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Jack the Ripper in fiction

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Jack the Ripper, the notorious serial killer who terrorised London in 1888, features in works of fiction ranging from gothic novels published at the time of the murders to recent motion pictures and computer games.

Important influences on the depiction of the Ripper include Marie Belloc Lowndes' 1913 novel The Lodger, which has been adapted for the stage and film, and Stephen Knight's 1976 work Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution, which expanded on a conspiracy theory involving freemasons, royalty and the medical profession that features in many subsequent dramatisations. The literature of the late Victorian era, including Arthur Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes stories and Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, has provided rich inspiration for story-makers who have fused these fictional worlds with the Ripper. The Ripper makes appearances throughout the science fiction and horror genres and is internationally recognised as an evil character. The association of the Ripper with death and sex is particularly appealing to heavy metal and rock musicians, who have incorporated the Ripper murders into their work.

Literature

Title page of The Curse Upon Mitre Square, 1888

Works of fiction inspired by the Whitechapel murders arose immediately after the atrocities were committed. The short gothic novel The Curse Upon Mitre Square by John Francis Brewer, which features the murder of Catherine Eddowes in Mitre Square as a key plot element, was published in October 1888.[1] Among works by other authors, In Darkest London by Margaret Harkness, who used the pseudonym John Law, was published in 1889. Harkness depicts the Ripper as a non-Jewish slaughterman who hides among the Jews in the East End of London.[2]

Ripper stories appealed to an international audience.[3] A "reputedly unsavoury" anthology of short stories in Swedish, Uppskäraren ("The Ripper") by Adolf Paul, was published in 1892, but it was suppressed by Russian authorities.[4] The Spanish-language Jack El Destripador was an "amusing Sherlock Holmes pastiche" published shortly after the murders.[3] Holmes was also used later in Michael Dibdin's The Last Sherlock Holmes Story (1978), Ellery Queen's A Study in Terror (1966), John Sladek's Black Aura (1974), and Barry Roberts' Sherlock Holmes and the Royal Flush (1998) amongst others.[5]

The first influential short story, "The Lodger" by Marie Belloc Lowndes, was published in McClure's Magazine in 1911 and novelised in 1913.[4] It features a London couple, Mr and Mrs Bunting, who suspect that their lodger, Mr Sleuth, is a mysterious killer known as "The Avenger", clearly based on the Ripper.[6] Whether Sleuth really is "The Avenger" is left open: the focus of the story is on the Buntings' psychological terror, which may be entirely unfounded, rather than the actions of "The Avenger".[6] In 1927, "The Lodger" was the subject of an Alfred Hitchcock-directed film: The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog, and four other adaptations were filmed in later years.

In 1926, Leonard Matters proposed in a magazine article that the Ripper was an eminent doctor, whose son had died from syphilis caught from a prostitute. According to Matters, the doctor, given the pseudonym "Dr Stanley", committed the murders in revenge and then fled to Argentina. He expanded his ideas into a book, The Mystery of Jack the Ripper, in 1929. The book was marketed as a serious study, but it contains obvious factual errors and the documents it supposedly uses as references have never been found.[7] It inspired other works such as the theatre play Murder Most Foul and the film Jack the Ripper.[8] Jonathan Goodman's 1984 book Who He? is also written as if it is a factual study, but the suspect described, "Peter J Harpick", is an invention whose name is an anagram of Jack the Ripper.[9]

Robert Bloch's short story "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" (published in Weird Tales in 1943[4]) cast the Ripper as an eternal who must make human sacrifices to extend his immortality.[10] It was adapted for both radio (in Stay Tuned for Terror) and television (as an episode of Thriller in 1961 written by Barré Lyndon).[11] The science-fiction anthology Dangerous Visions (1967) featured an unrelated Ripper story by Bloch, "A Toy for Juliette", and a sequel by Harlan Ellison, "The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World", written with Bloch's permission. Bloch's work also includes The Will to Kill (1954) and Night of the Ripper (1984).[12]

