

There really is no end to London’s obsession with the Ripper, and seemingly no end to the market for books about the rogue and the mission to discover his identity.

This afternoon the Museum in Docklands (which is of course hosting a Ripper exhibition at the moment) saw the launch of a new tome entitled The Evil Within: The World’s Worst Serial Killers, which features an extended chapter on the Ripper with some astonishing new suggestions. The author, Trevor Marriott (a former police detective), propounds that the killer may in fact have struck as long as twenty five years before his fabled reign of terror, and puts forward two murder cases which would fit his profile: the first of Emma Jackson in 1863, and the second of Harriet Buswell in 1872. In both cases the victims had their throats cut but were not robbed. In the second instance the victim was known to have consorted with a German gent just prior to her murder, which rather neatly corroborates Marriott’s claims in a previous book that the Ripper was a German sailor.

Tell you what, this Londonista hadn’t given old Jack much thought before. But having spent an hour or so with him this afternoon, we can see the fascination. He’s been variously voted the greatest Londoner, and the baddest Brit that ever there was: one thing’s for sure, whatever the truth, the legend’s here to stay. He must be chuckling in his grave.

Spray can Ripper from wolf ticket’s’ Londonist flickr stream.

Last Updated 06 September 2008