NappieB

The 1973 Stratford Johns (Barlow) and Frank Windsor (Watt) was THE definitive Jack the Ripper expose`.

Nothing ever made before or since comes close. Perhaps too close for some poeple... maybe that's why it's so difficult to find these days...

It is the "Night to Remember" of Ripperology - forget the other Titanic movies!

shead

her belief that no one had ever considered Walter Sickert as a possible candidate as the Ripper. I'm sure that his name surfaced at least as far back as the 1960s.

I am certain that it was Jean Overton Fuller who first put Walter Sickert's name in the frame, along with Prince Eddy and the possibility of a Catholic child born to Mary Kelly. The book was Sickert and the Ripper crimes published around 1990.

ChristineCB

I keep hoping someone will open a poll on the subject so we can vote on it.

"If nominated, I will not run. If elected, I will not serve..."

Oh wait... that's the work of real criminal masterminds.

batman

I tried to read Cornwell's book re Sickert/Ripper but it was so dry I gave up ... the TV programme she made about it was much better but I am not convinced by her argument. Also, there was talk some time ago of a new film with Shane Ritchie as Abberline .... anyone know what happened to that?

"Do you know why fattries are called fattries .... it's because they are big and people make things in them."

samkydd

I watched part of a documentary a couple of months ago on the History channel, and most of the experts are now convinced that The Ripper was a Polish Jew who had mental health problems and lived smack bang in the middle of the area where the murders took place. I think he was quietly incarcerated in an institution and afterwards the case files were closed and no more murders happened. It was never made public because the area had a large population of Polish Jews and the authorities feared a backlash from the local English folk because there was a lot of racial tension.

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

batman

I have read lots of Ripper books over the years and that explanation, along with similar ones I have read about, does seem to be the most logical one.

"Do you know why fattries are called fattries .... it's because they are big and people make things in them."

DB7

To poll possible suspects or best related film/dramas?

ChristineCB

Oooh, I was thinking of Likely Suspects, but "Favorite Films/Docu's" would be another great poll! But giving writers the chance to name several per post - as is done here - is a great way, too.

Personally, I've always preferred TIME AFTER TIME, although shimmering bright lights that appear out of nowhere always frighten me if whoever steps out looks like David Warner.

Brett Sinclair

I love that film...I think Film 4 would refer to it as a guilty pleasure

There's no need to kneel, I'm a very democratic sort of lord.

ChristineCB

That film has two appeals to me: (1) like all of my End Of World films, I enjoy seeing how a person handles the differences in space and time; who woulda thought London's auto-destination for time-travels would be San Fran - how great is that?!! (Poor Rod Taylor - all that huffing and puffing for nothing! And me - there I was, a 5-year old lass, thinking my painted cardboard box could take me to the moon a la Professor Cavor. I should have been working on a Time Machine so I could have had first-day Ghirardelli Chocolates!)

And (2) we finally see who Jack the Ripper is - a frustrated dinner chum of ol' Herbert George! Who'd a-thunk it?!!

Oh well, at least we found out HG's dating regimen.

PS68060

I have watched most of the ripper films and documentaries but don't have such an encyclopaedic memory. For me the most convincing was the one that gave the case against Tumblety. What was it called ?

"Oh! Pete!"

Brett Sinclair

I think one of the major appeals for me is that Malcolm McDowell, an actor that I love, plays a rather affable lead as HG..., who rarely features as 'the goody'.

My time machine was an old step stool that I would urn upside down and flip the legs down (up) so that I could use the legs as the controls...in later years that same set of steps became James Garner's Grand Prix car, Donald Sutherland's Tank from Kelly's Heroes, a rear gunners mount from the Battle of Britain, and numerous other things that I picked up from hundreds of films. We still have the steps, and although unsafe to use as such, my 5 yr old son enjoys using them for much the same reasons as I did...currently as Luke Skywalker's Speeder!

There's no need to kneel, I'm a very democratic sort of lord.

ChristineCB

Brett, God blesses the Creative. We're so much richer for even the giggles you deliver with stories like that. There's a smile that won't diminish.

PS, I know - the titles on these all run together. Like you, I end up only remember the best representation of the beliefs (er, "facts").

That still doesn't stop me from wondering what David Warner would do, stepping out of a ball of bright light... brrr brrr...

Moor Larkin

Casebook: Jack the Ripper - Suspects
Cor blimey guv'nor, that Walter Sickert, 'e's the image of Sir Larry!!

[code]http://www.flickr.com/photos/29487363@N02/sets/72157606700675506/code]

D Cairns

Basically, none of the films are accurate. The 1973 Stratford Johns thing is quite factual though.

The comic book of FROM HELL attempted to reconcile 100% factual accuracy with a flamboyant an implausible conspiracy theory and some way-out poetic digressions. It actually worked pretty well. But the movie abandoned all pretense at accuracy, starting with the casting of Johnny Depp and Heather Graham...