Inspiration for the Fake 'Diary'

[Stewart P Evans]

Yes, I'm actually starting a 'diary' thread!

In view of the ongoing and circular 'incontrovertible' thread debate (which never seems to get anywhere) I thought that a thread about 'inspiration' for the fake 'diary' might be interesting. 'Why Maybrick as a suspect?' and 'why Liverpool?' are questions that have been asked frequently in the past and the reasons are many. Just why would a Liverpool hoaxer decide upon the Maybrick case as an ideal basis for a journal by Jack the Ripper?

I believe there are several factors involved and one of the main ones, of course, is the close proximity in timing of the two cases. Jack the Ripper was the great criminal cause celebre of 1888 and the Maybrick case was the great criminal cause celebre of 1889. Indeed, there was a press overlap. For in July 1889 reports were appearing both of the Maybrick poisoning and the McKenzie murder, thought to possibly be a Ripper case.

A more modern inspiration has been suggested by the fact that 1988 marked the Ripper centenary, for which there was much media coverage, and 1989 marked the Maybrick case centenary for which, I was told, there was a mock re-trial of Florence Maybrick held at the original venue, St. George's Hall, Liverpool, at a time that the Ripper centenary was still very recent news.

[Jason]

I actually recall that mock retrial of FM !! is that 22 years ago ? goodness me i am getting old !!.......if i were the faker, then i am sure that i would want the person purported to be Jack in my diary someone who would be of interest....James Maybrick fitted that ! the case was well known ....the only other person it could have been was WH Wallace....now theres a thought !

[Stewart P Evans]

Catherine Kempshall

Thanks for that Jason. There are quite a few points that could be raised to suggest making James Maybrick the Ripper.

Something that has always struck me as significant is a case some seven years later that has some extraordinary parallels with the Maybrick case. This was a murder that had the following in common with the Maybrick case.

It was the murder of a Liverpool merchant, in Liverpool, by his female lover aged 32 years.

It involved a high profile trial at the same venue, St. George's Hall, Liverpool.

She evoked great public sympathy appearing in court heavily veiled.

She was found guilty and sentenced to death.

There was a great appeal for clemency, Florence Maybrick being mentioned.

She was reprieved and spared a fate on the gallows.

The press stated that she claimed her victim was one and the same as Jack the Ripper.

So here we have a Liverpool merchant murder victim being mentioned as Jack the Ripper. I'm sure anyone doing any sort of research on Liverpool cases would know of this one, but the Maybrick case was closer (1889) to the Ripper murders and had a higher proile.

She was Catherine Kempshall and her victim was Edgar S. Holland.

[DVV]

The press stated that she claimed her victim was one and the same as Jack the Ripper.

but the Maybrick case was closer (1889) to the Ripper murders and had a higher proile.

She was Catherine Kempshall and her victim was Edgar S. Holland.

Hi Stewart,

assuming the faker was well aware of these two cases, I believe he may have hesitated a bit.

On the one hand, the Maybrick case and its "higher profile" ; on the other, Kempshall said to have named Holland as the Ripper.

Would there be something in Holland's life or personality that would have made him an even worse candidate than Maybrick ?

[Stewart P Evans]

No...

Hi Stewart,
assuming the faker was well aware of these two cases, I believe he may have hesitated a bit.
On the one hand, the Maybrick case and its "higher profile" ; on the other, Kempshall said to have named Holland as the Ripper.
Would there be something in Holland's life or personality that would have made him an even worse candidate than Maybrick ?

No but she went on to deny it and was later deemed to be of unsound mind so any accustaion she made would not have much credibility. But it could be a suggestive factor in making a new suspect from Liverpool and choosing Maybrick instead.

[Stewart P Evans]

Jack the Ripper

Apropos of Kempshall's Jack the Ripper claim, the following extract appeared in the Guardian of March 20, 1897.

'Dr. Davies, practising in Liverpool, said he had had interviews with the prisoner, who told him that Holland was mad and everybody said he was mad. She further said Holland had had her watched by a detective. She complained of being swindled in connection with a trial she had had [she had been involved a couple of years earlier in a breach of promise case against Holland]. Further, she said another person had given her strong medicine which made a tickling all over her body, and she believed she had been turned into clockwork. Holland, she said, was Jack the Ripper.'

She also stated that Holland was leading 'an immoral life' and that Holland used to visit her in London.

