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

Hallie Rubenhold

Apr 2019 · Sold by HarperCollins

About this ebook

Winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction and of the Goodreads Choice Award for History & Biography

The award-winning, best-selling book that changes the narrative of the “Ripper” murders forever

Polly, Annie, Elisabeth, Catherine, and Mary Jane are famous for the same thing, though they never met. They came from some of London’s wealthiest and poorest neighborhoods, from the factory towns of middle England, and from Wales and Sweden. They wrote ballads, ran coffeehouses, lived on country estates; they breathed ink dust from printing presses and escaped human 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. Now, in this gripping narrative of five lives, Hallie Rubenhold finally sets the record straight and gives these women back their stories.

Ratings and reviews

murder, historical-figures, historical-places-events, historical-research, women, England It's about time that the stories of the victims and all of the marginalized women is told! I only recently learned about the book (and the opera) from a BBC Radio podcast, hopped over to NetGalley and begged for a review copy. As a history geek and a female retired nurse who worked inner city hospital as well as jails, you can believe that this is not an unbiased review. All of the folklore tells of the women being sex workers and alcoholics but not how they came to that end, or how women were viewed and treated at that time. Nor are most people aware of how limited the progress for poor women in ANY country. In telling the stories of each of these women and the author has given them proper eulogies as well as highlighting the inadequate legal process of their time. By the way, how many readers were aware that four of these women were over forty? I requested and received a free ebook copy from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing via NetGalley. Thank you!

An intriguing read. I was very moved by these women's stories. This book accomplished what it set out to do, that is, to tell the truth about who these women were, and to recast their homicides in an appropriate light.

About the author

HALLIE RUBENHOLD is a social historian whose expertise lies in rediscovering the stories of previously unknown women and episodes in history. The Five is the first full-length biography of the victims of Jack the Ripper to be published since 1888. By drawing upon a wealth of previously unseen archival material and adding a much-needed historical context to the victims’ lives, The Five promises to change the narrative of these murders forever.