Giving voice to the voiceless

A mission? A quest? A crusade? A fight for justice?

It might sound weird, but, much like Hallie Rubenhold, I hate true crime. I admire criminology, I am in awe of what human mind can do when applied correctly. I've studied criminal psychology for a time, and I still read criminology books, as much I do historical ones. I have a couple of shelves on everything from post mortem examination to detecting psychopaths, but I really detest true crime.

Why?

People who know me would have absolutely no difficulty in answering that. For those who don't know me that well, however, I'll say that: the victim is always more important than the killer. The victim isn't an array of physical mutilations, assumptions and generalized labels. The victim is a human being, and this deserves attention- as much as the victim deserve the respect of the living.

The killer, if he is identified and found, would be cross-examined, questioned, explored, investigated and discussed. Glorified - morbidly. But what would the victim get? Nothing. In that respect, the victims are like the wives of Henry VIII- simply parts of his narrative. We don't get a different approach with the killers and the killed. Where the wives of Henry finally are raising their heads and getting the attention they deserve, the murder victims sink into the oblivion. That is, they were- before Hallie Rubenhold wrote her book on Jack the Ripper victims.

She did, in a way, what Lucy Worsley and Gareth Russell did for Catherine Howard and the rest of the SIX: she gave voice to the voiceless.

To me, it is astonishing. Not only because it's a thorough, detailed research - and as. researcher I am in complete awe of that, just as I absolutely support this level of investigation. But because it's humane. It's raw, it's alive, it's pulsing with energy - of those who can no longer speak for themselves.

Whenever I researched someone - be it a grand master of the Teutonic order, a British pilot perished in WW2, or a much maligned royalty, I always did that- at least, I did my utmost to do that: give the voice to the voiceless.

I happen to be a highly sensitive person

Not it the sense of fainting in the presence of blood and gore, but in the psychic sense. I tend to pick up the information while researching, and it always finds proof in facts.

This was the premise of my almost lifelong romance with a young man, whose picture came up in one of the books on 1888. His name was Montague John Druitt, and he wasn't a victim of Jack the Ripper. He was a victim of ripperologists, though. And these guys like to mix heresay with obscure theories in order to create a weird narrative. This was the case of Druitt.

They called him a failure, a homosexual, a contender, a murderer. They said he committed suicide because they sacked him from his teaching post. All in all, they used the same generalized approach to him, as they did to the victims.

It's easy to construct a concept, a life - for someone who's dead, innit? He's not gonna argue. Monty was in the blacklists for decades, discussed with proofless, idiotic viciousness. Never researched properly. Even Leighton who did his biography, missed crucial details.

Of course, this struck me.

The research into Monty took more than 10 years, and I'm on the right track only now. Yesterday I've found out the missing part of his puzzle. Where? In the newspapers of 1888.

This shows my obsession with him I guess. But I'm writing a novel about a man. I cannot imagine a new life for him. I have to know the facts. That's why it's taking time.

But it's not about him alone. Writing history also means extensive research into the era. So that's what I'm doing. From cravats to poisons, from asylums to prostitution- that's a huge field. But in doing it, cause I'm giving the voice to the voiceless.

And I will be doing it as long as I breathe. Just because they bloody deserve it.

So I implore you to be careful in forming opinions on those who are gone. Use your intuition and common sense as much as the facts and never base it all on crazy theories by those who are you fascinated by the killer, forgetting the victims were human.

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