The many novels influenced by the Ripper include: A Case to Answer (1947) by Edgar Lustgarten, The Screaming Mimi (1949) by Fredric Brown, Terror Over London (1957) by Gardner Fox, Ritual in the Dark (1960) and The Killer (1970) by Colin Wilson, Sagittarius (1962) by Ray Russell, A Feast Unknown (1969) by Philip José Farmer, A Kind of Madness (1972) by Anthony Boucher, Nine Bucks Row (1973) by T. E. Huff, The Michaelmas Girls (1975) by John Brooks Barry, Jack's Little Friend (1975) by Ramsey Campbell, By Flower and Dean Street (1976) by Patrice Chaplin, The Private Life of Jack the Ripper (1980) by Richard Gordon, White Chappell, Scarlet Tracings (1987) by Iain Sinclair, Anno Dracula (1992) by Kim Newman, A Night in the Lonesome October (1993) by Roger Zelazny, Ladykiller (1993) by Martina Cole, Savage (1993) by Richard Laymon, The Pit (1993) by Neil Penswick, Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem (1994) by Peter Ackroyd, Pentecost Alley (1996) by Anne Perry, and Matrix (1998) by Mike Tucker and Robert Perry.[13]

Film

Marie Belloc Lowndes' book The Lodger has been made into five films: Alfred Hitchcock's The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927), The Lodger (1932), The Lodger (1944), Man in the Attic (1953), and The Lodger (2009). Hitchcock decided to cast romantic lead Ivor Novello as the title character in his version of The Lodger, with the consequence that the film company, Gainsborough Pictures, insisted on a re-write to make Novello's character more sympathetic.[14] In a change from the original story, whether the lodger is the killer is no longer left ambivalent at the end. Instead, the lodger's strange behaviour arises because he is a vigilante, trying to catch the real killer.[15] Novello remade the film in 1932 with a more dramatic ending, in which he throttles the killer, who is his demented brother, the "Bosnian Murderer".[16] Novello played both roles, and Maurice Elvey directed. It was released in an abridged version as The Phantom Fiend in 1935.[17] The 1944 version dispensed with the ambivalence of the novel and instead casts the lodger, "Slade" played by Laird Cregar, as the villain "Jack the Ripper".[18] Unlike the earlier versions, the film is set in 1888, rather than in the year of the film's making.[19] The 1953 version, Man in the Attic with Jack Palance as "Slade", covers much the same ground.[20] The 2009 film casts Simon Baker as "Slaight".

Sketch of Eric Porter as the character "Dr John Pritchard" in Hands of the Ripper. In the film, the kindly Dr Pritchard adopts the Ripper's murderous daughter.[21]

Room to Let (1949) was similar to The Lodger story but was based on a 1948 radio play by Margery Allingham. It was one of the first horror pictures made by Hammer Films.[22] Valentine Dyall plays the lodger, "Dr Fell", who has escaped from a lunatic asylum where he has been incarcerated for 16 years since committing the Whitechapel murders.[23] Hammer released two Ripper-inspired films in 1971. In Hands of the Ripper, the Ripper's daughter played by Angharad Rees grows up to become a murderess after she sees her father kill her mother.[24] In Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, a male Dr Jekyll transforms into the evil predatory woman Sister Hyde and is also responsible for the Ripper murders[25]. InTerror in the Wax Museum (1973), a murderer disguises himself as a waxwork of the Ripper[26].

The Veil episode "Jack the Ripper" (1958) was a made-for-television film introduced by Boris Karloff, in which a clairvoyant identifies the Ripper as a respectable surgeon whose death has been faked to cover his incarceration in a lunatic asylum.[27] The story's basis was an 1895 newspaper report that Robert James Lees had used psychic powers to track the Ripper to the home of a London physician.[28] Jack the Ripper (1959), produced by Monty Berman and Robert S. Baker and written by Jimmy Sangster is loosely based on Leonard Matters' theory that the Ripper was an avenging doctor.[29] It borrowed icons from previously successful horror films, such as Dracula (1958) and The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), by giving the Ripper a costume of a top hat and cape.[30] The plot is a standard "whodunit" with the usual false leads and a denouement in which the least likely character, in this case "Sir David Rogers" played by Ewen Solon, is revealed as the culprit.[31] As in Matters' book, The Mystery of Jack the Ripper, Solon's character murders prostitutes to avenge the death of his son. However, Matters used the ploy of the son dying from venereal disease, while the film has him committing suicide on learning his lover is a prostitute.[32] In a reversal of this formula, the German film Das Ungeheuer von London City (1964), released as The Monster of London City in 1967, casts the son as the villain with the father as the victim of syphilis.[33]

