The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper
At the title says, this is an account of the lives of the five female victims of Jack the Ripper; it is not another narrative of the crimes and an investigation into identifying the perpetrator. Hallie Rubenhold’s main endeavour is to show that contrary to received wisdom, these women were mostly not what were known as common prostitutes. They were unfortunate, made wrong choices and were victims of society’s conventions. The harsh conditions of near unbridled capitalism allied to a strongly patriarchal urban society made it very difficult for females in 19th-century urban society, especially one where lives were indeed precarious and there was no effective safety net to prevent a slide into depravity and ignominy. The first three victims were respectably married, but personal problems forced them onto the margins and in the way of the Ripper.
It is of interest that the accounts published in the press were sensationalised and full of conjecture, which over the years, has often been taken to be an objective version of events, whereas their initial coverage was based on speculation and the search for a story. As today, it is difficult to find the truth in a cascade of falsehoods and exaggeration, especially as most of the inquest proceedings have not been preserved. This is a well-researched account of the lives of these poor and misrepresented women.
