True Face of Jack the Ripper [Hardcover]

Melvin Harris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 11, 1994

Melvin Harris, the man chiefly responsible for exposing the "Ripper Diary", now reveals the true face of Jack the Ripper. Harris disposes of all previous candidates and using FBI techniques he tells the story of how he tracked down the real Ripper.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A decade ago, in The Diary of Jack the Ripper, Harrison identified Liverpool cotton merchant James Maybrick as the author of a confessional diary signed Jack the Ripper. Now she attempts to link the Ripper with earlier killings in the U.S., following the lead of R. Michael Gordon in The American Murders of Jack the Ripper (2003). The diary’s authenticity has been the subject of heated debate, but Harrison does little here to persuade, failing to acknowledge that proof Maybrick wrote the diary is not tantamount to proof he was the Ripper. Harrison devotes pages to an astrologer’s study, and merely states that Maybrick could have been in Texas in 1885 at the time of multiple slayings there. This claim is at odds with the diary’s suggestion that its author had committed just one murder, in Manchester, before the 1888 autumn of terror in London. In addition, Harrison provides scant details on the unsolved Texas murders treated with more care in Steven Saylor’s novel A Twist at the End (2000), and which will be the subject of a forthcoming nonfiction treatment, The Midnight Assassin, by Skip Hollandsworth. As psychologist David Canter concludes in his postscript, "The only thing that is certain is that the question of who exactly was Jack the Ripper will not go away."
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Shirley Harrison began broadcasting with Uncle Mac on Children's Hour in 1954. She wrote for most national magazines and newspapers, turning to non-fiction after the death of her husband in 1982. Shirley divides her time between Borough High Street, London and Normandy. She has four grown up children and is now, coincidentally, married to Duncan Field whose forbears were undertakers in Whitechapel at the time of Jack the Ripper! Her biography of Sylvia Pankhurst, will be published in the Spring. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: M O'Mara Bks. (March 11, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1854791931
• ISBN-13: 978-1854791931
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,586,529 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not really worth it, May 8, 2006

By 

LadyOfGlencairn "'Love is the triumph of imag... (Cape Town, South Africa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jack the Ripper: The American Connection (Hardcover)

I first read Shirley Harrisons 'The Diary of Jack the Ripper' and was completely intrigued. Here for the first time was REAL evidence against someone thought to have been the Whitechapel murderer. Evidence that seemed to be more than circumstantial and to my utter surprise everyone seemed to revolt against the very idea. Instead of reading what the book had to tell with an open mind, people automatically claimed it to be a hoax, bashing everything the author implied. To date, Shirley Harrison and Paul Feldman have spent many years trying to solve the mystery of this elusive diary and subsequently, the watch. Its been the most expensive Ripper investigation to date. And still today, no one has conclusively been able to prove that the diary or the watch is fake. People jumped on the band wagon when Michael Barrett 'confessed' to having supposedly forged the diary. Anyone with half a brain have since realised (as the author did) that this could not possibly have been true. All the evidence he gave to support his 'confession' has been disproved.

Why people are so vehemently against the idea that James Maybrick could have been The Ripper I dont know. It seems strange that many would rather accuse men with a lot less evidence stacked against them, than seriously consider a man who could clearly have been guilty.

However, as much as I enjoyed her 1998 updated version of the 'The Diary of Jack the Ripper', I found this version to be a complete waste of my time. There was no real evidence to connect James Maybrick/The Ripper to the US killings as the cover of the book suggested. Instead I was treated to a template of her first paperback with a few revisions here and there. Utterly disappointing.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars No matter how they change cover or try to sell it..., March 3, 2005

By 

OverTheMoon ([e-mail]) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jack the Ripper: The American Connection (Hardcover)

... these words will be here to warn you. This book has had millions of reprints. It gets a new title every year just so that all the 1 star reviews vanish over for a new term.

The hoaxer admitted forging the diary.

Okay, say the name on the tip of your tongue - The Diary of Jack the Ripper - and watch as the dollar signs flicker before your eyes. It was bound to happen sooner or later. The reason why the Diary is still popular today is because a few Ripperologists attached their name to it and few have had the guts to actually say that they where wrong and walk away from it. The Diary is essentially a mini-volume of notes allegedly written by James Maybrick, around the time of the Whitechapel murders, that sign at the end as "Jack the Ripper". So how does it read? Well it is reasonably fair to say that it is very creative reading and does keep you entertained, but then again that is exactly what it is meant to do. What we know today is that it is undoubtedly a forgery because the owner of the book Michael Barrett simply admitted to forging it himself. End of story, really. So you might enjoy this book but remember that it is only fiction and the case is still far from solved.

What one must remember is that James Maybrick is still a Ripper suspect and was a Ripper suspect long before the advent of the Ripper Diary so don't discount this suspect just on the bases of this book being a forgery.

Click on the authors name and have a good look around. I am sure you will be impressed and the message will finally sink home. Shame about the Ripperologists who went pair-shaped hooking up with this book as the Real McCoy. There have been a few causalities because of it.

1.0 out of 5 stars Not convinced, March 17, 2011

By 

Cheryl A. Pula (New York Mills, New York United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jack the Ripper: The American Connection (Hardcover)

Several years ago I read the author's tome on the Diary of Jack the Ripper, though not convinced, I was intrigued. I primarily read this one because it supposedly showed some connection between Maybrick and a series of murders in Texas around the same time. However, the Austin murders are barely mentioned in the book, and I really got tired of reading about the author's woes and problems with getting people to take her work seriously, etc. The book wasn't supposed to be about her, but about Maybrick. Though he is an interesting person, neither this book nor the controversial Diary of Jack the Ripper have convinced me he was Jack. Also, I noted several glaring errors in the text, including a statement that one of Maybrick's forebears had come to America in 1775 to fight in the Civil War. Last I knew, our Civil War was from 1861 to 1865. If that was wrong, who knows what else could be wrong. Whether the author is British, American or whatever, the dates of the Civil War should have been checked. I've read better, but with all reviews, this is just my opinion.