Where would a book on Jack the Ripper conspiracies be without mention and an adequate assessment of the Metropolitan Police Special Branch Index Ledgers?

For those who do have a personal interest in these developments on the case, details on their existence and relevance was first published in the foundational reference work on the Whitechapel murders in 2006, Jack the Ripper: Scotland Yard Investigates pp. 241-242. Evans and Rumbelow.

In 2002, Dr. Lindsey Clutterbuck was granted access to the ledgers, though their existence was known before, to research a thesis on pre-WW1 foundations of the Metropolitan Police Special Branch in reference to Irish Republican extreme active campaigns. The title of the thesis, An Accident of History?, was in reference to a House of Commons debate where it was assumed that the early formation of British secret service had developed accidentally and in rapid response to mainland threats. Clutterbuck essentially argued, based on his sighting of the ledgers, that that position was historically and for reasons relevant to the Victorian period not complete. Indeed, the early and permanent Special Branch, sanctioned in 1887 and established in 1888, was an organized response founded by Monro, Williamson and Littlechild.

For reasons relevant to the period, the Whitechapel murders were brought to the attention of and investigated by Special Branch detectives in co-ordination with Scotland Yard's CID.

This latest crusade to stonewall the citadel of officialdom to gain exclusive entry to the holy grail of Victorian Scotland Yard practices, has only served to entrench reticence on the part of custodians of these historic primary sources and police index ledgers. Which I might add, have already been assessed by academics previously.

The new book, Jack the Ripper and Black Magic: Victorian Conspiracy Theories, Secret Societies and the Supernatural Mystique of the Whitechapel Murders, is the first to fully examine the context and relevance of these sources on the Whitechapel murders as far as is reasonably possible and appropriate to an understanding of their sensitive nature in regards other matters political to the late Victorian and subsequent periods.

Jack the Ripper and Black Magic: Victorian Conspiracy Theories, Secret Societies and the Supernatural Mystique of the Whitechapel Murders