No-one in the annals of crime is capable of arousing such passionate debate as the perpetrator of the Whitechapel Murders in 1888. Was he a demented royal, a Masonic assassin, a misogynist don, a member of the Czarist secret police, a crazed reformist or even an escaped gorilla? Over a hundred years have passed since this unknown killer murdered East End prostitutes under the very noses of the police and yet we seem no closer to uncovering the Ripper's identity. Countless volumes have been written by warring researchers, seemingly unable to agree even on the number of his victims. Is it possible that we will ever know the truth or is the Ripper destined to remain an enigma, his place in history secured as both an English-heritage crime icon and a universal bogeyman? As well as an introductory essay, the Essential Guide to "Jack The Ripper" considers many of the Ripper's proposed identities, a summary of his crimes, victims and the ill-fated investigation, plus a guide to the Ripper's many fictional outings, from Hitchcock's "The Lodger to Alan Moore" and Eddie Campbell's "From Hell".