Michel Parry - Jack The Knife
May 3, 2007 3:50:24 GMT -5
Post by Gloomy Sundae on May 3, 2007 3:50:24 GMT -5
Michel Parry (ed) - Jack The Knife:: Tales of Jack the Ripper (Mayflower, 1975)
Introduction - Michel Parry
Joseph F. Pumilia - Forever Stand the Stones
Hume Nisbet - The Demon Spell
Marie Belloc Lowndes - The Lodger
Anonymous - In the Slaughteryard
Anthony Boucher - A Kind of Madness
R. Chetwynd-Hayes - The Gatecrasher
Philip Jose Farmer - My Father the Ripper
Robert Bloch - Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper
Ramsey Campbell - Jack's Little Friend
Harlan Ellison - The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World
Mrs. Marie Belloc Lowdnes - The Lodger:
"I can't think why he wants to go out in such weather. He did it in last week's fog, too ... 'twould be a very bad thing for us if anything happened to him. The lodger's the first bit of luck we've had for a very long time."
That's Mr. Bunting talking, and the stroke of good fortune he's discussing with second wife Ellen is the self-styled "man of science", Mr. Sleuth who moved into their Marylebone home on December 29th at a time when they were too broke to carry on. An easy date to remember as that was also when the first of the "'Orrible murders in Whitechapel" made the headlines.
Mr. Sleuth has eccentric ways. He turns around the pictures and photo's in the sitting room so that they face the wall because "those women's eyes follow me about.": he fanatically scrutinises the Bible for the worst of the anti-women references: he conducts experiments in his room at ungodly hours, experiments that require extreme heat.
Another of the murders, this time in Marylebone. Mrs. Bunting is far from sympathetic - "it serves that sort of hussy right" - but the killing disturbs her deeply because she already has her suspicions. To make matters worse, Bunting's daughter, Daisy, is coming to spend her eighteenth birthday with them. She arrives in London just as two more mutilated corpses are discovered in Kings Cross ...
The murders take place off the page, but this is among the more effective Ripper stories for the sheer suspense of the thing as Sleuth invites Daisy along with him to Madame Tussauds for a birthday treat. By now the Buntings are certain that he is the Ripper but do nothing to prevent her leaving with him. Greed has much to do with it, but Ellen Bunting doesn't seem in the least unsympathetic to the madman's cause and has she developed some kind of hideous crush on him?
If only the Chamber of Horrors was half as frightening these days.
Anonymous - In The Slaughteryard: Mr. Horace Jeafferson, fearless member of the Adventurers Club, relates his exploits of the previous evening when he found himself at the Melmouth Brothers' slaughteryard in Whitechapel. This being 1888, you'll possibly have guessed which famous murderer he encounters, though you may be surprised to learn that the man who evaded the massive police presence was a slobbering leper. Fantastic mockerney dialogue, notably from the old night-watchchman, and the heroic young bobby's dying speech is another bonus.
R. Chetwynd-Hayes - The Gatecrasher: Edward Charlton and his trendy friends hold an impromptu seance - and summon forth the spirit of Jack the Ripper. Saucy Jack soon has total dominion over Edward and together they prowl Soho, picking up working girls to butcher back at the flat off Edgware Road. When the downstairs neighbour grows suspicious that those stains on his ceiling are maybe not the result of spilt red wine after all, its time for the pair to part company.
One of the four RCH stories filmed for the Amicus anthology From Beyond The Grave
Hume Nisbet - The Demon Spell: ... a mangled corpse lying on the muddy pavement, and a demoniacal, dark, pock-marked face bending over it, with the lean claws outspread, and the dense fog instead of a body, like the half-formed incarnation of muscles."
A pretty medium materialises the ghost of Ripper victim Polly who warns Nisbet who he's earmarked as his next victim (you've guessed). Our hero bursts in on him just as he's about to get down to business.
Anthony Boucher - A Kind Of Madness: We've already met with conflicting accounts as to why the Ripper murders ceased as abruptly as they began. Unlike Nisbet and dear old Anon, Boucher doesn't go in for the macho chest beating "it was me who killed him!" approach. According to him, the couple who put an end to his capers - true life murderers Gabrielle Bompart and Michel Eyraud - were entirely oblivious as to just who they were lynching and the danger Gabri was in during the hours leading up to their crime.
