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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 **
X v. Rex
Casebook Message Boards: Ripper Media: Specific Titles:
Fiction :
X v. Rex
Author: Stewart P Evans
Sunday, 24 November 2002 - 04:23 pm |        | For many years past I have been bugged that I have been unable to identify a book I owned as a teenager. All I could recall was that it was a novel that was a Jack the Ripper story with a policeman obsession. 'X' the unknown killer was striking down police officers on the streets and creating a Ripper-like panic. The cover of the book, a paperback, had a striking picture of a policeman's helmet lying on the ground with blood spatters next to it.
I could not find this book in the standard bibliographies, but without the title or author's name to go on it was difficult to know where to start. Just over a week ago I picked up a Penguin paperback X v. Rex by Philip MacDonald published in 1955. Although the cover was the plain green and white of the Penguin crime series I immediately recognised that it was the book I had been seeking for many years.
The publishing details in the book showed that it was originally published in 1933 and that the author used, at that time, the pseudonym Martin Porlock. Armed with this information I again checked my 'Alexander Kelly' Ripper bibliography. The book was there, on page 135, not listed as X v. Rex, its English title, but as Mystery of the Dead Police, Doubleday, New York, 1933. The entry merely stated "Barnard lists it as Ripper-derived."
A little more searching revealed that the edition I had owned as a teenager was published in 1965 by Mayflower Dell as X v. Rex. Needless to say I had to have that edition. I have just located a copy and here is the well-remembered cover illustration-
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Author: Christopher T George
Sunday, 24 November 2002 - 07:42 pm | | Hi, Stewart:
Congratulations on a successful end to your search, Stewart. It is always nice to tie up a loose end, isn't it? Thanks for sharing this titbit of Ripper lore with us.
All the best
Chris |
Author: Guy Hatton
Monday, 25 November 2002 - 06:20 am | | Stewart -
I take it you were undeterred in your career choice by the cover illustration!  For my part, I wish I could remember where it was I first read about Jack the Ripper. I thought it might have been in the 1960-something Collins Encyclopedia which still resides in my mother's house, but when I got a chance to check, the content of the article didn't ring any specific bells. I did notice, however, that the entry was penned by none other than Donald McCormick. Needless to say, the stated opinion on the most likely suspects was somewhat - how can I put it? - erratic?
Cheers
Guy |
Author: Stewart P Evans
Monday, 25 November 2002 - 09:26 am | | Guy,
This wasn't the first book I read that referred to Jack the Ripper. I had already bought the factual books by Cullen and Odell published that same year. However, it was back in the late-1950's when I read the Metropolitan Police Ripper letter poster in the Chamber of Horrors at Madame Tussaud's that the name first intrigued me.
When McCormick wrote his book The Identity of Jack the Ripper, London, Jarrolds, 1959, it was the first 'factual' book wholly devoted to the case since William Stewart's 1939 book. The intervention of WWII undoubtedly suppressed popular interest in the murders for the duration of the war and immediate post-war years. Colin Wilson, in his 1961 Encyclopedia of Murder, stated:-
"The most authoritative book written to date on the murders is The Identity of Jack the Ripper by Donald McCormick. After describing the murders with a great deal of attention to detail, Mr McCormick then offers his own theory, which is to the effect that the Ripper was a Russian named Pedachenko..."
There was, perhaps, a little too much attention to detail in that McCormick invented a lot of what he wrote. In those days all he had to draw upon were the previous books, mainly Matters and Stewart, and the press reports. The official records had not been released. It resulted in McCormick being regarded as the authority on the case for many years and his book was frequently quoted from. He updated it, as we know, in 1970 in order to address the books by Cullen and Odell. These were the heady pre-Royal conspiracy theory years and there can be little doubt that Colin Wilson was the chief motivator for that popular theory.
Best Wishes,
Stewart |
Author: David O'Flaherty
Monday, 25 November 2002 - 12:04 pm | | Stewart,
You haven't told us whether you would recommend "X v. Rex."
I feel like I've had you on the brain lately--possibly I'm due for a vacation from my Ripper reading. Surely I saw a clip of you on a recent History Channel program about the explosion which killed Joseph P. Kennedy in 1944? The footage of you appeared from the 70s, and you were discussing the wreckage of Kennedy's plane. I didn't know you had an interest in this area.
