(Above: The Importance of Being Earnest. Is the “handbag” an allusion to the ‘big brown bag’ in which Wilde/The Ripper kept his surgical instruments?)
In 1888, ‘Jack the Ripper’ terrorised the East End of London, brutally murdering prostitutes in a sadistic fashion. He was the world’s first serial killer but he has had many imitators since. Yet, despite many suspects being fingered down the ages, the killer’s true identity has never been known. Until now!
In his excellent new book The Importance of Being Jack: Nothing To Declare but His Evil Genius, historian (and Dawn Rescue founder) Dan Erpingham exposes shocking new evidence that links the Whitechapel murders to none other than the revered wit, intellectual, aesthete and ‘gay icon’…… Oscar Wilde!
Wilde’s own father Sir William was a medically trained surgeon, who passed his knowledge of anatomy and surgical skills to his son, whom then used those skills for less noble purposes; (i.e; murder)!
Consumed with a hatred of heterosexuals, particularly women whom he cursed for stealing the finest bodied young men, Wilde roamed the streets of Whitechapel enacting his bloody revenge on the conventional Christian moral values he so despised, (as is apparent in every word of everything he ever wrote!).
Discover the hidden clues to his murderous past he gleefully inserted into his own works such as ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ and the ever fashionable play ‘The Importance of Being Earnest.’ (The line ‘A handbag?’ is a sly reference to the bag in which he kept his surgical implements, and when the character of Jack (!) Worthing says he is ‘Ernest in town and Jack in the country’ this is a hint to Wilde’s own psychopathic split personality, where he was ‘Oscar’ in polite society and ‘Jack’ in the East End slums.
To many today, Wilde is seen as a martyr, but discover the real reason Wilde was sent to prison. Dan Erpingham uncovers startling new evidence showing that the British authorities knew that Wilde was the notorious killer, but, unable to pin any evidence on him and for fear it would be too shocking for the public, they instead were forced to imprison him on the lesser crime of homosexuality. Truly, he got off lightly!
A real scorcher of a book, destined to destroy Wilde’s reputation forever! I literally couldn’t put it down!