Jack the Ripper: The Simple Truth [Paperback]

Bruce Paley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1997

The identity of the most notorious murderer of all time has long remained a mystery. After 12 years of research, Bruce Paley believes he has uncovered the real face behind the chilling murders of Jack the Ripper. In this book, Paley presents the evidence he has collected and identifies his suspect.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Trafalgar Square Publishing (January 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0747252181
• ISBN-13: 978-0747252184
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,455,652 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Paley - 2 Cornwell - 0 (Halftime), February 11, 2003

By 

W. R. Smith "bladerunner20902" (Falls Church, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jack the Ripper: The Simple Truth (Paperback)

Written some seven years prior to Patricia Cornwell's book, "Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper - Case Closed," Bruce Paley's attempt to solve for "x" is the better of the two works.

Paley asked himself a simple question, one that some Ripperologists had overlooked through the years. How could Mary Jane Kelly's on and off again suitor (lover?), Joseph Barnett, have been treated so easily by authorities in the wake of Kelly's slaughter, Friday, November 9, 1888?

After all, Barnett was with Kelly, Thursday night, November 8, even though the two had "separated," Tuesday, October 30 after some 20 months together. He didn't like what she was doing with her body - alcohol and prostitution - and had told her so with some vigor. Barnett did not care for Mary Jane's "friends" and had heatedly told her so. The two had argued these points, among others, shortly after Barnett lost his job as a fish-porter and the arguments continued through October 30.

Wouldn't Barnett have been a prime suspect? A prime "person of interest?" If so, how does he merit but one interview with The Yard, a patty-cake appearance at the inquest - where he did not exactly fare well -- and then walk? Good questions and Paley rolls up his sleeves, jumps in with both feet, and tries to answer those questions and more. This is a good book, but is it the definitive piece on the identity of Jack the Ripper? Maybe. Put it this way -- Barnett is more of a suspect than is Walter Sickert. (But that's another story.)

This is a good, brisk read and Paley's East End, London, 1888 feels perfect. His research is top notch, the book has chapter sources and notes although I wish he'd put the notes right at the end of each chapter. There are two sets of photo/map/diagram inserts and, while most of this has been seen many times before, the map of East London should have been put at the front of the book. On this one map we see the known addresses of Barnett, 1858 - 1888, the murder sites of five Ripper victims and the victims' addresses around the time of their deaths. It is a compelling visual.

Paley's Appendix I could also have been placed at the front of the book. Here we read why Barnett fits the mould of Jack the Ripper, how Barnett fits the mould of the serial killer and the results of the Ripper Project. "The stated aim of the Ripper Project was to find a solution to the Jack the Ripper murders through the application of modern scientific detection techniques." Good stuff and I won't spoil your read with further detail.

Over the years a composite of Saucy Jack has emerged and the reader will have to determine whether or not Barnett fills the bill. Among the particulars -

* The Ripper was an otherwise ordinary White male, able and fit, some 26 to 36 years old.
* He was an employed blue collar worker and an East End resident who knew some or all of his victims.
* Jack may well have known some or all of the beat policemen within the Whitechapel section of London.
* He was educated, fairly well read, and could have gone higher within the British school system but did not for whatever reasons.
* He was a Pub crawler and probably a regular at The Ten Bells.
* Jack loathed prostitution and considered himself to be religious.
* He may have been a regular churchgoer.

Paley may be right. And yet.

Has Paley cleared the bar? Has he shown definitively that an otherwise unremarkable Londoner turned into an armed savage for a brief period, 1888?

You be the judge.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Secret History, December 5, 1999

By 

"strummer7" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jack the Ripper: The Simple Truth (Paperback)

Propelled by unexpected information released to the public under the 100-Year law, this book explains why the Ripper stole the heart of his last victim, and why he killed so many others. With these compelling deductions, the list of suspects is reduced to exactly one: Joseph Barnett, the spurned lover of Mary Jane Kelly, the final Ripper victim. Although the factual evidence for his hypothesis is small, the author deftly makes his case. This book is the kind of history that, if it's not true, it *should* be: it's just too good a tale. By rights it should be a movie by now: a more striking answer for the Ripper riddle has never been made. First-time readers would do better to read Sugden's unsurpassed "Complete History of Jack the Ripper", but those familiar with the case will find this book to be irresistibly insightful.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best Case Made Yet, September 14, 2000

By 

pmdjn (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jack the Ripper: The Simple Truth (Paperback)

I stopped buying Ripper books after reading this. Paley really does a great job at succinctly packaging the evidence against Barnett --motive, profile-- and, most importantly, what I consider to be the closest thing to a smoking gun in all of the Ripper suspect cases -- the missing key to the last victim's... Barnett's girlfriend's... bedroom. And I disagree with those who say that the profiling is too widely matching; there are just too many characteristics. My only problem with the case -- and with the book -- is that I am not convinced by Paley's assertions that cleaning fish gave Barnett the neccessary "Ripper" skills. Maybe it did, but Paley was weak in making the case for that. Otherwise, very, very good detecting --and great, tight writing-- indeed.