Best,
Dave |
Author: Stewart P Evans
Monday, 25 November 2002 - 02:05 pm | | Dave,
Thanks for that, surely you can find better things to have on the brain than me?
It is so long since I read X v. Rex that I'll have to read it again before giving an opinion.
Yes, you did see a clip of me talking about the wreckage of Joe Kennedy Jr's PB4Y Liberator that exploded over Suffolk in August 1944. I found some of the wreckage and it hit the international news in 1972. I appeared on TV and in many of the papers both here and in the USA.
I was involved in aviation research at the time and it was a little later that I contacted Jimmy Stewart who was a B-24 Liberator pilot over here with the US 8th AAF in WWII. I was lucky enough to meet with Jimmy in 1976, he was a great guy.
Best Wishes,
Stewart |
Author: Howard Brown
Monday, 25 November 2002 - 04:54 pm | | | Mr.Evans.....Are you of the opinion had Joe Kennedy Jr.,NOT been killed in WW2,he may well have been President of the US,or at least groomed for it? Thank you...HB |
Author: Ivor Edwards
Monday, 25 November 2002 - 06:53 pm | | | Howard, Kennedy was sent on a suicide mission to the coast of France.The Germans had constructed a large super gun (with the help of slave labour ) which was dug into a massive underground shaft on the coast of France. This gun was intended to fire large calibre shells over the channel to England.The plane Kennedy was flying was packed with high explosive and his mission was to guide the plane to the target and then bail out at the last minute. For some unknown reason the plane blew up shortly after take off.Kennedy's father Joseph had indeed intended Joe Jr to run for President. A memorial to Joe Kennedy Jr can be found today on the remains of the gun site in France.The British dropped their large earth quake bomb (which was designed by Barnes Wallis of Dambuster fame ) onto the site and destroyed it.The bomb drilled straight through the concrete casing at the top of the underground building and went through many concrete floor levels before exploding 100ft below ground.I got to know Barnes Wallis after attending his lectures on supersonic flight while he was working at Weybridge and as an aircraft and bomb designer he was second to none.He got quite annoyed when people asked him for his autograph because he had no time for such things. |
Author: Stewart P Evans
Tuesday, 26 November 2002 - 04:46 am | | Howard, I think that there is little doubt that the Kennedy family was grooming the eldest son, Joe Jr., for stardom and to run for President. The secret US Navy 'Anvil' mission that Joe was flying, with his co-pilot Wilford 'Bud' Willy, brought an automatic Navy Cross award. Joe was aware that his younger brother, John, had already become something of a Navy hero and had been decorated for his exploits in PT-109.
The excellent summary by Ivor above outlines the mission Joe was flying. Fascinating to hear that you met Barnes Wallis, Ivor. Kennedy and Willy were supposed to set the explosive-laden Navy Liberator on remote control to accompanying aircraft and then bail out over Manston Airfield in Kent. While flying at 2,000 feet over East Suffolk, testing the control systems, the 21,570 lbs. of Torpex high explosive on board the drone Liberator exploded blowing men and machine to pieces. The cause was believed to be that a stray radio signal had armed the detonation system causing a solenoid to over-heat and start a fire. The intended target was the V-3 (super gun) site at Mimoyecques in the Pas de Calais.
Joe and Bud won their Navy Crosses, but posthumously. |
Author: Ivor Edwards
Tuesday, 26 November 2002 - 01:50 pm | | | Hi Stewart, Many thanks for the finer details about the mission which I was unaware of. I watched a programme on the History Channel about the V3 site in France only weeks ago and the damage caused to it by that one bomb was tremendous. Sad to say that rather a lot of slave labour workers were killed in the process. |
Author: Howard Brown
Tuesday, 26 November 2002 - 10:12 pm | | | Thanks Mr. Evans and Senor Edwards ! |
Author: Esther Wilson
Wednesday, 27 November 2002 - 11:27 am | | I'm glad you were able to find your book Stewart. If you do re-read it and recommend it to us I'll be sure to try and find a copy myself. 
Esther |
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