Introduction

Whether or not her husband was, in fact, Jack the Ripper, Florie Maybrick herself holds a certain notoriety in the annals of crime history. Even before the emergence of the infamous diary, her trial was the subject of many volumes of work, mostly pertaining to the allegations of gross incompetence and negligence displayed throughout the trial by the presiding Justice Stephen. Found guilty, sentenced to death, having had her sentence commuted to life imprisonment only days before her execution, and finally having been released after fifteen years, her story is a fascinating one in and of itself, and should be just as appealing to any crime historian as the story of the man her husband allegedly claimed to have been.

Prelude to the Trial