Review: The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold

If this book isn’t in my top three of 2020, it’s because everything I read after this was utterly perfect. I would be shocked if it’s not on my favorites of 2020-2029. Spoiler for the review: I think you need to read this book.

I, like everyone else, have been aware of Jack the Ripper basically forever. I knew he was a serial killer, I knew he had never been caught, I knew he killed prostitutes, and I knew he lived in London. It turns out there isn’t really a basis for one of these claims. I had heard about the Dear Boss Letter, which was probably written by a journalist, I had heard the Jane the Ripper theory, the royal connection theories, the Jewish Butcher theory, the antisemitism that accompanied that theory, and I knew the general area in which the murders happened. But I had not known much about the victims, I probably couldn’t have named any of them, and until a few weeks, before I picked this book up, I didn’t really know exactly how many women were murdered. I just kind of assumed that there wasn’t information available about these women much outside fo their names, professions, and the details of their deaths. This would turn out to be incredibly incorrect.

It turns out that there is much information available about the lives of the five women killed, different facts of their lives have varying levels of certainty, and there is obviously much that cannot be known because it was never recorded, or it was only known by the women themselves. But Hallie Rubenhold presents a little over 400 pages of information largely on the lives of Polly Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddows, and Mary-Jane Kelly.

The book opens by dispelling the notion that Jack the Ripper killed prostitutes. There is no evidence that 3 of the five women were ever prostitutes and no evidence that any except Mary Jane Kelly was currently engaged in the profession. She also slowly, then with a bang in the conclusion, dissects the reason why we present the victims as sex workers and the cultural notions that allow us to not treat sex workers as less worthy of life as other ‘moral’ women.

Each section grounds the reader in what daily life for a middle class or poor person both in London and in whatever other area (or areas) the women lived in throughout their lives. We learn about their families, circumstances, and get a broad overview of how their lived lead to being horribly encased in history. I was completely engrossed in each woman’s story and went through a constant cycle of sort of forgetting the ending that was awaiting each woman, and was just focused on the narrative being presented. The author presents the facts of these women’s lives with context about the time and does not ridicule the choices they make. I particularly loved the context of what life was like for the lower classes of England at the time. It really lends the lives of each of the five women a tremendous amount fo clarity.

I could talk about this book endlessly. I am torn between detailing the lives of each woman and of not ruining the element of discovery each page turn brought me. The only negative to this book is that it is, of course, at times deeply sad. But you know that when you pick up the book. This is the story of five murdered women that have continued to be dehumanized in their deaths. The other sad factor of this book is how many women were in equally tragic and upsetting circumstances as Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine, and Mary-Jane were in before their deaths. Rubenhold really does a tremendous job extending empathy towards a group of people treated mainly with disdain.

Basically this is a deeply interesting biography of Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine, and Mary-Jane. If you have even a basic understanding of or interest in, Jack the Ripper, you should also have the lives of the victims in your mind. This is one of my favorite nonfiction books I have read, and I also just think this is an incredibly important book.

Not completely on topic, but this is very much a case where I am deeply in love with the UK cover and am sad for the American audience which has a less great cover. But Americans you are looking for a blue cover with a girl standing on a Victorian street. The cover is bad but the book is good.

I gave this book 5 stars on Goodreads and will be recommending this book to everyone I meet at all times forever.