Arm of Eve: Investigating the Thames Torso Murders

by Sarah Bax Horton

The Thames Torso Killer should, by rights, take precedence over Jack the Ripper as the world's first and most notorious unidentified serial killer. He started to kill in Easter 1887, over a year before the Ripper, and his last murder was in September 1889, almost ten months after the Ripper's last victim, Mary Jane Kelly. The Torso killer murdered and dismembered at least four women, in addition to the unborn child of the only victim who was identified.

The author's profile of the killer reveals a detailed description of his trade, location and movements. She searches against that profile to find a known criminal with a similar modus operandi as the killer. Waterman and lighterman James Crick was sentenced to fifteen years for a single conviction of rape, although charges of rape and attempted murder were brought against him by two women. Crick's method of accosting the women, and transferring them between his skiff and other vessels, explains how the killer secured temporary secure premises for his attacks and dismemberment.

Owing to its overlap with the Jack the Ripper series of murders, this book revisits many of the locations and personalities from that case. It compares and contrasts the Ripper and Torso killer, and the associated police investigations, while paying tribute to river policeman Detective Inspector John Regan.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, History

354 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 31, 2024

About the author

Sarah Bax Horton is a non-fiction author who grew up in South Wales. She read English and Modern Languages at Somerville College, University of Oxford and served in the Foreign Office. Fascinated by genealogy, her discovery of a Whitechapel 'H Division’ police ancestor inspired her true crime book One-Armed Jack: Uncovering the Real Jack the Ripper published by Michael O'Mara Books. Her second book Arm of Eve: Investigating the Thames Torso Murders continues her ground-breaking exploration of the Whitechapel Murders files is published by The History Press and won the RBAM award for Book of the Year 2024.

Reviews

[Susan Holmes-Sherwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book about a long forgotten series of crimes. I found elements of this book irritating, although I think it might say more about me than the author. However, I will mention them:

1. Horton talks about the victims of Jack the Ripper being all sex workers - as a devotee of Hallie Rubenhold’s ‘The Five’ I believe the truth to be more nuanced if not entirely different.
2. There’s a lot of talk about Jack the Ripper and, in particular, her suspect for Jack’s murders. To me it felt like she was trying hard to make me read her Ripper book and, hell, I’ll never blame a lass for trying, but it was laid on too thick for me. And,
3. It’s remarkable that one of her ancestors was a police officer who worked on both the Torso murders and the Ripper killings. It doesn’t become any more astonishing because it keeps being mentioned. Once or twice would be sufficient.

All of this said, this book is incredibly well researched with fascinating postmortem reports included and I think her suspect makes sense. There are a lot of gory details, but I’ve got a pretty strong stomach. I believe that life’s too short to read bad books and I finished this one with frustrations but no regrets.

[James C Howell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’d ordered this book having read the author’s previous book on Jack the Ripper. Somehow she seems to have pulled off the same trick again and come up with a likely new suspect for this lesser-known series of 19th century killings in London. The Thames torso killings are nowhere near as famous but for that reasons I found them interesting.
There are chapters on each of the five murders, on two non-fatal attacks attributable to the author’s main suspect and also, for me, the really fascinating chapters: on the killer’s profile, an explanation on why they are not attributable to Jack the Ripper and a final analysis of the killer himself.
I found the book to be thoroughly researched but also with a dash of creativity. At the end the author even tries to recreate the killings based on her analysis and findings through the course of the book.
My only complaint is that (as yet) there is no audiobook. I very rarely read hard copy books nowadays but made an exception for this.

[Abbey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very interesting, I'm not quite sure how much stock I put into the authors pick of the killer, it does make sense but also I just not quite convinced.