Jack The Ripper: The Final Solution - Critical Reception

Critical Reception

Reviewers at the time of first publication met the book with undisguised scepticism and satire, but felt that Knight presented his unlikely case with ingenuity. Quentin Bell wrote in The Times Literary Supplement: " begins bravely and fairly by presenting the greater part of the author's case and admitting at once that 'it all sounds terribly unlikely'. It does." Medical History stated: "Despite the author's ingenuity the case does not stand up to careful and critical analysis and is no more 'final' than its many predecessors." Since then, scholars from multiple disciplines have rejected Gorman's story as a ridiculous fantasy, and highlight many facts which contradict the version of events presented by Knight.

Annie Crook was a real person and did have a daughter, Alice, born on 18 April 1885 at St Marylebone Workhouse, and Joseph Gorman was Alice's son. However, there is no evidence in support of Gorman's claim that his father was Walter Sickert. Gorman was one of five children born within the marriage of Alice Margaret Crook and William Gorman. Furthermore, according to Trevor Marriott, an expert on the Jack the Ripper case, Alice "must have been conceived between 18 July and 11 August 1884". Albert Victor was in Heidelberg from June to August 1884; hence, he was not in London at the time of Alice's conception and could not have been her father. The name of Alice's father was left blank on her birth certificate, but in adulthood, Alice claimed her father was William Crook. William Crook was also the name of her grandfather. Ripper expert Don Rumbelow has suggested that the name of Alice's father was omitted from her birth certificate either because she was illegitimate or to conceal an incestuous relationship between her mother, Annie, and grandfather, William. There is no record of any marriage between Albert Victor and Annie Crook; even if such a marriage had taken place, it would have been invalid under British law due to the Royal Marriages Act 1772, which voids any marriage contracted by a member of the royal family without the consent of the Sovereign. Any child of an invalid marriage is deemed illegitimate and excluded from the line of succession. Gorman claimed that his grandmother was Catholic, although records prove this to be untrue. If she had been and if she had married Albert Victor, he and their child would be excluded from inheriting the throne under the Act of Settlement 1701, which excludes Catholics from the line of succession.

There are further multiple problems with Gorman's version of events. Annie and Alice's apartment at 6 Cleveland Street was not raided in April 1888, since by that time Nos. 4–14 Cleveland Street had been demolished, and the house in which they had lived no longer existed. They were not supported by a wealthy patron, such as Albert Victor, but were paupers who occasionally lived in workhouses. Annie was not institutionalised for insanity but because of recurrent epilepsy. The Ripper victims were not known to be acquainted with each other or Annie Crook, who lived on the other side of Central London. Even if they had known her or her child, it is unlikely that their tale of royal illegitimacy would be believed, so any attempt by them to reveal the supposed scandal would merely have been dismissed. Gull retired from practice in 1887 after suffering a stroke, which left him temporarily partially paralysed and unable to speak. Gull did recover, but he suffered further attacks before his death in 1890. Furthermore, neither Lord Salisbury, nor Sir James Anderson, nor Sir William Gull were freemasons, and there is no documentary evidence linking Netley to the other suspects, nor did he drown in the Thames. He was actually killed in 1903 after falling under the wheels of his own van. The forensic evidence indicates that the bodies of the victims were not moved, and so were not dissected in a carriage and then moved to where they were discovered. Some of the streets where the victims were found were too narrow for a carriage. Sickert did not have a studio in Cleveland Street, and there is no proof that he knew the Princess of Wales. Anderson was in Switzerland at the time of the double murder, and so was not one of the perpetrators.

Knight appreciated that there were problems with Gorman's claims, but he "either misinterpreted, or deliberately ignored" them. Knight admitted that parts of Gorman's story were wrong but claimed that such mistakes were "stronger support of the fact that he was telling the truth". Realising that Anderson's absence in Switzerland meant that Anderson could not have been an accomplice, Knight considered Walter Sickert a much more likely culprit than Anderson, and suggested that he was the "third man" to participate in the crimes. This was not the first accusation made against Sickert. He had been previously mentioned as a potential suspect in Donald McCormick's 1959 book The Identity of Jack the Ripper. However, Sickert was in France with his mother and brother in the late summer of 1888, and is unlikely even to have been in London at the time of at least four of the murders. After Knight implicated Sickert, Joseph Gorman withdrew his testimony, admitting to The Sunday Times newspaper that "it was a hoax ... a whopping fib".

Knight's friend and fellow Ripper aficionado Colin Wilson thought the story was "obvious nonsense" but shortly after Knight's tragically early death from a brain tumour he wrote in his defence: "he wrote the book with his tongue in his cheek, then found himself caught up in a success that prevented him from retracting or quietly disowning it."