Yours truly, Jack the ripper

This blog entry is based on one of the handouts, the short story by Robert Bloch entitled 'yours truly, jack the ripper'. The title of this story comes from the words written at the end of one of the original jack the ripper's letters. This story is about a ripperologists, by the name of Sir Guy Hollis, who believes jack the ripper is still alive 50years on from the murders and has cut a bloody path through history and has now ended up in New York where it is almost time for him to strike again. Sir Guy enlists the help of psychiatrist, John Carmody, who has ties with the upper classes of which Sir Guy believes jack the ripper would have infiltrated.

After going to a party and trying to find the ripper there without any luck the men go to a bar on the poorer side of town with the hope of tracking someone down who fits the bill. After afew drinks and an unsucessful stake-out Sir Guy talks of how his mother was one of the original victims and that he is carrying on his fathers relentless pursuit of the ripper. After leaving the pub John takes Sir Guy down an alley way where he reveals his true identity..."Never mind the "john", I whispered, raising the knife. 'Just call me...jack.'"

I found this short story very interesting and love the twist at the end. Sorry if you hadn't read it. This is a good example of a strange take on the ripper murders with the story following a murderer who is still at large and never been caught 50years on from the original murders. It follows the reasons why I think many people are facinated with the 1888 murders and that is that it will never be solved. Even if the murderer was still alive today walking among us how would we know where to start looking? The story also mentions that the murderer seems to kill at certain times on the calender and that he is pure evil and must kill to renew his being, I think this adds wonderfully to the horror of having a murderer who can never be caught and who seeminly can never die.

Tom