Author’s Afterword

Even though this is a work of fiction, I have tried to incorporate all the facts as accurately as my research and scholarship can make them concerning Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Jack the Ripper and his heinous crimes, the contemporaneous investigations by Scotland Yard and the Metropolitan Police, the victims, witnesses and the later statements from the officials who claimed they knew the identity of the Ripper. My point of view was based on the ten clues in the fictional Doyle notes.

It is indeed factual that Dr. Joseph Bell - Conan Doyle’s mentor and the prototype for Sherlock Holmes - was given the Ripper files to examine by Dr. Littlejohn. It was also true that Dr. Bell claimed he’d gotten a “friend who likes puzzles” to go over them too, and that they each wrote down their suspect’s name on a piece of paper and that each wrote the same name. I extrapolated that friend to be Conan Doyle - probable but not provable.

The balance of The Conan Doyle Notes, including the Notes themselves and the identification of the Ripper, are based on my own research. Unfortunately, neither Doyle nor Bell left any notes or identification of the Ripper’s identity. Bell’s report to Scotland Yard has never been publicized and is no longer in the files. The Notes are my own construction, and I used bits of many of the materials in the attached bibliography for verisimilitude.

I hope you enjoy this book, part of my Literati Mystery Series. You can find more detailed information about Conan Doyle, the Ripper and everything to do with this book on my website - www.dianegilbertmadsen.com