Product Details

• Actors: Tom Baker, Martyn Whitby, Michael Winner
• Directors: Chris Short, Martin Howells
• Writers: Martin Howells
• Producers: Laurence Ronson, Michele Kimche, Paul Feldman
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Image Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: March 16, 1999
• Run Time: 79 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305301727
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #171,959 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Diary of Jack the Ripper" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

In the 1890s in London, several prostitutes were murdered in ways so grisly and brutal that it terrorized the city's entire populace. Though the latest investigative techniques of the time were used, the murderer was never caught or even positively identified. The killer sent taunting letters to the police and newspapers, identifying himself as "Jack the Ripper," and the name has stuck for the past 100-plus years, even as Jack's true identity has been left to conjecture and speculation. In 1991, the murderer's purported diaries were uncovered, pointing toward middle-class Londoner James Maybrick as the man behind the killings. The Diary of Jack the Ripper retraces the killer's steps through dramatizations, while various experts assess and discuss the veracity of the diaries through handwriting examination, paper and ink analysis, and such. Though the evidence falls just short of nailing down Maybrick as the murderer, all the information does point in the direction of the drug-addicted man as the culprit. The diary contains information that could only be known to those on the inside of the cases. Where The Diary of Jack the Ripper falls short, though, is in its execution. The cheap-looking videotape dramatizations do little to capture the squalor of the Victorian London slums or the character of Maybrick himself. On the other hand, the film relies far too much on the rather gaseous commentary of various English talking-head historians and criminologists, who take an interesting topic and making it more like a classroom lecture. Still, true-crime enthusiasts should find plenty to like in this reexamination of one of the most notorious serial killers in history. --Jerry Renshaw

Product Description

After more than a century--out of the mists and fogs of Victorian London comes this astonishing new documentary. Reading from the infamous murderer's 63-page diary, a macabre record of obsession, horror and madness, Jack the Ripper's own words are the basis for this dramatized analysis, overturning all previous theories and investigations.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ...yours truly..., January 3, 2002

By 

rocky-o ('peripheral view') - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Diary of Jack the Ripper (DVD)

One of the main reasons I give this video five stars is that this truly unique video doesn't try to exploit the idea of the diary's existance...in fact, it tends to discourage it's viability, and with the semi-plausible/almost laughable excuse for the diary's possesion, and if it weren't for the timeline, i would even suggest that the 'possesor' was also the guilty party...however, with this being impossible, we must accept the possibility that this is indeed the diary of Jack...no one knows for sure, and even by the end of many repeat viewings, i have yet to come to a conclusion myself...but one conclusion i can draw is that this is one of the most fascinating cases of a video featuring 'talking heads' actually talking...you see every point of view, you're given facts, both pro and con, and even if you are an afficienado of the ripper tales, i guarantee you will still get more insights,not to mention that slight chill up your spine....

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More of an expose of human nature, September 17, 2005

By 

it (Sunnyvale, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Diary of Jack the Ripper (DVD)

What is most interesting about this video is the way different journalist sift the evidence.

There are two key items in the presentation:

1. A British government department did a forensic examination and dated the diary at the time of the murders.

2. Things described in the diary were kept secret by the police until recently.

The only conclusion that comes from these two facts is that the diary was written by either Jack or one of the few police detectives that knew the facts at that time.

14 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An OK Video About a Truly Dubious Diary, April 28, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Diary of Jack the Ripper (DVD)

I had never heard of the alleged diary before renting the video and I must say that it was an interesting diversion, but I felt almost guilty after watching it. Over and over again the document in question was treated as something actually written by Maybrick--something for which there is no evidence and something the man cannot come back from the grave and denounce.

I don't know a lot about the Ripper case, but I am a student of hoaxes and this alleged diary simply screams "hoax." Just some of the more obvious points:

1. We are told by one of the experts that little ink from Victorian days survives because ink evaporates and therefore, the ink used for the document was either genuine or would have to have been carefully recreated by an expert. Such is not the case, however. The fluid evaporates but the pigment does not. All one would need to do is add water to a bottle of dried pigment.

2. The handwriting not only doesn't match that of the Ripper or what is said to be Maybrick's writing, but is simply too modern in execution to be authentic. It lacks the characteristic flourishes that Victorians would have used even in informal writing. I was amused by the handwriting expert they consulted, as graphology is a pseudoscience on par with astrology. There simply is no logical basis for the statements she makes (example: a T with an elongated cross being a sign that the writer likes games).

3. The documentary holds that the word "Jewes" scrawled on the wall near one of the victims could also be read "James"--as in James Maybrick. This is offered as proof of his cleverness. Problem is that a pun has to make grammatical sense and this one doesn't.

4. Much is made of the supposition that Maybrick was a drug addict and consequently, ripe for schizophrenic behavior. Given that cocaine and opiates were available over-the-counter, lots of people would have fit that description. If legions of addicts did not commit such crimes under the influence of drugs, why would this one man have committed them?

5. The explanation that the missing pages in the diary were removed out of angst was ludicrous. It is far more likely the hoaxer found an old ledger that had been filled part way and simply ripped out the pages that had writing on them. The fact that the missing pages all preceded the "Ripper" text would seem to bear this out.

6. "Ha-ha" written in various places was a literary touch that a deranged person writing an actual diary would most likely not have used--but it certainly is in keeping with somebody wanting to sound deranged for their readership.

7. The composites of the Ripper looked nothing like the photos of Maybrick--the tip of the nose was entirely different! The only similarity was that both had a husky face and mustache, which is enough to implicate half the men in London at the time.

8. All of the references in the diary are old news. Again and again the documentary tried to prove its thesis by matching facts of the Ripper case to the diary, when it is the diary that seems to have been written to match the facts of the Ripper case.

These are just some of the obvious flaws in the Ripper Diary story--dozens of others cropped up while I was watching the video. It wasn't long before the whole thing took on a Shroud of Turin or Chariots of Fire feeling that made the documentary more of a shlockumentary. What is really sad, when you think about it, is that the name of yet another man who can't defend himself is being dragged through the Ripper gore.