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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Paley - 2 Cornwell - 0 (Halftime), February 11, 2003
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.
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by Ivor Edwards