Pandora's Box (Die Büchse der Pandora) was a 1929 German silent film directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst based on Frank Wedekind's play about a woman, Lulu, played by Louise Brooks. Her uninhibited lifestyle leads her to walk the streets of London until she meets her end in an encounter with Jack the Ripper played by Gustav Diessl.[34] An earlier German film, Paul Leni's Waxworks (Das Wachsfigurenkabinett) from 1924, used a Ripper-style event in one of three dreamed vignettes.[35] The "Jack" character was played by Werner Krauss, who had achieved enormous success with his portrayal of the evil title character in the influential early horror film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.[36]

A Study in Terror (1965) and Murder by Decree (1979), both feature Sherlock Holmes. A Study in Terror, and its companion novel written by Ellery Queen,[37] feature the often insane family of the Duke of Shires, with a motive provided by one of his son's becoming enamoured of a prostitute.[38] Murder by Decree, starring Christopher Plummer as Sherlock Holmes and James Mason as Watson, follows the masonic/royal conspiracy plotline popularised by Stephen Knight, in which a royal physician is the murderer. Coincidentally, in both movies, character actor Frank Finlay plays Inspector Lestrade.[39]. The conspiracy plotline was also followed in Jack the Ripper (1988) starring Michael Caine as Inspector Frederick Abberline. In the 1997 film The Ripper, Samuel West starred as Prince Eddy, who was revealed as the Ripper. In 2001, the Hughes Brothers made the comic book From Hell into a film of the same name starring Johnny Depp as Abberline. The film again sticks to the Knight storyline, though Depp's character differs significantly from Caine's heroic Abberline and exhibits aspects of both Sherlock Holmes (deductive powers, drug addiction) and Robert Lees (psychic ability, foresight).

The Ruling Class (1972) is a satire on the British aristocracy, and it also linked the Ripper to the British upper class.[40] Jack Gurney, the mentally ill 14th Earl of Gurney played by Peter O'Toole, spends part of the film believing himself to be Jack the Ripper, and performs a pair of Ripper murders.[40] The black comedy Deadly Advice (1994) features Jane Horrocks as a serial killer who imagines that she is given advice by the incarnations of famous murderers. John Mills plays Jack the Ripper as an outwardly mild-mannered hairdresser. "Just be the sort of person nobody suspects," he tells her.[41] In an earlier black comedy, Dr. Strangelove, the antagonist is named General Jack D. Ripper, but the comparison goes no deeper.[42] Amazon Women on the Moon is a 1987 comedy film that parodies theories of the Ripper's identity by speculating that Jack the Ripper was the Loch Ness Monster in disguise.[43] Marcel Carné's Drôle de Drame (1937) is another parody of the Ripper, featuring Jean-Louis Barrault as an East End vegetarian who slaughters butchers in revenge for their slaughter of animals.[44]

Night After Night After Night (1969) was a low-budget production that cast a high court judge (played by Jack May) as a demented copycat Ripper who attacks prostitutes in London's Soho.[45] Throughout the 1970s and 1980s tenuous links with the Ripper case were introduced into films for commercial reasons; sexploitation horror movies Blade of the Ripper (1970), The Ripper of Notre Dame (1981) and The New York Ripper (1982) have little relation to the Ripper beyond the title.[46] The Ripper of Notre Dame was directed and co-written by Jesús Franco, whose Jack the Ripper (1976) stars Klaus Kinski as a murderous doctor whose mother was a prostitute.[47] What the Swedish Butler Saw (1975), in which Jack the Ripper hides in a photographic studio, is little more than softcore pornography.[48] Thrillers Jack the Mangler of London (1973), Fear City (1984), Night Ripper (1986) and Jack's Back (1988) received poor reviews,[49] as did the Japanese pink film Assault! Jack the Ripper.[50] Edge of Sanity (1989) is lent "post-Psycho gravitas" by the casting of Anthony Perkins as "Dr Jekyll" and his alter-ego "Jack Hyde", but was still condemned by critics "as a tasteless exercise".[51] The Dolph Lundgren vehicle Jill the Ripper (2000) reverses the traditional genders of victims and villains, with a female Ripper and male victims.[52]

