From Hell - The devil in other guises

There is no reference to Jack the Ripper in Sympathy for the Devil, but there could just as well have been, for I'm sure many of the residents in White Chapel in the fall of 1888 wouldn't have been surprised, if it was proved he was the devil himself.

Continuing with my theme of Sympathy for the Devil in popular culture, I have known broadened my perspective to also include devilish characters. One of the scariest books I've ever read is the graphic novel, or comic if you will, From Hell (1999). It's written by the same writer as V for Vendetta, which I talked about in my last post, namely Alan Moore.


From Hell is extremely detailed and researched work. It includes over 40 pages of notes, with references to sources. It is however a fictional account that is mainly based on Stephen Knight's entertaining but disproved theory, that the murders were part of a royal cover-up including also the Freemasons. Knight published his theory in Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution (1976). Moore acknowledged that it more than likely fictional, but uses it to create an exciting mix between fiction and reality.

In From Hell the Prince Albert marries and haves a child with a poor London East End woman, Annie Crook, without her knowing of his royal background. Queen Victoria learns of this, and removes the prince from his wife, and commits her to an asylum, where she is made insane by the royal physician Dr. Gull. When Annie's friends, who know of the Prince, attempts to blackmail the queen, Dr. Gull is once again dispatched to silence these prostitutes, and that's how the White Chapel murder comes to be.

A panel sample from From Hell

Dr. Gull who we follow from childhood, is portrayed very thoroughly. From his childhood, there is something very menacing about his character. As for example when he pops open his dead fathers eyes, or his wife's screams in a totally black panel on their wedding night. He is also a Freemason and (obviously) a misogynist, and the killings take on a very occult meaning. His purpose, besides aiding the queens cover-up, is to repress the women suffrage by his ritual killings. In the end when he's finished the job, he proudly proclaims 'I've given birth to the twentieth century'. A devilish character indeed.