The Missing Memorandum

[Stewart P Evans]

Thanks

hi there,
the scan was taken from the pro pack and as stewart noted:
"were 'cleaned off' on the computer for display as a PDF file and as they are not relevant to the document in its original form"
apart from that i left them unchanged .-)
take care
thomas.

Thomas, thanks for that, nice to clear up this particular suggestion of conspiracy.

[Stewart P Evans]

Many Thanks

...
Hello Stewart,
I was particularly pleased that this discussion teased out the name of one of those mysterious unnamed, people who had had such untrammelled access to the MEPO papers on JTR investigations, back in the 1960's.
I think I have read mention of others in yours and Keith Skinner's
'The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook' . In 'The Missing Suspects Files' chapter38.(Robinson: London: 2001).
(Though, just quickly glancing through it, I notice SPE was of the opinion the files went missing in the '70's and '80's).
Surely, given the loose arrangement, things could easily have gone missing from such a large bundle(s), in the 1960's too?
Question: Has anyone approached Joe Gaute's family- or even the family of the MEPO policeman who gave him access, to discover if any "overlooked" JTR papers are still lying about in back cupboards and in shoe boxes?
After all, Donald Rumbelow had this to say about the loose arrangement governing police records back in the 1950's:
(A superintendent..lecturing to the Metropolitan Police History Society several years ago.) " He told us that most of the early papers of the Special Brach were thought to have been destroyed by a Fenian bomb in 1884 which was planted against the wall of their office. Yet some papers had recently come to light. The widow of a Special Branch pensioner asked them to buy the contents of a large suitcase which she brought into their office. It was full of Special Branch papers, which her husband had kept under the bed!"(p133, The Complete Jack the Ripper:Penguin: 1988.
Keep up the good work Stewart, and thanks for the generous way you share.
JOHN RUFFELS.

John, many thanks for the appreciative word - civility goes a long way to promoting sensible responses and a willingness to share.

[jason_c]

Stewart, thank you for the sensible posts on this thread. Macnaghten and Anderson discussions are fast reminding me of the heady days of George Hutchinson on these boards.

[mariab]

Oh, my God! A thousand apologies/tausend Entschuldigungen to Thomas Schachner, who apparently is the webmaster of casebook?!! Terribly, terribly sorry for the newbyfaux pas, for some reason I imagined Thomas Schachner as an aging, posh Swiss millionaire collector, nochalantly buying extremely pricey objects at Sotheby's auctions...(while the lower classes starve to death and ask for a morcel of bread, on their knees, outside of Sotheby's...)
(I had no idea that German Ripperologists existed, and even contributed to casebook!)

John Ruffels wrote:
Its good to see a result showing people's deductive processes work!
I'm afraid you'll be more likely to see my head start to smoke and explode in the process...
Trevor Marriott wrote:
Well theres a job for you Maria you cant detect crimes from sitting behind a desk you have to get out and do some leg work.
Believe me, were I located in London, I totally would try to contribute. Instead of this, I'll attempt a little search at the Paris National Archives and at the archives of their Préfecture de Police next week (without guaranteeing any results whatsoever). Also, it's not from behind my desk, as I've been in bed for the most part of the last 2 weeks (with different ailments, but probably due to general exhaustion).
To Thomas Schachner:
A thousand apologies again, I'm the stupidest newbie of all. Still, I have a question nagging me in the back of my mind: How come you erased that particular pagination number on this particular MEPO file, but left on the pagination on other documents on the JTR CD, as Simon Wood observed on his post #40 on this thread?

[Phil Carter]

Hello Maria,

Humanum errare est. I hope you get well soon.

best wishes

Phil

[mariab]

Phil Carter wrote:
Humanum errare est. I hope you get well soon.
Ain't that the truth?
Thank you so much for your well-wishes. I'm not really ill anymore, just a little bit weak (or incredibly lazy), as it's been almost a week since I healed from that flu which you (and the entire Europe) had. I caught up on my sleep, and I even think I lost some weight (by sleeping), which is kind of cool. (Lost weight, but also muscle definition, as Arnold Schwarzenegger would put it...)

[Stewart P Evans]

Respected

Oh, my God! A thousand apologies/tausend Entschuldigungen to Thomas Schachner, who apparently is the webmaster of casebook?!! Terribly, terribly sorry for the newbyfaux pas, for some reason I imagined Thomas Schachner as an aging, posh Swiss millionaire collector, nochalantly buying extremely pricey objects at Sotheby's auctions...(while the lower classes starve to death and ask for a morcel of bread, on their knees, outside of Sotheby's...)
(I had no idea that German Ripperologists existed, and even contributed to casebook!)
...

Thomas is a respected and dedicated Ripper collector and researcher and has visited me here at home. We have a few great German Ripperologists, another is Christian Jaud, another old friend of mine.

[mariab]

I had the quickest look at www.jacktheripper.de (just for a few seconds), but I'll most certainly visit this site in the near future.
I'm so sorry to say I've never heard of Christian Jaud, but I hope to find out about him in the near future as well.

