The autumn of 1888 saw a series of savage murders perpetrated in the Whitechapel area of London. These killings came to be known as the work of Jack the Ripper. When a diary was discovered in 1991, written by a man who claimed to be the notorious murderer, the book was widely dismissed as a hoax. But no one has ever conclusively proved that it was a forgery.

This, argues Paul H Feldman, is because the diary was genuine.

Feldman recounts the largest and most detailed investigation ever to be undertaken on the veracity of Jack the Ripper's diary. Behind the smokescreen of an official cover-up, via royalty and the Masons, the author divulges crucial evidence from Home Office files and uncovers the truth about the origins of the diary and Jack the Ripper's watch.

This is also a story of the diarist who was poisoned and his wife who was wrongly imprisoned for his murder, and of the illegitimate descendants still alive today, who have rejected the potential financial rewards and battled to conceal the truth.

And of course, it reveals the identity of one of the most infamous criminals of all time: Jack the Ripper himself.

Since October 1992 the "Diary of Jack the Ripper", which purported to be written by James Maybrick, was believed to have been a hoax. However, not one person has attempted to explain how it was forged or by whom. This book claims that this is because the diary is genuine. Feldman suggests that James Maybrick was the notorious Whitechapel Murderer, and that the largest and most detailed investigation on the subject ever to be undertaken led the author through the smokescreen of an official cover-up, via the royals and the masons, to the true provenance of the diary, Jack the Ripper's watch, and, ultimately, his identity. As well as suggesting a solution to one of the most enduring mysteries in the history of crime, this is also the story of the man possibly at its centre, James Maybrick: how he died, how his wife was falsely imprisoned for his murder, and who the real murderer of Jack the Ripper was. This story also draws in two people who are still alive today - one illegitimately descended from James Maybrick, the other from his wife, Florence.