SCARLET AUTUMN: The Crimes and Seasons of Jack the Ripper

Softcover. We picture the Victorian era as a conservative, socially ordered society- the glittering nobility on top; mindless thugs on the bottom; a new, morally staid middle-class in between. This makes the bizarre crime spree in London all the more an oddity. The killings were not those of a brutal gutter thug. They were skillfully executed to be public mysteries. Prostitutes were found on the streets, their bodies flayed for the first passers-by, which was often only minutes later. The culprit was never known. He faded into history as only a moniker: Jack the Ripper. But what was his purpose? Was he just a madman? For over a century theorists have glossed over the cases in order to support their own suspect. The result is a convoluted legend devoid of facts. For example, the lack of blood at one crime scene is explained away as having soaked into the clothes- a physical impossibility in the short interim between the victim having been slain and the police finding the warm body. Not even a heavy rain can soak under a prone body in a mere 10 minutes let alone pints of a thick fluid like blood. This is only one example of evidence that requires a re-thinking of the actual crime spree of Jack the Ripper. The actual cases, critically presented in meticulous detail and taken collectively, is the only way to reopen the case of Jack the Ripper and start anew. In this painstaking chronicle, the crimes and seasons of Jack the Ripper are vividly recreated. The purpose is to plunge the reader back into Whitechapel 1888. For those who want a companion of facts by which to judge all the theories and suspects that have and no doubt will continue to be proposed, this book is that source. It is a detective work and an historical exposé of the most puzzling crime spree in history. Illus. + Bibliog. 384pp. trade size softcover. F. with no creasing to covers.