Synopses & Reviews
The Jack the Ripper murders of 1888 continue to exert a macabre hold on the collective imagination of the masses more than a century later, and this book, the result of extensive research, sheds some light on them. Among the first serial murders, their brutality and bizarreness begged questions such as What kind of person could have performed such horrific deeds? and How could they not have been caught by the huge police effort? The book offers keen insight into Victorian London and its policing as it follows the investigations of the infamous murders. Arguing that many unresolved questions could be answered if Jack was in reality a woman, this bold account names a suspect and explains why the murders stopped.
Synopsis
The Jack the Ripper murders of 1888 - bizarre, brutal and the subject of a storm of media attention - continue to exert a macabre hold on the imagination. There were no witnesses, and no descriptions for the police, or the media, to work with. All the victims were women, their bodies horrifically mutilated; the assumption was drawn that the Ripper was a man.
Jack the Ripper: The Hand of a Woman, the result of extensive research by John Morris and his late father, answers the many unresolved questions about the murders, arguing that 'Jack' was, in fact, a woman. The clues are all there in the evidence: the victims were not sexually assaulted, not frenziedly slashed by a madman - but deliberately, precisely mutilated. Perhaps the biggest clue of all: the victims' uteri were carefully removed - in 26 other murders of this type, all have been committed by women. John Morris not only identifies these key elements, but also presents the case against the individual woman he believes to be the killer, and the true Ripper.
Includes 20 black & white illustrations.
John Morris is a retired solicitor from Wales. He now lives in Greystones, Co. Wicklow, and works for the Carlyle Institute in Dublin. This is his first book.
About the Author
John Morris is a legal consultant specializing in immigration.