Inspiration for the Fake 'Diary'

[Jonathan H]

With such a source the provenance must be uncluttered by false trails, confessions of deceit, fortuitous supporting artifacts and admissions.

On that basis the Dairy is clearly, glaringly a modern fake, and yet the hoaxer(s) are to be congratulated for first working out how to get around the forensic examinations (the debacle of the Hitler Diaries could have been their anti-Template).

If you had the powers of the police, you could check out who checked out books on the Maybrick trial in the years before the Diary surfaced. This was how American law-enforcers exposed Melvin Dummar's Howard Hughes hoax will in 1976, as his fingerprint was found on a book about an Hughes hoax.

[Bridewell]

Mischief

Hello Bridewell,

People attempting to pull the wool ouer people's eyes like a giant April Fool's joke in Ripperology? And perhaps make money out of it? Unthinkable.
People making up things in book form? Nah- impossible.
I predict we havent seen the last of the escapades....sadly.

Best wishes

Phil

You wouldn't even have to write anything to make money!
How much would a blank 1888 diary fetch on ebay, do you think?

Question to seller: Do you have a spare in case I make a mistake?!:

Best Wishes, Bridewell.

[Phil Carter]

Hi All,

I suspect the inspiration wasn't a particular person or event, simply the collection of contemporary Ripper letters. There is, after all, still discussion about which (if any) are genuinely the work of the killer, so why not chuck a bit of corn down and see who starts pecking? And boy did they peck!

Another possibility is the good old computer virus. Some people just like to disrupt things for other people. It makes them feel good. The diary could be seen as another version of the same thing.

Regards, Bridewell.

Hello Bridewell,

People attempting to pull the wool ouer people's eyes like a giant April Fool's joke in Ripperology? And perhaps make money out of it? Unthinkable.
People making up things in book form? Nah- impossible.
I predict we havent seen the last of the escapades....sadly.

Best wishes

Phil

[Bridewell]

Hi All,

I suspect the inspiration wasn't a particular person or event, simply the collection of contemporary Ripper letters. There is, after all, still discussion about which (if any) are genuinely the work of the killer, so why not chuck a bit of corn down and see who starts pecking? And boy did they peck!

Another possibility is the good old computer virus. Some people just like to disrupt things for other people. It makes them feel good. The diary could be seen as another version of the same thing.

Regards, Bridewell.

[Henry Flower]

Oh no. Science!

Hi Caz,

I thought you might say that!

I was about to start discussing the various contradictory interpretations of the various contradictory findings of various tests on the diary, but to be honest a tremendous sense of ennui came over me. A weariness. Feelings of futility.

So instead I'm just going to say... yes. You're absolutely right. I retract my comment. (Though later on when my energy returns I may retract my retraction, Barrett-style)

HF

[caz]

Caz, I could buy the abandoned novel idea if the diary were written in

(a) a modern A4 Pukka Notepad, 80 gsm, margin, feint ruled
(b) bic ball-point pen, blue
(c) unequivocally modern hand

But the materials used say it is clearly an attempt to deceive. An attempt by whom, to deceive whom, I don't know

Hi Henry,

Only if it was written at a time when 'the materials used' had ceased to be used by anyone for jotting down novel ideas. The best guess by the team of scientists commissioned in 1993 to prove the diary a modern (as in late 1980s) fake, was that ink met paper at some unspecified point in time 'prior to 1970'. With nothing better to go on, this would suggest it had been hiding somewhere, clearly not attempting to deceive anyone, for at least 23 years before it decided to do the dirty.

So 'clearly' an attempt to deceive would rather depend on when you have established the infernal thing was actually written.

If you could spill the beans I'm sure many people would be eternally grateful.

Love,

Caz
X

[Henry Flower]

Even John Lennon would find it hard to imagine all the people falling for something like that...

[Jon Guy]

That's why the idea that the diary represents an abandoned novel - or some other kind of literary experiment - has always been an interesting one to my mind.

I think John Lennon may have written it, as exactly this, in December 1960.

