Jack The Ripper: The Celebrity Suspects

by Mike Holgate

Rippermania has driven a 120-year-old investigation to identify the depraved perpetrator of the savage murder of five prostitutes in the East End of London. Royal figures Queen Victoria, Edward, Prince of Wales, Prince Albert Victor, King Leopold II of the Belgians; prominent politicians Lord Salisbury, William Gladstone, Randolph Churchill; police officials Sir Charles Warren, Sir Robert Anderson; artists and writers Oscar Wilde, Frank Miles, Algernon Swinburne, Francis Thompson, Lewis Carroll, George Gissing, and Walter Sickert are among those who have been implicated in the hunt for the world’s first serial sex killer, Jack the Ripper. 

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[R.L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

English review below the Greek one...

2½/5
Δεν μπορώ να πω ότι έχω ιδιαίτερη αδυναμία στην υπόθεση του Τζακ του Αντεροβγάλτη όπως κάποιοι άνθρωποι, έχω όμως ένα κάποιο ενδιαφέρον στην λογοτεχνία της Βικτωριανής εποχής, στην Βικτωριανή εποχή και στην Ιστορία γενικότερα. Ίσως για αυτό, αρκετά περιστατικά, πρόσωπα και υποθέσεις που αναφέρονται στο βιβλίο μου ήταν οικεία και άρα δεν μπορώ να πω ότι εκτίμησα το βιβλίο έστω για τις εγκυκλοπαιδικές γνώσεις που προσέφερε.

Σαν αυτού καθεαυτού κριτική στο αντικείμενο, έχω να πω ότι ένα πολύ μεγάλο μέρος του βιβλίου είναι επαναλαμβανόμενο γύρω από την ίδια θεωρία με μικρές παραλλαγές, περί κάλυψης ατασθαλιών (νόθων παιδιών, κρυφών γάμων κτλ) εκ μέρους του γιού και του εγγονού της βασίλισσας Βικτωρίας ενώ ένα άλλο μέρος αναλώνεται σε πρόσωπα που δεν είχαν καμία άμεση σχέση ή ακόμα και στην θεωρία θα έπαιζαν έναν συμπληρωματικό ρόλο στα των εγκλημάτων και δεν θα ήταν καν ύποπτοι σαν αυτουργοί. Το βιβλίο περιλαμβάνει ένα σωρό εντελώς απίθανα πρόσωπα που έχουν ακουστεί σαν ύποπτοι και μόλις στις εντελώς τελευταίες αράδες του βιβλίου ο συγγραφέας τονίζει ότι όλοι όσοι αναφέρθηκαν έχουν κάτι κοινό: Κανείς δεν ήταν ο Τζακ ο Αντεροβγάλτης. Κάποια πρόσωπα/κεφάλαια και οι θεωρίες γύρω από αυτά είχαν ένα κάποιο ενδιαφέρον ακόμα κι αν τελικά καταρρίπτονται, ωστόσο περιλαμβάνονται στο βιβλίο κι ένα σωρό εξωφρενικές και εντελώς ανυπόστατες θεωρίες που δε βασίζονται πραγματικά πουθενά και που κάποιες ποτέ δεν απέκτησαν βαρύτητα έστω και για λίγο.

Υποθέτω ήταν ΟΚ να περάσει κανείς την ώρα του, αλλά του έλειπε η ουσία.

2½/5

Well, this was a very averrage read. First of all, a good part of it seems repetitive because a good part of the persons mentioned as suspects are involved more or less on the same conspiracy, encountering some small variations ( Government and/or the royals theirselves try to cover some of the scandals concerning secret marriages, orgies or bastard children etc). Then another good part of the book deals with personalities of the era that had absolutely nothing to do with the case or even in the cospiracy theories and hersay would have only a minor and indirect involvement in all this stuff. This book features all kind of impossibly far fetched persons that might have once been suspected of been Jack the Ripper, but the author clarifies only on the final sentences of the book that all people mentioned before have something in common: They were not Jack the Ripper.
Some of the people/chapters and the related theories are kind of interesting, even if these theories are soon proved wrong, but the author decided to include all kind of completely over the top, ridiculous, irrelevant theories that hold no ground at all and are very easily dismissed and no one really took them in serious consideration.

I'm not a "Ripperologist" or particularly interesting to Jack the Ripper, but I'm fond of Victorian literature, Victorian era and History in general. Maybe that's why many incidents, persons and theories mentioned in the book were familiar to me. So, I can't even claim that I appreciated the book for the random information and trivia it might offer.

I guess an OK-ish read to pass the time, but lacks some substance...

[Jennifer Daniel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poorly written and full of mis-information. It is somewhat alarming that I am so well schooled in Ripper lore that I can spot mistakes this easily.

[Matthew Gurteen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was, for the most part, well written and illustrated. It is rare for me to give a book on Jack the Ripper five stars, but this had the healthy scepticism and heavy list of referencing to make that possible. It was let down, however, by constant repetition and lack of detail in writing. This book could have been half the length and still conveyed the same information, so I have to half my rating. I like the concept of highlighting names in bold for future reference, but Mike Holgate is inconsistent in his use of this throughout the book. He says the same few sentences for just over one hundred pages, and I am not sure why. I do not know what the purpose of this book was. Overall, I would not usually recommend Ripper books to people anyway, and I definitely cannot recommend this one.

[Sunayana · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was okay. I guess I was expecting more on the murders and the situations and less on the everyday goings of the suspects. The only interesting part for me was about the royal family and their doings which let me to more external reading on them.

[Leanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

You have to be very interested in the Jack the Ripper case to really enjoy this book. Each chapter read the exact same to me. I did learn a few intersting facts about disease and the way of life in general. I'm going to do some follow up research to verify.