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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 **
The Ripper in Literature
Casebook Message Boards: Ripper Media: General Discussion:
The Ripper in Literature
Author: chris zinger
Friday, 18 December 1998 - 06:20 am |        | This is my first visit to the site since an accidental happening-by shortly before its revamping, and I'll concur with just about everyone in saying the new format's a huge improvement. On to the subject, then...
I'm curious whether any of you experts out there have spotted bits of Ripper trivia floating up in the least likely literary places, or is this just too arcane a branch of pseudo-Ripperology to bring up for discussion here? An example of what I'm referring to that comes immediately to mind is the "Atrophied Preface" to "Naked Lunch" by William S. Burroughs, in which he repeatedly uses the phrases "just for jolly" and "wouldn't you?" from the "Dear Boss" letter (a fact neither Burroughs exegetes nor Ripper fans seem to have noted, much to my consternation). There are also several similar bits from the police record in Richard Grossman's "The Alphabet Man" Ð a really good "avant-garde" serial-killer-diary book to give as a Christmas gift to any "Maybrick Diary" boosters on your gift list who refuse to believe that anyone could "make up so authentic-feeling a document" (which isn't to say that I think it's a fake; frankly no one's convinced me, pro or con Ð yet).
So Ð anyone have anythin™Ðý="Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,Times" COLOR="#000000">Author: Yazoo
Monday, 21 December 1998 - 12:54 pm | | Hey, Chris,
I'd hoped you'd come back and complete your post as it is an interesting topic. Not being familar with JtR while reading Burroughs and others, I've never been "sensitized" to references.
This is slightly off your subject but there seems to be no way to add a title to the Fiction topic. I have some questions about some details in Marie Belloc Lowndes' "The Lodger." If anybody can shed light, I'd appreciate it.
In the scene where Ellen Bunting goes to the inquest, she sees a dapper journalist whom she recognizes from his being used in an advertising campaign for a "preparation for the hair" (page 136 of Oxford paperback, 1996). Does anyone recognize the journalist in the reference or is it a satirical, fictional reference?
Later, in the scene at Madame Tussaud's, the new Police Chief and his Paris equivalent are talking about "The Avenger" (Lowndes' name for JtR) being an escaped lunatic who stole the payroll from his asylum while he escaped. He also suffered from a "religious mania." Is this a reference to anyone in particular...specifically Prisoner 1167 of Tully's(?) book? Do the details of his mental condition and escape from Broadmoor match Lowndes' details? (I expect to get Tully's book soon...when I'll get a chance to read it is a different story)
And last, the lunatic is connected to similar "Avenger-style" (read: Ripper-style) murders in "Leipsic" (Leipzig) and Liverpool. Were there such murders prior to August 1888 in those cities? And was any one suspect arrested and either jailed or confined in an asylum for such crimes -- either in England or France, I'd guess?
Lowndes' book also makes much about the police and the Avenger all wearing rubber-soled shoes. It seems they were fairly common in 1888 or Lowndes is using an anachronistic fictional device. Somebody asked that question somewhere on the Casebook, I think.
Lowndes' book, if it can be shown that she fictionalized actual beliefs/practices/suspects/supposed-evidence of the time (she was working on a newspaper in 1888), she might provide good insights into what was in the minds of the police, press, and populace in 1888 -- both from documented sources and from an insider's perspective.
Thanks,
Yaz |
Author: D. Radka
Sunday, 30 May 1999 - 09:00 pm | | I was wondering if anyone here has experience with THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF JACK THE RIPPER. I've heard it is supposed to have fifteen different articles each advocating a different suspect, written by fifteen different people. Is it any good? Worth purchasing? Would someone be kind enough to please list the fifteen suspects here?
Thank you very much.
David |
Author: Christopher George
Sunday, 30 May 1999 - 09:31 pm | | Hi David:
Christopher-Michael DiGrazia has written a review of the Mammoth Book of JtR for "Ripper Notes" the new quarterly newsletter of Casebook Productions, Inc. See our website at http://business.fortunecity.com/all/138/ CMD gives it a mixed review. It ranges from good to absurd all within the same covers, and some of the best Ripperologists refused to contribute. See also my comments in regard to it on the diary board. Let me add that I did buy it and am finding it useful but it does have flaws so neither CMD nor I recommend it unreservedly.