[Henry Flower]

Caz, I could buy the abandoned novel idea if the diary were written in

(a) a modern A4 Pukka Notepad, 80 gsm, margin, feint ruled
(b) bic ball-point pen, blue
(c) unequivocally modern hand

But the materials used say it is clearly an attempt to deceive. An attempt by whom, to deceive whom, I don't know

[ChrisGeorge]

Having it come out of Battlecrease might have caused a right old stir, of course - at least temporarily. But the handwriting would soon have prevented any real mud sticking to poor old Maybrick.

Wouldn't it?

Love,

Caz
X

Hi Caz

Of course, the handwriting in the Diary doesn't match Maybrick's, but that doesn't stop Diary supporters saying he wrote it. Because there's always the multiple personality disorder theory to support the fact that he did write it, which is what Shirley Harrison contended. Thus belief in the Diary is a win-win situation. Most likely, the Diary will always have believers, just like the Royal Conspiracy theory.

All the best

Chris

[L A Lester]

I've often wondered if the Maybrick Diary wasn't created by someone who wanted to extort the £5000 insurance settlement that Michael received in 1892 from Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association for the life insurance James took out on the business, his wife and kids.

[caz]

I am not especially swayed by the comparison with the Kempshall case or Kempshall's Jack the Ripper claim...

...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.

Hi Chris, All,

But rather an odd coincidence, don't you think, if the hoaxer(s) - modern or not so modern - chose Maybrick, and had him write that "Bunny knows all", without knowing a thing about the Kempshall case and its similar Jack the Ripper connection.

Conversely, any faker coming across the Kempshall case while researching Maybrick should surely have seen the risks inherent in stealing an element from one to use in t'other, given that someone (in this case Stewart ) was bound to know about both cases and pounce on the similarities.

That's why the idea that the diary represents an abandoned novel - or some other kind of literary experiment - has always been an interesting one to my mind. The Kempshall case would merely have provided some clear and obvious inspiration for the work (via the lady's supposed belief that her merchant lover was the ripper), while it not mattering a jot if it was never meant nor expected to be taken as anyone's genuine murder confession.

Having it come out of Battlecrease might have caused a right old stir, of course - at least temporarily. But the handwriting would soon have prevented any real mud sticking to poor old Maybrick.

Wouldn't it?

Love,

Caz
X

[dlew919]

One of the moments where you wish the Forum had a "Like" button........

I don't think the ripper wrote it, but a part of me has an inkling maybrick might have written it. I m not going to do more than speculate, but the details found, the inner knowledge and the circumstances to me suggest that just possibly, maybe, maybrick fantasised about being the killer, the diary was discovered, and justice was given out, leaving poor florie to take the fall.

Please note, this is not a definitive theory: the idea it was an abandoned novel works well too. But maybrick as deranged fantasist is worthy of speculation.

[Steve S]

NO. It's a hoax. Whether an old hoax or a new hoax has still to be determined. My inclination is to think that it was mocked up post-1988. It doesn't even look authentic, I don't think... a clear pastiche of the Ripper letters and other bits and pieces.

Chris

One of the moments where you wish the Forum had a "Like" button........

[Phil Carter]

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

Hello Scott,

to be fair, that camgaign ' it was 25 years ago'- was a record company gimmick to boost ailing sales and the Beatles flagship was used. The same was done with the 'One' album many years later.
It could be said that the three reasons to do this Diary lark were money, infamy and the classic 'jump on the bandwagon and exploit the weakness of Ripperolgy- 'suckers for an answer'.

But- after Sickert and Knight's well made story ALMOST got through the hole in the fence the senses within Ripperology were sharpened all round. I reajy and honestly dont think the fight back of such intensity was expected- Knight and Sickert got off relatively lightly in comparison.

I have, elsewhere said that the Morris, Linder and Skinner book should be paid more attention to. It tells much.
I also have the feeling that some know a great deal more than they can say and know the reasons why all this started.

Thank you Stewart for this thread.

Kindly

Phil