In Time After Time (1979), based on the novel of the same title, Jack escapes in a time machine to modern-day San Francisco and is pursued by H. G. Wells. The pursuer was originally slated to be Robert Louis Stevenson in a link to the author of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, but he was written out in favour of Wells.[53] In Terror at London Bridge (1985), starring David Hasselhoff, Jack's spirit is transported to Arizona in a cursed stone from London Bridge.[54] In The Ripper (1985), his spirit is instead concealed in a cursed ring.[54] Ripper Man (1994) depicts a killer who believes himself to be the reincarnation of George Chapman, who was suspected of being Jack the Ripper after his arrest and execution for murder in 1903.[55]

Released in the same year as From Hell, and consequently overshadowed by it,[56] were Ripper and Bad Karma (retitled as Hell's Gate). Ripper centres on psychology student Molly Keller (played by A. J. Cook) who studies serial killers. Her classmates start dying at the hands of a Jack the Ripper copycat, who targets victims with the same initials as the originals.[57] Bad Karma is another play on the reincarnation theme with the addition of Patsy Kensit as the Ripper's female accomplice.[58]

Art

Walter Sickert, 1884

Walter Sickert was an English artist inspired by the seediness of the East End of London. His works include "Jack the Ripper's Bedroom".[59]

Comics

From Hell is a graphic novel about the Ripper case by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell, which took its name from the "From Hell" letter supposedly written by the Ripper. It is based on Stephen Knight's "palpably flawed" conspiracy theory, which accused royalty and freemasons of complicity in the crimes and was popularised by his book Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution.[60]. In the Appendix to the graphic novel, Moore clearly states that he lends no credibility to the Knight theory and only used it for dramatic purposes. Royalty and the Ripper also featured in Blood of the Innocent by Rickey Shanklin, Marc Hempel and Mark Wheatley in 1986, and a story ("Royal Blood") in DC Comics' Hellblazer series in 1992.[61]

DC Comics' Gotham by Gaslight (1989), features a Victorian era version of the superhero Batman hunting the Ripper in New York City. The two fictional worlds, both dark and gothic, complement one another and sit easily together.[62] Jack the Ripper featured in Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol in 1989, Wonder Woman: Amazonia and Predator: Nemesis in 1997, and in a Judge Dredd story: "Night of the Ripper!".[61] A story in the Justice League of America series fused with H. G. Wells' The Island of Dr. Moreau and features Jack the Ripper as an orangutan,[61] while Whitechapel Freak (2001) by David Hitchcock uses Jack the Ripper as an underlying background figure in a story that focuses on a travelling freak show. The Ripper is a legless man "strapped onto the shoulders of a midget".[63] Rick Geary's Jack the Ripper story in a 1995 volume of his A Treasury of Victorian Murder is a straighter retelling.[61]

Jack the Ripper has so far appeared in three comic book stories featuring Lee Falk's The Phantom. In the stories, the 18th Phantom did his best to solve the mystery of the London murders. Jack the Ripper ends up drowning in the London sewers in one of the stories.[page needed] In the Marvel Graphic Novel, Cloak and Dagger: Predator and Prey, Jack the Ripper left England and went to America where he continued to murder. Jack the Ripper has had other appearances in Marvel Comics.[page needed] The CSI: Crime Scene Investigation graphic novel Serial is about a Jack the Ripper copy-cat killer in present-day Las Vegas during a "Ripper-Mania" Convention, leading to hundreds of Ripper case enthusiasts as suspects in the murders.[64]

