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** This is an archived, static copy of the Casebook messages boards dating from 1998 to 2003. These threads cannot be replied to here. If you want to participate in our current forums please go to https://forum.casebook.org **
Life and Times of Jack the Ripper, The (Sugden)
Casebook Message Boards: Ripper Media: Specific Titles:
Non-Fiction:
Life and Times of Jack the Ripper, The (Sugden)
Author: Stephen P. Ryder
Thursday, 19 November 1998 - 12:59 am |        | This little gem seems to have slipped past the attention of many Ripper-collectors, and undeservedly so. Though only 68 pages in length and little larger than 3" x 5", The Life and Times of Jack the Ripper succeeds nonetheless in providing a brief overview of some of the more important aspects of the case, including the murders themselves (the brunt of the book), some of the Ripper letters, social conditions, police investigations, and a handful of suspects (including recent ones such as Tumblety and Maybrick).
Authored by Philip Sugden, whose book The Complete History of Jack the Ripper is currently held by many to be the definitive account of the crimes, the book provides a coherent read from start to finish. Unhappily, there are errors in the text.. more than should be expected in such a compact work. A quick run through the book unveils at least three spelling/printing mistakes, suggesting the book was thrown together rather quickly by Siena. They do slow the reader, but Sugden's scholarly writing style more than compensates.
Illustrations include mortuary photographs of the five canonical victims, some site locations, and suspect photographs. Sugden wisely uses the same Police News backdrop for the front cover as he used on the cover of his Complete History, making for an attractive exterior (something all too often lacking in the Ripper literature). |
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