The Bank Holiday Murders: The True Story of the First Whitechapel Murders (Jack the Ripper) Paperback – October 18, 2013

This work is pretty upfront that it is not meant for the beginner seeking a quick read about the infamous late 19th-century murder investigations or the gruesome exploits of Jack the Ripper. No, The Bank Holiday Murders: The True Story of the First Whitechapel Murders was created to preserve facts, to be looked over slowly and introduce the interested reader into the forgotten lanes and boxes of the Ripper Murders (to examine the overlooked names that are always shoved to the side and written off as inconsequential to the central mystery that plagued London in 1888). That may not be what you thought to encounter when you pick this thin volume up but if you stay with Mr Wescott and his recitation of facts, collected faded affidavits, coroner's reports and miscellaneous eye witness reports, you will find a title chock full of noteworthy research and unique theories that could give you pause.Personally, I appreciated there were no disrespectful spins of colourful narrative to fit a writer's opinions to be found in the pages as these are the known facts of horrific unsolved crimes that continue to baffle all types of historians and serve as fodder for fiction and attract those with morbid curiosities. I just wish certain different lanes were explored at points, any possible explanation the murders were committed on a Bank Holiday could have been shared in any kind of theory and the middle of this book didn't feel like the connections to possible suspects were being forced in the chapters (although I do agree that it is a very odd thing that many of the murdered women knew one another, knew one figure in general in some way or lived in the same run-down establishments at certain times). I also found the obvious compassion for the victims the author displayed refreshing while at the same time everything was still presented in a serious tone as he reviewed each woman's start of life (if known) and the movements of actions (or poor luck) that could have led her in a shadowy alleyway with a flash of a knife or (view spoiler). Overall a worthwhile read, another fascinating reference for my home library and I picked up Ripper Confidential: New Research on the Whitechapel Murders (Jack the Ripper Book 2).

I've had an intermittent fascination with the Ripper murders, and a more constant one with the middle to late Victorian period, since 1975 or so. Books espousing radical and unexpected new theories about the Ripper murders appear every few years. Those which are well-researched and based on reason rather than wishful speculation are rather less frequent. This is definitely one of the latter.One of the things that makes the Ripper murders so perennially fascinating to so many is the wilderness of mirrors in which the student of the case soon finds himself. Almost everyone who studies the case in any depth comes to feel the haunting sense of a pattern, dimly perceived, fragmentary and elusive, which fades away into the background the more closely we try to view it. Mr. Wescott has exposed a big piece of that hidden pattern, perhaps more than anyone has managed to do in the past forty years or so. The implications for our understanding of the case are profound. It is perhaps not too much to suggest, as the author does, that in the light of this evidence we might be justified in once again studying the murders as a cold case, rather than as history."The Bank Holiday Murders" presents strong circumstantial evidence to connect Mary Ann Connelly, aka 'Pearly Poll', as an accomplice after the fact, if not before, to several of the canonical murders, as well as firmly linking her to people prominent in the Whitechapel community. While Connelly's credibility as a witness in the murder of Martha Tabram has never been very good, Wescott completely demolishes it, and in doing so convincingly paints her as a much more sinister figure than the bumbling attention-seeker hitherto portrayed. In the process, several things that have always seemed incongruous about this case suddenly start to make sense.It should be noted, as the author clearly and properly does in the foreword, that this is not a book for general audiences. If you're not well-versed in the history and lore of the Ripper, if you're not familiar with the victims and the witnesses, and if you know little of how the poorest classes lived in Victorian London, then you won't get as much from this book as you might. There are no illustrations, and there are no maps. The author has already stated on a Jack the Ripper discussion forum that this was to keep the cost of the book down, and I think he's made the correct decision. If you're interested in the case to this level of detail, then you already know (or have maps of) the neighborhood, and you've already seen the surviving pictures of all the principals and locations.I recommend this highly. It is a stunner, presented in the most quiet and unpretentious fashion.

