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** This is an archived, static copy of the Casebook messages boards dating from 1998 to 2003. These threads cannot be replied to here. If you want to participate in our current forums please go to https://forum.casebook.org **
Jack the Ripper: The Bloody Truth (Harris)
Casebook Message Boards: Ripper Media: Specific Titles:
Non-Fiction:
Jack the Ripper: The Bloody Truth (Harris)
Author: Dennis Stocks
Thursday, 19 November 1998 - 12:05 am |        | In 1987 Columbus Books (19-23 Ludgate Hill, London) published Melvin Harris' book: "Jack the Ripper: The Bloody Truth". The last chapter of this work ("The Magician from the Mists") examined Harris' contender - Dr. Roslyn D'Onston -and on the inside back flap of the dust jacket, Columbus Books stated they were running a competition to coincide with the one hundredth anniversary of the killings.
The blurb runs:
"The Magician from the Mists" signed himself Tautriadelta - but only after the murders had ended. "A strange signature", he called it, "but one that means a devil of a lot? lots of people would be interested to know why I use that signature. In fact the knowledge would create quite a sensation. But they will never find out - never."
Does the name embody a specific reference to the Whitechapel murders? Or does it hide some equally sinister meaning? Apart from his explanation in the book, Melvin Harris holds a further, undisclosed, interpretation and readers are challenged to a race in detection.
The solution is held by the publishers Columbus books. The competition runs until 31 August 1988, the centenary of Jack the Ripper's first murder. The prize is a weekend in Paris. For two commendable runner-up solutions there will be consolation prizes of £30 and £20 book vouchers.
A few years ago, thumbing through this book again, I again came across this promotion and wrote to Columbus Books asking if the prize had ever been claimed or awarded. The letter came back undelivered - Columbus Books having moved from Ludgate Hill and, perhaps, out of business.
OK, the point of this enquiry is, does anyone know if that prize was ever claimed?
By the way: the "mystery" of Tautriadelta lies in the geographical lay-out of the murder sites and the various patterns that can be created from the lines linking them. D'Onston is reported to have told Lady Vittoria Cremers (widow of Baron Louis Cremers) that the word was a composite of the Hebrew "Tau" (cross), the Greek "Tria" (three) and the Greek "delta" (D which is written in the form of a triangle. So the literal translation being "Cross-Three-Triangles".
The patterns obtained from linking the sites was raised in Harris' 1987 book, but not in his 1994 "The True Face of Jack the Ripper" (Michael O'Mara Books, London).
In case you were in any doubt, the face on the dust jacket is that of Roslyn D'Onston. The secondary agenda in publishing this second work was to thoroughly dismantle the Maybrick diaries. |
Author: jennifer pegg
Monday, 28 January 2002 - 04:34 am | | hello
does anyone know if this book is available to buy in the uk first hand anymore? |
Author: John Hacker
Monday, 28 January 2002 - 01:12 pm | | Sorry Jennifer, it's out of print. There are still used copies bouncing around, but they can be pricey.
Regards,
John Hacker |
Author: Stephen P. Ryder
Monday, 28 January 2002 - 01:15 pm | | Hi Jennifer -
I've got a copy up for sale at: http://www.casebook.org/booksale/ if you're interested. Its an interesting read.
- Stephen |
Author: jennifer pegg
Monday, 28 January 2002 - 01:36 pm | | | thanks all |
Author: jennifer pegg
Tuesday, 16 April 2002 - 05:29 am | | dear mr harris (and everyone else!)
i have some issues i would like to discuss about the book. please can you help me, i would llike to know about the source of the hoax, what info is there to link whitechapel club to the chicago article?
jennifer
ps feel free to email me anyone! |
Author: Michael Conlon
Tuesday, 16 April 2002 - 05:09 pm | | Hello, jennifer,
The following is an excerpt from a letter I received from Mr. Melvin Harris in March of 2000:
"The Lees hoax which appeared in the Chicago 'Sunday Times-Herald' of April 28th,1895, in its opening gambit, implies that the hoax had its roots in a yarn foisted on William Greer Harrison of the Bohemian Club in San Francisco. That yarn was "recently told". Now Harrison was a businessman with a yearning to be a noted poet. But he was despised by the Bohemians of the Club and became an ideal candidate for japes and leg-pulls. Now is there mention of any Ripper yarns in the San Francisco papers shortly before the Chicago piece saw print? I did ask a retired doctor friend in Frisco to look into this in 1987 and she did make an attempt, but her eyesight was too poor to allow her to scan print for long, and she had to give up. Unfortunately we do not have copies of the Frisco papers over here."
I'm confident that Mr. Harris won't mind me sharing this, as he had suggested it to me as a research project more than two years ago, and I have never gotten around to it.
Best regards,
Mike |
Author: jennifer pegg
Wednesday, 17 April 2002 - 03:30 am | | hello mike, thank you for the info, it is of great help and intertest to me.
bestr wishes
jp |
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