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Jack of Jumps
Between 1959 and 1965, eight prostitutes were murdered in West London by a serial killer. These murders were the most notorious unsolved crimes of the 20th century. The killer's motive and identity were the subject of endless speculation by the media, who dubbed him 'Jack the Stripper'. Links to the Profumo scandal, boxer Freddie Mills and the notorious Kray twins were rumoured. By the time the body of the eighth victim was found in February 1965, a massive police operation was underway to catch the killer. The whole country waited to see what would happen next. The police had staked everything on the murderer striking again. But he didn't...By October that year, the "Daily Express" was asking 'Is the Nude Killer Dead?' In 1970, the detective who had led the enquiry announced in his memoirs that the police knew the identity of the killer - that he had committed suicide as the net closed around him, and that the police had vowed never to reveal his identity. And that was that. Until now. Seabrook has interviewed surviving police officers, witnesses and associates of the victims and examined the evidence, the rumours, and half truths. In this unique book, he reconstructs every detail of the investigation and recreates the dark, brutal world of prostitutes and ponces in 1960s West London. He questions the theory that the police's prime suspect was Jack the Stripper, and confronts the disturbing possibility that the killer is still at large.
400 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
About the author
David Seabrook
2 books10 followersDavid Seabrook studied English at the University of Kent (Canterbury). Following his BA, he continued his studies at UKC and completed his MA with a dissertation on French author Marcel Proust. Following his studies, Seabrook relocated to Greece, where he worked as a teacher. He returned to the UK in order to pursue his literary ambitions.
David Seabrook's "All The Devils Are Here" was his first published book. It examines the seamy side of the county Kent (United Kingdom) through artistic, historic and literary connections. The book focuses on T.S. Eliot's connections to Margate, John Buchan (Broadstairs), Richard Dadds (Medway) and Charles Hawtrey, mostly associated with the Carry On series, in Deal. Among literary critics the book provoked discussion about which category of literature it fitted in. Some resented the book, as it exposed the darker sides of the county.
"Jack of Jumps", Seabrook's second book, was published in 2006. It looks at the unsolved murders of eight prostitutes in West London and goes as far as pointing the finger for the killings at an unnamed former policeman.
Aged 48 and working on his third project, David Seabrook died in Canterbury (Kent) in January 2009. He was found dead in his home.
David Seabrook's "All The Devils Are Here" was his first published book. It examines the seamy side of the county Kent (United Kingdom) through artistic, historic and literary connections. The book focuses on T.S. Eliot's connections to Margate, John Buchan (Broadstairs), Richard Dadds (Medway) and Charles Hawtrey, mostly associated with the Carry On series, in Deal. Among literary critics the book provoked discussion about which category of literature it fitted in. Some resented the book, as it exposed the darker sides of the county.
"Jack of Jumps", Seabrook's second book, was published in 2006. It looks at the unsolved murders of eight prostitutes in West London and goes as far as pointing the finger for the killings at an unnamed former policeman.
Aged 48 and working on his third project, David Seabrook died in Canterbury (Kent) in January 2009. He was found dead in his home.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
April 8, 2019
Over the course of six years from the late 1950s the bodies of eight prostitutes were found murdered close to the River Thames. It took the police a while to realise that they had a serial killer on their patch, but the similarities between the murdered girls and the way that they had been killed and left meant that there was no speculation. What the motives of the killer were, puzzled the police and as to his identity, they had no idea at all. The media at the time called him Jack the Stripper and there was no end of speculation as to who he was.
The last murder was committed in 1965 and that was the last time that he was thought to have killed. Five years later the detective in charge of the case claimed that as they closed the net on the suspected killer he committed suicide. The Police then declined to reveal his identity and it was this act that prompted further speculation as to who it was. This book is David Seabrook's take on who that person was, based on interviews with surviving police officers, witnesses, and others who knew the victims personally.
I first discovered David Seabrook when Granta kindly sent me a copy of All The Devils are Here. It was one of the strangest books that I read last year, and in it, he mentions these murders. As my library had a copy, I thought I'd give it a go. Seabrook peers into London's dark seedy underbelly and the underclass of people who inhabited the bedsits of this world. Naturally, he comes across the Krays and many other unsavoury types and slowly reveals who he thinks is behind the deaths of these poor girls.
