Rating: WARTY!
This is one of many books that push the author's personal favorite 'solution' to the identity of Jack the Ripper - which short of inventing a time machine will never now be solved. They all push their own pet theory and dismiss out of hand all the previous ones that other authors have pushed with equal fervor. The central problem with all of these books, including this one, is that each author is so besotted with their own theory that they never look at it critically even as they eviscerate the claims made by their rivals. Ultimately, this is what makes their own claim so putrid.
Bullock isn't the first to name this guy who sports the unfortunately à propos name of Tom Cutbush. His name was put forward by reporters within a couple of years of the last known Ripper murder. Bullock essentially just regurgitates their evidence. He also adds, as have other writers, one or two murders to the canonical list, just to puff-up his claim and 'prove' that the murders continued right up to the point where Cutbush could not have committed any more since he himself was committed. It doesn't matter that those other murders and assaults do not fit the MO.
We've had theories about there being no Ripper - just a series of murders that were lumped together by the media for sensationalistic purposes, which is nonsense. The police of that era not stupid and they were sure the so-called canonical murders were committed by the same guy. We've had theories that there was more than one Ripper - either working together or in tandem - because different knives were used, so they claim. This is really poor evidence. One psycho killer couldn't use more than one knife? We've had murders that were committed before and after the ones typically ascribed to the Ripper, and we've had so-called canonical ones subtracted just to fit a theory.
The problem with extending the Ripper's run after Mary Kelly's death, as this author does, is that they fail to explain how this psychotic killer managed to step down his carnage after Kelly, which was an horrific murder involving extensive mutilation. This was the Ripper's only indoor murder and he was undisturbed for an extended period, which accounts for how out of control his attack was, but the problem for Ripper solution addicts is that no serial killer can step down. They can delay their urges, but like the addict they are, they need a bigger thrill each time. This was why there was a double murder in September - the Ripper was interrupted during the first one and was unable to get the fix he needed, so he attacked another unfortunate woman to satisfy his violent urges.
So each time, they need more and after Kelly's horrible death, how is Cutbush going to step down and revert to stabbing people in the buttocks for his thrills? It doesn't work. It seems to me the Ripper committed suicide or died, or perhaps was committed to an asylum after his last murder because someone found him somewhere, incoherent after Mary Kelly's brutal death. The thing is, we'll never know.
This book does spend a bit more time on the victims than books of this nature typically do, but the real focus, as usual, is on the favored suspect, and it's really become quite tedious to read books like this, so I am done, and I can't commend a book so blinkered, biased, and ill-conceived as this one is.
