There's Something Wrong with the Swanson Marginalia

[Stewart P Evans]

Clear

Stewart P. Evans wrote:
It was then that I noticed the differences in the pencil used and a slight variation in the handwriting. Points that I felt were very relevant in any proper assessment of the material. In putting my findings into the public domain at a later date I was not suggesting that Jim Swanson had tampered with the annotations in any way, I was making public the fact that certain anomalies existed that had been previously missed.
Thus, if I understand it correctly, the slight variations in the handwriting in the Anderson book most probably pertain to a different timeframe than to a different hand?

I think that I have made this clear in the past.

[mariab]

I apologize, I have recently acquired Scotland Yard investigates and will read it as soon as possible (unfortunately not before December, but I'm sure that all the anticipation will make it even more interesting!).

[Stewart P Evans]

'Problems'

I was not suggesting that Jim Swanson had tampered with the annotations in any way, I was making public the fact that certain anomalies existed that had been previously missed.
Stewart.
Many thanks for your reply.
Regarding your own views, I am absolutely aware that you have never personally doubted the marginalia and you must get sick of constantly reaffirming this.
When I first heard of the doubts that some people had raised over the marginalia, (not you Stewart, I'm thinking of other examples,) I didn't realise that the main focus was on Jim Swanson himself. Maybe I missed the point totally but I thought people were inferring that somebody much more recent had been involved, possibly to bolster a book or new theory?
I would love to know what you saw in Feldmans office by the way, as you alluded to on the podcast, but I suppose you will tell us if you want!
Thanks again.

The main problem is that ever since I noticed the 'problems' with the annotations in the Anderson book the general view of the 'marginalia' has changed dramatically. Until then it had been regarded as almost sacrosanct and there had been no reason to query it in any way. I think that others have inferred that the 'marginalia', or rather part of it, may have been forged but by whom, if not Jim Swanson, was not made clear. I suspect that libel laws may prevent them from elucidating their veiled suggestions, if such they be.

[Stewart P Evans]

No Need

I apologize, I have recently acquired Scotland Yard investigates and will read it as soon as possible (unfortunately not before December, but I'm sure that all the anticipation will make it even more interesting!).

No need to apologise, the problems with the 'marginalia' are not discussed in Scotland Yard Investigates.

[Fisherman]

Stewart Evans:

"the problems with the 'marginalia' are not discussed in Scotland Yard Investigates"

But I thought you said there were no problems with the marginalia...?

Sorry - I just couldn´t resist that one

Oh, and Maria - keep the book just the same; it´s got other merits. Lots of them.

The best,
Fisherman

[Jonathan H]

To Mariab

Don't start reading the Evans/Rumbelow until you have a clear run at it; as your normal life will just become a irritating interruption of this wonderful tome, one bookended by terrific chapters on Warren and Anderson. The copious illustrations alone will keep you busy for days!

The overall point about the 'Marginalia' is that it further confirmed that Kosminski is a minor suspect -- despite being named by the head detective of the Ripper case in the margins of a book by very the head of CID, at the same time.

As with Macnaghten and his errors about Druitt, the Swanson marginalia far from confirming [Aaron] Kosminski as the likely fiend just exposed how little accurate knowledge Swanson and/or Anderson actually ever possesed about this wretch. Tat deatil about him being dead is very telling, to say the least.

Macnaghten via both himself and Sims had warned that the Polish Jew was a nothing suspect; who was alive and harmless for a long time after the Kelly murder -- which is correct. The Marginalia records just the opposite, collapsing 1891 into 1888 and substituting the sailor suspects, Sadler and Grainger, with Kosminski -- in my opinion, very much influenced by 'Scotland Yard Investigates'.

To Stewart

Do you recall in your meeting with Jim Swanson whether he ever said that his mother knew of the annotation? Whether this 'bombshell' was known to certain members, or any members, of the Swanson clan -- or whether it was Jim himself who stumbled upon the lines, with no prior warning or knowledge that they were there?

I am not suggesting an hoax. Not at all. What I am trying to confirm is that Donald Swanson never left any kind of 'legacy' about this private notation regarding the Ripper's 'identity' with his descendants?

[Stewart P Evans]

Problems

Stewart Evans:
"the problems with the 'marginalia' are not discussed in Scotland Yard Investigates"
But I thought you said there were no problems with the marginalia...?
Sorry - I just couldn´t resist that one
Oh, and Maria - keep the book just the same; it´s got other merits. Lots of them.
The best,
Fisherman

The problems with the marginalia are that two different pencils were used and the handwriting varies slightly in apparently continuous writing. I fail to see where I said that 'there were no problems with the marginalia.'

