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The Five

The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper

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The Five

By: Hallie Rubenhold
Narrated by: Louise Brealey
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Five devastating human stories and a dark and moving portrait of Victorian London - the untold lives of the women killed by Jack the Ripper.

Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine and Mary-Jane are famous for the same thing, though they never met. They came from Fleet Street, Knightsbridge, Wolverhampton, Sweden and Wales. They wrote ballads, ran coffeehouses and lived on country estates; they breathed ink dust from printing presses and escaped people traffickers.

What they had in common was the year of their murders: 1888. The person responsible was never identified, but the character created by the press to fill that gap has become far more famous than any of these five women.

For more than a century, newspapers have been keen to tell us that ‘the Ripper’ preyed on prostitutes. Not only is this untrue, as historian Hallie Rubenhold has discovered, it has prevented the real stories of these fascinating women from being told. Now, in this devastating narrative of five lives, Rubenhold finally sets the record straight, revealing a world not just of Dickens and Queen Victoria but of poverty, homelessness and rampant misogyny. They died because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time - but their greatest misfortune was to be born a woman.

©2019 Hallie Rubenhold (P)2019 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd Europe Gender Studies Great Britain Historical Law Murder Politicians Politics & Activism Poverty & Homelessness Psychology & Mental Health Serial Killers Social Sciences True Crime Women World
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Finally an emphatic book about this topic. Love it and will recommend it to my friends.

Great

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Beautifully read! Takes the focus back to the victims and paints a vivid picture of the „Ripper Streets“.

Fascinating and well overdue

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I highly recommend this book. An eye opener of the lives and destinies of five of the victims of crime. So many insights. Well read.

An amazing insight of the situation of unlucky women

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I've been leading Jack the Ripper Tours for 12 years. Over that time I've read many books and watched loads of documentaries, but nothing has made me rethink this series of murders like this book. It completely humanises the poor five women and brings to life their stories. A must-read for anyone interested in this case!

Completely recontextualised the whole event for me

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I thought I get a new look at the Ripper case but I got so much more. The lives of the women are discussed very, very detailed and you learn about history, living conditions and the moral of that time. There is so much to unpack and understand that I wanted to take notes. It definitely takes more than one listen to understand everything. Absolutely worth every minute!

Alcoholism, poverty and being a woman is the root cause of the problem!

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