THE TRIAL OF JACK THE RIPPER - The Case of William Bury (1859-89) (SIGNED)

Softcover, SIGNED. Was Jack the Ripper put on trial for murder in Dundee in March 1889? A shocking and brutal murder had taken place in the city in February that year, and the words 'Jack the Ripper is at the back of this door' were found written in chalk on a door at the scene of the crime. When he was arrested, the accused, William Bury, admitted that he was 'afraid he would be arrested as Jack the Ripper'. The police investigation uncovered some disturbing details. William Bury was a small dark-haired man who was known to have been violent towards women. He had been born and brought up in the Midlands but had moved to the East End of London in the autumn of 1887. On January 20, 1889, he and his wife travelled by boat to Dundee. This meant that he had arrived in London before the start of the Jack the Ripper murders and had left around the same time that they ceased. Could this be coincidence, people wondered. Could it also be a coincidence that the murder in Dundee carried all the hallmarks of a 'ripper' murder? In the month before the trial, the local newspapers in Dundee began to run sensational stories linking the accused with the notorious Whitechapel murders. When the trial opened to a packed courtroom, many in the public gallery were wondering if the man standing in the dock was none other than Jack the Ripper himself. In this book, the author presents the evidence that the long arm of the law really did catch up with 'Jack' in a dingy basement flat in Dundee in the cold winter months of early 1889. Illus. 192pp. trade size softcover. With tipped-in label SIGNED BY EUAN MACPHERSON. Includes glued-in newspaper cuttings to inside of fr. cover and ffep. From the library of Paul Daniel, ex-editor of the 'Ripperologist' magazine (December 1996 No. 8 - February 2000 No. 27), with a tipped-in post-it note written by Paul to bep. With a tiny sticker to tail of sp. with '2005' written in black felt-tip pen. With the usual browned pp. o/w Nr. F. with no creasing to covers.