One Incontrovertible, Unequivocal, Undeniable Fact Which Refutes the Diary

[caz]

That is exactly how I see them too.

And this might be important to stress: there is no reason why this should be so politicized or tribal. When the Diary was first published I was a teenager with a good hairstyle and an excellent sex life, and I bought the book excitedly as soon as it was published. Nothing would've pleased me more than for the book in my hands to have contained the actual memoirs of the killer. I had no prejudice against it, quite the opposite.

But it didn't convince me. And the more I read about it the less it convinced. And I never, try-as-I-might, could see the alleged 'FM' as anything other than an accidental vague splash or smear, a smear or stain that yielded 'FM' only if you really, really tried hard to find it there, because you wanted it to be there.

There, tucked away, small and vague, luckily just in the line of sight of the camera... but still not looking much like a deliberate F or a deliberate M, certainly not enough to have caught the eye of experienced detectives.

(Those detectives, by the way, we're now being told, seem to have missed Fs and Ms and Ys scrawled liberally over the whole crime scene and the victim herself! What idiots. And that's only the messages that were clearly readable from the precise angle the photographer chose: which might imply that there were even more initials and messages visible but only from other angles. The police somehow missed them all.... )

Anyway. I was more than willing. I just didn't see it, but I could see how those who wanted to see it in those vague smears would do so.

Much the same as my own experience, dear Henry.

Except that I was a forty-something 'with a good hairstyle and an excellent sex life'. I'm a sixty-something now and nothing has changed.

Love,

Caz
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[Sam Flynn]

If there is an "F" on the arm, it's upside down and back to front, for God's sake.

From our view point...yes. it is.

If we have to rotate the upside-down "F" to read it, we must also rotate the right-way-up "M" on the leg. You can't have it both ways. In which case who is "W______________F" supposed to be? Incidentally, I put the "_______________" in there to reflect the enormous gap between the upside-down "W" on the leg and the upside-down "F" on the arm.

And, again, there really isn't an "M" (or a "W") on the leg, for reasons I've already given. It's a couple of unconnected fingerprints and a stab wound.

[GUT]

Applying that logic, then, from our point of view the "M" on the leg is the right way up. Therefore, if we must rotate the upside-down "F" to read it, we must also rotate the right-way-up "M" on the leg. You can't have it both ways. In which case who is "W______________F" supposed to be?

(I put the "_______________" in there to reflect the enormous gap between the upside-down "W" on the leg and the upside-down "F" on the arm)

And, again, there really isn't an "M" or a "W" on the leg, for reasons I've already given.

Might be WTF.

[Harry D]

So confident, in fact, that he wrote: "I left it there for the fools, but they will never find it. I was too clever. Left it in front for all eyes to see. Shall I write and tell them?". Now, how did he KNOW that the police would never find the initials, despite leaving the clue "in front for all eyes to see"? How did he know, unless he was writing years, decades after the fact?

Exactly, Sam.

And the diarist acts as if the "FM" is some kind of written confession. Had the police discovered any such graffiti (and they didn't), how on earth would they have ever made the connection to James Maybrick? They'd sooner bring in Fanny Mortimer for questioning! The "FM" makes more sense from the hoaxer's pov than it ever could for the killer.

[Henry Flower]

From our view point...yes. it is.

I'm covered in bloody bruises thanks to falling off this log so often

And it's important to remember that: the camera is showing you what you think is a carved F from one viewpoint. You cannot see the other side of that wound. It may actually be a shape that could never be interpreted as a F at all.

Kaz: are you happy to assert that the killer took either a finger or an implement, and wrote initials on the wall in blood (like in some crappy melodrama, by the way - was Maybrick a fan of theatre?) and the police of the day were unable to either spot it or to notice any difference between blood splatter and deliberately formed letters?

Are you also happy to assert that the killer was carving the letter F into her arm and this was also not spotted by detectives or mentioned at the postmortem? And he smeared the letter M on her leg in blood, and this was not spotted by detectives or noted at the postmortem?

And that having done all this, the killer wrote that the police would never find the clues he had left?

You're happy with that?

[Sam Flynn]

Might be WTF.

Now, that I can believe.

[caz]

So, who could "H M I I" be? It could be an anagam of "mihi", I suppose, in which case we're looking for a Latin scholar with a big ego.

It's His Majesty Ike for Ike!

Just as the JO on the watch stands for John [the purple dragon] Omlor.

Equal and opposites.

Do I win £5?

Love,

Caz
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[Sam Flynn]

And it's important to remember that: the camera is showing you what you think is a carved F from one viewpoint.

Incidentally, this is what happens when someone decides to carve words - words, mind you, not just one meagre, ill-formed letter! - into someone's flesh:



Poor Leno LaBianca again. Nothing ambiguous about that.

