who are the forgers?

[cotty]

I'm aware it has been debated, but aren't hoaxers generally caught by now and prosecuted for this sort of thing? Why hasn't Mike been prosecuted?

[Maria]

Cotty:

Its a clever con. If the diary had been sold as " genuine " then that would have been a fraud and a matter for the police. But all that has been sold are the books who talk about the diary in a way that entices the reader to believe that it might be genuine, so in that sense, no crime has been committed. In the meantime, many more books have been churned out describing it, so the books continue to sell and it constitutes a good business. Its a business the same way you sell a book. ( not the diary )
which by the way... this diary is worth only one pound, if it really was the original diary of Jack the Ripper it would fetch a lot, lot more than just a pound.

Maria

[mac-the-kipper]

You don't have to be able to prove a certain individual forged something to know that it's a forgery. That's like saying we can't be certain your next door neighbor isn't a dinosaur wearing a human suit just because we don't know for sure which of the theories about what caused the dinosaurs to die out is the right one.

You really do say the strangest things.

[Dan Norder]

Better to say something strange to point out the absurdity in someone else's argument than to believe that something quite strange is actually sensible.