From Hell

From Hell is a graphic novel by writer Alan Moore and artist Eddie Campbell speculating upon the identity and motives of Jack the Ripper. The title is taken from the first words of the "From Hell" letter, which some authorities believe was an authentic message sent from the killer in 1888. The work is dense, multilayered and immensely detailed; the collected edition is about 572 pages long.

Plot overview

The Duke of Clarence fathers a child with Annie Crook, a shop worker from the East End of London. Queen Victoria employs royal physician Sir William Withey Gull to kill those with knowledge of the child. The victims are Crook's friends, prostitutes who've attempted blackmail to obtain money to pay a thug's demanded extortion.

Related Topics:
Duke of Clarence - Queen Victoria - William Withey Gull - Prostitute - Blackmail - Extortion

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Gull, a highranking Freemason, justifies the brutal murders by claiming they are a Masonic warning to an apparent Illuminati threat to the throne. (Historically, the Illuminati were blamed, in some quarters, for the French Revolution.) Secretly, however, the killings are part of an elaborate mystical ritual to ensure male societal dominance over women (see "Interpretations" below).

Related Topics:
Freemason - Masonic - Illuminati - French Revolution

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The story also serves as an in-depth character study of Gull; exploring his personal philosophy and motivation, and making sense of his dual role as royal assassin and serial killer. This study is largely fictional, and admittedly speculative - for example, the real-life Gull suffered a stroke; Moore fictionalizes this event as a theophany, with Gull seeing "Jahbulon," a mystical Freemasonic figure, fundamentally altering Gull's world view and indirectly leading to the murders.

Related Topics:
Character study - Serial killer - Stroke - Theophany - World view

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Gull takes John Netley, his coachman, sole confidant, and reluctant aide, on a tour of London landmarks (such as Cleopatra's Needle and Nicholas Hawksmoor's churches), expounding about their hidden mystical significance, which is lost to the modern world. (Moore credits Iain Sinclair with inspiring much of this portion of From Hell.)

Related Topics:
John Netley - London - Cleopatra's Needle - Nicholas Hawksmoor - Iain Sinclair

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Gull has a number of transcendent, mystical experiences in the course of the murders, culminating with a vivid vision of what London will be a century after he kills Mary Jane Kelly.

Related Topics:
Transcendent - Mystical - Mary Jane Kelly

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Gull is tried by a secret Freemasonic council, which determines he is insane. A phony funeral is staged, and Gull is imprisoned under a pseudonym. Moments before his death, Gull has an extended mystical experience, where his spirit travels through time, instigating or inspiring a number of other killers (Peter Sutcliffe, Ian Brady), and serves as the model for William Blake's "The Ghost of a Flea." (These accounts are all based on fact; Blake had many visions, and both Sutcliffe and Brady reported odd, ghostly events.)

Related Topics:
Insane - Funeral - Pseudonym - Travels through time - Peter Sutcliffe - Ian Brady - William Blake - Ghost

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Inspector Frederick Abberline investigates the Ripper crimes, but resigns from the Metropolitan Police, protesting the official coverup of the murders. One critic noted that From Hell might be seen as a "police procedural as it follows Scotland Yard's Inspector Abberline through the case".http://www.salon.com/books/feature/1999/10/26/moore/index1.html

Related Topics:
Frederick Abberline - Metropolitan Police - Coverup - Police procedural - Scotland Yard

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Cameo appearances are made by such luminaries as Oscar Wilde, Aleister Crowley, William Butler Yeats, James Hinton, Joseph Merrick (known as "The Elephant Man"), and members of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.

Related Topics:
Oscar Wilde - Aleister Crowley - William Butler Yeats - James Hinton - Joseph Merrick - The Elephant Man - Buffalo Bill

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According to his notes in his appendix, Moore was somewhat inconsistent with how "historically accurate" the events within the graphic novels are. On one hand, he revealed that he had actually written an entire scene where Abberline gets into an argument with Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley; he rewrote it after research revealed that Buffalo Bill had left England by the time of the murders. On the other hand, again according to his own notes, he had William Morris appear in London on the night of one of the murders, although historical records clearly showed he was out of town that night.

Related Topics:
Annie Oakley - William Morris

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