In the fourth part of Kaori Yuki's manga series Earl Cain, Jack the Ripper kills victims for the organization DELILAH to keep her reanimated daughter alive.[page needed] Jack the Ripper has also appeared in the Japanese manga, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. He appears as in the first part titled Phantom Blood as the right hand man to the series' main antagonist, Dio Brando.[page needed] Jack the Ripper appears in the Japanese manga Soul Eater by Atsushi Ookubo as the main protagonist's 99th collected soul. He is portrayed as a long, thin man with giant metal claws and a long, sharp nose.[65] In the 2006 manga Kuroshitsuji by the Japanese mangaka Toboso Yana, Jack the Ripper is portrayed as a mysterious person who had been responsible for the multiple yet common deaths of prostitutes in Victorian London. A few chapters later, it is revealed that Jack the Ripper is actually two people working together: a masquerading death god and a doctor of noble lineage.[66] The manga series titled "Time Eliminator" revolves around a main character able to travel in time and erase certain things from history. The first chapter is about a young girl claiming her family is cursed by the murders of Jack the Ripper and hires him to eliminate Jack. it is later discovered that Joseph Barnett, an ex-boyfriend of the final victim Mary Jane Kelly, had committed the murders. The probable cause being that Mary dumped him and as a result Joseph despised all prostitutes, killing 4 of them before finally confronting and murdering Mary herself.

Theatre and opera

The Ripper features at the end of Frank Wedekind's morality play Die Büchse der Pandora (1904), in which the Ripper murders Lulu, the central character. Lulu is the personification of sinful Lust who meets her comeuppance when she unwittingly flirts with the Ripper.[67] In the original stage production, Wedekind played the part of the Ripper.[3] The play was later adapted into the film Pandora's Box (1928, directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst), and the opera Lulu (by Alban Berg), both of which also end with the murder of Lulu by the Ripper.[68] It was also made into three films in 1923, 1962 and 1980 respectively.[69]

André de Lorde's Jack l'Eventreur was part of the Grand Guignol's output in Paris.[44] Marie Belloc Lowndes' novel and short story The Lodger was adapted for the stage as The Lodger: Who Is He? by Horace Annesley Vachell. In 1917, Lionel Atwill's first role in Broadway theatre was as the title character.[70] Phyllis Tate also based her opera The Lodger, first performed in 1960, on Lowndes' story.[71]

Murder Most Foul by Claude Pirkis was first performed in 1948. The character of the murderer, Dr Stanley, was taken from The Mystery of Jack the Ripper by Leonard Matters, first published in 1929.[72]

Rock and pop music

Link Wray's 1959 instrumental "Jack the Ripper" begins with an evil laugh and a woman's scream. These devices were also used in "Jack the Ripper" (1963), originally recorded by Screaming Lord Sutch and covered by The White Stripes, The Horrors, Black Lips, The Sharks and Jack & The Rippers.[73]

Jack the Ripper: The Musical (1974), with lyrics by Ron Pember and music by Dennis DeMarne, influenced Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.[74] The mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap (1984) features a vignette in which the band discusses the possibility of composing a rock opera about Jack the Ripper's life, called Saucy Jack. In 1996, a rock opera entitled Yours Truly: Jack the Ripper with lyrics by Frogg Moody and Dave Taylor was performed and, in a break from recent practice, portrayed the Ripper as an ordinary everyday man.[75]

Metal bands are particularly keen to associate themselves with the "bloodshed and sleaze" image of the Ripper.[76] Songs entitled "Ripper" were recorded by Judas Priest in 1976, and Praying Mantis in 1979.[76] American deathcore band Whitechapel derived its name from the inner-city district Whitechapel in London, the location of the Jack the Ripper murders. Accordingly, the band's debut album The Somatic Defilement is a first-person narrative concept album based on Jack the Ripper. The Texan metal group Ripper went for a more direct choice of name. Vocalists with the groups Meridian and Sodomizer adopted the names Jack D. Ripper and Ripper, respectively.[76]

Songs inspired by the Ripper were recorded by artists as varied as Morrissey, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Legendary Pink Dots, Thee Headcoats, The Buff Medways and Bob Dylan.[74] Radio Werewolf's album The Fiery Summons features "From Hell" which uses words from the letters attributed to the Ripper.[77]

