MURDER & MADNESS The Secret Life of Jack the Ripper Based on Heretofore Unrevealed Information from Scotland Yard.

Hardcover with dust jacket (slight tear on upper edge of dust jacket). Some pages appear to have coffee stains, otherwise no underlining or highlighting noted.

Who was Jack the Ripper? If the answer is not yet known, it is not for lack of study. The murders in Victorian London have been exhaustively examined, but it is close to impossible to reconstruct a century-old crime. Abrahamsen, author of Confessions of Son of Sam ( LJ 3/15/85) and an expert witness in the investigations of the Leopold and Loeb case and Lee Harvey Oswald, is as qualified as anyone to speculate. As the book evolves, however, his theory does seem to be entirely speculation. The author definitely puts a new twist on an old suspect, and the book makes for interesting reading. Unfortunately, he uses facts that support his purpose and discards those that don't. He accepts the testimony of a controversial witness but discounts a crucial part of her statements that conflict with his theory. He also makes some grand leaps in logic, such as labeling a man a pedophile because he was described as "a hero among the smaller boys." In the end, the book fails to convince, but the theory remains intriguing. Recommended for large crime collections and collections focusing on serial killers.
- Lois Walker, formerly with Winthrop Coll. Lib., Rock Hill, S.C.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.