The Many Faces of Jack the Ripper

by M.J. Trow, Tim Craddock (Photographer)

Presents the people, places, and theories connected to the mystery of Jack the Ripper with a psychological profile of the killer

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, History

192 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1998

About the author

Meirion James Trow is a full-time teacher of history who has been doubling as a crime writer for seventeen years. Originally from Ferndale, Rhondda in South Wales he now lives on the Isle of Wight. His interests include collecting militaria, film, the supernatural and true crime.

Reviews

[Katherine Addison · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a kind of weird book. It's like it wants to grow up to be a coffee-table book. It's oversized, glossy paper, and full of photographs, but the photographs are either the same double-handful of photographs you get in every Ripper book (and bad reproductions, too) or photographs of Whitechapel as it is now, which are all kind of small and cramped. And then there's the one photo with the girl posed as a chestnut seller Jack the Ripper allegedly spoke to, where she's all young and smooth-skinned and lovely and as a reader I am all WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT OVER. So a coffee-table book where the budget got slashed mid-project? I don't know. Trow's style is breezy and sensationalist, and his research is sloppy, but on the other hand, he has a lovely, common-sense attitude toward the various sources/theories about the Ripper's identity and assesses them realistically.

[Bill38silver · Rating 4 out of 5]

The dozen or so books in my study on Jack the Ripper show an interest in the maniac but as many of them remain unread I cannot claim to be a 'Ripperologist'. Indeed, my main interest in the unsolved crimes here is in their social setting, the overcrowded slum conditions, in the poverty and fragile existence of so many in the East End of late Victorian times, as portrayed brilliantly in William Fishman's book, 1888.

Trow's book paints a useful tourist guide picture of the Abyss ( to use Jack London's phrase of the East End) coupled with modern day (late 1990s) photos of the area and scenes of the horrendous crimes. He then turns his focus on the detail of the murders and mutilation of some of the victims who he labels all prostitutes (contrary to the more sympathetic view of Hallie Rubenhold in her impressive 2019 mainly biographical work, The Five").

After an unflattering chapter on the police, "The Defective Force", Trow moves to consideration of the main suspects, 37 of them. After some background detail of each person or persons, Trow scores them as Ripper suspects between 1 and 10, 10 being "highly plausible", and 1 "near lunacy". However, he scores 30 as 0 ( so why bother?), 4 score 1, and only 3 score 2. His absence of any suspect over 2 results in nobody coming anywhere near a plausible, let alone a highly plausible killer.

Having started the book in fine style, the concluding chapter trying to create a psychological profile is disappointing and not, as the publisher believes, 'thrilling' nor does it 'bring us closer to the Ripper and his victims than ever before'. In essence, Trow has no idea of the identity of the Ripper and makes no attempt to unravel the mystery. It is easier to demolish the work of others than it is to proffer a view that "we will never know the identity of Jack the Ripper". I doubt this will be the last word or book on the subject.

[Meaghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was compulsively readable, and unlike many Ripper books it gives you a good idea as to what it was like to live in the East End during that time, and how the police force worked (and didn't work). It also covers some suspects I had not previously seen. However, some of the photos were mislabeled, and I noticed a few inaccuracies and sweeping generalizations (i.e. "the Ripper was deranged and surgeons are not deranged; therefore he could not have been a surgeon," and "he could not have been an immigrant because the immigrant population was not violent") I would recommend this in conjunction with other Ripper books, such as of course my favorite, Sugden's The Complete History of Jack the Ripper.

[Terri · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great Ripper book. Went through the evidence and applied it to the favorite suspects and other obscure ones and really kept an open perspective. Full of facts and little known theories and corrections to the many mis-perceptions that have occured over the years. I loved it.