Charles van Onselen

The book jacket presented this as a book about a criminal who was theorized to be Jack the Ripper. It was not much about that but did tell the tale of a Polish refuge Jew who went to London and later to South Africa, the United States and South America. In each place he engaged in running houses of prostitution, some robbery and being personally and professionally brutal to women - sometimes as a prelude to forcing them into prostitution. What I found interesting about it was the description of the various places and the crime communities which existed. However, it was a bit on the dry side after the beginning. About the Ripper theory, although he was in London during the time period, I wasn't convinced. The author didn't present any evidence of similar crimes occurring in any of the other locals, and I found it hard to believe that a serial killer would just stop.… (plus d'informations)

The Fox and the Flies: The world of Joseph Silver, Racketeer and Psychopath is, at times, a fascinating biography of a man and of the world during 1880s to 1910s. Silver (real name Lis) left Kielce, Poland as a poor 18 year old Jew, and headed to London. He left London in 1889 for New York and, from there and over time, he travelled the Atlantic world as part of his career in white sex slave trafficking. He was a real low life.
Silver was part of a criminal underworld that spanned the Atlantic. He knew people in South and North America, throughout Europe, and South Africa. Each place he landed he would undertake an assortment of shitty activities: organising brothels and terrorising prostitutes without doing any work himself, courting innocent women to rape them and entrap them into prostitution, and liaising with police. He had many gaol sentences - often for burglary, but was also tried for rape for the purposes of slave trafficking. And his mind was warped by the effects of syphillis.
Intermingled with these facts that van Onselen spent an admirable number of years compiling, we are presented with a story that relies heavily on speculation to create the personality and intentions of a man. That he was rotten can be verified simply by his involvement in slavery and rape. That he was Jack the Ripper - a possiblity that is often alluded to throughout the book - is blind speculation. Van Onselen commits a crime of sorts here. He presents us with a part of the story that is entirely made up. He places Silver in Whitechapel in 1888. He even accuses him of being a member of the gang who raped Emma Smith. He then concludes by saying that it is beyond doubt true that Silver is Jack the Ripper - based on very flimsy evidence. That we don't know who the Ripper was suggests, of course, that anybody could've been him. But even before this penultimate chapter in which van Onselen propounds his theory, I feel this insinuation does not sit well with me.
Jack the Ripper was a serial killer. There are many serial killers that are never caught. Hundreds. But a serial killer is a different sort of person to the rest of us. He doesn't just commit a series of revolting and, obviously, very demented killings and then just stop and get on with an otherwise acceptable criminal career. van Onselen suggests that Jack's killings were ritualistic, based on religious texts of whore killing. He puffs up theories to align with his suspect. This is such a common way for authors to defend their theory on a Ripper suspect. I find it very tiring. It reeks of obsession. Every little clue is over-analysed. Great significance is placed on things that were probably incidental or irrelevant. Evidence that doesn't fit is ignored.
If I had known beforehand that I would be presented with another Ripper theory argument I would have given second thoughts to buying this book. As I didn't know this would happen, I bought it and read it.
This is a very interesting biography. But, I am unconvinced by van Onselen's Ripper claims. Read this simply for the biography of a man who could be any of the millions of rotten men in history. Silver was no different from many of his ilk. That he gets to be the subject of a life history when many of his kind are forgotten is the only circumstantial evidence you need to accept.

Charles van Onselen 2007, The Fox and the Flies: The world of Joseph Silver, Racketeer and Psychopath, Jonathan Cape, pbk, 646 pages.… (plus d'informations)