The Five

"I enjoyed this book because it gave these women their identity back. It also gave some intresting perspective on that time in history and how much of it still applies to today's world. One birth, one death and your financial security in this world does change no matter how far from "the harder times" we move. "

"A detailed look at the lives of the victims who are too often overlooked. An important glimpse of women's lives and injustices that are sadly perpetuated today by sensationalism "

"A respectable entry into the “Everything You Know Is Wrong” canon, Rubenhold’s quintuple biography reveals the lives of the victims of the world’s most famous serial killer. This is not a whodunnit or a procedural; there are no crackpot theories about Queen Victoria or the Masons; in fact Rubenhold barely mentions the murders. Her focus is on these 5 women’s lives, not their deaths, an utterly refreshing perspective. <br/><br/>She gets the biggest misconception out of the way early: the Whitechapel killer did NOT target prostitutes. Of the 5 “canonical “ victims, only 1 was a habitual sex worker. The others were all fortyish women down on their luck and perennially homeless, but the sensationalist press and puritanical readers were all too willing to equate female poverty and vagrancy with sexual immorality.<br/><br/>In fact, the Ripper victims came from largely respectable families, and a couple could have been considered middle class. Far from being “loose”, they were at most serial monogamists and maintained long-standing relationships with a primary partner. They had concerned, loving siblings, children and friends; they were noted for their talents (Kate Eddowes in particular was a gifted musician) and for their humor. <br/><br/>In other words, Annie, Polly, Elizabeth, Kate and Mary Jane were fully realized, complicated human beings, and the dismissal of their worth as “just prostitutes” is for Rubenhold the real tragedy. The fragile nature of “respectability” for Victorian era working class women meant that the slightest slip could result in disaster. Polly’s fall from grace stemmed from her husband’s adultery and desertion; Annie’s devoted husband was forced to evict her from their comfortable home because of her drinking problem; Elizabeth and Kate both had partners who could not support them due to injury and poor health. Overcrowded “doss houses” and the terrors of the workhouse left them no other choice than sleeping rough in the streets, where they met their fate.<br/><br/>This is not a perfect book; there are inconsistencies and unsupported assumptions, and one sometimes feels Rubenhold was compensating for the dearth of information about her subjects (especially Mary Jane Kelly) by drowning us in superfluous details of Victorian life. However as a social case history of working class women of the period and the dangers they faced, this is first rate."

"Great voice. You’ll never see the Ripper victims the same way. "

"It was more of a biography than a true crime book. It was solely about the women and their lives. It was not what I thought it would be."

"Essential for anyone interested in the Jack the Ripper case or anyone interested in how women get misrepresented by the media/history."

"This was a well researched and thought provoking ideas and stories untold."

"I think this is absolutely a valuable topic for scholarship, and I commend the fact that this book is written in a way that minimizes the women's murderer in favour of describing their lives instead, but I didn't like the book itself very much. The writing comes across as very silly and melodramatic in places, and in defending the majority of the women against the posthumous charge of prostitution the author sort of winds up doing what she condemns in the final chapter: diminishing sex workers as a subclass of women who are more deserving of ill-treatment."

"This was so good. Very informative & it will blow your mind on everything you thought you knew abt Jack's victims. If you are interested in Jack the Ripper info, this is a must read."

"The author respects Jack The Ripper’s victims to the point that it isn’t about him at all. She restores them to the dignity they were owed all along. Beautifully done and well worth your time."