Introduction - Michel Parry
Joseph F. Pumilia - Forever Stand the Stones
Hume Nisbet - The Demon Spell
Marie Belloc Lowndes - The Lodger
Anonymous - In the Slaughteryard
Anthony Boucher - A Kind of Madness
R. Chetwynd-Hayes - The Gatecrasher
Philip Jose Farmer - My Father the Ripper
Robert Bloch - Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper
Ramsey Campbell - Jack's Little Friend
Harlan Ellison - The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World
Mrs. Marie Belloc Lowdnes - The Lodger:
"I can't think why he wants to go out in such weather. He did it in last week's fog, too ... 'twould be a very bad thing for us if anything happened to him. The lodger's the first bit of luck we've had for a very long time."
That's Mr. Bunting talking, and the stroke of good fortune he's discussing with second wife Ellen is the self-styled "man of science", Mr. Sleuth who moved into their Marylebone home on December 29th at a time when they were too broke to carry on. An easy date to remember as that was also when the first of the "'Orrible murders in Whitechapel" made the headlines.
Mr. Sleuth has eccentric ways. He turns around the pictures and photo's in the sitting room so that they face the wall because "those women's eyes follow me about.": he fanatically scrutinises the Bible for the worst of the anti-women references: he conducts experiments in his room at ungodly hours, experiments that require extreme heat.
Another of the murders, this time in Marylebone. Mrs. Bunting is far from sympathetic - "it serves that sort of hussy right" - but the killing disturbs her deeply because she already has her suspicions. To make matters worse, Bunting's daughter, Daisy, is coming to spend her eighteenth birthday with them. She arrives in London just as two more mutilated corpses are discovered in Kings Cross ...
The murders take place off the page, but this is among the more effective Ripper stories for the sheer suspense of the thing as Sleuth invites Daisy along with him to Madame Tussauds for a birthday treat. By now the Buntings are certain that he is the Ripper but do nothing to prevent her leaving with him. Greed has much to do with it, but Ellen Bunting doesn't seem in the least unsympathetic to the madman's cause and has she developed some kind of hideous crush on him?
If only the Chamber of Horrors was half as frightening these days.
Anonymous - In The Slaughteryard: Mr. Horace Jeafferson, fearless member of the Adventurers Club, relates his exploits of the previous evening when he found himself at the Melmouth Brothers' slaughteryard in Whitechapel. This being 1888, you'll possibly have guessed which famous murderer he encounters, though you may be surprised to learn that the man who evaded the massive police presence was a slobbering leper. Fantastic mockerney dialogue, notably from the old night-watchchman, and the heroic young bobby's dying speech is another bonus.
R. Chetwynd-Hayes - The Gatecrasher: Edward Charlton and his trendy friends hold an impromptu seance - and summon forth the spirit of Jack the Ripper. Saucy Jack soon has total dominion over Edward and together they prowl Soho, picking up working girls to butcher back at the flat off Edgware Road. When the downstairs neighbour grows suspicious that those stains on his ceiling are maybe not the result of spilt red wine after all, its time for the pair to part company.
One of the four RCH stories filmed for the Amicus anthology From Beyond The Grave
Hume Nisbet - The Demon Spell: ... a mangled corpse lying on the muddy pavement, and a demoniacal, dark, pock-marked face bending over it, with the lean claws outspread, and the dense fog instead of a body, like the half-formed incarnation of muscles."
A pretty medium materialises the ghost of Ripper victim Polly who warns Nisbet who he's earmarked as his next victim (you've guessed). Our hero bursts in on him just as he's about to get down to business.
Anthony Boucher - A Kind Of Madness: We've already met with conflicting accounts as to why the Ripper murders ceased as abruptly as they began. Unlike Nisbet and dear old Anon, Boucher doesn't go in for the macho chest beating "it was me who killed him!" approach. According to him, the couple who put an end to his capers - true life murderers Gabrielle Bompart and Michel Eyraud - were entirely oblivious as to just who they were lynching and the danger Gabri was in during the hours leading up to their crime.