I'm fascinated by historical English fiction, and I'm particularly interested in the Jack the Ripper case. There was a vast amount of detail in this book, and it was an easy read. An interesting take on the possible suspect, although it didn't grip me as much as I'd hoped.

In this addition to the Ripper library, author Beattie posits his own thoughts on who Jack the Ripper could have been. In this instance, his prime suspect is a policeman, of dubious antecedents, by the name of Bowden Endacott. And suspects a plenty have been suggested in the past of the list provided by Wikipedia is anything to go by - yet police office was not mentioned.

Beattie says that "... a police officer is the only person who could have walked the streets at night knowing that he would not be questioned or suspected of being the killer ...". In fact, this is a most plausible scenario.

His reasons for putting forth Endacott as his suspect are numerous and include factors of his childhood (a domineering mother and possibly, unwanted as being one of her last children); his being a compulsive liar; dubious police career which culminated in the "Cass Case" of 1887.

Beattie then put forward that in addition to the five traditionally accepted Ripper victims, that at least one, if not more victoims could be attributed to him - whilst at the same time, suggesting that Stride was not one of the five. Beattie also suspects that Endacott had an accomplice, possibly a doctor or at the very least, another man. Again, this is a reasonable assumption, regardless of the true suspect and was worthy of more study.

Unfortunately, Beattie offers no real conclusive proofs - in fact, his case could literally have been made for any police officer who walked the beat at that particular time. Endacott just had more notoriety due in no part to the Cass Case and his consistent and blatant lying. Beattie failed to convince me that Endacott was the most plausable suspect.

What I would have preferred is more substantial proofs against Endacott to convey Beattie's argument or at the very least, for Beattie to have developed and put forth a more-detailed case built around the potential of a police officer being the suspect.

Jack the Ripper was one of the first big name true crime books I read, and I still find it fascinating even after all this time. Part of that is the fact that we are never going to know what really happened.

This book is a bit of a different look at who Jack the Ripper might have been, and I found it very compelling and very reasonable. Beattie lays out evidence to back up his claim that a particular police officer had a reason to hate prostitutes, had the ability to commit the crimes in question, and was also about that particular area of London as well.

I found this a very enjoyable read, and would absolutely recommend it to anyone interested in Jack the Ripper or historical true crime. A worthy entry into the Ripper canon.

This is a great book which really took me as the reader on a great adventure. This was a highly gripping book which I couldn't put down. It was really interesting being able to read about the suspects and follow the police officer on the journey to try to find the perpetrator.

While there has been a theory that Jack the Ripper could have been a policeman, this book takes it further.
Rod Beattie names a suspect, a policeman, who, through different misfortunes, has been basically relieved of his duties as a police officer during the Ripper murders.

While I believe the theory has some merit, the evidence in this book was seriously lacking, and there isn't anything that makes one think, "ahh, this could seriously be a possible suspect."

Interesting read, but rather disappointing overall.

Jack The Ripper- The Policeman A New Suspect by: Rod Beattie
⭐️⭐️
2 stars

Jack The Ripper is a pretty infamous case, and one I’m really interested in. So when I saw this book about the authors theory that he was not only a police officer, but that the author had a specific suspect in mind, Bowden Endacott, I had to pick this up. The author is really good at laying out the timeline of events he clearly put a lot of effort into laying it out, but unfortunately this attention didn’t happen with the other aspects of the book. At about 145 pages it’s a quick read and pretty short in terms of a true crime book. It’s not that I don’t believe that Jack The Ripper could have been a cop, or even could have been the person the author claims he is, but the tone was set pretty much immediately that this was largely an opinion piece with little evidence to prove his claims. This made the whole thing feel unreliable to me so anything that could have been considered proof to the claim I felt I needed to take with a grain of salt as a reader. In the beginning he mentions the FBI’s profile of Jack The Ripper and then tries to fit it to Bowden, but all he established for sure was that he grew up poor. There were also a lot of contradictions that further muddied the theory for instance Bowden was established early as a compulsive liar by the author, in this instance giving several documented examples where Bowden’s claims and what had actually happened didn’t line up, Bowden was charged, but found not guilty, with perjury in a case where he was accused of lying to try to convict a woman of prostitution and his career was permanently ruined because of it. The author tried to say that Bowden was actually telling the truth, the woman was a prostitute, and that was his motive for becoming Jack The Ripper. It felt really unfocused I really would have liked for the author to have focused more on what he was trying to prove: that Bowden was Jack The Ripper and less on making claims without anything to back them up, or going off on small tangents about his feelings on the social climate of the time which were irrelevant to the goal of the book. Saying things like had more women been arrested for prostitution it could have helped the situation which in addition to being an odd thing to say, it also didn’t make sense to want to give the police (including Jack The Ripper if he was one as the author claims) impunity to arrest his target victim demographic. I think the theory was good, but the execution of the book and evidence gathering just didn’t happen.

