Jack the Ripper - The Case Reopened

Just nonsense Ripperology at large. Uses 'official' documents to examine the case, like the appearance of Jack from the eye witness account of Israel Schwarz. Whereas if they bothered to look into it they would find these documents were heavily influenced or doctored. Israel Schwarz actually gave a totally different description from the one that went to press. Sadly these people don't have open minds, dismissing the Jack letters as hoaxes without delving into them or questioning that or anything. There's a million glaring errors like this but I can't be bothered typing. Read Bruce Robinsons book, They All Love Jack. This programme is old fashioned, basic and under researched.

If you know anything about the Ripper case you know to take some reviews with a grain of salt. Ripperologists can be among the most opinionated people on Earth. While I'm not a Ripperologist I have followed the case since I was teenager. I read 'The Final Solution' which along with the movies, 'Murder By Decree' and 'From Hell', push the Royal family conspiracy theory. While it's an exciting concept, it's been proven to be highly unlikely.

I've watched most of the Ripper docs and this is one of the best. The main premise is to demonstrate what modern investigative techniques can tell us about the case. Some of it is eye candy but the show on the whole is solid detective work, objectively presented.

Two main developments are the addition of potential victims and a naming of the suspect most likely to be the Ripper. The segment about computerized 'HOLMES' police case filing sharing system, was to contrast with the lack of corroboration between the investigations in the Ripper's time.

They feature two of the most reliable eyewitness accounts. The full scale recreations of the murder sites are very interesting. The Geo-profiling segment is particularly compelling.

The conclusions they come to on both the number of victims and the most likely suspect have been reinforced by other recent documentaries and studies. Again, these are very solid conclusions based on dispassionate investigative work.

If you want to keep up with the Ripper case without going down the 'rabbit hole', this is a good documentary to watch. Highly recommended.

Was looking forward to seeing modern forensics applied to this case. Very disappointed that all the money and experts they apparently had and did not explore anything new. All I learned is that the post mortems apparently are way more detailed than what we have generally seen. No mention of the lack of blood spatter around victims meaning they were probably already dead when mutilated-not then overkill.too many details left out that could have been addressed quickly and cheaply with the resources they had. Obviously this investigation was not designed by someone who routinely conducts them. Pass.

First they decide Martha Taborn is the the first victim, I agree. So we can be pretty sure her killer was a soldier so why when the discuss the killers identity, do they totaly ignore this?? Another more plausible documentary questions one of the so called witnesses who was found with the body of one of the victims, who then claimed to have jyst found her, said he'd go get police but didn't, and gave false name and address, however this person wasn't a soldier either as far as i know, But If we believe Martha is first victim, we should believe killer is a soldier. This needs examining more.....

I thought the digital autopsy table and scene recreations were great storytelling devices, although the table could've been used more, and I liked the fact that they humanised some of the victims. The presenter held my attention, and I think the way in which information was presented was sensible. However, the conclusions drawn were unconvincing to me. I could not ignore inconsistencies in eye witness descriptions of the perpetrator like the criminologist did. The show ultimately unconvincingly proposed who could've been Jack the Ripper and then concluded very quickly. I don't really think anything was proven.