The Fox and the Flies: The Secret Life of a Grotesque Master Criminal

It really is incredible that the author was able to amass this much detail from his research and investigation. At the end he declares that the culprit written about in this book, is indeed, jack the Ripper and it all makes sense. Read this.

This is no ordinary gangster tale. It is sophisticated -- yet eminently readable -- transnational history. Van Onselen uses his skills as a social historian to trace Joseph Silver's peripatetic wanderings around the Atlantic World in the late ninteeneth and early twentieth centuries. From his birthplace in Poland, Silver left the world of the shtetl behind and blazed a trail of vice and violence that took him to London, New York, Pittsburgh, Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Windhoek. Van Onselen both tells a gripping tale and offers insight into the interplace of sex, race, ethnicity, and class in the making of the modern world. Brilliant.

The fox and the flies. An outstanding read, This book is filled with history. The fox and the flies chronicle the life of Joseph Silver. Silver terrorized women in South Africa in the late 18th century and early 19 century. Van Onselen believes that Silver should be a jack the ripper suspect. He points to several coincidences in the book and makes a good case for Silver being Jack the ripper. The book is filled with maps that detail the time period in which the story takes place. It is rich in content and it's outstanding in it's detail, giving the reader a great vision in the time and surroundings of the era being discussed. He really sets the mood of the time period. The way Van Onselen describes the location you can easily imagine being there. The book takes you methodically through the life of Joseph Silver and some ancillary characters that Silver has some acquaintance with. Van Onselen makes several great points and backs them up with facts in this book. This book is an great read, very well written. I couldn't put it down. The story and the detail in this book are incredible.