Stephen Hunter - I, Ripper

—Mr. Diemschutz said in testimony that he went in the side door of the Anarchists’ Club, not the front door on Berner Street, as I have it. I had to move him out of the yard so that Jack could do what Jack did.

—The journey of the missing half of Mrs. Eddowes’s apron was more complicated (and more tedious) than the streamlined version I have provided, but it came to the same thing. Readers should thank me.

—No evidence was ever encountered suggesting a tunnel from the Anarchists’ Club.

—Contra my account, the newspapers paid no particular attention to Annie’s missing “wedding rings.” Also, all the headlines and news copy are of my own invention.

In one area I am apostate. That is the method of Jack’s attack on his first four victims. Consensus has decided that he knocked them to the ground first, muffled their screams with his left hand, and cut their throats, beginning under the left ear, with his right.

I believe, as I have dramatized here, his angle was directly frontal; he faced his victim as if to purchase service and attacked suddenly with a sideward snap of arm and wrist and essentially drove the blade into the throat under the ear in a vicious chop, then rotated about the stricken woman to draw it around as he eased her to the ground. I hope to find a forum to say more on this issue at a later time.

Now on to thanks. Lenne P. Miller was instrumental in the composition of I, Ripper . He researched it to breadth and depth, as the bibliography should make clear, and he read, reread, and rereread the manuscript, hunting for the errors someone as notoriously sloppy as I am is prone to make. It took at least three drafts for me to figure out how to spell “teetote.” If the book is as remarkably accurate as I believe it to be and as accurate as any fictional account, that’s because of Lenne. If there are mistakes, that’s because of me.

I should also mention the remarkable website Casebook: Jack the Ripper. Scrupulously maintained and scrupulously fair, it provided quick answers to basic questions and deeper answers to deeper questions, and gave me the sense that someone was watching over me. Hope the boys enjoy what I’ve done with their labors.

Besides his research, Lenne also came up with a great idea for the plot, which helped me keep it ticking along. Mike Hill, another good friend, pitched in with a keen idea, very helpful. I am notoriously prone to ignoring other people’s ideas, if I can even summon the patience to listen to them, but in these two cases, the ideas were so good, and so much better than anything I had or would come up with, I had to acquiesce. Guys, the check is in the mail.

One of the early champions of my take on Jack was James Grady, the thriller writer and a good friend; his enthusiasm actually carried me for years while I tried to work out a way to tell the story as it had occurred to me in a flash one night. Bill Smart was another early and vociferous backer, and his enthusiasm was such a help. Any writer stuck in a plot hole or a character swamp or an editor jam knows how much it helps to have a guy who’ll back you up, pull you out, tell you you’re the best (even if it’s not true!), and send you on your way. Bill was that guy for me.

Others include usual suspects Jeff Weber and Barrett Tillman. Newcomers (but old friends) were Frank Feldinger, Dan Thanh Dang, who supplied me with a crucial woman’s view of the proceedings, and Otto Penzler. Walt Kuleck, author of the Owner’s Guide and Complete Assembly Guide series of firearms books, provided invaluable expertise on a host of non-firearms issues. David Fowler, M.D., the Maryland Medical Examiner and a friend, advised on technical issues. My great friend Gary Goldberg kept the technical aspect of the operation going brilliantly. Someday he’ll have to explain to me exactly what “digital” means. My wife, Jean Marbella, brewed 240 pots of coffee, which got me up and got me upstairs. My thanks to them all. I am a fortunate man to have such folks in my circle.

One question you might have: Steve, since you’ve done all this research for a novel on Jack the Ripper, do you know who he really was?

My answer: Of course I do. Watch for it. It’s going to be fun.

Books, Journals, eBooks, and Web Articles

Ackroyd, Peter. (2011) London Under: The Secret History Beneath the Streets. London: Chatto and Windus.

Beadle, Bill. Reinvestigating Murder: The Kelly Enigma. Journal of the Whitechapel Society . http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/ws-reinvestigating-murder-kelly.html.

Begg, Paul; Fido, Martin; and Skinner, Keith. (2010) The Complete Jack the Ripper A to Z. London: John Blake Publishing, Ltd.

Begg, Paul and Bennett, John. (2012) Jack the Ripper. CSI Whitechapel . London: Andre Deutsch.

Bradshaw & Blacklock. (1888) Bradshaw’s Continental Rail Guide. Bradshaw and Blacklock. Manchester. https://archive.org/details/BradshawsContinentalRailGuideSeptember1888.

Burns, Michelle. Rippermania: Fear and Fascination in Victorian London. http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/dst-rippermania.html.

Cornwell, Patricia. (2002) Portrait of a Killer; Jack The Ripper Case Closed. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons.

Cullen, Tom. (1965) Autumn of Terror: Jack the Ripper, His Crimes and His Times. London: The Bodley Head, Ltd.

Dew, Walter. (1938) The Hunt for Jack the Ripper. I Caught Crippen. http://www.casebook.org/ripper_media/.

De Quincey, Thomas. (2013) Confessions of an English Opium Eater and Other Writings. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Dickens, Charles. (1870) The Mystery of Edwin Drood. http://archive.org/stream/mysteryofedwindr00dickrich#page/n9/mode/2up.

Doyle, Arthur Conan. (2014) The Man with the Twisted Lip. Lexington: Kartindo Publishing House.

Eddleston, John J. (2010) Jack the Ripper: An Encyclopedia. London: Metro Publishing.

Emmerson, Andrew. (2000) The Underground Pioneers: Victorian London and Its First Underground Railways. Harold Weald, Middlesex: Capital Transport Publishing.

Evans, Richard J. The Victorians: Art and Culture. Gresham College, April 10, 2010. http://www.gresham.ac.uk/print/2611.

Evans, Stewart P., and Skinner, Keith. (2001) Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell. Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing Limited.

Evans, Stewart P. “Suspect and Witness – The Police Viewpoint.” Ripper Notes. http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/rn-witness.html.

Gray, D. (2011) “Contextualizing the Ripper Murders: Poverty, Crime and Unrest in the East End of London, 1888.” Invited Keynote presented to: Jack the Ripper Through a Wider Lens: An Interdisciplinary Conference, Bossone Research Enterprise Center, Drexel University, October 28–29, 2011.

Haggard, Robert F. “Jack the Ripper as the Threat of Outcast London.” The Annual Journal Produced by the Corcoran . Department of History at the University of Virginia. http://www.essaysinhistory.com/articles/2012/90.

Harrison, Shirley. (1993) The Diary of Jack the Ripper. London: Smith Gryphon Limited.

Lambert, Tim. “Daily Life in 19th Century Britain.” http://www.localhistories.org/19thcent.html.

Laurence, Dan H., ed. (1981) Shaw’s Music: The Complete Musical Criticism of Bernard Shaw. London: The Bodley Head, Ltd.

London, Jack. People of the Abyss. 1903. The Project Gutenberg eBook. 2005. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1688?msg=welcome_stranger.

Magellan, Karyo. “The Victorian Medico-Legal Autopsy Part I: Dissection in Pursuit of the Cause of Death.” Ripperologist . http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/rip-victorian-autopsy.html.