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justina_kl 's review for:
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper
by Hallie Rubenhold
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
The stories of the five canonical victims of so-called Jack the Ripper are not very well known, and I think that this book is something that was needed. Though there is no shortage of true crime literature and podcasts, many focus much more on the perpetrator than the victims. Not so Hallie Rubenhold.
The sources for the lives of Annie Chapman, Mary Ann Nichols, Elisabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly are few, and many are retellings of the inquests into the their deaths written by contemporary reporters, writing for newspapers that sensationalised the murders to sell more copies. Furthermore, due to the views and standards at the time, many of the people interviewed at the inquests were not necessarily telling the whole truth, and so the stories of the murdered women quickly became tangled and embelished. In this book, Rubenhold sets the scene for each woman according to their social class and status and takes the reader through their lives not only as they were told by those that knew them, but also giving a detailed overview of the economic realities of the time and how easy it was to go from a 'respectable' to homeless woman, and how the contemporary society's views on such women still affect the way we think of the five victims of a brutal serial killer. Parts of the stories are, naturally, speculative, as we cannot be sure of what really happened, but the arguments are compelling, and the author does not pretend at fact.
This is not an easy read but well worth the effort.
The sources for the lives of Annie Chapman, Mary Ann Nichols, Elisabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly are few, and many are retellings of the inquests into the their deaths written by contemporary reporters, writing for newspapers that sensationalised the murders to sell more copies. Furthermore, due to the views and standards at the time, many of the people interviewed at the inquests were not necessarily telling the whole truth, and so the stories of the murdered women quickly became tangled and embelished. In this book, Rubenhold sets the scene for each woman according to their social class and status and takes the reader through their lives not only as they were told by those that knew them, but also giving a detailed overview of the economic realities of the time and how easy it was to go from a 'respectable' to homeless woman, and how the contemporary society's views on such women still affect the way we think of the five victims of a brutal serial killer. Parts of the stories are, naturally, speculative, as we cannot be sure of what really happened, but the arguments are compelling, and the author does not pretend at fact.
This is not an easy read but well worth the effort.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual violence, Violence, Trafficking, Classism
Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy
Minor: Antisemitism