Jack the RipperFinally solves the mystery of the Victorian serial killer who murdered and mutilated up to 11 women in London in 1888. The most famous serial killer in history. A sadistic stalker of seedy Victorian backstreets. A master criminal. The man who got away with murder - over and over again. But while literally hundreds of books have been published, trying to pin Jack's crimes on an endless list of suspects, no-one has considered the much more likely explanation for Jack's getting away with it - He never existed. Andrew Cook goes in search of the real story of Jack the Ripper - and this story isn't set in the brothels of the East End but in the boardrooms of Fleet Street. this is a tale of hysteria whipped up by competing tabloid editors and publishers. The central thesis is that Jack the Ripper was the invention of tabloid journalists. The key evidence for the existence of the Ripper - a serial killer responsible for at least seven bestial murders - came in the form of two letters to the Central News Agency, from a man who identified himself as the killer and called himself 'Jack'. These letters can now be plausibly traced back to shadowy tabloid journalists - not intent on solving the crime, but on boosting their careers and their papers' sales. The effect of these poison pen letters combined with the gruesome crimes was to give the tabloid media its first hate figure and to boost the circulations of ailing newspapers. The media had discovered the power of a national witch-hunt. |
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Contents
Preface | 8 |
With CHAPTER 1 Thanks to Jack the Ripper | 30 |
Hang Apron CHAPTER 3 Leather | 56 |
Dear Boss CHAPTER 4 | 71 |
The Hidden Hand | 93 |
Cannibal Ripper | 138 |
Copycat Killer CHAPTER 7 | 151 |
A Process of CHAPTER 8 Elimination | 162 |
Mask of Sanity | 178 |
Journeys End CHAPTER 10 | 194 |
Appendices | 201 |
Sources | 238 |
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Common terms and phrases
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Bibliographic information
| Title | Jack the Ripper |
| Author | Andrew Cook |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Amberley Publishing, 2009 |
| ISBN | 1848683278, 9781848683273 |
| Length | 253 pages |
| Subjects | › › › History / Europe / Great Britain / General True Crime / Murder / Serial Killers |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |