The American Murders of Jack the Ripper

Gordon's third book on the Ripper in four years (after, most recently, The Thames Torso Murders of Victorian London) is long on speculation and assertion, but short on evidence. He again points an accusing finger at Severin Klosowski, a murderer who used the metal antimony to kill three women. Klosowski was first identified as the legendary serial killer by Inspector Abberline, who had headed the investigation on the ground, and who told the colleague who arrested Klosowski,""Congratulations--you got Jack the Ripper at last."" Abberline never offered any direct evidence that Klosowski was the Ripper, though, and the theory has long been discounted by many, mainly on the grounds that it was highly unlikely that the same killer would have switched from savage mutilations to slow-acting poison. Gordon is unable to offer anything substantive to bolster his case, and, in this volume, his effort to find some proof becomes even more of a stretch, as he expands on references in his earlier works to accuse Klosowski of four murders in New York and New Jersey in the early 1890s. The author's habit of making definitive statements without identifying his sources weakens his case; one suspects he is simply attributing to Klosowski the unsolved murders that occurred when he was in the U.S. Gordon's own chronology has Klosowski committing his first American murder within hours of arriving in a strange city for the first time, an impulsive act at odds with the Ripper's careful use of his familiarity with the East End to elude detection. General readers interested either in objective overviews of the known facts or carefully reasoned armchair solutions would be better served elsewhere.