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From Hell: Being a Melodrama in Sixteen Parts, Vol. 7

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"This is the place
where the world ended,
here in this mean ground-floor flat
just off Dorset Street,
more than a century agao.
This is the bed, and the knife, and the candle stub.
This is the rag that nung
over the window.
This is the kettle that melted to slag on the hearth.

This is the woman, and this is the man.
On this night. In this room.

After that, only fire. Only ritual."

Volume Seven of "From Hell: Being a Melodrama in Sixteen Parts" by writer Alan Moore and artist Eddie Campbell contains only one part of the award-winning Jack the Ripper graphic novel (there are ten volumes in all). "Chapter Ten: The Best of All Tailors" covers the murder of murder of Mary Jane Kelly (A.K.A.. Marie Jeanette Kelly, Mary Ann Kelly, Ginger) at 13 Miller's Court on the night of November 9, 1888. The title of the chapter comes from a rhyme that was reported to be the favorite rhyme of William Withey Gull, the physician that Moore casts as Jack the Ripper in this narrative: "If I were a tailor I'd make it my pride / The best of all tailors to be / And if I were a tinker, no tinker beside / Should mend an old kettle like me."

The point Moore makes with the title is, of course, ironic, for the murder of Mary Kelly is considered the last of the recognized Ripper killings (the exact number of victims is in dispute among fervent Ripperologists) and was unique in that it was committed inside the small room where Kelly lived. Because he was not outside where he could be interrupted, as was believed to have happen with Elizabeth Stride on September 30, the Ripper was able to engage in mutilations beyond the scope of what he had done with his prostitute victims to date. In fact, one of the reasons Mary Kelly's murder was assumed to be the last by Jack the Ripper is that it was seen as the climax of his escalating mutilation of his victims. Consequently, Moore's point would be that this was the Ripper's grotesque masterpiece representing his horrific "best." There is an additional irony in that the rhyme mentions a kettle and the cover art for Volume Eight of "From Hell" pictures the melted kettle they found in the fireplace of Kelly's room.

Throughout the "From Hell" series Moore provides an Appendix at the back of each volume in which he notes his supporting evidence and the dramatic liberties he has taken in constructing his narrative argument. There are also some fanciful elements to the story, but they do little to mitigate the horror of what is being depicted. But for this chapter he finds such notes "almost unnecessary, given the singular and specific nature of the event described and the relatively brief span of time over which the said event took place." Moore admits speculation on the order of the mutilation but notes the existing evidence and spends most of his time explaining his trails of thought that led him to depict the murder in this particular fashion.

Moore also points out that the depiction here is a close as he can get to a portrayal of what might have happened on that night, not only in that room but in the Ripper's mind, and that he certainly does not want to get any closer. "The Best of All Tailors" is the bloodiest chapter of "From Hell" and if this was a movie it would be NC-17 (the film adaptation of "From Hell" spared us the graphic details of Kelly's murder, even stopping the description of the police surgeon before it gets to the part that would give you nightmares for a week.

Through deduction, induction and abduction, Moore creates a compelling story and the fact that it is not what really happens has little to do with how much we enjoy "From Hell." Do I believe that Sir William Gull was indeed Jack the Ripper? No, I do not. I have heard many theories regarding his true identity that have been plausible, at least at face value, and I am more than willing to lead it to the knowledgeable experts to argue out their respective merits. But I was not reading "From Hell" to be convinced of the guilty or innocence of any one regarding the world's first infamous serial killer. I read it because as we have known ever since Alan Moore did his own take on the Swamp Thing, one of his greatest strengths as a writer is to make us look at old things in new ways.