For over a hundred years, the mystery of Jack the Ripper has been a source of unparalleled fascination and horror, spawning an army of obsessive theorists and endless volumes purporting to finally reveal the identity of the brutal murderer who terrorized Victorian England.But what if there was never really any mystery at all? What if the Ripper was always hiding in plain sight, deliberately … deliberately leaving a trail of clues to his identity for anyone who cared to look, while cynically mocking those who were supposedly attempting to bring him to justice?
In They All Love Jack, the award-winning film director and screenwriter Bruce Robinson exposes the cover-up that enabled one of history’s most notorious serial killers to remain at large. More than twelve years in the writing, this is no mere radical reinterpretation of the Jack the Ripper legend and an enthralling hunt for the killer. A literary high-wire act reminiscent of Tom Wolfe or Hunter S. Thompson, it is an expressionistic journey through the cesspools of late-Victorian society, a phantasmagoria of highly placed villains, hypocrites, and institutionalized corruption.
Polemic forensic investigation and panoramic portrait of an age, underpinned by deep scholarship and delivered in Robinson’s inimitably vivid and scabrous prose, They All Love Jack is an absolutely riveting and unique book, demolishing the theories of generations of self-appointed experts—the so-called Ripperologists—to make clear, at last, who really did it; and, more important, how he managed to get away with it for so long.
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Ever since a mysterious figure ripped his way through the East End of London in the late 1880s, writers and filmmakers have focused on the identity of the perpetrator. The mystery of Jack the Ripper still exudes a fascination to lovers of murder mysteries and horror stories, spawning more theories and possibilities than any other serial killer.
In this book, writer and movie director Bruce (Withnail and I) Robinson takes a very particular view on the subject. In this meticulously researched tome, he explores the idea that the identity of the mysterious Jack was a conspiracy created and prolonged by Freemasons, the Metropolitan Police, the British Government and a bevy of coroners, doctors and bent witnesses.
I bought the paperback version of this ages ago, but as it runs to more than 800 pages and has a font size that I’d need a microscope to read, I also bought the audio version. Narrated by Phil Fox, with an introduction by the author, this is a fascinating book that uses police and court reports, newspaper articles, letters and witness statements to back up the theory that Freemason Michael Maybrick was the man behind the murders, and how his letters to Commissioner Charles Warren taunted the pudding-headed policeman with clues that even a black cat in a coal cellar at night couldn’t have failed to follow.
Robinson’s style holds no punches and he makes it very clear what he thinks of all these alleged conspirators, using language that would put a hardened navvy to shame. Though his theory is a complex one and demands that dozens, if not hundreds of individuals must have been involved in the conspiracy, it nevertheless sounds plausible, and explains why even now certain documents are still not available for public viewing.
A fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable book that puts the scribblings of Ripperologists everywhere firmly in the shade.
They All Love Jack: Busting The Ripper by Bruce Robinson – 5* from me!
I’m not much into murders, or blood and guts, whether it be fiction or non-fiction. However, I have always had a fascination with the “Jack-The-Ripper” case since childhood (yes – I know – it is odd).
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of books out there all purporting to know who the ripper was – some are good, some indifferent and some just plain awful.
This book, however, is bloody brilliant (no pun intended).
This is not fiction – it is meticulous research based on facts. The author has done his homework and comes up with a compelling case of who the “ripper” actually was.
If you are after a quick, tabloid-style, sensationalist bit of fluff – then this book is not for you.
The book delves into the incompetence and corruption of the police. It paints a damning picture of the hallowed masonic lodges of the Victorian era. It also highlights, in graphic detail, the hypocrisy and double standards of the upper and middle classes of the day. But, most of all it is “unputdownable”. It is a long book that requires concentration but I read it in one weekend as it was so compelling.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough – if you are into this sort of thing.
I will be checking out this author’s other books due to his ability to compose his thoughts before putting them to paper – a rare ability indeed!
The author is so incredibly arrogant, I barely even made it through the Introduction and gave up a couple pages into the first chapter.