Jack the Ripper: The Terrible Legacy

by The Whitechapel Society, Mickey Mayhew

Jack the Ripper was the slayer of at least five female victims in London's East End, but his legacy left many more victims in its wake than he could have ever imagined. From the Royal Family and the British Government to the London Police and minority groups, the list of ‘other’ victims that were created as a direct result of the Jack the Ripper murders goes on and on. Following the success of their first book, the authors from The Whitechapel Society have compiled this ultimate force in Ripper research, in which each group is looked at in detail. The authors are veteran Ripper chroniclers, familiar with the highways and byways of the Ripper road map. They share the principle that in all the plethora of commentaries about the Whitechapel Murderer, there are many categories of victim apart from the five women slain in the streets in the autumn of 1888.

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 31, 2013

Reviews

[Deanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written by various Ripperologists this book deals with the people who's lives were affected by the crimes, mainly because they were accused of being Jack or failing to find him.
Inspector Abberline who's portrayed as a cockney with a drug problem, turns out he was from Dorset and didn't have a drink or drug problem.
There's mention of the much maligned Walter Sickert, William Gull, The Freemason's, The Irish etc.

[Marathon County Public Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many know of the five women brutally killed by Jack the Ripper in London in 1888. However, the failure to bring the killer to justice left many unintentional victims in its wake. Conspiracies abounded about who was responsible for the crime. Numerous men were falsely accused of being Jack the Ripper. Many more were tainted by connections, however tenuous, to the Ripper and the five murdered women.

Lovers of true life crime, history buffs, and Anglophiles will enjoy this selection of non-fiction essays. The subjects range from Freemasonry and Queen Victoria’s grandson to depictions of Inspector Abberline in film. You will be surprised by how many lives were destroyed by Jack the Ripper.

Anna C. / Marathon County Public Library
Find this book in our library catalog.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Whitechapel Society, devoted to the study of Jack the Ripper, commissioned this monograph with 10 papers that riff on the theme of victims. Victims in this case are seen as wide-ranging – it includes not just the women killed by Jack the Ripper. The ten collected papers focus on a different victim or group of victims, e.g., Freemasons, police officers, Jewish people, Irish people. While the monograph tries to be both scholarly – the references will be of much interest to Jack-the-Ripper fans – and popular, it is not quite either. VERDICT With Jack the Ripper in the news yet again, this might be of interest to “Ripperologists.” Recommended only for collections with extensive Jack-the-Ripper collections.