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Jack the Ripper: An Encyclopedia
A detailed and meticulously researched encyclopedia on all aspects of Jack the Ripper, one of the world's most famous, and mysterious, serial killers.
The encyclopedia includes a list of more than 100 witnesses and what each one saw, descriptions of the locations where the murders took place and the police officers involved in the investigations, contemporary newspaper accounts, and psychological profiles and physical descriptions of The Ripper. In the final chapter, John J. Eddleston, author of numerous books and articles on crime, reveals his own deductions about "whodunnit," narrowing the list of suspects to one man.
The encyclopedia includes a list of more than 100 witnesses and what each one saw, descriptions of the locations where the murders took place and the police officers involved in the investigations, contemporary newspaper accounts, and psychological profiles and physical descriptions of The Ripper. In the final chapter, John J. Eddleston, author of numerous books and articles on crime, reveals his own deductions about "whodunnit," narrowing the list of suspects to one man.
362 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2001
16 people are currently reading
95 people want to read
About the author
John J. Eddleston
113 books2 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
John J. Eddleston is an authority on British criminal history and a prolific writer on the subject.
His many books include Murderous Sussex, Murderous Manchester, Blind Justice, Jack the Ripper: An Encyclopedia, The Encyclopedia of Executions, A Century of Welsh Murders and Executions, Manx Killers, Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Southampton and Miscarriages of Justice: Famous London Cases.
John J. Eddleston is an authority on British criminal history and a prolific writer on the subject.
His many books include Murderous Sussex, Murderous Manchester, Blind Justice, Jack the Ripper: An Encyclopedia, The Encyclopedia of Executions, A Century of Welsh Murders and Executions, Manx Killers, Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Southampton and Miscarriages of Justice: Famous London Cases.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 16, 2014
An excellent compendium for those familiar with the subject or seeking an introduction to it. Includes extensive, detailed information, from an exhaustive list of suspects, to coroners' reports, to a list of established and possible victims. This is not just a reference manual though, as Eddleston laces the whole book with personal opinion and reasoning, even giving the name of and argument for who he considers to be the Ripper. Also includes a very useful bibliography, with minor reviews. Recommended.
August 9, 2023
A decent summary but can't compare to The Five by Hallie Rubenhold or even John Douglas's brief summation of the case in Mindhunter. Rubenhold makes sure we don't forget these were real women who were written off by society before they were killed. Douglas allows us to see the most likely killer. Both centre in on the unspoken word, certainly unknown to Victorians, that really drove the killings. Misogyny.
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March 12, 2020Research for my NEXT TIME trilogy
October 29, 2022
Great book
Loved this book, but for me all he has done is narrowed my suspects down to 3. The other two have not changed and two are mentioned in this book .
Loved this book, but for me all he has done is narrowed my suspects down to 3. The other two have not changed and two are mentioned in this book .
November 6, 2015
This book was all about the notorious serial killer Jack the Ripper, also known as the Whinchapel Murderer. Jack roamed the streets of Whinchapel in the late 1880’s. He was known for slitting the throats of prostitutes and then causing large mutilations on their abdomens. He would usually keep one of the organs of each of his victims. While leaving what was left of their organs and body askew. The identity of the Ripper has never been discovered and any of the information on the cases has been lost on time. This book was a collection about what is known about each victim, suspect, and witness along with the court cases. It included pictures of many of the victims and letters said to be from “Jack the Ripper”. These picture greatly enhanced the readers understanding of the book because you could see what the victims looked like, and the similarities between handwriting in the letters.
The author of this book was John J. Eddleston. Eddleston has written seven other True Crime books and has devoted years to collecting facts on the Ripper murders, after completing this book he wrote one every execution in the United Kingdom. The authors’ purpose is to inform the readers however he hopes his book will change the way we research the Ripper murders.
The first section of this book goes over all the possible victims of the Ripper, since it was never officially determined who was and wasn’t killed by his hand. Since there was never an official list, many conspiracy theorists have picked and choose their own combinations of victims in order to support their own theory. The author put together all of the victims ever considered in order to explain each case and who he believed were and were not victims of Jack. The possible victims he included were Fairy Fay, Annie Millwood, Ada Wilson, Emma Elizabeth Smith, Martha Tabram, Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Susan Ward, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, The Whitechapel Mystery (victim unknown), Mary Jane Kelly, Annie Farmer, Rose Mylett, Elizabeth Jackson, Alice McKenzie, The Pinchin Street Torso (victim unknown), and Frances Coles. He explained the events from when the victim each victim was found, through each post-mortem discovery, each witness interviewed, and finished with the court case and result. He then concluded this section with a summary of who he thought could be ruled out, and who definitely were a ripper victim.
