Would Maybrick Have Wanted The Diary To Be Found?

[Yabs]

Did Maybrick know he was going to die and/or had he finished his 'killing career' and/or completed his journal because the way he signed off the last entry in his diary/journal with his 'name' and even a date is remarkably convenient!

That’s very true, i don’t believe he dated any other entry.

[richardh]

Did Maybrick know he was going to die and/or had he finished his 'killing career' and/or completed his journal because the way he signed off the last entry in his diary/journal with his 'name' and even a date is remarkably convenient!

[Yabs]

1967 it was demolished, here is the last pic taken of it.
not the best image in the world but you can see Maybrick’s shop

[Graham]

Hi Caz,

I just re-found this thread, driven by pure boredom...the 'other' thread appears to have become a battleground between two Ripperologists neither of whom seems prepared to give way to the other. As ever.

Knowsley Buildings, where Maybrick's office used to be, was in fact pulled down in the 1960's as far as I can tell.

However, as I noted on the 'other' thread, and which no-one seems to have picked up on, the last entry in the Diary is May 3 1889, and it just so happens that Jim's final visit to his office was on the same day. I just wonder (if of course he wrote it) if this is just a coincidence. The Diary, if he wrote it, is in effect a confession to a series of ghastly murders which (if he wrote it and it had been discovered at the time) would have just about ensured that Jim would have ended his days, had he not been on the way out anyway, with a rope around his neck. If he wrote it, then of course he would have wanted it found, preferably after his death, otherwise why bother? If he wrote it, then I rather feel he wrote it away from Battlecrease where his every thought, word, deed and action seems to have been snooped on. His office, nice and private one would assume, would seem the ideal place to write it, finish it, and either conceal it or pass it in a sealed brown envelope to someone he trusted who would produce it after his death.

Maybe.

Graham

[caz]

Hi Spider,

Then it just shows how easily things get distorted, doesn't it?

Well, the other story is that a servant found it stuck under the master's mattress, which makes more sense from the "where it would be found" viewpoint, but as that story comes from Mrs. Barrett, it is already suspect.

Love,

Caz
X

[Spider]

So the idea didn't originate with Mrs Barrett then, Spider?

Thanks for the clarification.

Love,

Caz
X

Well the possibility of the scenario came about when I was discussing the provenance of the Diary with a friend a number of years ago. It wasn't a theory we'd heard of previously, but obviously others may have thought the same and I'd not seen it mentioned since until pcdunn just commented.

Regards

[caz]

So the idea didn't originate with Mrs Barrett then, Spider?

Thanks for the clarification.

Love,

Caz
X

[Spider]

Hi Pat,

Keith and I had a chinwag over this, and we must both be going senile because neither of us can remember Anne ever writing or saying anything along these lines, so we are wondering what your source is?

Thanks.

Love,

Caz
X

As stated earlier in this thread and posted on here a few years ago under another pseudonym. Maybe that's where it originated from?

I proposed a theory years ago that the Diary could have been kept under the mattress. Maybrick would have confident in the knowledge that the Diary was safe whilst he was ill and wouldn’t be found in the meantime should he recover. If the worst came to the worst it wouldn’t matter anyway and he would know it was in a place where it would be found. By secreting it under floorboards he would be aware that it was a place where it wouldn’t be found or at least unlikely to have been found.
This theory would support the lineage to Devereaux thru’ the Laundry fencing route as the bedding would have been managed by the lowliest maid etc….

[caz]

Well, the other story is that a servant found it stuck under the master's mattress, which makes more sense from the "where it would be found" viewpoint, but as that story comes from Mrs. Barrett, it is already suspect.

Hi Pat,

Keith and I had a chinwag over this, and we must both be going senile because neither of us can remember Anne ever writing or saying anything along these lines, so we are wondering what your source is?

Thanks.

Love,

Caz
X

[DirectorDave]

Where did you get the 'teenage girl' from, DD?

Perhaps I could have phrased that better, but what the heck?

Love,

Caz
X

I met her onlin...errr.....I mean just my opinion Caz, other opinions are available.

[caz]

So would James Maybrick a murder victim want a "diary" authored by a drunk and written by a teenage girl found fitting him up with 5 ghastly murders.....

Errmmm...I think he would have been happy for it to stay a photoalbum and for Mike Barrett to stick to telling tall tales in the pub.

Where did you get the 'teenage girl' from, DD?

Perhaps I could have phrased that better, but what the heck?

Love,

Caz
X

[caz]

I was thinking of a sealed envelope left with his solicitor with strict instructions that it only be opened after his death in which he gave the floorboard location.

c.d.

Hi c.d.,

That would depend on when JM would have made the decision to let time reveal all. According to the diary it seems like the plan was only really formulated during the final entry on May 3rd, when by all accounts he would probably have been too sick to think of the solicitor route or do anything about it without help, in which case he'd just about manage to poke the diary under the loose floorboard and hope it would be discovered in due course to tell its own story.

Whether a hoaxer engineered something along these lines I couldn't say, but if someone who knew the Maybrick story was determined enough to get access to that bedroom, who knows?

Love,

Caz
X

[caz]

Hi Caz,

I've not read a durned thing about the Diary for yonks, nor have I kept pace with what's going on here, but I seem to recall reading somewhere that Anne Barrett's employer occupied the building that once housed James Maybrick's offices? Is this true? I also seem to recall seeing a suggestion (possibly on these boards) that Anne herself might actually have found the Diary tucked away in some ancient cupboard or desk or whatever at her workplace. Sounds highly improbable to me, have to be honest, but given all the wild and crazy suggestions that have been flying around here, maybe not as wild and crazy as some.

Graham

Hi Graham,

From memory, I think I read that the buildings which had been home to JM's office were demolished back in the 1960s, and Anne once worked in the office that was built on the same site. It was Mike who once said he thought the diary could have been found there [mainly when denying the Battlecrease provenance], but I can't see how, given that all the original office furniture would probably have been long gone by then.

Love,

Caz
X

[DirectorDave]

So would James Maybrick a murder victim want a "diary" authored by a drunk and written by a teenage girl found fitting him up with 5 ghastly murders.....

Errmmm...I think he would have been happy for it to stay a photoalbum and for Mike Barrett to stick to telling tall tales in the pub.

[c.d.]

I was thinking of a sealed envelope left with his solicitor with strict instructions that it only be opened after his death in which he gave the floorboard location.

c.d.