Adam Wood

Adam Wood is Executive Editor of Ripperologist magazine, considered the leading journal featuring informed opinion and the latest research on the Jack the Ripper case, along with associated news and book reviews. He is also Editor of the Police History Society Journal. Adam has researched and written several exhaustive articles on aspects related to the Whitechapel murders and crime and detection in the Victorian era, including a biography of the Coroner Wynne Baxter, a history of Sir Melville Macnaghten's memorandum naming three 'likely' suspects and a comprehensive look at Chief Inspector Donald Sutherland Swanson's so-called Marginalia, in which the officer in overall charge of the case describes what happened to the suspect known only as "Kosminski". His latest book is the long-awaited biography of the Scottish detective, "Swanson: The Life and Times of a Victorian Detective". Set against the backdrop of the developing Metropolitan Police, this book tells the story of a life and career which included railway murderers, grave robbers, fraudulent mediums, Jack the Ripper, the Philosopher’s Stone, Fenian dynamite campaigns, shocking revelations about the aristocracy and a crazed captain with sea serpents in a bottle. His first book, 'Sir Howard Vincent's Police Code 1889', is a re-publication of the famous guide for Metropolitan Police of the Victorian era with an extensive introduction by Adam and co-author Neil R A Bell. As with the original, the authors have maintained the tradition of donating a share of profits from sales of the book to the Metropolitan & City Police Orphans Fund. Adam is regularly booked to give talks on Victorian crime and detection, and advises television documentary makers, film production companies and other media outlets including national newspapers. He lives in Warwickshire.