Chris George |
Author: Alex Chisholm
Sunday, 30 May 1999 - 09:52 pm | | Hi David
Following on from the sage advice of Chris, while it may not be appropriate to reveal here whose Butler did what, perhaps a summary of the contents of 'The Mammoth Book of Jack the Ripper' might enable you to decide whether it is worth purchasing, or not.
In addition to "A Complete Chronology of the Whitechapel Murders"; "Just the Facts"; "Witness Statements"; Autopsy Reports"; "The 'Ripper Letters'"; "Police Views"; "Disputed Texts"; "Other Suspects"; "Other Victims?"; "Weather Report"; "Bibliography"; and "Filmography" the 'Current Views' consist of:
The Real Jack the Ripper, by William Beadle
How Jack the Ripper Saved the Whitechapel Murderer, by Mark Daniel
In Quest of Jack the Ripper, by Melvyn Fairclough
David Cohen and the Polish Jew Theory, by Martin Fido
Catch Me When You Can, by Paul Harrison
The Diary of Jack the Ripper, by Shirley Harrison
The Facts Speak For Themselves, by Bruce Paley
The Jack the Ripper Whitechapel Murders, by Sue and Andy Parlour
The Mad Doctor, by Gary Rowlands
The Way to Hell, by M. J. Trow
Was James Kelly 'Jack the Ripper', by James Tully
Jack the Ripper: Man or Myth, by Peter Turnbull
The Great Conspiracy, by Nick Warren
Guts 'n' Roses: The Coming Apocalypse of the Ripper Millennium, by Simon Whitechapel
Jack the Myth, by A. P. Wolf
A Lifetime in Ripperology, by Colin Wilson.
Best wishes
Alex |
Author: D. Radka
Tuesday, 01 June 1999 - 05:13 pm | | Thank you both very much. If it's got Martin Fido in it, I'll read it.
David |
Author: Rotter
Tuesday, 03 August 1999 - 12:44 am | | If you want to read "The Lodger" as well as other etexts (including East End author Thomas Burke, although not his Ripper-like story "The Pleasantries of Old Quong") go to the Gaslight website at:
http://www.mtroyal.ab.ca/programs/arts/english/gaslight/
Highly recommended! |
Author: Rotter
Tuesday, 03 August 1999 - 12:46 am | | | Sorry, I meant "The Hands of Mr. Ottermole" found in Burke's collection titled "The Pleasantries of Old Quong" or,US, "A Teashop in Limehouse." |
Author: posterboy
Friday, 07 January 2000 - 05:11 pm | | A nice picture courtesy of eBay
published by Richard K.Fox of "Police Gazette" fame |
Author: posterboy
Friday, 07 January 2000 - 05:12 pm | | A nice picture courtesy of eBay
published by Richard K.Fox of "Police Gazette" fame |
Author: Alegria Mendes
Wednesday, 17 May 2000 - 08:25 pm | | Hello to anyone who wanders here.
I have a question that's driving me batty. Ever since I became interested in JtR and began researching, there has been a doggerel bit of verse floating in the back of my brain. I have no idea where I read it originally but if I don't get it out of my head, I may snap. To exorcise it I need the poem in its entirety. Anyone who could help me figure this out would be much thanked. It goes something like this:
I'm not a (something, something)
Blah, blah blah
Nor, I a foreign skipper
I'm just your own true loving friend.
Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper.
Do not ask me why I have this in my head. There are stranger things than this floating around in there. |
Author: Ashling
Wednesday, 17 May 2000 - 10:56 pm | | Hi Aleqria:
It might be on the main menu of Casebook, I think Stephen has a section for the Letters sent to Scotland Yard. If the below isn't correct--blame Richard Wallace, I copied it off the back cover of his book.
"I'm not a butcher,
I'm not a Yid,
Nor yet a foreign skipper,
But I'm your own light-hearted friend,
Your's truly, Jack the Ripper."
Janice |
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