Jack the Ripper: The Complete Casebook

Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive Book By Leading Ripperologist
Review: I've had the distinct pleasure of taking Rumbelow's "Jack the Ripper" walking tour and of meeting him at the "2002 Jack the Ripper Conference." He is indeed the leading expert on the Ripper. His book covers all factual aspects of the crimes in depth. He espouses no theory or suspect, believing that the Ripper was someone in the neighborhood who wasn't famous and who will never be discovered. I highly recommend this book as the very best on Jack the Ripper.

Rating:
Summary: Intense Investigation of Infamous case
Review: Rumbelow's Casebook is indeed very complete.
The opening chapters set the context of Whitechapel in East end of London at the time of the killings. The statistics of lifestyles at the end of the nineteenth century provided by Rumbelow is evidence A that he "did his homework" and researched his subject matter fully.
I am not usually a fan of true crime novels but had to get this book as Jack is such an infamous personage and wasn't disappointed. Rumbelow writes about the murders with passion without sensationalism that the book may have elicited in hands of another and describes the setting the lives of the victims, theories and letters from the Ripper and parrallel cases. This is probably the most complete book on Jack The Ripper and wholly lives up to its name as being the Complete Casebook so for anyone with at least passing interest in the Infamous Ripper I suggest they read this book to better understand the murders.

Rating:
Summary: Best Book by Subject Matter Expert
Review: This book is the best I have read on this subject. On my last trip to London I actually went on a tour with the author Donald Rumbelow. I bought the book from Donald at the end of the tour and he autographed it for me. Donald leads a London "Jack the Ripper" walk that far surpasses any other guided tour of any sort that I have ever been on. He knows his stuff, as you can see by reading the book. Donald is the Curator of the Police Crime Museum and a former Scotland Yard Detective. Anytime I go to London, which is about every couple of years, I have to go on a "Ripper" tour with Donald. Travel guides like Fodor's, Frommers, Eyewitness etc recommend the expert walking tour and his crime book. Donald's walking company site is "london.walks.com".

Rating:
Summary: Rumbelow's book one of the best
Review: This book opens your eyes with how far we've come in handling serial killers. Whether that's a good comment on our society or not-who knows. Looking at how they handled the case compared to what we know now, it's suprising they had a list of suspects! The book shows just how easy it is for a killer to happen as our cities get more & more crowded.

Rating:
Summary: Best Book by Subject Matter Expert
Review: This is easily the best book on Jack the Ripper I have read yet. Rumbelow adds a lot of background to the case study, including an early chapter on just how horrible the London slums were in Victorian times (far worse than anything out of Dickens). He also covers what the press and the police departments were doing as the case unfolded, which form interesting subplots of their own. The last half of the book is not quite as good as it wanders over a slew of suspects, a handful of later serial killers, and comments on a few media versions of the case. Still Rumbleow is thorough and objective and easily proves to be one of the leading Ripperologists working today.

Rating:
Summary: Tells a good story
Review: This was the first book I read on Jack the Ripper. It was well written, and I will have to agree with the other reviewer, the first part is the best. Rumbelow did a wonderful and skillful job in setting the mood for the things to come. He also does a great job in going into detail about the murders. However, as later writers have pointed out, he uses a lot of secondary sources, like made up newspaper accounts, and fiction from some of the early writers of Jack the Ripper. It's a good book to begin with, but don't believe everything in the book as being pure fact. The fact is, some of the sources he used were bad, or he only viewed them and then they vanished. It is still a very good book. However, I would suggest Jack the Ripper the complete history by Philip Sugden, over this one.