Influences

[How Brown]

Folks:

Its a well known fact that many of the people involved in our field...and even civilians who have a marginal interest in Ripperology...have been influenced to pursue a life in this journey of ours by spurious and false means and ways.

McCormick's "suspect" in his 1959 book...The Knight theory...The Maybrick saga...the Donston Hoax...the Abberline Diaries...and perhaps one or two more you can think of...have been instrumental in this regard.

Is it true that a majority of Ripperologists,as with the cadre that actively engage in "JFK assassination" theories, are here because of the less verifiable claims found in the field? What are your feelings on this matter ?

Granted,a lot of people,who have wisely resisted hopping on a suspect's bandwagon (unlike yours truly....) are here or elsewhere for other reasons. An abiding love of Victorian period culture and history...interest in crime and crime stories...those who like a good "whodunit?"....and other worthwhile interests.

So how about you? How did you get to where you are now?

....and,not to forget....are you here for that very reason still?

Thanks.

[Mike Covell]

It's all about the history, If only we could step back in time!

I had always had an intrest in the unexplained and have been involved in this field one way or another for 20 years.
I have thousands of books covering, UFO's, Ghosts, Cryptozoology, Urban Legends, Conspiracies, and True Crime.
The Ripper case for me is the finest unexplained mystery England has to offer,
Scotland has Nessie,
Wales has Lake Bala
Ireland has Leap Castle
We have Jack!!

[Chris G.]

Hi Howard

I have made no secret of the fact that I was drawn into Ripperology due to the Maybrick Diary although I felt it was a hoax from the very first time I heard about it. This was on CBS's Sixty Minutes when the late Ed Bradley visited Battlecrease House and interviewed Shirley Harrison. I had my interest being piqued because I am from Liverpool and grew up on Aigburth Hall Avenue up the road from Battlecrease. Riversdale Road where the mansion stands is the extension of Aigburth Hall Avenue going down toward the River Mersey.

I am still very interested in the Maybrick Diary and how it came about. Although, since I started delving into Ripperology in 1993 by ordering Harrison's The Diary of Jack the Ripper and Begg et al.'s The Jack the Ripper A to Z, I have obviously become interested in many more aspects of the Whitechapel murders than just the Maybrick Diary question.

It was through doing a web search on "Aigburth" and "Maybrick" that led me to Stephen Ryder's fine Casebook: Jack the Ripper website and meeting on-line such interesting authorities as Paul Begg and Grey Hunter (SPE). It was meeting on line Dave Yost and Christopher-Michael DiGrazia that led to me getting even further immersed by helping to found Ripper Notes and beginning the US Ripper conventions, both through Casebook Productions Inc., the organization that Dave, I, CMD, Judy Stock and others created to be an adjunct to Stephen's site and make those things happen.

All the best

Chris

[WRITEFX]

Apart from the reasons that you mention How, social history and culture, crime I have always been very interested in a certain part of London - Bishopsgate and beyond -The Great Fire of London.

Architecture, churches in particular. Which led onto the 'old straight tracks' mystery.

Also the feelings/atmosphere of the sites not just in this case, but at other locations.

Another reason I was interested is because of the East End gangsters that lived in Whitechapel and when you are young and hear the stories they have an effect on you that's hard to put into words when you are grown up.

And then there are the famous nursery rhymes that mention locations in London and the history behind them.

Actually getting into the case was after seeing a newspaper article about an exhibition at Whitechapel. Walking through Spitalfields on a dark winter night was pretty scary, then having a coffee at Christ Church was unusual, so was the crypt. The Ten Bells was probably the worst experience of my life then I looked round one of the murder sites but can't remember anything other than it was dark and deserted and a light and plaque marked the spot, I got out of there pretty fast as it was seriously creepy.

I became a member of the casebook shortly after it started.

So I can imagine people getting involved in the case through any of the reasons above plus -

I wonder how many people have shown an interest after getting into The Da Vinci Code and related theories.

Or people doing geneology and discover a connection of sorts.

[Dustin Gould]

I find "Who done its" are often a gateway for social commentaries. How many mysteries are a direct result of things left unnoticed or unmanaged. Poverty, crime, lawlessness, race relations, etc..The need to know who exactly is responsible for the act itself, only serves to draw me into the much larger picture. The name of a culprit is meaningless to me, unless it's backed by an understanding of the subsequent variables involved. Only after such knowledge is acquired, do I realize that knowing the true identity becomes almost secondary to the root causes of what they did.