25 YEARS OF THE DIARY OF JACK THE RIPPER: THE TRUE FACTS by Robert Smith

[David Orsam]

So Mike's original handwritten notes WERE destroyed after all. Quelle surprise!

[pinkmoon]

The diary saga would have ended before it started if one of the experts had decided to check the floppy disc straight away instead of waiting a few weeks before phoning mike Barrett up only to be told he had just wiped the disc the day before

[Abby Normal]

The diary saga would have ended before it started if one of the experts had decided to check the floppy disc straight away instead of waiting a few weeks before phoning mike Barrett up only to be told he had just wiped the disc the day before

Pinkmoon rises!

hey what going on with the Grampton solution?

[Sam Flynn]

The diary saga would have ended before it started if one of the experts had decided to check the floppy disc straight away instead of waiting a few weeks before phoning mike Barrett up only to be told he had just wiped the disc the day before

The data should still have been recoverable. If only people had been more tech-savvy back then!

[GUT]

The data should still have been recoverable. If only people had been more tech-savvy back then!

Even back in '92 most half tech savvy people knew how to information a disk.

[Henry Flower]

(a) I am sexually frustrated, but only because my technique never lives up to my aspirations. Groucho Marx, asked to describe himself as a lover, replied, "ardent but ineffectual". They say that Beethoven's 9th symphony and Shakespeare's Hamlet are each greater works of art than can ever be encompassed in any single performance. The same is true of me as a lover: I am a far greater lover than my performance in any actual sexual encounter has so far suggested.

(b) Chelsea: as an LFC fan I can only envy the perpetual 'disappointment' of Chelsea regularly failing to retain the Premier League trophy.

(g) Mike Barrett. Any relation to Hillary Clinton?

[pinkmoon]

The data should still have been recoverable. If only people had been more tech-savvy back then!

To much time spent trying to prove diary genuine and some very basic checks that could prove a fake ignored

[pinkmoon]

Pinkmoon rises!

hey what going on with the Grampton solution?

Its all going fine taking a lot longer than first thought.

[Trevor Marriott]

Not really, David. You imply here that your frustration is on account of not being 'allowed to see' Mike's research notes. Yet you say in a later post that you have no intention of contacting Keith Skinner about this, so surely you can see why it would be grossly unfair if you haven't even given him the chance to say yay or nay?

As it so happens, Keith emailed me only the other day to say he has read your recent posts here and has 'absolutely no objection' to you being sent the notes by me so you can put them up on the casebook 'for all to see and evaluate'. Keith agrees that the quickest and easiest way to set this in motion would be for me to pop a photocopy in the post to you, if you would kindly supply a contact address [via private message is fine - I shall look out for it]. As you keep saying how essential it is for everyone to see these notes in full, you are naturally the best - possibly the only person to be trusted with them. They run to seventeen A4 pages.

Keith also writes: 'In particular I would want to highlight that note on the front page about Transferring all my notes since August 1991 as it is one of the points I'm going to be bringing out at the Liverpool conference because it has to be weighed against the March 9th 1992 coincidence.' He describes this as 'the extraordinary coincidence of Mike deciding to telephone Doreen (using a false surname) on the day the floorboards were lifted in James Maybrick's bedroom.'

David, you will already know about this note on the front page from previous correspondence you had with Keith, although I assume you were respecting confidences, just as I have always done unless or until I get the go-ahead to share someone else's information publicly. We are not so very different, you and I, in that respect at least. Keith says it would be 'disappointing' if you thought the research notes were being deliberately suppressed. So it seems you could have asked him yourself, as I suggested ages ago [a week seems a long time in diary world], and cut out the middle woman entirely. He doesn't bite.

Here is Keith again:

'Reference could also be made to my taped interview with Mike Barrett in Liverpool Library on April 14th 1994 (pp.84-85) of Inside Story. I listened to it again the other day and reminded myself that I had only received the research notes on April 12th 1994. On the tape I specifically asked Mike whether, by any chance, he had kept his original notes and could he explain the background to his research and the word processor?'

[On checking my time line I can confirm that a receipt for a word processor purchased from Dixons and dated 3rd April 1986 was faxed to Keith from Shirley Harrison on 22nd February 1995.]

Keith writes:

'As I recall, it was purchased second hand with money given to Mike and Anne by Anne's father? Mike's story was that he made so many handwritten notes which were strewn all over the house much to Anne's annoyance when she came home from work and also that his handwriting was very bad. So it was decided to put everything on to a word processor – Anne showing Mike how to use it – but as his spelling wasn't good, Anne tidied this up. Mike said he threw all his handwritten notes away.'

Love,

Caz
X

In 1986, did Dixons sell second-hand Amstrad word processors?

https://www.trevormarriott.co.uk

[Sam Flynn]

Even back in '92 most half tech savvy people knew how to information a disk.

The question is, how many people involved in the Diary research were? Most of them strike me as having been about the age of my parents, if not older, and in the early 1990s, those of my parents' generation generally tended not to be tech savvy at all. Those were the days when such statements as "My kids can program the video, but I don't even know how to turn it on!" were made only half-jokingly

[David Orsam]

In 1986, did Dixons sell second-hand Amstrad word processors?

A decent question Trevor. It seems a bit unlikely, and the 8256 model, which Mike is supposed to have had, was only launched in September 1985.

Here is an advert from October 1986 for that model.

[Ozzy]

I'm off to see a Beatles tribute band in Beer tonight

I tend to be a forum lurker and this is totally off-topic but I had to post after you mentioned Beer caz. I live in Seaton, a few miles from Beer.
By the way I've enjoyed reading your posts for years, especially some in this thread.

[GUT]

I was selling computers typewriters and word processors in the mid 80s and saw a few on the 2nd hand market less than a year old when someone bought the wrong bit of gear and was back to trade up or down pretty quickly.

[DJA]

A decent question Trevor. It seems a bit unlikely, and the 8256 model, which Mike is supposed to have had, was only launched in September 1985.

Here is an advert from October 1986 for that model.

Waaay off topic,however ........

the CPC464 was launched in Oz during 1984.

Used to be in with the AV gear I sold at the time.

The 6128 was released the next year. Probably also the "256" model.
Different model numbers in Oz.

Many finished up for resale in The Trading Post.
Big mobs of them actually.

[Harry D]

With all the shenanigans surrounding the diary, its dubious provenance, the confession, the retracted confession, and yet people still believe it's a bona fide artefact from the Whitechapel murderer.

Faith over reason, I guess.