*a copy of this book was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A great insight into a Ripper theory. A well-researched and interesting read. As a true crime lover, I have always been interested in true crime and Jack the Ripper is top of my list. Recommended.

Always like a book about Jack the Ripper. Interesting take on who may have done it. Lots of information, even about possible additional murders. #JacktheRipperThePoliceman #NetGalley

Princess Fuzzypants here: Jack The Ripper fascinates still, as he has since he perpetrated his heinous crimes. The fact that there has been no definitive identification of the person behind the name, has created an entire cottage industry of theorists who have proclaimed they, and they alone, have figured out the secret and can now reveal the villain. Whether this book or any other book can justify that claim is open to discussion. Even with DNA, the jury is still out.

But what this book does do, and very well I might add, is it makes a strong case that perhaps the reason Jack was never “found” was because he was a policeman and as such, he was protected from discovery. The author spends the first third of the book going into a previous case, where the copper arrested a woman for prostitution when she was just walking along minding her own business. The furore that erupted when the truth came out was intense. While the powers that be ensured he would not go to jail, they did guarantee his career, for all intents and purposes, was stalled. He never received any promotions. He was allowed to keep his job but they put him where he could do no harm. Or so they thought.

Using testimony from the time and witness statements, the author looks at inconsistencies and gaps. He makes a point that the reason for the ease with which Jack arrived and departed the scenes and the fact that he was so elusive was his standing as a policeman. He even goes so far as to add one an extra victim to the list whilst removing one of the five women who are accepted as his victims. Whether he has nailed it or not he does make a convincing case. Perhaps Jack The Ripper was not a royal, nor a doctor nor anyone else but a disgruntled cop with a vendetta against women and prostitutes. It could be.

Four purrs and two paws up.

Jack the Ripper - The Policeman discusses the theory which is popular by many that Jack the Ripper was a serving policeman and it is for this reason he was never caught and attention diverted else where.

The book proposes that a policeman by the name of Bowden Endecott was Jack the Ripper who was a serving policeman but had been downgraded to practically a security guard role due to his incompetence in the arrest and attempted prosecution of a young girl by the name of Elizabeth Cass.

A large part of the beginning of the book were taken up by the Cass case in which Endecott attempted to have her prosecuted for prostitution with no evidence except evidence he fabricated. This part felt like it was elaborated in too much detail, it’s largely irrelevant to the Jack The Ripper case other than to prove the fact he was dishonest and therefore was capable of being the Ripper. It was an interesting take and not outside the realms of possibility but I was not convinced of Endecotts guilt

Good points to the books were that a lot of detail was included in the book that I hadn’t read else where such as the full transcripts of the post-mortems of some of the victims and descriptions of belongings found on their persons. It was presented in a chronological format so it was easy to follow and not need to reread parts to understand the flow of the book.

