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Philip Sugden (January 27, 1947 – found dead April 26, 2014) was an English historian, best known for his comprehensive study of Jack the Ripper case, including the books ''The Complete History of Jack the Ripper'', first published in 1994, and ''The Life and Times of Jack the Ripper'' (1996). He was one of the few professional historians who worked on the case. == Biography == Philip Sugden was born on January 27, 1947 in Hull, England, the younger of twin boys. His father was a painter and decorator. Sugden left Ainthorpe High School at the age of 16 and spent four years in the park department of Hull City Council. He then took his A-levels at the Hull College of Commerce and began reading history in the University of Hull after his graduation in 1972. He immediately started working on his Ph.D., but the dissertation on early Stuart maritime expansion was unfinished partly because of Sugden's meticulous nature and repeatedly rewriting and parly because his grant ran out. In 1976, he took a job at Chenet School in Cannock, where he taught history, English and economics. At that time he became fascinated with the Georgian era and particularly the crime of 18th-century London. In 1988, having been disappointed in teaching, Sugden left the profession and switched to full-time writing. His book ''The Complete History of Jack the Ripper'' was completed after nine years of research and was first published in 1994. Sugden was the first professional historian to work on the case, in his book he tried to collect maximum facts and "cleanse" the story of many errors and myths spawned by other researchers. He shunned building theories on the true identity of the killer, and, though he had his favoured suspect, Polish-born English serial killer George Chapman, he always was far from certain. The book received both critical and popular success, having sold 100,000 copies.〔 Sugden contributed several articles to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, one of them on an early 18th-century London thief and gaol-breaker Jack Sheppard and another about English serial killer George Joseph Smith.〔 Sugden never married, he was a reclusive man who lived alone. He was found dead on April 26, 2014, having suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. After his death, two of his books left unfinished: one, ''A Cabinet of Curiosities'', presented a collection of various historical mysteries, and the other, ''Forbidden Hero — The Georgian Underworld of Jack Sheppard'', told about the crime in the 18th-century London.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Philip Sugden (historian)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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