  • The Used, B'z, Motörhead, Seikima-II, LL Cool J, My Chemical Romance, Macabre, AFI, and The Satelliters have all used the Ripper in songs.
  • Leathermouth, side project of My Chemical Romance guitarist Frank Iero, have recorded a song entitled "Catch Me If You Can, Mr. Lusk" based on Jack The Ripper's story
  • Infernäl Mäjesty recorded a song about Jack the Ripper titled "Anthology of Evil".
  • Swedish power metal band, Falconer, recorded a song titled "Jack the Knife" on their 2005 "Grime vs. Grandeur" album.
  • American heavy metal band Manilla Road had a song on their 1988 album "Out of the Abyss" called "Whitechapel."
  • Rock band Vernian Process recorded a song called "The Curse of Whitechapel" which is inspired by and uses samples from the film "From Hell".
  • Chicago-based pop-rock band Spitalfield took its name from Spitalfields, one of the sections of London's East End where the killer was active.
  • British gothic rock band Scary Bitches created the song "I'm the Woman that Killed Jack the Ripper", which is about a female vampire that (obviously) killed Jack the Ripper.
  • The rapper Canibus has an alter ego named Rip the Jacker and has a song title Bis Vs Rip which contains a sample from the letter "Dear Boss" on his Mic Club album.
  • On their album Horror Show, heavy metal band Iced Earth recorded a song title "Jack". Much like other songs on the album, the lyrics seem intended to give a sympathetic view of the character (in this case, the Ripper) and are told from his view.
  • The track "Nice Man Jack" from John Miles' 1978-album Zaragon is literally about Jack the Ripper and alluding to Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde as well: Nice Man Jack so very warm and kind / It's a pity there aren't more like him / Such a well respected gentleman / Midnight stranger takes a ride / Nice Man Jack got lots to hide / Street girls feel the ripper's knife / Surgeon skill taking life.
  • Jack the Ripper is mentioned in the song What! by Rob Zombie on his 2010 album Hellbilly Deluxe 2.

Television

In the Star Trek episode "Wolf in the Fold" (1967), writer Robert Bloch reused parts of his short-story "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper", which had already appeared as a 1961 television episode of Thriller. An eternal entity, referred to as "Redjac", feeds on fear, and has committed a string of murders, including those attributed to Jack the Ripper, as a means of sustaining itself. By the end of the 1960s, the Ripper was established in American television as a "universal force of evil", who could be adapted to suit any villainous niche.[78]

In an episode of The Twilight Zone from 1963 entitled "The New Exhibit", Martin Balsam plays the curator of a wax museum who becomes so obsessed by five wax figures of murderers, including Jack the Ripper, that he commits murder to protect them.[79] In the Cimarron Strip episode "Knife in the Wilderness" (1968), written by Harlan Ellison,[11] Jack continues his work across America ending in Cimarron City where he meets his end at the hands of Indians.[80] In the Get Smart episode "House of Max" (1970), Jack the Ripper is an animated wax dummy.[81]

In The Sixth Sense's "With Affection, Jack the Ripper" (1972) a man is driven mad during an paranormal experiment when he inhabits the body of Jack the Ripper.[82] A Fantasy Island episode, also titled "With Affection, Jack the Ripper" (1980), was written by the same writer as the episode of The Sixth Sense, Don Ingalls. Lynda Day George plays criminologist Lorraine Peters who uses a time portal to confirm her suspicion that Jack the Ripper was a doctor, Albert Fell, played by Victor Buono. Fell follows her back through the portal, grabs Peters and takes her back to 1888, where the enigmatic Mr. Roarke intervenes fortuitously, and Fell dies moments later while fleeing.[83] The name Fell is clearly lifted from Margery Allingham's 1948 radio play Room to Let.[83] A time portal is also used in "A Rip in Time" (1997), the first episode of the short-lived TV series Timecop, in which a timetravelling cop travels back to 1888 to catch a criminal who has killed, and displaced, Jack the Ripper.[84] The Babylon 5 episode "Comes the Inquisitor" (1995) features a character named Sebastian who is Jack the Ripper, abducted by the alien Vorlons in the year 1888 and made into their inquisitor so that he can test (through torture) beings who are called to lead an important cause.[85]

Jack the Ripper (1973) by Elwyn Jones and John Lloyd linked with the police drama Z Cars. The program featured Z Cars detectives Barlow and Watt, played by Stratford Johns and Frank Windsor respectively, investigating the murders from an historical perspective.[86] In the first episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974), titled "The Ripper", reporter Carl Kolchak pursues a supernatural killer whose victims match the patterns of the original Ripper murders. The killer has superhuman strength and is invulnerable to weapons, but Kolchak dematerialises the apparently immortal being by electrocuting him.[87] An episode of The Outer Limits titled "Ripper" (1997) was set in 1888 and starred Cary Elwes as Dr. Jack York, who kills women whom he believes are possessed by an alien entity.[88] In an episode of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, "The Knife" (2001), the explorers meet the two men blamed for the murders in Stephen Knight's royal conspiracy theory: William Gull and Robert Anderson.[89]