The next section went over the witnesses of each case, The police (who found the victim, carried out the case, an made did each interrogation.), other people who played a part in the cases, a chronological order of the murders, physical and psychological descriptions, letters of correspondence, other miscellaneous notes, myths and errors by other authors/journalists, the locations, he suspects for each case, the literature, resources, and concluded with a summary.
I really enjoyed how descriptive the book was. It really made you feel like you were living in the time period, like you were involved in the mystery, searching for the killer. However I didn’t like that you had to go to a different section in order to see a description of each suspect being talked about. It caused you to have to continuously flip back and forth between pages in order to understand what you were reading. I would change the book so that it would have all the information in one place. One of my favorite parts of the book was when they were not sure if they could enter the room because they thought the hounds would be coming to assist. The hounds never showed the police ended up waiting hours before entering the room to investigate. I would definitely recommend this book to anybody who wants to learn more on the subject.
The author of this book was John J. Eddleston. Eddleston has written seven other True Crime books and has devoted years to collecting facts on the Ripper murders, after completing this book he wrote one every execution in the United Kingdom. The authors’ purpose is to inform the readers however he hopes his book will change the way we research the Ripper murders.
The first section of this book goes over all the possible victims of the Ripper, since it was never officially determined who was and wasn’t killed by his hand. Since there was never an official list, many conspiracy theorists have picked and choose their own combinations of victims in order to support their own theory. The author put together all of the victims ever considered in order to explain each case and who he believed were and were not victims of Jack. The possible victims he included were Fairy Fay, Annie Millwood, Ada Wilson, Emma Elizabeth Smith, Martha Tabram, Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Susan Ward, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, The Whitechapel Mystery (victim unknown), Mary Jane Kelly, Annie Farmer, Rose Mylett, Elizabeth Jackson, Alice McKenzie, The Pinchin Street Torso (victim unknown), and Frances Coles. He explained the events from when the victim each victim was found, through each post-mortem discovery, each witness interviewed, and finished with the court case and result. He then concluded this section with a summary of who he thought could be ruled out, and who definitely were a ripper victim.
The next section went over the witnesses of each case, The police (who found the victim, carried out the case, an made did each interrogation.), other people who played a part in the cases, a chronological order of the murders, physical and psychological descriptions, letters of correspondence, other miscellaneous notes, myths and errors by other authors/journalists, the locations, he suspects for each case, the literature, resources, and concluded with a summary.
I really enjoyed how descriptive the book was. It really made you feel like you were living in the time period, like you were involved in the mystery, searching for the killer. However I didn’t like that you had to go to a different section in order to see a description of each suspect being talked about. It caused you to have to continuously flip back and forth between pages in order to understand what you were reading. I would change the book so that it would have all the information in one place. One of my favorite parts of the book was when they were not sure if they could enter the room because they thought the hounds would be coming to assist. The hounds never showed the police ended up waiting hours before entering the room to investigate. I would definitely recommend this book to anybody who wants to learn more on the subject.
May 28, 2010
This book was hard to read, since it is an encyclopedia and the information isn't in order. However, it is perfect for people that need a reference. It was very detailed and i highly recommend this book to people who need to write a paper on Jack.
June 19, 2016
A slightly different approach to presenting the facts in the case of teh Whitechapel Murders. Information is grouped under headings such as Victims, Witnesses and Police Officials. Made for an interesting read but nothing new here.
The author makes a fair case for his favoured suspect.
The author makes a fair case for his favoured suspect.
January 10, 2011
Kasus tentang Jack The Ripper memang selalu menarik perhatian selain menjadi pembunuh berantai pertama juga sampai sekarang menjadi misteri siap sebenarnya pembunuh tersebut. Buku ini disertai dengan foto-foto korban jadi agak menakutkan bagi yang tidak terbiasa melihat gambar-gambar mayat.
August 28, 2013
This book covers everything you could possibly need to know about Jack the Ripper. It's fascinating and well worth reading if you're at all interested in the subject area.
February 12, 2016
This book is good for a reference only.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews