In 2015, when it was first published, I bought a Kindle version of The Five by Hallie Rubenhold because I liked the premise of the book. I enjoyed it very much but haven’t reread it since. Recently, I saw a second-hand paper copy of the book for sale and decided that I would like to own it in that form, to add to my collection of true crime titles. The copy I bought turned out to have a personal dedication and autograph of the author which was nice, even though my name is not Amy. I then added this book to my to-be-read piles and it has languished there until this challenge was conceived.
The Five is not a really a true crime title because it doesn’t focus on the murders of the five women it features. All of them were killed gruesomely by Jack the Ripper in 1888 but this book is not about him and the myriad theories of who he was and why he committed the crimes. Instead, it tells the stories of the five women, as far as we know them, in order to explain how they became vulnerable and available to become victims. The change in focus is illuminating because there is so much written about the murderer and so little about the women he targeted – another book which does this well is that about the victims of the Yorkshire Ripper (see here) and this author has also published a book about the women involved in the case of Dr Crippen (see here for review).
This way of writing is more social history than true crime and the author gives us the context in which these women lived. She talks about the poverty, the social set up which made women vulnerable if they didn’t have a male protector, the casual violence, and the occupations which women undertook. The five stories are very sad, and alcohol dependency plays a large part in lives of these women and those around them. The author also shows that there is little evidence that all five women were prostitutes, as they are often portrayed, but that their lives on the streets were often funded in other ways – begging, piece work, selling pamphlets, support from relatives, money from men with whom they had relationships, and pawning possessions. The author gives lots of detail about how the poor lived, what it meant to be homeless and social attitudes of the time.
This is a very difficult read in one way because you know what is going to happen to the five women. It is also very informative and interesting about the lives lived by the poor and how precarious their status often was. I am pleased to have a paper copy of this book now to put on my shelf with my other historical true crime books.
Anne Is Reading 