Jack the Ripper: The Satanic Team
Karen Trenouth
Autourhouse, 2007. 117pp., illustrated.
Casebook Review:
Jack the Ripper: The Satanic Team is basically a continuation and expansion of the royal conspiracy theory laid out in the earlier book (by the same author), Epiphany of the Whitechapel Murders. This volume unfortunately suffers from many of the same faults. Facts and figures are trotted out but connections are either flimsy or not made at all. We're told what Trenouth believes happened, but we're generally not told why she believes it happened.
The Satanic Team relies heavily on material found in Melvyn Fairclough's 1992 edition of The Ripper and the Royals, including the "Abberline diaries", Fairclough's identification of George Hutchinson, and the "200 year old letter" alleged to have been found in 13 Millers Court. Unfortunately all three have been proven to be faulty. Even Fairclough himself later repudiated the main tenets of his book in an essay published some years later in The Mammoth Book of Jack the Ripper.
Among other things, Trenouth suggests that Mary Jane Kelly was in fact named "Mary Jane O'Brien". Mary Jane wasn't actually murdered in Millers Court (the body discovered was that of Winifred May Davies, according to Trenouth) but rather lived out the rest of her days in Canada. There's also a veritable shopping list of items "discovered" by the author, hidden amongst the carnage of the Millers Court crime scene photos, including scissors, feathered hat, bonesaw, whetstone, gold chain, red seal, a ceremonial star medal and Order of the garter.
Not recommended.
