Interpreting the Ripper Letters: Missed Clues and Reflections on Victorian Society [Hardcover]

In the autumn of 1888, a series of grisly murders took place in Whitechapel in Londons East End, the Abyss, the Ghetto, the City of Eternal Night. The Whitechapel murderer, arguably the first of his kind, was never caught but the killings gave rise to the best known pen-name in criminal history  Jack the Ripper.The Whitechapel killer was terrifyingly real but Jack was the creation of Fleet Street, the gallows humor of a newspaper hack whose sole aim in life was to sell newspapers. And where the Dear Boss letter, with its trade name signature led, thousands followed.This book is not about the worlds first serial killer but about the sick, the perverted, the twisted souls who put pen to paper purporting to be the killer or suggested ever more lurid ways in which he could be caught. Innocent men were put in the frame by Victorian troublemakers who would be perfectly at home with todays internet trolls, pointing cruel fingers in almost perfect anonymity.The book takes the lid off Victorian mindsets, exposing a dark and unnatural place as topsy-turvy as that inhabited by the killer himself.In the autumn of 1888, a series of grisly murders took place in Whitechapel in Londons East End, the Abyss, the Ghetto, the City of Eternal Night. The Whitechapel murderer, arguably the first of his kind, was never caught but the killings gave rise to the best known pen-name in criminal history  Jack the Ripper.This is the first book to analyse the motivation behind the writing of Ripper letters.Re-evaluate the mindset of Victorians in response to the Whitechapel murders.Investigates the likelihood of letters written by the murderer himself by comparison with other serial killers  Neill Cream, the Zodiac, Son of Sam.Investigates handwriting analysis and artwork.Exposes several myths about the provenance of Ripper correspondence.GB