There is almost too much detail at times in his profile of the victims and I felt that this spoilt the flow of the narrative a little. This crime has never been solved. There were various conspiracy theories as to who the man was from security guards, police officers and even a murderer who had escaped the gallows. This is the time before DNA analysis and the essential clues that would be found now were not recoverable then and it wasn't helped by all the evidence being either lost or destroyed. That said, it was still a compelling read.
The last murder was committed in 1965 and that was the last time that he was thought to have killed. Five years later the detective in charge of the case claimed that as they closed the net on the suspected killer he committed suicide. The Police then declined to reveal his identity and it was this act that prompted further speculation as to who it was. This book is David Seabrook's take on who that person was, based on interviews with surviving police officers, witnesses, and others who knew the victims personally.
I first discovered David Seabrook when Granta kindly sent me a copy of All The Devils are Here. It was one of the strangest books that I read last year, and in it, he mentions these murders. As my library had a copy, I thought I'd give it a go. Seabrook peers into London's dark seedy underbelly and the underclass of people who inhabited the bedsits of this world. Naturally, he comes across the Krays and many other unsavoury types and slowly reveals who he thinks is behind the deaths of these poor girls.
There is almost too much detail at times in his profile of the victims and I felt that this spoilt the flow of the narrative a little. This crime has never been solved. There were various conspiracy theories as to who the man was from security guards, police officers and even a murderer who had escaped the gallows. This is the time before DNA analysis and the essential clues that would be found now were not recoverable then and it wasn't helped by all the evidence being either lost or destroyed. That said, it was still a compelling read.
October 23, 2015
In the decade before Peter Sutcliffe terrorised Yorkshire with his horrible murders, the police were again struggling to catch a serial killer, this time in London. What became the biggest police manhunt in history as a killer claimed at least six women's lives (possible eight), is now largely forgotten.
Because the police have decided to hide their files away on the case for the absurd period of 100 years, there is bound to be speculation that they bungled their investigation or that something went wrong. Yet somehow author David Seabrook was given access to some of these inaccessible files and had a golden opportunity to write an insightful account of what happened and how the killer evaded capture.
Instead, this book is garbled and incoherent, dragged down by long irrelevant accounts of the victims' movements and lifestyles that lead nowhere. If any elements within the police wanted to keep this terrible case shrouded in mystery, they definitely picked the right person to leak the info to.
In addition, the narrative is often offensive. While it voyeuristically probes every aspect it can of the appalling, sad lives of the damaged women who ended up as victims of "Jack the Stripper", the author also manages to sneer at them with grotesque misogynistic remarks.
In 1964-65 six prostitutes were asphyxiated or drowned in west London by a man who stripped them and removed all their belongings, leaving few clues for detectives. A huge investigation was launched with female officers posing as prostitutes and car number plates being monitored over a 24-mile area.
Then the killings stopped. There is a lot of speculation over who the culprit was, everyone cited from a disgruntled detective to a security man who committed suicide, but there is no conclusive evidence.
Sixteen years later when Peter Sutcliffe was arrested in 1981, the police were heavily criticised for mismanaging the investigation (Sutcliffe was actually interviewed nine times without falling under serious suspicion). All of which begs the question of whether there were similar shortcomings in the west London investigation, where police were again swamped with statements and information.
Sadly, Jack of Jumps is not the book to puncture the secrecy surrounding this case.
Because the police have decided to hide their files away on the case for the absurd period of 100 years, there is bound to be speculation that they bungled their investigation or that something went wrong. Yet somehow author David Seabrook was given access to some of these inaccessible files and had a golden opportunity to write an insightful account of what happened and how the killer evaded capture.
Instead, this book is garbled and incoherent, dragged down by long irrelevant accounts of the victims' movements and lifestyles that lead nowhere. If any elements within the police wanted to keep this terrible case shrouded in mystery, they definitely picked the right person to leak the info to.
