Goodreads Reviews: The Five: The Untold Live of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper

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

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I had never had an interest in Jack the Ripper or the terror he unleashed in Whitechapel, London in the 1880s. By disregarding this notorious murderer, I was by default disregarding his five victims. My whole life I had read that Jack the Ripper had murdered five prostitutes in the dead of the night. So because they were prostitutes then obviously they were of no importance to history. They must not have had names to remember, lives that had been lived, families they had loved.

Victorian Whitechapel was the center point of poverty, violence and prostitution. Little care or decency was given to the residents. They were all equally low in the eyes of society. So when a woman is killed in the night, she must be a prostitute because of course all women who traveled alone at night were considered prostitutes.

Hallie Rubenhold's book changed everything that I had heard or had at least bothered to hear. Through meticulous research and the use of family records, marriage certificates, work permits and poor house registrations, Hallie has completely destroyed the historical narrative of 'Jack the Ripper's five murdered prostitutes', and has presented the five real women, with real lives, dreams, families, loss and heartbreak. Several of these women did engage in prostitution, but only when they had lost everything and were in desperate survival.

Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elisabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly were five very different woman, with five very different lives and yet they shared many societal similarities. They were daughters from poor families that did the best they could for their girls. They were young women who fell in love with handsome men and had dreams of happy futures. They were mothers to big families that they desperately tried to raise amidst poverty and despair. They were also alcoholics and one by one as they either watched their children die or their husband break his marriage vow or society demanding to much from a young wife and mother, these women turned to alcohol to deaden the pain they were sinking into.

Alcohol led to homelessness and life on the streets in Whitechapel. And inevitably, their untimely end at the hands of Jack the Ripper.

This is probably one of the best books I have read this year! Hallie's concise writing style that borders on both biography and narrative really captures the essence of a well told history lesson. She was also rather harsh with history's representation of these women and that by glorifying their murderer, the world was turning a blind eye to the real suffering of these women. By claiming these women to all be prostitutes, Victorian London used them as examples of immorality and what can happen when a women loses all morals. That as a prostitute, she deserves death with no remorse.

These five women all deserve so much more than just casual mentions in history books. The Five finally gives these women the factual and overdue truth that has been denied them for centuries.