A few years ago, researcher and scholar Donald K. Hartman presented Death by Suggestion (2018), an entertaining and surprisingly diverse collection of Victorian-era crime stories where villains controlled their victims (and victims occasionally turned the tables) through hypnotism. His new, highly readable publication is The Hypno-Ripper, and it showcases two stories where auto-suggestion is interwoven through the infamous saga of Jack the Ripper. The first is a novel-length dying man’s narrative called “The Whitechapel Mystery”, published by a Chicago press in 1889. The second, shorter tale is “The Whitechapel Horrors”, appearing in print in 1888. As the five canonical Ripper victims had been killed between August and November of 1888, both stories were designed to capitalize on the recent headlines and add speculative sensation to the already vivid Ripper legend.
The two tales are both enjoyably dark crime stories and fascinating artifacts of near turn-of-the-19th century creative nonfiction. As editor Hartman points out, the stories were written quickly for American publication, but there is a breathless charm to them as the narrator in each travels from the United States to England and gets enmeshed in the serial killings. In “Mystery”, whose author is credited as one N. T. Oliver, detective John Dewey’s search for a bank robber leads him onto the trail of a charismatic man with the power to control others. “Horrors” is presented with this subtitle: “A conjectural story relating the facts concerning four of the murders.” The narrator is another luckless American, Charles Kowlder, and although this story’s author is unknown, it is possible (and even likely) that both were written by the same colorful con man of a scribe: Edward Oliver Tilburn.
In the book’s final section, Hartman provides a fascinating and well-researched biography of Tilburn, alias N. T. Oliver and “Nevada Ned”, and the man’s rollercoaster of a life does not disappoint. In sum, Tilburn – sometimes with an “E” at the end of his name, sometimes not, but usually with an unearned honorific like “Dr.” or “Ph.D.” attached – was a patent medicine huckster, an author, a preacher, a professor, a realtor, and a man of business to the American towns and people he would descend upon, swindle, and leave. Generally, Tilburn’s writing days came early in his kaleidoscopic career, when he would be commissioned to build 200 pages around a weeks-old event. In one hurried book, he leaned heavily on recent published reporting to flesh out a story involving the St. Louis cyclone. In another instance, when the discovery of a prominent community member’s body in a basin caused a sensation, his publisher asked for a 50,000 word novel on the subject in seven days; Tilburn delivered.
In the book’s final section, Hartman provides a fascinating and well-researched biography of Tilburn, alias N. T. Oliver and “Nevada Ned”, and the man’s rollercoaster of a life does not disappoint. In sum, Tilburn – sometimes with an “E” at the end of his name, sometimes not, but usually with an unearned honorific like “Dr.” or “Ph.D.” attached – was a patent medicine huckster, an author, a preacher, a professor, a realtor, and a man of business to the American towns and people he would descend upon, swindle, and leave. Generally, Tilburn’s writing days came early in his kaleidoscopic career, when he would be commissioned to build 200 pages around a weeks-old event. In one hurried book, he leaned heavily on recent published reporting to flesh out a story involving the St. Louis cyclone. In another instance, when the discovery of a prominent community member’s body in a basin caused a sensation, his publisher asked for a 50,000 word novel on the subject in seven days; Tilburn delivered.
Between the two accounts of Jack the Ripper being aided in his gruesome mission through mesmerism and the stranger-than-fiction character sketch of the author, The Hypno-Ripper offers a really intriguing set of stories and a curious blend of tabloid fantasy and historical detail. The text is accompanied by many great images, from the unsettling original artwork of Rob Sajda in the Ripper tales to the snake-oil advertisements and articles recounting the scandalous conduct of Edward O. Tilburn. A very unique and enjoyable book.
I received an advance copy for review.
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