In addition, the narrative is often offensive. While it voyeuristically probes every aspect it can of the appalling, sad lives of the damaged women who ended up as victims of "Jack the Stripper", the author also manages to sneer at them with grotesque misogynistic remarks.
In 1964-65 six prostitutes were asphyxiated or drowned in west London by a man who stripped them and removed all their belongings, leaving few clues for detectives. A huge investigation was launched with female officers posing as prostitutes and car number plates being monitored over a 24-mile area.
Then the killings stopped. There is a lot of speculation over who the culprit was, everyone cited from a disgruntled detective to a security man who committed suicide, but there is no conclusive evidence.
Sixteen years later when Peter Sutcliffe was arrested in 1981, the police were heavily criticised for mismanaging the investigation (Sutcliffe was actually interviewed nine times without falling under serious suspicion). All of which begs the question of whether there were similar shortcomings in the west London investigation, where police were again swamped with statements and information.
Sadly, Jack of Jumps is not the book to puncture the secrecy surrounding this case.
May 16, 2015
Don't waste your time with this book.
It is so badly written, it's frightening!
Pretentious structure which makes it clunky. The author goes on about the ins and outs of the friends' lives which is tedious and irrelevant. Don't authors have editors?
This could have been an interesting book, sadly ruined by the author trying to be clever. A real shame.
It is so badly written, it's frightening!
Pretentious structure which makes it clunky. The author goes on about the ins and outs of the friends' lives which is tedious and irrelevant. Don't authors have editors?
This could have been an interesting book, sadly ruined by the author trying to be clever. A real shame.
December 12, 2016
A really good read, despite the ultra-colloquial writing style, and some convoluted imagery that at times forced me to go back and re-read in order to know what was going on. This was originally advertised to me as a novel, but it's the true story of the lives of the victims of the Hammersmith Nudes Murderer, walking us through the circumstances that led the 8 women to their terrible deaths. What seemed at first to be a completely random detour into the criminal doings of the Kray twins proved to be a detailed examination of the favorite suspects in the case, clearing some of them, and finally focusing on the one the author thinks is probably the real killer. There is also considerable police corruption, theft, illegal surgeries, racketeering, and many other shenanigans going on in this story. Not to be missed if you are interested in Jack the Stripper.
January 14, 2015
Interesting case, but presented with such utter wankery to make it not really worth the read.
December 3, 2025
All The Devils Are Here was an extraordinary book, nimbly weaving through history, crime and personal history that marked Seabrook as a writer to watch. That he only wrote two books made this easy to do. However, alas, it’s very clear that Devils is where he poured his all because Jack of Jumps is… not pleasant reading at all. I understand why Seabrook wanted to focus on the seedy underside of London history, because a lot of Devils is about the pull of that world, but this is just a full dive into bleakness. It’s misanthropic, bleak, strangely pedantic and in his attempts to map on a personal angle to it all with occasional asides, very clumsily written. But most of all Seabrook clearly does not give a shit about the victims or the world they came from. There’s a barely disguised disgust about their lives which I found really disturbing and alienating, and in a very odd way sort of makes him closer to whoever Jack actually was that he probably intended to be. The killer treated these women as literal objects and Seabrook does the same, just fodder for his narrative. An unpleasant and depressing slog
March 13, 2023
With being one of the few books out there about the Jack the Stripper case, I was excited to read this one. However the authors writing style detracts from being able to present the story of the murders, the subsequent ingestion and the victims. As much as I wanted to like this I found it very difficult to enjoy.
April 13, 2025
I read this back at the beginning of March and it was crap! I thought I'd reviewed it already but I can't seem to find the review on here!
All I can remember about it is that the writing was bad, it didn't hold my interest and I hoofed this off to the community book exchange the first chance I got!
All I can remember about it is that the writing was bad, it didn't hold my interest and I hoofed this off to the community book exchange the first chance I got!
October 8, 2012
Jack Of Jumps by David Seabrook
This was a random buy in a bargain book store, I was drawn by the cover picture of a woman as a playing card with the words “naked orgies nudes killer and dead wanted for murder did you see this girl” which when arranged as it is on the cover drew me in.
