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This article originally appeared in Ripper Notes. Ripper Notes is the only American Ripper periodical available on the market, and has quickly grown into one of the more substantial offerings in the genre. For more information, view our Ripper Notes page. Our thanks to the editor of Ripper Notes for permission to reprint this article.
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Paul Begg is a noted British researcher, writer and author. His major credits include Jack the Ripper: The Uncensored Facts and co-authorship of The Jack the Ripper A to Z, now in its third edition. Paul has spent numerous hours aiding andcorresponding with fellow reseachers and enthusiasts, alike on various forums and in many capacities. His greatest appeal would be his common sense approach to the case, his knowledgeful insight, and his "down to earth" demeanor.
A Talk with Paul Begg
by Chris George
The following interview with Ripper author Paul
Begg was carried out by e-mail under difficult circumstances. As
some of you may know, Paul was rushed into the hospital in late
March. The interview was literally completed by Paul from his
hospital bed. - CG
CG: Paul, when did you
first get interested in Jack?
PB: I don’t really
know when I first became interested in Jack the Ripper. I recall
seeing Francis Camps being interviewed on a TV program called 24-Hours
back in 1966 and I was already sufficiently aware of the
mystery to buy Donald McCormick’s book from Lears bookshop
in my home town of Cardiff in 1970 and for the still to be
surpassed six-part BBC Television series Jack the Ripper
in 1973 to be essential viewing. By that time, I was buying
Ripper books as soon as they appeared on the shelves of the local
bookshops, and, as I’ve said elsewhere, I began to notice
minor discrepancies in the various accounts. I went to the local
library and began reading newspaper accounts of the crimes,
noticing the wealth of information which had been omitted from
the books. Nothing major, just small details or variant accounts.
CG: What prompted you to
write your 1988 book, Jack the Ripper: The Uncensored Facts?
PB: I was particularly
interested in Mary Jane Kelly [the fifth canonical victim]. As I
said earlier, I am Welsh, from Cardiff. Kelly had Welsh
connections and had been introduced to prostitution while living
with her cousin in Cardiff (or so she claimed). So she interested
me. I did odd bits or research here and there, compiling a fairly
detailed chronology for her, and entertained the idea of doing
something of the same for the whole case. The eventual result was
Jack the Ripper: The Uncensored Facts. I had been
nurturing a book about the Ripper for years and saw the Centenary
as a way of getting the book published. My purpose in writing The
Uncensored Facts was twofold. The books were increasingly
concerned with the theories. I wanted to do a book which
concentrated on the crimes themselves, in particular on the
police investigation because I thought it would be a good idea to
see what the police themselves thought. I also wanted to do a
book which established the facts and corrected the multitude of
small errors which had crept into the narratives, such as the
correct name of the discoverer of Nichol’s body, Charles
Cross, which had been erroneously given as George Cross (a
mistake made in The Times) and William Cross.
CG: How do you feel today
about The Uncensored Facts? Will it be published in a
revised edition?
PB: The Uncensored
Facts is now over a decade old. It is still a good source for
who saw and said what, where, and when, but it needs updating. As
of this moment, I am waiting to hear whether the publishers are
prepared to do publish an updated edition of the book.
CG: How did you meet your
co-authors on The Jack the Ripper A to Z, Keith Skinner
and Martin Fido?
PB: My research for The
Uncensored Facts introduced me to Keith and Martin, both of
whom were very helpful, making all their research material
available to me. The desire to use the information we had
researched but had not been able to use led Keith and I to
collaborate on a book called The Scotland Yard Files and
it was while I was having lunch with the editor at Headline that
I half jokingly mentioned the idea I’d had for A to Z.
By the time we had finished lunch, the book was sold pending
signatures on a contract. I walked away from that meeting on a
cloud, but with each step my heart became more leaden as the
enormity of the task struck me. I’d not given a thought to
whether Martin or Keith might not want to collaborate.
Fortunately they did. In fact, Martin was on the phone to me
before I’d even had chance to ask him! A to Z came
about because we had realized the need for a ready reference book
to give quick and easy access to basic information such as names,
dates, and places. In our own research, we had acquired a lot of
information which we hadn’t been able to use in our books.
We wanted to use it and the A to Z seemed a good place to
publish this material.
CG: Paul, you recently
stated on the Casebook: Jack the Ripper message boards,
"The more you look into this subject, the more complicated
it becomes. And the more you think you know, the less you really
understand. I suppose that is its perennial fascination."
[Reply to David M. Radka, February 17, 1999]. Based on this
statement, do you find that the "World of Jack," so to
speak, to be much more complicated than you had earlier thought?
Has compilation of A to Z proved to be a more daunting
task than you anticipated when you and your co-authors conceived
of such a volume?
PB: I don’t think we
were under any illusions when we undertook the compilation of The
Jack the Ripper A to Z, so it wasn’t more daunting than
we’d imagined. In fact, it was probably easier than we had
expected. Updating the book is far more difficult. It is tough
keeping up with the new information and fresh interpretations
emerging these days. When we began the A to Z there was no
Ripperana, no Ripperologist, no Whitechapel
Journal, no Cloak and Dagger Club, no Ripper Notes, no
Casebook: Jack the Ripper web site. Each of these provides
an outlet for new information, speculation, thoughts, and ideas
which impact on the multiple entries in the A to Z. And
then there are all the new books on the Ripper. Ten years ago, a
new book on the Ripper was an occasion and we really thought
there would be a few lean years after the eight new books which
appeared at the time of the Centenary. Amazingly, since 1988,
there have been thirty new books. At this present time, I know of
three or four new books to add to the two or three we’ve
already seen in 1999. They all contain new information. The fresh
information all has to be collated, which makes updating A to
Z all the more difficult.
CG: I was surprised to
read in Martin Fido's "The Cases of Montague John
Druitt" (Ripperologist no. 8), that your publisher,
Headline, has put space constraints on A to Z. Specifically,
Martin wrote: "One constant regret felt by the authors of
the A to Z is the space limitation imposed by our
publishers' commercial judgement. We want to include more and
more results of ongoing research--our own and other people's.
Headline has a book they feel has reached its optimum viable
length. For everything new we put in, something old has to come
out. And new information has to be presented as concisely as
possible." Paul, while we should not be surprised at the
publishers' pragmatism, it comes as somewhat of a shock that for
a reference work that we might assume becomes more inclusive over
time, and better, you might have to leave out some good material
in favor of new material. Your comment on this situation?
PB: Headline has indeed
stated that the book has reached its optimum viable length [at
around 530 pp all told]. Although we have been allowed a few
extra pages for each revision, new information can only go in if
we take information out. So far, we have been able to do this by
tightening up the writing, trying to eliminating repetitive
information, jettisoning personal comment, and so on.
There’s still the opportunity to tighten up further. For
example, we can remove some entries about Ripper movies and
ephemera--which I would personally be sad to lose.
I wish to
acknowledge the help of Andy Aliffe and Adam Wood of the Cloak
and Dagger Club for transmitting the text of Paul’s
interview to us, and to Dave Yost for helping to formulate the
list of questions to ask. Last, all of us at Ripper Notes
express our gratitude to Paul Begg for answering our questions in
spite of his travails. - CG
