Jack the Ripper: Eliminating the Suspects
C.J. Morley
Privately published, 2004
Cardstock covers.
Casebook Review: 
There are literally hundreds of suspects in the Jack the Ripper case, and
Mr. C.J. Morley has taken it upon himself to collect his thoughts on 130
of them in his self-published work Jack the Ripper: Eliminating the
Suspects. Morley's research and dedication to the study are evident,
though it must be said that the book suffers immensely from a lack of
proper editing. Spelling mistakes, sentence-fragments and errors of
grammar run rampant throughout the text. This is usually to be expected
from a private publication, but in this case the errors are so frequent
that it severely interrupts the flow of the book, making it very difficult
for the reader to properly concentrate on the actual content of the text.
All of this is unfortunate, because there is truly a great deal of value
in what Mr. Morley has to say. He offers short overviews of each suspect,
ranging from a few sentences to several paragraphs, summarizing the
general case against each and often offering his own views and analyses.
It is obvious that the author has kept abreast of the latest discoveries,
as he includes many little-known suspects which have been mentioned only
in periodicals and on the Internet. Morley himself subscribes to no
particular suspect - though he does seem most interested in the
candidacies of William Henry Bury and Jacob Levy.
In the end, Eliminating the Suspects has more the feel of an
investigator's notebook than of an actual, published book. There is a
great deal of useful information contained within, but since it contains
no page numbers and no index, and since the suspects are not presented in
any chronological or alphabetical order, it would be very difficult to use
this as a research or quick-reference tool. Still, if you can muster
through the various editorial shortcomings, it makes for an interesting
read, and the most comprehensive suspect-overview yet published. (Several
of these characters are not even covered in the A-Z.)
As of the time of writing this review, I've been told by the author that
some revisions have been made to the text, with several "errors
corrected". Some suspects have also now been expanded upon. I've not
seen this new version, but would hope that this latest revision includes
at least some editorial corrections.
The book itself is printed on A4 paper (one-side only), and bound in a
handsome red cardstock. It is limited to 50 copies only, and each is
numbered and signed by the author. In a post-script, Mr. Morley mentions
that he has been an avid researcher of the case since 1979, and that he
intends to begin work on his second Ripper book in the summer of 2004.
The small print-run will no doubt make this a highly sought-after
collector's item. Mr. Morley has requested that anyone interested in
ordering Jack the Ripper: Eliminating the Evidence contact him at
his private email address: CJM196420032002@yahoo.co.uk.
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