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

Hallie Rubenhold

Oct 2019 · Highbridge Audio · Narrated by Louise Brealey

About this audiobook

Five devastating human stories and a dark and moving portrait of Victorian London—the untold lives of the women killed by Jack the Ripper.



Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine, and Mary-Jane are famous for the same thing, though they never met. They came from Fleet Street, Knightsbridge, Wolverhampton, Sweden, and Wales. They wrote ballads, ran coffee houses, lived on country estates; they breathed ink-dust from printing presses and escaped people-traffickers. What they had in common was the year of their murders: 1888. The person responsible was never identified, but the character created by the press to fill that gap has become far more famous than any of these five women.



For more than a century, newspapers have been keen to tell us that "the Ripper" preyed on prostitutes. Not only is this untrue, as historian Hallie Rubenhold has discovered, but it has prevented the real stories of these fascinating women from being told. Now, in this devastating narrative of five lives, Rubenhold finally sets the record straight, revealing a world not just of Dickens and Queen Victoria, but of poverty, homelessness, and rampant misogyny. They died because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time—but their greatest misfortune was to be born a woman.

Ratings and reviews

I love reading books like this. It always reminds me when I think my life is hard, that compared to the lives of these ladies I live like a queen. Great audio book.

I will never be able to go to England. But i will listen to the book. I like mystery and things of vintage.

About the author

Hallie Rubenhold, a social historian and frequent consultant for period dramas, is the author of The Covent Garden Ladies, the inspiration for the Hulu series Harlots, in addition to The Scandalous Lady W and The Five. She is also the author of the historical novels Mistress of My Fate and The French Lesson.