Why I Am Not a Lawyer or Judge
Categories: Mystery & Suspense , Nonfiction , Horror & Supernatural
When did Jack the Ripper commit his crimes? 1608? 1749? 1888? 1922? Why do we all sort of know who he was? Until I started looking him (or them) up, I hadn't a clue. In fact, the killer (or killers) commited the crimes in 1888-1981, almost sort of within living memory of those people in the 118-year-old age range who remember their babyhoods well.
After reading Patricia Cornwell's Case Closed, I had no doubt in my mind that artist Walter Sickert was the guilty one. And then I read that Sickert is not in fact even one of the more seriously considered suspects by Ripperites. Wikipedia says Sickert was in France during the time of a lot of the murders.
A Wikipedia writer ominously comments that it is actually hard to tell which murder victims are Jack the Ripper's work, since there were many brutal and horrific murders of women during this period of time.
The serial killer section is in the Education and Religion department on the second floor. It's kind of hard to find, being close to the department's outside wall. The call numbers for the serial-killer books are generally in the 364 range.
Like all self-respecting libraries, PLCH has plenty of Jack the Ripper books. Some are credible (The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Companion gets high marks); and some are sort of not (The American Murders of Jack the Ripper).
- Jack the Ripper, by Natalie M. Rosinski
- The American Murders of Jack the Ripper, by Michael R. Gordon
- Jack the Ripper and the London Press, By Lewis Perry
- Jack the Ripper: an Encyclopedia, by John J. Eddleston
- The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Companion: an Illustrated Encyclopedia, by Stewart P. Evans.
I don't know about you, but as soon as I'm done tracking down the anthrax killer (I've got him narrowed down to a specific security guard at a Trenton, NJ, hospital where anthrax was apparently being studied) I'm going to get behind this Jack the Ripper stuff.
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On an unrelated note, the library also has copies of Jeffrey Dahmer's father's book about his son, A Father's Story.
