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This book distinguishes itself from the mass of Ripper scholarship by offering up a great deal more social and political context in an effort to explain why the Ripper story has endured and flowered in cultural consciousness. At least that’s what it says, and it’s mostly true -- between the chapters on each of the canonical Ripper victims there’s a wealth of material on police procedure and internal politics, the rise of the Victorian social conscience, and the explosive growth of the news media. It’s all thoroughly researched and logically presented, if a bit dully exhaustive at a few points, and there’s a refreshing lack of the ubiquitous Ripper conspiracies.
A good book, really, though I can’t help holding the oxymoronic title against it. Especially considering that from where I’m sitting, you simply cannot have a “definitive” discussion of a serial killer without ever even approaching the topic of psychology. Begg is only marginally more informed on criminal behavior than the police of 1888 were. He describes, for example, the controversy over the authenticity of the “dear boss” letters ostensibly written by the killer (who named himself Jack the Ripper in his signature) and sent to the papers. It’s a thorough discussion, but it completely overlooks the fact that the Ripper is a classic disorganized offender – impulsive, violent to the point of extreme overkill, opportunistic – and that his type is exactly the sort to write to the papers and otherwise inject himself into an investigation.
Anyway, griping aside, you can’t cover everything. The book does offer some fascinating discussions of issues vital to the time period, like the upper-class British response to the white slave trade in young girls and the slow groundswell of socialist feeling. The thesis is logical, and Begg does a pretty good job in describing the ripe hotbed of social unease in which the killings took place, though a bit less so regarding what it meant for the future of London's poor. And the recitation of the recoverable facts from the police investigations has a wonderfully charming familiarity, reminding me that the basic principles of investigation have and will remain the same over the centuries.
A good overview of the issues free from a lot of the Ripper hysterics and elaborate theories. It doesn’t entirely do what it set out to accomplish (Begg never accounts for the fact that Ripper-mania has really only flourished in the past fifty years, not endured straight through) and the writing is rather boring sometimes, but still worth it, if this is your thing.
A good book, really, though I can’t help holding the oxymoronic title against it. Especially considering that from where I’m sitting, you simply cannot have a “definitive” discussion of a serial killer without ever even approaching the topic of psychology. Begg is only marginally more informed on criminal behavior than the police of 1888 were. He describes, for example, the controversy over the authenticity of the “dear boss” letters ostensibly written by the killer (who named himself Jack the Ripper in his signature) and sent to the papers. It’s a thorough discussion, but it completely overlooks the fact that the Ripper is a classic disorganized offender – impulsive, violent to the point of extreme overkill, opportunistic – and that his type is exactly the sort to write to the papers and otherwise inject himself into an investigation.
Anyway, griping aside, you can’t cover everything. The book does offer some fascinating discussions of issues vital to the time period, like the upper-class British response to the white slave trade in young girls and the slow groundswell of socialist feeling. The thesis is logical, and Begg does a pretty good job in describing the ripe hotbed of social unease in which the killings took place, though a bit less so regarding what it meant for the future of London's poor. And the recitation of the recoverable facts from the police investigations has a wonderfully charming familiarity, reminding me that the basic principles of investigation have and will remain the same over the centuries.
A good overview of the issues free from a lot of the Ripper hysterics and elaborate theories. It doesn’t entirely do what it set out to accomplish (Begg never accounts for the fact that Ripper-mania has really only flourished in the past fifty years, not endured straight through) and the writing is rather boring sometimes, but still worth it, if this is your thing.