⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5/5 stars)
If you’re seeking yet another book about who someone believes they know Jack the Ripper’s true identity – this isn’t it.
British historian Hallie Rubenhold took a deep dive into the lives of the five canonical victims of the infamous serial killer. In her detailed and diligent research, Rubenhold comes to a discovery long overlooked, a riveting realization that changes the entirety of the case: out of all five victims, only one was a prostitute. Only Mary Jane Kelly had “prostitute” listed on the occupation of her death certificate. This small detail is only the beginning. The author has uncovered many details, anecdotes and witness accounts that indicate these four women were not sex workers.
This is a book in which we see the victims humanized; acknowledged with the compassion and humanity and honour they deserved. It is a harrowing and detailed glimpse into life as a vagrant in Victorian London, set to a realistic backdrop against the time in which these murders occurred. Rubenhold follows their journeys from birth up until the fateful nights they met their horrific deaths. These women never stood a chance against a Victorian society so oppressive against women who dared to step out of line even once. If a woman didn’t marry and have children back then, she was treated as though she was worthless. We must remember that women were deemed as secondary. A woman had no way of supporting herself to the point she could house and feed herself or any kids she had. Birth control was only accessible to the wealthy. Men could be promiscuous and the world would look away. But if a woman dared to have sex with more than one man, she was shamed, ridiculed and tossed aside. And prostitute or not, no woman deserves that.
Rubenhold’s approach is refreshing. She honours these women and gives us all a riveting reminder that they were human too. Jack the Ripper was a real person who murdered these women, and it isn’t all some tacky urban legend, as many people tend to treat it today. In Rubenhold’s words: “Over the centuries, the villain has metamorphosed into the protagonist”. People dissect the killer without delving into the victimology. We’ve taken what we’ve been told for years about these women at face value. What these women did have in common was homelessness and addiction. And in a time when there were no rehabs, no recovery centers, no real way of getting help or support, and in a time where such women were automatically assumed to be prostitutes no matter the truth, their deaths turned them into something they were not, blurring the truth of their lives. These were women of misfortune. Women of addiction who saw no way out of their addictions. Their families and friends watched as their need for alcohol led them to the streets, and eventually, into the attention of a bloodthirsty killer.
As someone who has read many books about Jack the Ripper, I have yet to encounter a book like this which opens up the lives of the victims and really focuses on them instead of the killer. He has been profiled time and again, even by the FBI, and yet through all of that no one has put the victims into such a revealing light until now.
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