The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Companion: An Illustrated Encyclopedia

This book is a necessary addition to any Ripper library. It is essentially a compilation of contemporary documents, mostly police, inquest and newspaper reports. It covers the major bases, including the individual murders and some documents relating to suspects and police opinions. Although it obviously may not be as comprehensive or up-to-date as one might like, it is one of the few primary source collections on the Whitechapel crimes, which alone makes it worth the read.

I can't say whether a full-time "Ripperologist" or long-term Jack the Ripper buff/fanatic will learn anything new in this book. Because I have a passing curiosity but no extensive knowledge in the case. I read a paperback when I was growing up with the basic facts of the case and I just read Patricia Cornwell's book also. I have been searching for supplemental material on the case.This book is worth buying for those who want to look at the basic material for themselves. For instance, I found the transcript of the inquests very interesting. You get a sense of the scene as it must have been at the time: There is a sketch of Mary Kelly's body being removed by the city and the crowd gathered around; there are photos of the victims which can be seen in other books, but I haven't seen photos of the doorways and such before. Or cartoons from the time such as the man who was repairing (cutting) his boot about a foot from where a body was found a short time later. The drawing gives a great sense of just how close he was actually sitting. Therefore one needs to keep in mind the stygian darkness of those Whitechapel streets. This is how Jack the Ripper may have gone undetected just before and after his crimes.It also contains letters from police to each other during the investigation, which gives a sense of the urgency they felt to catch the killer and a sense of how things operated back then. Even a sketch of the morgue shed used to examine some of the Ripper victims. Also interesting were the quotes from letters from Queen Victoria stressing the importance to catch the killer -- and her suggestions on things to explore along those lines ! Also, some of the killer profiles drawn up by detectives were amazingly canny. Some books would give the impression the police of the time were bumbling and real profiling was years away; but one profile in this book seemed exactly what a modern profiler might write as to what type of person did the crime. I came away with a much better sense of the things tried during the time to find the killer. Also the letters I saw were quoted in full with uncorrected punctuation. Other books make the mistake to merely quote pieces of the letters. If you are a person who likes to see for themselves what the evidence was (at least some of it) rather than read an author's interpretation, this is a good book to have. It is far from exhaustive I'm sure, since there is so much in the case files and much of it has vanished since the late 1980s... but it's a really good book to keep around for checking up on things quoted in other books. The inquest transcripts alone give quite a sense of what was and wasn't done at the time. Also there are autopsy reports and even a drawing of Catherine Eddowes' injuries. And a list of her property gives a sad image of how poor these women were. Most of them were homeless, selling their bodies to pay the few cents for a bed in a public shelter for the night. I recommen

Very intensive book. Contains a lot detail. Highly recommend.

Forget all the other JTR books you have read in the past that focus on a particular suspect and read the original source material provided in this book. After reading the unadulterated, unedited primary source material culled from the Ripper Files and first hand newspaper accounts of the inquests, you will get a much truer picture of what took place than you will from the other books. It is easy to see from the way evidence get's left out or how it is dis-organized, the deliberatness of the obsfucation of Ripper suspect promoters simply to prove their points.By reading the original unedited accounts, I was amazed to see how fairly close descriptions of the Ripper are. In the Mary Kelly case in particular, 3 witnesses appear to place the time of the murder, while 2 have described the suspect in ways which match former descriptions of him from the other murders. Becuase of the way authors with a point to prove garble the evidence, it was only after reading this book that the picture becomes much clearer. And what comes clear most of all is that no one has a clue as to JTR's identity. You won't find much in the way of new evidence in this book, no smoking gun, though you may be able to resolve in your mind certain disputes such as the degree of anatomical knowledge the Ripper had, whether or not he wrote the Goulston Street Grafitti, and whether or not he was involved with both murders of the double event. But you will also find pages of minutae better left out, such as that dealing with whether or not to offer a reward, that might prove of historical interest to someone studying the police administration of the times, but provides nothing towards furthering the inquiry of the case.If you are looking for truth rather than entertainment value, this is one of the top three or four books on the Ripper you will find

This book limits its content to the "rawest" material possible, and consists 600 pages or so of first-hand information about the murders (from Emma Smith to Frances Cole) taken from Scotland Yard files, Home Office files, inquest reports, and contemporary news accounts. Many of the offical files were seldom seen or quoted, such as those on theorist Edward Knight Larkins, alleged suspect J. Duncan (who reportedly confessed to the killings), murder of Rose Mylett, the use of bloodhounds, the offering of rewards, etc. This is one of the very few Ripper books whose goal isn't to theorize on JTR's identity, but to simply provide readers with valuable historical information. A massive, "narrative-less" book with only dry data will likely bore the general reader. Also, only *primary source* information is in this book. You won't find any info on such peripheral figures as Lady Aberconway, William Gull, James Maybrick, etc. But without a question this book is indispensable to any student or researcher of the Whitechapel murders.Even with the excellent content, whether this book is the "ultimate" book, in the sense it can replace all others, is debatable. The excellent "Jack the Ripper A to Z", also co-written by Keith Skinner, though containing far less primary info, does have much wider coverage on both major and minor topics that a researcher may find valuable. I personally use "A to Z" as a starting point to look up any particular factoid about the murders, and then read "Ultimate" to see if there is any offical document to ascertain it.There are over 100 illustrations in "Ultimate" and many of them I had never seen before, such as photos of Detective Godley, PC William Smith, contemporary sketches of murder sites. Many key, familiar pictures are included, but some are not, such as pictures of John Littlechild, Wynne Baxter, Thomas Bond, the Goulston Street doorway, photos of Mitre Square and Church Passage.Apparently, this book was under another title from another publisher: "The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook".