Jack the Ripper reading list question

[truepenny]

If a person has read Donald Rumbelow's book on Jack the Ripper (variously published as The Complete Jack the Ripper and Jack the Ripper: The Complete Casebook), are there any other nonfiction Jack the Ripper books that one ought to read? I.e., has anything substantially new been said since Rumbelow? (And should I bother with anything pre-Rumbelow?)

Please note, I'm not asking what books about Jack the Ripper have been published since 1975; I can find that out for myself. I'm asking for recommendations about which, if any of them, to read.

Comments

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

I read the Patricia Cornwell treatment. I thought it was good, but some people had issues with her scholarship.

[michaeldthomas.livejournal.com]

Alan Moore had a fantastic list of his favorite Jack the Ripper books in the final issue of From Hell, but I don't have access to it at the moment.

[celisnebula.livejournal.com]

I thought, "Saucy Jack: The Elusive Ripper" by Paul Woods and Gavin Baddeley was pretty good: not real concrete on the profile stuff, but an intersting read.

[jenavira.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed Jack the Ripper: First American Serial Killer by Stewart Evans & Paul Gainey, although I don't quite buy their conclusions.

JTR

[wicked-witchery.livejournal.com]

Depends what you're looking for really. Lots of books make their fame by providing new suspects. Cornwell's book falls in that category. I would suggest The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Companion: An Illustrated Encyclopedia by Stewart Evans and Keith Skinner (Carroll & Graf 2000). Both authors have written other Ripper books, but the intent here was to present the official records at length with a minimum of authorial intrusion. There are press articles, photos and drawings and the actual police reports. The book does a really good job of orienting the reader. It lacks Rumbelow's narrative flair, but it does reproduce primary and secondary sources without added interpretation, which is nice change from most books on the subject.
One of the most useful books for my JTR purposes was Perry Curtis' Jack Ripper and the London Press (Yale U P, 2001). Not a speculation on the identity of the Ripper, but a great study on how the Ripper and the murders were perceived in his own time.
If it is theories you're interested in there is also Jack the Ripper A to Z by Paul Begg, et al (Headline 1991). It is an exhaustive compilation of the people, theories and places that relate to the Whitechapel murders, no matter how nominally. The authors (all Ripperologists) are very free with their opinions, notably relating to any given theory. It does include 5 indices, one of which is a detailed listing of articles and books about JTR. It's certainly not required reading, but enlightening in its own way from a sociological point of view.
Hope you find something useful. (Sorry I don't know how to underline or italicize in LJ ;_;)

[oursin.livejournal.com]

Ripperology is a field I stay far, far, away from, even though the case falls within my period and disciplinary remit.

Something that might give a certain perspective - insofar as it's about another case in which a man was killing prostitutes in late C19th London, but by poison - is Angus McLaren's Prescription for Murder.

I also like Judith Walkowitz's discussion in City of Dreadful Delight, but that's more about cultural impact than real crime.

[remote45.livejournal.com]

I have read a lot of Jack the Ripper books and found "Jack the Ripper-The Final Solution" by Stephen Knight to be a fascinating read.

[keyboardcouch.livejournal.com]

I asked a friend who's read quite extensively on Jack the Ripper if he had any suggestions for you. He's written a long reply here http://anotherheideggerblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/ripper-nerdology.html
Enjoy