True crime is one of my favourite genres and as a true crime enthusiast I have always been fascinated by Jack the Ripper. The mystery of the Whitechapel murders is iconic so whenever a new book about them comes out and an opportunity to broaden my thoughts on the subject of Jack the Ripper I have to read it. In this book the iconic story of Jack the Ripper gets another possible identity: a policeman who worked in London's East End. This hypothesis gains credence because policemen had unchallenged access to people on London,'s streets. The author gives a fascinating backstory in an attempt to bolster this hypothesis. This was a really interesting read that gave me new information and I learnt a lot.
The author has done a lot of research and gone into a lot of detail and sets out his evidence plainly and clearly and with his reason's for why he believes Jack the Ripper was an officer of the Met Police force. He puts some interesting points across for his theory. He has discovered a new subject of interest and has given us enough detail to suggest that there is enough evidence to add a new name into the search for Jack the Ripper. Again, like most of the books on the subject, it provides nothing but another suspect in a very long list.
An interesting thing about the book is that it does bring new details to old facts. I don't know if I agree with everything but it was still a fascinating read. You can certainly digest all the details and maybe think that there’s more to the story than we originally thought!
It’s definitely a must read for all those who are Jack the Ripper enthusiasts.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read and review the ARC.

This was a new to me and well researched theory about the identity of Jack the Ripper.
The author did a goog job in explaining his theory and I found this book interesting.
I'm not sure if it's the solution but it was an interesting read.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

The author sets out his evidence plainly clearly and with his reason's for why he believes Jack the ripper was a officer of the Met police force.

He puts some interesting points cross for his theory, but again it provides nothing but another suspect in a long list.

However did I found it a interesting book to look who the authors suspect was and if you are interested in true it's worth a read just for the authors theory.

An excellent review of the surroundings and victims of the notorious Whitechapel murderer.the author has done an excellent bit of research into events surrounding all known victims and not so well known ones.I am still myself not convinced the killer was the killer.I still lean to Charles cross as Jack the Ripper. Of course we may never know who he really was..well worth a read.

Rating : 4 out of 5
Blurbs :
Imagine you were a police officer and had been dominated as a child by an abusive mother who didn’t really want you and as an adult had been served bastardy orders twice, firstly by a woman in whose house you lived and then by a woman you had a relationship with.

Then, to top it all after you had become a police officer in another city you arrested a woman you thought was a prostitute, whose subsequent actions caused you to be accused of perjury and you ended up in court at the Old Bailey. Although you were found not guilty, it ruined your career and left you seriously in debt and though you were still a policeman you were taken off the streets and assigned to a menial job guarding a museum.

As a police officer you were in a perfect position to take revenge on those people you thought had ruined you, prostitutes.

This book contains the complete reason Jack the Ripper came to be. It sheds new light on the mystery of the killer. After all, who is going to suspect a policeman going about his daily duties of being one of the world’s most infamous serial killers.

Thoughts : As a fan of true crime, I'm always drawn to any Jack the Ripper books, podcasts, and videos that explain more about JTR and I personally also think that it's one of the possibility that JTR is actually a policeman at that time. It's super super fascinating and I like it more than I thought I would be. Thanks Netgalley and publisher for the ARC!

I am typically a fan of true crime, but this book was pretty difficult to get into. Maybe it was the subject matter that I was not entirely interested in, because the author did seem very knowledgeable and the book was well researched. Just was not for me.

found this book interesting as the author sets out his evidence that jack the Ripper was a officer of the Met police force and puts some interesting points for his discussion on the subject and new insight about who Jack the ripper could of been.

I love true crime, and like all true crime enthusiasts, the Jack the Ripper killings and the mystery around who they were, has always fascinated me. This was a really interesting read that gave me new information and I learnt alot. I don't know if I agree with everything but it was still a fascinating read.

There does seem to have been a lot of Jack the Ripper books over the last few years all claiming to be able to prove who he/she was but usually the evidence is tenuous at best. This book was well researched and was very convincing.

In the past they have had many books on who historians thought Jack the Ripper was, but I don’t think no matter how great those books were that I have ever read a more detailed and concise history of the victims and the possible serial killer. In this book the jack the ripper in question is named Boden Indakit. We learn about the beginning of his award winning career as a policeman and all the women that seems to have brought him down. More The bios on the victims amor detailed and then some cases has more than one eyewitness account of a certain situation. It also has local historical events it also gives the cause of death in Naches the manner of death. So all in all this book is packed full of historical true crime stories that either involve or is apropos to the storyline. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this book and think the author did an excellent job. if you are a Sudo Jack the Ripper historian your library will definitely be in complete without this one. I was surprised and delighted when I realized how great this book was. I was given this book by net Gally in the publisher and I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review but all opinions are definitely my own.