Jack the Ripper 'was invented to win tabloid newspaper war'
| Mail Online: "Jack the Ripper was a forgery invented by journalists to link a series of unrelated murders and sell newspapers, according to a new book.
The unsolved murders of five prostitutes in London's East End in 1888 have spawned innumerable theories over the identity of the 'real' Jack the Ripper - with candidates including artist Walter Sickert, Alice In Wonderland author Lewis Carroll and even Queen Victoria's grandson the Duke of Clarence.
But now historian Dr Andrew Cook claims to have blown all these theories out of the water by dismissing the notion of a brutal, murderous spree by one 'serial killer' altogether."
8 comments:
My favorite Jack the Ripper book is Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's From Hell (Like pretty much anything based on an Alan Moore book, I recommend skipping the movie). Anyone know of any that tops that one?
Is that what the Johnny Depp movie was based on? Opium smoking detective with visions?
Yes, that's the movie that's based on From Hell. The book is a lot better.
Well, there's all kinds of Ripper literature. Robert Bloch's 1941 story, "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper," is one of the most plagiarized stories so far...Bloch's story suggests that the Ripper has found a means for literal immortality through his murders. This is the early story that haunted his career...he eventually wrote a Ripper novel...
(much the way that, say, "Nightfall" haunted Isaac Asimov's career, or "Streetcorner Man" haunted Jorge Luis Borges's, or "Microcosmic God" haunted Theodore Sturgeon's. "Hey," says the loutish [as opposed to sensible] fan, "you never wrote anything better! Than that thing you wrote at the beginning of your career! With the relatively stiff and/or clumsy prose, while you were still feeling out your craft, trying to get the rudiments down! Never better than that!")(And, of course, all of them were better than that many times over the course of their careers.)
The only downside for me to the FROM HELL in one volume is that the lettering of the comics is eccentric and rather small in reproduction in the edition I have, making it physically hard to read.
Todd, you know everything, don't you?!
Paul--I'm not sure I even wish I knew everything. I sure wish I could consistently type correctly, among other less acheivable goals, though.
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