23. 12/23/09 The Complete History of Jack the Ripper by Philip Sugden (471 pages)

I think this really all began before I was writing my reviews in a blog, so I probably need to explain it. I get fixated on things, subjects, ideas. When that happens, I need to get more information. Wikipedia works really well in the short term, but lots of times, that just isn't enough. Also, it isn't always true. Sadie calls them Research Projects, and is usually a good sport about hearing Important Facts About Leprosy (or Polygamy or Sherlock Holmes or 30s Yeggs...you get the idea). So last summer I read From Hell by Alan Moore, and it was really excellent, and scared the bejeesus out of me. Those scary panels with no words where men go in and out of Mary Kelly's room in the dark...ugh. There's an image I can't shake. Anyway, after the fictionalized version that blames Dr. William Gull, a prince, Queen Victoria, and the freemasons, I needed to get solid information on that most notorious of serial killers, Jack the Ripper (and an old episode of Histories Mysteries just wasn't cutting it). It turned out that when Anna took criminology in college they studied him, so she had some books. I started with Patricia Cornwall's Portrait of a Killer, in all honesty because it looked like an easier, quicker read.
When that book had come out, I really bought into her theory. It seemed well researched, and like it fit in all of the details. The more I read of the book, however, the less I believed it. Lets just say that Ms. Cornwall didn't come off as scholarly or throrough and leave it at that. So then Anna gave me The Complete History of Jack the Ripper, which she also had from criminiology class. It took me a while to get through this one- it was a lot bigger, with a lot more footnotes and a lot smaller print.
Thorough and disturbing, I had to keep taking breaks between chapters and read it only during daylight hours to prevent being totally freaked out when I went to bed at night. It was exhaustively research, with lots of primary source material to back up Sugden's findings. I believe him a lot more than I do Patricia Cornwall, but the worst part of the whole thing was that after 471 pages the author still couldn't honestly reach a conclusion. That makes me respect him as an author and historian, but it makes me NUTS. I want to know who did it! The fact that Sugden points the finger at the man he considers to be the least unlikely suspect is honest and emotionally unsatisfying for me. On the upside, I think this exhaustive study has take care of my JTR fixation for the moment, although you know I'll go on the creepy tour the next time I get to London.