Quote from the Ripper

[Carolina]

In the film 'From Hell' right at the beggining there is a quote from Jack the Ripper, is that a real quote? I found it strange as half way through the film the person who they were portraiting as being the ripper repeats that quote as people are not 100% sure of who the Ripper was how can they say for sure the quote is from the Ripper?

[WaldoMcFroog]

I have seen the film but only once. I do however have the graphic novel upon which the film was based. The film is a rancid pair of old pants compared to the book, by the way. Anyway, the book has loads of quotes from various Ripper suspects. If you let me know which one is at the begining of the flick, I'll gladly check it for you. Oh, and the point of the book is our fascination with murder - the Ripper truth and myth was a convenient way to examine those attitudes. Alan Moore, the author, makes the point that it is irrelevant who the Ripper is - people find Ripperology a way to indulge their dark side in safety...

[snaykz]

As you say, nobody is sure of who Jack the Ripper was, and therefore any quote attributed to him is unlikely to be real. The nearest thing we have to a quote from the Ripper are a number of letters sent to the police at the time. The majority of these are believed by Ripperologists to be hoaxes by journalists and troublemakers, but one letter is generally considered to be more believeable. This letter was sent on the 16th October 1888, at the height of the terror, and was addressed "From Hell", which is where the graphic novel and film get their name. Half a human kidney was sent with the letter and analysis at the time concluded it could have come from one of the Ripper victims, Catherine Eddows. The letter itself however, contains nothing similar to the quote at the beginning of the film and, as far as I am aware, the quote is purely an invention of the author/film makers. There are several Jack the Ripper websites on the net, one of the best being www.casebook.org.

[Carolina]

But can they just invent a quote? I thought the idea was that a quote is what someone actually said.