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| Ripper Bridge (Photo credit: STINFLIN Pascal) |
1988 was a hell of a year for Jack the Ripper
enthusiasts. Being the centenary of London’s “Autumn of Terror”, few producers,
publishers, historians, writers and professional criminologists missed a trick.
From movies about a copycat serial killer called “Jack’s Back” to a wide
commissioning of any work that was tied into the Whitechapel Murders, the year
was full of old and new theories on the identity of the killer and every
self-respecting bookshop made sure their respective section was stocked up. I was
only 12 at the time and fell in love with the shamelessly melodramatic and
lavish ITV miniseries, “Jack the Ripper”, which for all its thrill and wonderful
cast and production values did not yield a convincing theory on the case. In
his amazingly explorative “From Hell”, comic-book writer, Alan Moore, touched
on the whole the institution that now surrounds Jack the Ripper and pretty much
nailed how it has become virtually impossible to unmask the fiend of Victorian
London. He echoed in the century of the sadistic serial killer and, as sharp as
the weapon he wielded, tore open the British Victorian veneer of pomp,
prosperity and conservatism. In the tradition of Arthur Conan Doyle – was
consulted at the time of the murders – and the institution that Agatha Christie
would start, the Ripper also provided us with a real-life whodunit. Amidst the
flow of reprinted books on silly theories, I was lucky enough to obtain a copy
of “Jack the Ripper: Summing up and Verdict”, which had been commissioned for
release in 1988.
