The Five

The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper

By: Hallie Rubenhold

Narrated by: Louise Brealey

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.

©2019 Hallie Rubenhold (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Consider me informed.

Others have left much more eloquent reviews but suffice it to say I was thoroughly impressed with the amount of detail discovered about these women’s lives. The attitude and lifestyle of that day and age, it is insane to think people lived in such a manner, but I am sure there are still some places that mirror those circumstances.

Thank you for enlightening me to the lives of Mary Anne, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine, and Mary Jane before they were so savagely cut down.

Wonderfully written

A beautiful testament to these five women that were killed by Jack the Ripper. A must read.

Man What a Good Book!

I have this book 15 stars because it deserves fifteen stars in a perfect world.

The Lives of the 5 Victims of Jack the Ripper

We have heard or read so much about Jack the Ripper but little is known about his victims. This author took the time to research each individual woman. Labeled as prostitutes at the time of their deaths, this author not only evaluated these claims and the family events that lead the victims into extreme poverty but also the societal beliefs of men during this time which contributed to the subjection of women. I highly recommend this book and thoroughly enjoyed it!

incredible

a real historical look st the 5 women who were victims of Jack thr Riper. it humanizes the 5 woman who until now were just scratchy old photos . a must read for true crime lovers (storyline only up until death) and history bounding into women of the Victorian age.