[caz]

This is a dismal variation of Christer's "because he was a psychopath" gambit.

So you concede that the position is unnaturally low for someone who wasn't sitting on the floor. Good to know. Thank you. You think that Maybrick shoved the bed aside so that he could squat on the floor so as to write the initials of his wife so low down and so indistinctly that seasoned detectives never noted their presence.

Indeed, their presence down there went unnoticed by all. Until they were spotted on some copies of copies of copies of copies of copies of a dirty smudgy old photograph, by some people, but not by others, and not on other copies of copies of copies of copies.

Clear.

Hi Henry,

If anyone could lock on to the mind of the wag who did write the blessed diary, I'd say it was you. I reckon they would be hooting with mirth to read along here and would genuinely appreciate your pithy comments more than most. At least you are not like the misery guts - I need the plural - misery gutses? - who leave their sense of fun at the door when they enter this place. Good for you.

I might write Piers Morgan's vampire diaries after all.

Love,

Caz
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[Henry Flower]

Incidentally, this is what happens when someone decides to carve words - words, mind you, not just one meagre, ill-formed letter! - into someone's flesh:



Poor Leno LaBianca again. Nothing ambiguous about that.

I toyed with the idea of posting that image, G, but it's always such a hideous thing to see. But that's been on my mind too: the supposed F on her arm doesn't look remotely like a letter carved with a knife. It looks more like someone came in with a food blender and lost control of it. That's not someone carving a letter, that's someone hacking out chunks of flesh.

Ah, but you see, he didn't want the police to notice his clues, he wanted to avoid the gallows. They were clues just for him! So he made his F all messy. The police missed it. Thankfully Kaz and Ike (love you both!!) did not, thanks to the lucky angle of the photograph.

Phew!

[Henry Flower]

Hi Henry,

If anyone could lock on to the mind of the wag who did write the blessed diary, I'd say it was you. I reckon they would be hooting with mirth to read along here and would genuinely appreciate your pithy comments more than most. At least you are not like the misery guts - I need the plural - misery gutses? - who leave their sense of fun at the door when they enter this place. Good for you.

I might write Piers Morgan's vampire diaries after all.

Love,

Caz
X

Caz, I'm still fuming that you have the sex life in your sixties that eludes me in my forties. Damn you, foxy lady!

I'm intrigued to hear you use the word 'wag'. Aside from the jest of writing the thing in the first place, do you think there's a thorough-going sense of humour in the text itself? If I'm honest, the last time I read it I was in error-seeking mode (none too successfully, I'll add). I remember finding 'his' little jokes rather sophomoric and unsuccessful. I really ought to read it again with the old sense of humour switched firmly on - after all, one of the great charms of Diary of a Nobody is Pooter's utterly banal attempts at humour. I'll re-read the Maybrick Diary in that spirit. I might even enjoy it!

Best

HF x

[Kaz]

Ah, but you see, he didn't want the police to notice his clues, he wanted to avoid the gallows. They were clues just for him! So he made his F all messy. The police missed it. Thankfully Kaz and Ike (love you both!!) did not, thanks to the lucky angle of the photograph.

Phew!

There was no mention of 'how' he left his mark, just that he did.

An initial here an initial there
Will tell of the whoring mother

The letter 'F' doesn't play into the hands of the camera angle, the opposite.



Just remaining open minded here

[Henry Flower]

The letter 'F' doesn't play into the hands of the camera angle, the opposite.

That's simply not true, in the sense that the camera angle gives you just enough information to deduce the presence of what you think is the letter F, but luckily not enough to see whether that's a valid interpretation of the wound.

[caz]

This whole tedious 'naysayers' garbage is so boring and childish now. Grow up. This isn't a game. I'm not here to pick a team or piss off the other team. Good luck to you. I have better things to do tonight than engage on that level.

Oh please don't get pissed off with anyone, Henry. It's really not worth it and your posts [apart from this disappointing one] are generally a breath of fresh air. I'm not here to pick a team or pick a fight. I'm just the crackpot who doesn't believe Maybrick or Mike Barrett wrote the infernal thing. I believe it is a game, of the hoaxer's making. Pulling our strings and watching us all play our parts would have made up for it not emerging until 1992. It would have given him pleasure - a great deal of pleasure.

Love,

Caz
X

[Henry Flower]

Oh please don't get pissed off with anyone, Henry. It's really not worth it and your posts [apart from this disappointing one] are generally a breath of fresh air. I'm not here to pick a team or pick a fight. I'm just the crackpot who doesn't believe Maybrick or Mike Barrett wrote the infernal thing. I believe it is a game, of the hoaxer's making. Pulling our strings and watching us all play our parts would have made up for it not emerging until 1992. It would have given him pleasure - a great deal of pleasure.

Love,

Caz
X

You're sexy when you're angry, Caz.