In 1893, two years after the last Ripper murder, Detective Inspector William Race met with two journalists working for
The Sun
and told them that he knew the identity of Jack the Ripper.
Two years earlier, Race had arrested 25-year-old Thomas Hayne Cutbush for attacking two young girls with a knife. Having worked on the Ripper case, Race noted a number of startling facts: Cutbush matched eyewitness descriptions of the Ripper; took long night-time walks, returning at dawn with mud and blood on his clothing, and once tried to cut his mother's throat.
Ignored by his superiors the Inspector eventually decided to take his story to the press. His actions unleashed the biggest journalistic investigation of the time with
putting its star reporters on the trail of Thomas Cutbush. When they published their results they caused a sensation, leading to the now infamous and deeply flawed Macnaghten Memoranda.
In
The Man Who Would Be Jack
, the author re-examines Inspector Race's and the journalists' findings and uncovers startling new evidence to support the idea that Cutbush was indeed Jack the Ripper. This is a fresh, exciting detective and whodunnit story that whips along at a cracking pace.
'It is one of the volumes every Ripperologist should have on their bookshelf' - Paul Begg, Reviews Editor for the
Ripperologist
magazine
'A watertight case. Rarely is a factual book such a page turner' - TV presenter Nick Knowles