In the journalese of the time, he was called ‘the fiend’ and ‘the monster’. That was before an anonymous journalist invented the ‘trade name’ Jack the Ripper. In the 140 years since the Whitechapel murders, a whole industry has grown up discussing the tortuous issues of the case, spawning countless books, articles, documentaries, movies and even musicals.Hunting Jack has become a parlour game, today played out online and is a conspiracy theorists’ paradise. Ever more bizarre and unlikely theories are put forward to explain why one serial killer was never caught. The reality was that the police were inept, the public unhelpful and the murderer himself was extraordinarily lucky.Jack the Ripper: The First Suspects ignores the industry and goes back to basics. What was happening in the ‘autumn of terror’ 1888 when Jack struck? What sort of man were the police looking for? Who did they arrest, speak to, caution? Using police records from the time, the book pieces together the original investigation before fiction and make-believe took over.The Whitechapel murderer was not the first serial killer in history but his demented MO, his detailed knowledge of the killing fields, his speed and efficiency with the knife, left two major police forces floundering in his wake.
