Jack the Ripper: The Casebook

Product Information

Suspicion initially fell on Joseph Barnett in 1972 when, in an article in True Crime magazine, American former private investigator Bruce Paley suggested he was Jack the Ripper. Reading the book is one thing, but actually being able to handle the letters, papers and newspaper clippings as they were written really brings the case to life.

However, Barnett explained that, despite their confrontation, they remained on cordial terms, to the point that when he got a new job, he offered financial assistance to Kelly.

And the three sleeves that contain pull-out copies of actual police documents, papers and supposed letters from Jack - these are wonderful, although at least half of the police documents are unreadable, due to the flowing, victorian script.

It is a lovely item for his collection and I am so pleased he liked it as much as I thought he would! All the information you expect to find and indeed handy for anybody who might want to look some specific detail up at ease.

The authentic documents include: A police notice issued on 30 September 1888 asking for information on the first three murders; Chief Inspector Swanson's report on the murder of Elizabeth Stride; the 'Dear Boss' letter - the first letter purporting to be from the Whitechapel murderer using the name 'Jack the Ripper'; Sir Melville Macnaghten's report identifying the three main suspects. It was not suspected that he had murdered her and, even less, that he was Jack the Ripper, until the 1970s, when he was added to the growing list of more than 100 people that someone has speculated could be Jack the Ripper. This situation stoked the ire of Barnett, who decided to leave her after a fiery fight on 30 October 1888.

If you cannot find him walking the streets or in a London pub, he is probably playing drums with his band PARIAHLORD, who have just released their first full length-album. Before he turned 20, Joseph began working in Billingsgate Market as a fish porter, a job he held for more than a decade, although intermittently, until he was sacked in October 1888, when he was 30 years old and living with an Irish woman, Mary Jane Kelly. Furthermore, the book is fully good illustrated and contains removable items of police notice,the Dear Boss letter and some reports of the Chief Inspectors reports. After Annie Chapman's death, an envelope that belonged to Barnett was found in the courtyard of Hanbury Street, who could have lost it when he committed the murder. According to contemporary news, Barnett repeated his last words spoken by his interlocutor at his interrogation.

Once there, he said he could recognise Kelly, despite the dire state of the body, by the shape of her eyes and ears. The crimes of Jack the Ripper have haunted the imagination of the world since his murderous reign drew to a close late in 1888. The Complete Jack the Ripper is the definitive book by Paul Begg and John Bennett, exploring both the myth and reality behind the allusive killer.