[thomas]

Oh, my God! A thousand apologies/tausend Entschuldigungen to Thomas Schachner, who apparently is the webmaster of casebook?!! Terribly, terribly sorry for the newbyfaux pas, for some reason I imagined Thomas Schachner as an aging, posh Swiss millionaire collector, nochalantly buying extremely pricey objects at Sotheby's auctions...(while the lower classes starve to death and ask for a morcel of bread, on their knees, outside of Sotheby's...)
(I had no idea that German Ripperologists existed, and even contributed to casebook!)

John Ruffels wrote:
Its good to see a result showing people's deductive processes work!
I'm afraid you'll be more likely to see my head start to smoke and explode in the process...
Trevor Marriott wrote:
Well theres a job for you Maria you cant detect crimes from sitting behind a desk you have to get out and do some leg work.
Believe me, were I located in London, I totally would try to contribute. Instead of this, I'll attempt a little search at the Paris National Archives and at the archives of their Préfecture de Police next week (without guaranteeing any results whatsoever). Also, it's not from behind my desk, as I've been in bed for the most part of the last 2 weeks (with different ailments, but probably due to general exhaustion).
To Thomas Schachner:
A thousand apologies again, I'm the stupidest newbie of all. Still, I have a question nagging me in the back of my mind: How come you erased that particular pagination number on this particular MEPO file, but left on the pagination on other documents on the JTR CD, as Simon Wood observed on his post #40 on this thread?

hi maria,

no no..i'm not the webmaster of the casebook. i have my own website .-)
stephen is chief in charge..i only helped him layout this thing for the new century...

and..no offence taken .-)))

i removed it because i wanted to make the thing look as "original" as it was and it really disturbed me there hanging on the right top corner...

i'm not responsible for the jtr-cd...i only removed it on my scan!

take care
thomas.

[mariab]

Thomas wrote:
i removed it because i wanted to make the thing look as "original" as it was and it really disturbed me there hanging on the right top corner...
i'm not responsible for the jtr-cd...i only removed it on my scan!
Thank you so much for clarifying /alles klar, und danke vielmals.
I'll visit your website soon.

[chrisjd]

Stewart, thanks for the kind words.

Maria:
"an aging, posh Swiss millionaire collector"

Oh, that's Tom, only not swiss and millionaire though!
;-)

C

[mariab]

To Christian Jaud:
No idea why I had that negative vision. I've been looking up some things about the IWMC lately, so possibly I happened to be channeling Philip Kranz...
(An einem Tag habe ich schon mit zwei Ripperwissenschaftlern aus Deutschland kommuniziert – es fühlt sich ziemlich exotisch...)

[chrisjd]

Kein Beinbruch, Maria.
Und Exoten sind wir hier wirklich.

C

[mariab]

Das stimmt.
(And I'll go back to English, before I get banned!)

[Simon Wood]

Hi All,

In an earlier post I quoted Robin Odell on the Macnaghten Memorandum he examined in 1965–

"I clearly remember that in my draft text I described the notes, 'written on several lined blue foolscap sheets'. Joe thought this direct reference might get his contact into difficulty so the text was put into a more matter-of-fact context. As far as I am aware, there was never any comeback once the book was published." Robin added, "The foolscap sheets are plain and not official police letterhead; there is no file reference, embossing or rubber stamping."

Stewart Evans responded by saying that this version of the Macnaghten Memorandum "doesn't exist"; also that "there is no reason at all to suppose that what Robin saw was not the same document that everyone else saw before it was folio numbered in the 1980s before microfilming."

I have since received further communications from Robin Odell, which I reproduce below with his kind permission–

"Dear Simon,

"I thought I would share this with you. One of the advantages of being a boring old fart is that we sometimes do remember things and even keep old papers tucked away in the attic!

"Digging around I found my old Harrap file. In it there is a letter from Joe Gaute, dated 15 February 1966 acknowledging receipt of my revision material for the Mayflower paperback. He writes that he is 'slightly bothered' over my description of the MM material, and goes on, 'You do describe the whole appearance of the statement and if anyone went to the trouble of checking, it is quite obvious that it has been seen.'

"At the publisher's request, the revision material was incorporated in an annotated copy of the hardback, hence, I do not have a copy of the text before it was edited. I am clear, though, about the description and, of course, acceded to Joe's wish not to give the game way. Appropriate deletions were therefore made to the MM references.

"Just a footnote to history.

"Best wishes

"Robin"

It is clear from Joe Gaute's letter that Robin originally described the document in some detail, so I have no reason to doubt the reliability of his memory.

On balance it would appear that a memorandum written on unembossed lined blue foolscap did once exist. It is therefore important that we attempt to locate its present whereabouts and deduce whether this may have been Macnaghten's "draft" version. Maybe then we will be able to make a full and proper judgment on the origins of the Aberconway version.

May I just add that Robin told me, "I'm not keen to get embroiled in what seems to be a developing squabble over MM. However, if my reference to Joe Gaute's letter helps to further the truth of the matter, I don't mind it being quoted. It is, after all, a matter of record."

I would therefore ask everyone to kindly respect Robin's wishes.

Regards,

Simon