[Roy Corduroy]

Thank you for sharing this, Stewart. I see your point of how this case could have influenced the Diary. The 1897 Guardian article has been transribed for ease of reading at this link (click)

Thanks again,

Roy

[sleekviper]

Well, wouldn't someone only have a three month window to explain with Maybrick? If they say that he kills Kelly in November, and is said to be violent in March but also a continued failure of health, the window of uncertainty is just December, January, and February. Window meaning the time of nothing occurring, such as October, 1888. If violence against his wife is said to be a last ditch effort to kill anybody since he can't gather the strength to kill a stranger, then he can be seen as sick for a period of time before March, dropping the three month window to two. Ripper had skipped October, so two months wouldn't really be a stretch to cause flags if someone were to press the health issue. He dies in May, so he simply never recovered strength after January to kill again. I think that if I were going to use a well known case of the time, Maybrick is a jackpot unless I have something wrong. Apology ahead of time if I do.

[Stewart P Evans]

Right

Well, wouldn't someone only have a three month window to explain with Maybrick? If they say that he kills Kelly in November, and is said to be violent in March but also a continued failure of health, the window of uncertainty is just December, January, and February. Window meaning the time of nothing occurring, such as October, 1888. If violence against his wife is said to be a last ditch effort to kill anybody since he can't gather the strength to kill a stranger, then he can be seen as sick for a period of time before March, dropping the three month window to two. Ripper had skipped October, so two months wouldn't really be a stretch to cause flags if someone were to press the health issue. He dies in May, so he simply never recovered strength after January to kill again. I think that if I were going to use a well known case of the time, Maybrick is a jackpot unless I have something wrong. Apology ahead of time if I do.

No, I think that you have got that about right.

[DVV]

No but she went on to deny it and was later deemed to be of unsound mind so any accustaion she made would not have much credibility.

Perhaps one of the reasons why the faker chose Maybrick.

But it could be a suggestive factor in making a new suspect from Liverpool and choosing Maybrick instead.

Certainly so.

There is even a good chance that the faker dug this case first.

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi Stewart et al.

Interesting discussion here. Coming as I do from Liverpool, I have always thought the Maybrick - Jack the Ripper link to be very contrived. Too good to be true. I am not especially swayed by the comparison with the Kempshall case or Kempshall's Jack the Ripper claim. After all, we know that the newspapers during the murders themselves and for years afterward were constantly full of claims that different individuals were the Ripper and people claiming they were the Ripper (often drunken or imbalanced men). Also in consideration that the Diary itself is almost entirely a straight arrow account that could have been mocked up with existing post-1987 books on the Ripper case, as has often been noted by the late Melvin Harris and others, the hoaxer wouldn't have needed the Kempshall case to devise the Diary and hang the shingle of Jack the Ripper on the unfortunate Maybrick.

Best regards

Chris

[Jonathan H]

Very interesting, Stewart.

Can I just add that the hoaxer (or hoaxers) did not need to manufacture a suspect whose fate had to explain the cessation of the murders right after Mary Kelly.

That's Druitt-centric, though people think that it was the other way round; that Druitt's death fitted the ending of the murders -- when it didn't.

If the flim flammers had realised this they could have ranged more widely over some notable bods from that era and chosen somebody else who would account for other murders, notably ofcourse Frances Coles -- orginally thought, or speculated to be by factions within Scotland Yard and the press to be the 'final' victim.

For example, what about the gentleman who shot himself on Wimbledon Common in 1891 -- eg. post-Coles -- and was spoken of by a tabloid as possibly being the remorseful fiend?

I am not even sure if this anomic suicide was ever definitively identified, but I bet the hoaxers would not have had the same give-away problem regarding the non-matching hand-writing.

Plus they could squeezed the last dregs out of the Druitt mythos: of the tormented toff.

[Scott Nelson]

The first resurgence of Beatlemania came around the centennial of the murders, and the hoaxer wanted to bring Liverpool back into the forefront.

[Steve S]

Chicken or egg?.....Did "X" plan the forgery & look around for a suspect...Or did they look at Maybrick and think "He could have been"......?

[ChrisGeorge]

Chicken or egg?.....Did "X" plan the forgery & look around for a suspect...Or did they look at Maybrick and think "He could have been"......?

The latter I think, Steve. It could have been just as simple as noticing the nearness of the dates of the two cases, that Maybrick died at the right time to have been the killer, and such things as the beginning and end of Maybrick's name.... James Maybrick. Also proper Victorian gentleman, fits the stereotype of the Victorian toff in top hat and cloak, somewhat.....

Not that I am an advocate of Maybrick's candidacy.

Best regards

Chris