Description

"Ripper Notes: America Looks at Jack the Ripper" is a collection of essays about the notorious Whitechapel serial killer and related topics. It leads of with a newly discovered and never before republished 1892 interview with Assistant Commissioner Robert Anderson of Scotland Yard. Anderson was a very important figure in the investigations, and made statements later in life that the killer had been identified and put into an asylum. This article is accompanied by a short analysis showing why that is unlikely. Wolf Vanderlinden then gives an in-depth look at the suspects in the 1891 death of prostitute Carrie Brown in New York City, a case long connected by many to the earlier string of Ripper killings in the East End of London. This is followed by coverage of the 2004 U.S. Ripper Conference, including essays by John Hacker ("Jack the Ripper and Technology: Ripperology in the Twenty-First Century") and Stan Russo ("The Strange Case of Dr. Hewitt," which questions why some suspects are treated more seriously than they probably should be) adapted from their presentations there. A number of shorter pieces by various authors follows. Ripper Notes is a nonfiction anthology series covering all aspects of the Jack the Ripper murder case.