Narrative Complexity and Identity Formation in The Diary of Jack the Ripper

The so-called Diary of Jack the Ripper purports to have been written by a Liverpool cotton merchant, James Maybrick, confessing to five infamous Victorian murders. However, researchers have rarely examined The Diary as a narrative in its own right. Debates about the diary’s authenticity have relied on comparison with well-known fraudulent diaries, forensic and historical information. These examinations overlook how the writer tells his story across its 63 pages. Structural, hermeneutic and thematic analysis, as well the process of identity construction, shows the text building a framework to explain and justify the actions described. The diarist’s imagined audience shifts during the course of writing, revealing the narrative’s changing purposes. These reveal central themes of displaced anger and enjoyment of sadistic violence. Examined alongside three other first-person accounts by serial killers helps to elaborate and test the claim that narratives enable or limit harmful behaviour. Whether fraudulent or not it is an important document that illustrates how a personal narrative can support violent actions. As such, the Diary and its analyses are a valuable resource for narrative criminology.