I've always felt that JTR was responsible for more than the canonical five. And I've always firmly believed Martha Tabram was a Ripper victim. I've always felt that the doss houses hold the key to the murderers identity. However I think this author goes off the rails into conspiracy theories that don't hold water. E everybody has a theory ,I get it theories sell books. I don't believe that if as many people as he claims knew what was going on, everyone could have kept the identity of the killer secret. People talk especially with the amount of drinking involved. I think these people knew him saw him daily had drinks with him but had no clue that he was the killer. I don't think there is a conspiracy here, I don't think someone was being protected. I think the doss house owners were protecting themselves , not wanting the police snooping around for other reasons. As for Pearly Poll to me she seems like a person seeking attention . When with the police she had a captive audience and probably reveled in jerking them around. I honestly think that JTR is in the same category of killer as Ted Bundy, or BTK,or Jeffrey Dahmer. I think neighbors would not have even considered him as a threat, when they saw him around the neighborhood. There are some bits of good information here, stick with the facts avoid the speculation and you will enjoy this read.

I was in a bit of a dilemma about this one...It is an exceptionally well researched and written book...big plus....but to my mind it may stretch just a tad too far in reaching some of it's conclusions...a minus...It lacks an index...something of a minus in my mind...but it is exceptionally well referenced...a plus...But...this book is a quite remarkable re-examination of two of the killings which are often regarded as nothing more than mutually unconnected precursors to the "real" events which followed. The author presents evidence some solid, some implied but undoubtedly convincing, to suggest that not only may the Smith and Tabram murders be mutually connected, (they've certainly a good deal more in common than has previously been believed), but there are clear links through to at least the Nicholls and Chapman murders, and possibly further too...There are villains to be encountered in this tale as well as victims...some in the most surprising of places...but this isn't a suspect book - nor just an exposé on the cesspool that was the late victorian East End. It's a fascinating lesson in how to assemble the limited evidence, tease out the research and finally draw conclusions from it.I don't want this to act as a spoiler for any potential reader, so I'll not go into more detail, but suffice it to say that in my humble view this book ought to be required reading for any student of the Whitechapel Murders...any student of real crime for that matter.So that dilemma? Well anybody who can write so engagingly, make learning such a pleasure, and who can persuade one to escape long-held preconceptions and re-evaluate these early cases with a fresh eye has to have a five, don't they...it's a great book, and frankly I can't wait for the magnum opus the author implies is yet to come...

Over the years I’ve read quite a few Ripper books some I’ve found brilliant and informative and some darn right silly, but overtime I’ve become very fixed on my opinions of the victims, the Ripper candidates and his/their Psychopathy, but this is the first series of books that’s made me question all that I thought I knew and given me lots of new stuff to think about. So I’d like to thank the author for opening my eyes to the possibility that there’s still loads to discover about Jack the Ripper........and who knows??????

Jack the Ripper literature is a genre which seems to attract polar opposites; it has more than its fair share of lazy chancers - egomaniacs with badly misplaced opinions of their own detective skills, people who, invariably, just want to be able to tell people that they're 'published authors' but can't actually be bothered to do the hard graft. These authors are long on sensation, short on thoroughness and have nothing new or meaningful to say.Fortunately, for every stinker I come across, I also seem to find an exemplary work of comprehensive research and clear reasoning. This book fits into that group deservedly. The author has an engaging way of explaining his train of thought combined with an irrepressible refusal to take any strand or the smallest detail of an account at face value, eschewing all preconceptions. It is lucidly explained, scrupulously researched and tenaciously reasoned and is presented with humility, making few expansive claims but rather offering some genuinely fascinating new insights for seasoned Ripper readers who think they have read it all.A fresh and refreshing inquiry which was an intriguing pleasure to read.

Reading this book it is very apparent to the reader that a lot of research has gone into it. Very well written and easy to read, the author takes us on a journey through the case, giving his perspective as he sees how the case unfolded. I particularly liked his research on Pearly Poll, who seemed, maybe coincidentally, to be oddly entwined into each of the murders in one way or another. Lots of factual background information that is interesting and some of it was certainly new to me.This book provokes food for thought and stretches one's imagination, and even if I felt at times that some things were pure conjecture on the author's part, nevertheless it was a refreshing change to look at the case from a different angle. I came away from it, I think, with a better understanding of the case, and of what was really going on in that autumn of 1888. This book is an essential requirement, in my opinion, in all serious enthusiast's collection, and I strongly recommend.

Refreshing new research and approach. The only problem I had with it is that the author points to the lack of blood stains at the alleged crime scene where Emma Smith was assaulted and yet makes the observation that it took the hospital two days to communicate with the police and the investigation to start. That's two days for a supposed crime scene to be tampered with. Considering how blood was washed away at the Nichols murder site, the possibility that a random blood spill in a part of town not renowned for its environmental hygiene awareness could have been overlooked if not washed away by one of the locals without an iota of inquisitiveness.