Title: The Thames torso murders of Victorian London /
Authors: Gordon, R. Michael, 1952-
Publisher: McFarland Publishers,
Year: 2002
Subjects: Serial murders England London History; Serial murderers England London History
Abstract: "The Thames Torso Murders have been overshadowed by Jack the Ripper and his crimes, but were just as gruesome. They began in 1887 in London's East End, just north of the Thames. The killer took one victim that year, another in 1888, and two more in 1889. He resumed his crimes in 1902, taking his last victim south of the Thames and leaving her body in a pile of dismembered parts as he had done with most of his other victims." "This work begins with a look at London in the late 1800s, a time of great confusion and population increase, and the killer's path to London, which seems to include a murder in Paris in 1886. Each murder and its investigation - perhaps hindered by the search for Jack the Ripper - is then examined in detail." "Jack the Ripper and the Torso Murderer may have been the same man - Severino Klosowski, better known as George Chapman, the Borough Poisoner. The book explores the files on the Serial Killer, Ripper, Torso, and Borough Poisoner murder cases; the search for clues in the five Thames Torso murders; and Wolff Levisohn, a dark horse who seems to have known much about all three sets of murders, who testified at Chapman's murder trial, and who then faded away as Chapman was sent to the gallows."--Jacket.
Contents: Introduction to murder -- The road to serial murder. London's bloody history. Of torsos, torture and serial murder. The Rainham mystery of 1887. A rich environment for a serial killer -- The Ripper era. The Whitehall torso mystery of 1888. In the shadow of the Ripper. The torso murder of Elizabeth Jackson, 1889. The mystery of the Pinchin Street torso, 1889 -- A serial killer and a final torso. The serial killer up close. On the trail of a Victorian serial killer, George Chapman. The torso of Salamanca Place, 1902. A possible motive as a dark horse emerges, Wolff Levisohn -- Postscript of terror.