Video games

Jack the Ripper's appearance in computer games began in a text adventure game (Jack the Ripper) released in 1987.[90] This was followed by his appearance in the Sega platform game Master of Darkness (1992), where he is revealed to be an animated wax doll upon defeat.[91] Also in 1992, Jack the Ripper featured in the dungeon crawl style RPG Waxworks.[92] Jack is one of the historically-based characters in the World Heroes fighting game series, making his debut in World Heroes 2: Jet in 1994.[91] Ripper (1996) deals with a copycat serial killer in a futuristic New York City in the year 2040,[91] and in Jack the Ripper (2003) the player takes on the role of a reporter sent to cover a new outbreak of Ripper-style attacks in New York in 1901, 13 years after the Ripper's murders.[91] Duke Nukem: Zero Hour (1999) is a "light-hearted gunplay romp set in Victorian London" that features Jack the Ripper.[91] He is one of the principal villains in the action-horror Shadow Man (1999), and Jack also appears in the gothic horror platform game MediEvil 2 (2000), but as a tall green monster with giant claws, long sharp teeth and a top hat, rather than as a human.[91]

Mystery in London: On the Trail of Jack the Ripper (2009) fuses the Ripper story with Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, while Sherlock Holmes versus Jack the Ripper (2009) fuses with the fictional world of Sherlock Holmes.[91] In "Operation Darkness" he is a character who appears in France. In reality, he was a mentally insane killer while the game shows him as a heroic soldier in a secret British unit during World War 2.