It turns out the book is the third or fourth book I’ve read about Londons notorious Nudes murders or as some of the Tabloids put it the Jack the Stripper murders of the late 1950’s early 1960’s, and this time rather than a fictional take on the murders by Cathi Unsworth we have a blow by blow look at the events by David Seabrook who was a junior police man involved in the actual squad that failed to bring anyone to justice for the 8 murders this book covers.
These crimes are deemed sensitive enough to the British establishment that all the records and interviews and cold case details to them have been sealed for 100 years and the author somehow manages to gain access to the files so we can hear the lives of the victims told in all there sordid detail as most of the victims were prostitutes and we are taken on a tour of London’s seamy underbelly full of car girls and illegal drinkers in Notting Hill and Hammersmith and all over London really. The murders themselves were often gruesome and the killer stored the bodies for weeks before stripping them and dumping them.
The suspects are looked at in detail we learn about the ponces and pimps and angry punters etc and of how the cases connected with other notorious crimes of the times such as the alleged suicide of the boxer Freddy Mills and once you read about how he shot himself in the Eye and all the other detail you will be scratching your head at how the case was handled.
The book tries to explain why the murders stopped without the murderer being caught and who the author believes might be guilty and why the crimes have been as covered up as they have been. A truly fascinating read.
This was a random buy in a bargain book store, I was drawn by the cover picture of a woman as a playing card with the words “naked orgies nudes killer and dead wanted for murder did you see this girl” which when arranged as it is on the cover drew me in.
It turns out the book is the third or fourth book I’ve read about Londons notorious Nudes murders or as some of the Tabloids put it the Jack the Stripper murders of the late 1950’s early 1960’s, and this time rather than a fictional take on the murders by Cathi Unsworth we have a blow by blow look at the events by David Seabrook who was a junior police man involved in the actual squad that failed to bring anyone to justice for the 8 murders this book covers.
These crimes are deemed sensitive enough to the British establishment that all the records and interviews and cold case details to them have been sealed for 100 years and the author somehow manages to gain access to the files so we can hear the lives of the victims told in all there sordid detail as most of the victims were prostitutes and we are taken on a tour of London’s seamy underbelly full of car girls and illegal drinkers in Notting Hill and Hammersmith and all over London really. The murders themselves were often gruesome and the killer stored the bodies for weeks before stripping them and dumping them.
The suspects are looked at in detail we learn about the ponces and pimps and angry punters etc and of how the cases connected with other notorious crimes of the times such as the alleged suicide of the boxer Freddy Mills and once you read about how he shot himself in the Eye and all the other detail you will be scratching your head at how the case was handled.
The book tries to explain why the murders stopped without the murderer being caught and who the author believes might be guilty and why the crimes have been as covered up as they have been. A truly fascinating read.
May 28, 2016
Overlong, with lots of surplus backstory about the early victims (particularly Gwyneth Rees, which is annoying as late in the book a hint is dropped that she may not have been a canonical victim but simply killed through a botched abortion.). However, it is extremely well researched and gives a fascinating glimpse into an utterly vanished world, when Notting Hill streets that are now gentrified into millionaire's rows were slummy refuges of drinking clubs and brothels. The collision between Victorian laws and the 1960s is a fascinating period. The men in the story come over particularly badly, poncing off the girls, using them in every way, but there are few sympathetic characters. Seabrook's thesis is that the killer was cop who'd been fired, and that John Du Rose's statement in Murder was my Business that it was a nightwatchman who had taken his own life was just a cover up to preserve the good name of the police. He doesn't name his killer (but I have seen the name on websites: the man is still alive) and this proposed solution argues a startling level of cynicism even for the 1960s establishment. So I have my doubts.
A nice hardback available very cheaply via Amazon: some well-chosen photographs bring the backgrounds scenes and characters to life. The Krays, Freddie Mills, Rachman - they're all here. If you liked Jake Arnott's The Long Firm this is for you.
A nice hardback available very cheaply via Amazon: some well-chosen photographs bring the backgrounds scenes and characters to life. The Krays, Freddie Mills, Rachman - they're all here. If you liked Jake Arnott's The Long Firm this is for you.
November 4, 2015
One of the best true-crime books I have ever read.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews