Customer Reviews

The News from Whitechapel: Jack the Ripper in the Daily Telegraph

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The News from Whitechapel is an excellent treatise of the Ripper Murders and how the contemporary people of Victorian London heard and felt about the atrocities that occurred during the Autumn of 1888.
This virtual day-by-day account of the events related to the 5 Canonical Victims, not only fills the imagine about life at that time, but provides rational thought and insight into their deaths while correcting errors and mistakes reported by the contemporary press.
Many books on Jack the Ripper invariably try to name a suspect or are slanted toward a suspect - NFW authors (well known and respected in this area of study) deal only with the information at hand without grandstanding, wishfull conjectures, or ultimate disappointment.
Over 118 years ago, there were well over 100 newspapers circulating in London - some "penny pieces", some weekly periodicals, while some daily publications had large circulations - one even boasted having 1 Million Readers! Each talking about, reporting on, or relating stories pertaining to the murders - it was, after all, the OJ Simpson media sensation of their day!
The News from Whitechapel is well worth the read for the JtR novice or "expert" alike for its comprehensive and solid look at the murders, which have yet to be solved.
Highly recommended as a source companion for the experienced or as a solid foundation for the beginner.

In recent years the market has been glutted by books that claim to be the final word on Jack the Ripper's identity. (I haven't been convinced by any of them yet.) Once in awhile, however, we get a rare gem that just presents the known facts, without the author's pet theory ebbing below the surface. `The News from Whitechapel' is one of these.

You won't find any whispers of murderous Freemasons, homicidal artists, or syphilitic princes in this volume. `The News from Whitechapel' is a transcription of the Daily Telegraph's coverage of the Ripper crimes, accompanied by footnotes that cross-reference official sources such as Metropolitan Police files, explain terms that might not make sense to post-Victorian readers, and in some cases correct statements later found to be untrue. Each chapter ends in thoughtful commentary from the authors, but because these opinion pieces are separate from the newspaper transcripts, they do not detract from the unique experience of reading about the Whitechapel murders as our forefathers did- provided that they were regular readers of the `Daily Telegraph'.

Those who lived in Jack the Ripper's London are all dead now. But thanks to `The News from Whitechapel', twenty-first century students of the Ripper crimes can obtain some sense of what it was like to open your morning paper and read about "another horrible murder" in the downtrodden East End.

Unique in the genre, this book takes the reader through actual news clippings surround the Jack The Ripper case. The authors are clearly well-versed and don't seem to have a bias toward the identity of the ripper. It reads as easily as watching a documentary and for anyone really interested in the curiosity of Jack the Ripper, the book is well worth the heafty cover price. If not for volume for the book is thin but for the integrity and presention of the material. Hats off to the authors!

This is a lighweight, well made and well printed book and it is well worth having. A serious criticism for me is that the early murders before a scalpel was used such as Tabram are not included. Also the letter published in the Telegraph in November 1888 complaining about the hideous bellowing of the newsboys is not included, and I wonder what else of interest has been ommitted... This gives a good overall account of the scalpel murders. The press coverage of the time is still the best source of information for me and there should be more collections like this, eg The Star, The Daily News.