[Fisherman]

And I failed to make it clear that I was just joking at the cost of those who try to paint the Marginalia differences out as something sinister. My apologies for that shortcoming!

The best,
Fisherman

[Stewart P Evans]

Jim Swanson

...
To Stewart
Do you recall in your meeting with Jim Swanson whether he ever said that his mother knew of the annotation? Whether this 'bombshell' was known to certain members, or any members, of the Swanson clan -- or whether it was Jim himself who stumbled upon the lines, with no prior warning or knowledge that they were there?
I am not suggesting an hoax. Not at all. What I am trying to confirm is that Donald Swanson never left any kind of 'legacy' about this private notation regarding the Ripper's 'identity' with his descendants?

Keith and I travelled down to see Jim Swanson in connection with our pending book The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook. I needed to photograph the 'marginalia'. Jim was very old and questioning him about the 'marginalia' and its provenance was not on the agenda, any relevant questions having been, presumably, asked years earlier. The first knowledge Jim had of these annotations was when he received the book in 1981 when his aunt Alice Julia died. He came across the annotations when looking through the book.

[Stewart P Evans]

Appreciated

And I failed to make it clear that I was just joking at the cost of those who try to paint the Marginalia differences out as something sinister. My apologies for that shortcoming!
The best,
Fisherman

Appreciated, but please do not include me in your 'jokes'.

[Fisherman]

By all means. Point taken.

The best,
Fisherman

[mariab]

SPE wrote:
No need to apologise, the problems with the 'marginalia' are not discussed in Scotland Yard Investigates.
{...}
I suspect that libel laws may prevent them from elucidating their veiled suggestions, if such they be.
Are these problems with the marginalia discussed in any publication besides what's posted here on casebook? (There's also a bunch of Ripperologist back issues that I'll be ordering very soon, as soon as I sort out my list.) But I assume that the same libel laws would also prevent people from outing suggestions/suspicions in an electronic publication. As for the A-Z (which I assume that it might possibly contain the most pertinent information pertaining to this specific discussion), I'm sorry, but I'm not ordering this book before a “redacted“ paperback edition comes out.
Fisherman wrote:
Oh, and Maria - keep the book just the same; it´s got other merits. Lots of them.
Hi, Fisherman, I hope you're fine. A quick run through Special Yard investigates completely convinced me that it'll be a fascinating and severely informative read. Pity I can't carry it around though, as the format's a killer for packing it along when mobile! Plus, I need to go through Examiner 4, Sugden (finally!), The ultimate, and JTR – Letters from Hell first before hitting SY investigates. All this not before I'm finished with a pending applications-a-thon in the US. (And by the by, I just got an affirmative answer for a sponsoring from the German state – for 1 year, until I need to apply again. Oh, and did I tell you that last week I swam for HOURS in the Mediterranean? Almost immediately followed by a bad case of the flu or cold, which is almost healed now, thanks to antibiotics.)
With apologies for the “personal stuff“.

[Fisherman]

Any cold or flu led on by a dip in the Mediterranean would be welcome on my behalf, Maria ... It beats having to hack your way through the ice on your windshield before driving away through the dark Swedish mornings for another days work, believe me.

The best,
Fisherman

[mariab]

SPE wrote:
The problems with the marginalia are that two different pencils were used and the handwriting varies slightly in apparently continuous writing.
Hmmm... In apparently continuous writing, not corrected shortly after, perhaps by the same hand at a different time? VERY interesting. I wish I could see the document – at a later point (preferably after having slept the night).
I recall having spent DAYS trying to establish if a libretto scene draft in 2 different fountain pens by Eugène Scribe was entirely authentic, trying to reconstruct the chronology of its creation. Shamefully, I changed my mind at least 3 times (while reporting to the editor) until we got 100% sure of the correct reconstruction of the source.

[mariab]

To Fisherman:
Wow, you got ice already? Nice too! Here in Berlin it's darkish but still warm, with the most beautiful-coloured leaves on the trees and on the ground, from yellow to red.
(I might possibly encounter the Mediterranean again soon, as I might possibly need to flee to my mom's in late November again, due to the fact that the chaotic owners of my Paris apartment double-booked it for a week in the very middle of my stay. More fun to get away for a few days than moving back and forth from Berlin to Paris like a pendulum.)
Again, a thousand apologies for the digression!