JACK THE RIPPER THE HAND OF A WOMAN

Softcover. The Jack the Ripper murders of 1888 continue to exert a macabre hold on our imagination. Among the first serial murders, their brutality and bizarreness, and the seeming impossibility of detection have a terrible fascination. What kind of person could have performed such horrific deeds, and could have overstepped the boundary of what marks humankind? How could they not have been caught by the unprecedented police effort? The murders were reported on around the world and the murderer was the first to be given a macabre nickname. He has been the subject of hundreds of books and several films but his identity remains a mystery. Suspects have included the eminent Victorian doctor Sir William Gull, royal gynaecologist Sir John Williams and the painter Walter Sickert. Conspiracy theories abound, involving Masonic, Jewish and other connections. This is the story of the extensive research of John Morris and his late father. Starting with the many unresolved questions about the murders they shockingly concluded that they could be answered if Jack was in reality a woman, not a man. But who could she be? After many twists and turns they reach an all too plausible conclusion. Illus., Epilogue, Appendices, Bibliog. and Index. 208pp. trade size softcover. F. with no creasing to covers.