Notes

  1. ^ Woods and Baddeley, pp. 61–62
  2. ^ Meikle, p. 40
  3. ^ a b c Cullen, p. 246
  4. ^ a b c Woods and Baddeley, p. 67
  5. ^ Whitehead and Rivett, p. 135
  6. ^ a b Meikle, pp. 44–48
  7. ^ Woods and Baddeley, pp. 114–115
  8. ^ Woods and Baddeley, pp. 160, 198
  9. ^ Whitehead and Rivett, pp. 12–13
  10. ^ Meikle, p. 110
  11. ^ a b Woods and Baddeley, p. 68
  12. ^ Whitehead and Rivett, pp. 133, 135–136
  13. ^ Whitehead and Rivett, pp. 133–136
  14. ^ Meikle, p. 50
  15. ^ Meikle, pp. 50–51
  16. ^ Meikle, pp. 53–54
  17. ^ Meikle, p. 55
  18. ^ Meikle, p. 55
  19. ^ Meikle, p. 56
  20. ^ Meikle, pp. 61–63
  21. ^ Meikle, p. 121
  22. ^ Woods and Baddeley, p. 196
  23. ^ Meikle, pp. 59–61
  24. ^ Meikle, p. 121; Woods and Baddeley, p. 200
  25. ^ Meikle, p. 125; Woods and Baddeley, p. 199
  26. ^ Meikle, p. 129
  27. ^ Meikle, p. 67
  28. ^ Meikle, p. 68
  29. ^ Meikle, pp. 75–79; Woods and Baddeley, p. 198
  30. ^ Woods and Baddeley, p. 197
  31. ^ Meikle, pp. 76–77
  32. ^ Meikle, p. 79
  33. ^ Meikle, pp. 86–87
  34. ^ Meikle, p. 33–34; Woods and Baddeley, p. 165
  35. ^ Woods and Baddeley, pp. 166–167
  36. ^ Meikle, p. 30
  37. ^ Meikle, p. 99; Woods and Baddeley, p. 150
  38. ^ Meikle, pp. 92–99
  39. ^ Meikle, p. 150
  40. ^ a b Meikle, p. 131
  41. ^ Meikle, p. 171
  42. ^ Meikle, p. 88; Woods and Baddeley, p. 69
  43. ^ Meikle, pp. 205–206; Woods and Baddeley, p. 73
  44. ^ a b Cullen, p. 249
  45. ^ Meikle, pp. 100–101
  46. ^ Meikle, p. 155–157, 183; Woods and Baddeley, pp. 203–204
  47. ^ Meikle, p. 104
  48. ^ Meikle, p. 140
  49. ^ Meikle, pp. 102–103, 156, 159–160; Woods and Baddeley, pp. 204–205
  50. ^ Woods and Baddeley, p. 206
  51. ^ Woods and Baddeley, p. 207
  52. ^ Meikle, p. 183
  53. ^ Meikle, pp. 136–137; Woods and Baddeley, p. 205
  54. ^ a b Meikle, pp. 157–158; Woods and Baddeley, p. 205
  55. ^ Meikle, pp. 173–174
  56. ^ Woods and Baddeley, p. 213
  57. ^ Meikle, p. 200
  58. ^ Meikle, pp. 185–186
  59. ^ Jack the Ripper's Bedroom. Manchester Art Gallery. Accessed 6 October 2008
  60. ^ Meikle, p. 188
  61. ^ a b c d Whitehead and Rivett, p. 137
  62. ^ Bloom, Clive (2008), "Jack the Ripper – A Legacy in Pictures" in Werner, Alex, Jack the Ripper and the East End, London: Random House, ISBN 9780701182472, p. 256
  63. ^ Woods and Baddeley, p. 73
  64. ^ Collins, Max Allan; Wood, Ashley; and Rodriguez, Gabriel (2003/2004) Serial USA: IDW Publishing I SBN 1-932382-02-X/Titan Books ISBN 1-84023-771-6
  65. ^ Ookubo, Atsushi (June 22, 2004) Soul Eater Japan: Gangan Comics Pg 008-009 ISBN 978-4-7575-1223-8
  66. ^ Yana, Toboso (July 27, 2007) Kuroshitsuji Japan: Square Enix Chapters 005-009 ISBN 978-4-7575-2063-9
  67. ^ Meikle, p. 34
  68. ^ Woods and Baddeley, p. 165
  69. ^ Cullen, p. 246; Meikle, pp. 212–226
  70. ^ Meikle, p. 49
  71. ^ Cullen, p. 248
  72. ^ Woods and Baddeley, pp. 159–160
  73. ^ Woods and Baddeley, p. 79
  74. ^ a b Woods and Baddeley, pp. 75–76
  75. ^ Woods and Baddeley, pp. 77
  76. ^ a b c Woods and Baddeley, p. 80
  77. ^ Woods and Baddeley, p. 190
  78. ^ Meikle, pp. 131–133
  79. ^ Meikle, p. 115
  80. ^ Meikle, pp. 117–118
  81. ^ Woods and Baddeley, p. 171
  82. ^ Meikle, p. 133
  83. ^ a b Meikle, p. 139
  84. ^ Meikle, p. 180
  85. ^ Meikle, pp. 175–176
  86. ^ Knight, p. 16; Meikle, p. 142; Rumbelow, p. 223; Woods and Baddeley, pp. 150–151
  87. ^ Meikle, pp. 135–136
  88. ^ Meikle, pp. 181–182
  89. ^ Meikle, p. 206
  90. ^ Woods and Baddeley, p. 74
  91. ^ a b c d e f g Woods and Baddeley, p. 75
  92. ^ Woods and Baddeley, pp. 75, 171

References

  • Cullen, Tom (1965). Autumn of Terror. London: The Bodley Head.
  • Knight, Stephen (1976; rev. 1984; repr. 2000). Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution. London: Bounty Books. ISBN 0753703696.
  • Meikle, Denis (2002). Jack the Ripper: The Murders and the Movies. Richmond, Surrey: Reynolds and Hearn Ltd. ISBN 1903111323
  • Rumbelow, Donald (2004). The Complete Jack the Ripper: Fully Revised and Updated. Penguin Books. ISBN 0140173951.
  • Whitehead, Mark; Rivett, Miriam (2006). Jack the Ripper. Harpenden, Hertfordshire: Pocket Essentials. ISBN 9781904048695
  • Woods, Paul; Baddeley, Gavin (2009). Saucy Jack: The Elusive Ripper. Hersham, Surrey: Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 9780711034105
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