The Maybrick Diary, just plain brilliant.

[Purkis]

Thanks for your response Ike. I should have mentioned that as a scrapbook believer I downloaded Society's Pillar some time ago and have read it more times than is strictly necessary. I was suggesting you commit it to the dissertation section so that it might be, as you put it, entered into the mainstream of commentary as I think it deserves to be documented as part of the 'casebook'. Understand your reasoning for not doing so though.

[Iconoclast]

Thanks for your response Ike. I should have mentioned that as a scrapbook believer I downloaded Society's Pillar some time ago ...

Delighted to hear that you have downloaded it, Purkis. To date, that's two people who have done so to my knowledge! Maybe the floodgates are about to break?

It's also pleasing to hear that you are a scrapbook believer as it can often seem quite lonely on this little ol' island with barely a coconut to converse with.

I'm actually editing it as we type (I recently noticed that the scrapbook author spells 'panic' with a 'k' not once but twice [1, p280 and p285] which I feel adds a degree of certainty that he or she meant it rather than accidentally spelt it that way just the once).

Is it 'spelt' or 'spelled'? My north-east England education occasionally lets me down, or at very least leaves me wondering.

PS We are in danger of burning the platform in precisely the way I just criticised!

Cheers,

Ike

[Wickerman]

You don't mean George Sims by chance?

I happen to think Harry Dam fits the bill rather well.

No Scott.

I don't see it as an old forgery.

[Iconoclast]

I don't see it as an old forgery.

Great spot, son.

[The Baron]

Even if James Maybrick came back in life, and told me he wrote this 'Diary' and that he was Jack the Ripper,

I am not going to believe him!



The Baron

[Iconoclast]

Even if James Maybrick came back in life, and told me he wrote this 'Diary' and that he was Jack the Ripper,

I am not going to believe him!



The Baron

Agreed - your argument is so compelling that I have had a complete volte face and can now completely see where I have been going wrong all these years.

Brilliant post - awesome insight.

So - come on - was Jesus an actual person or not?

[Iconoclast]

If the Ripper murders had been committed in Liverpool, then and only then would I have quite possibly fallen for it.

Many commentators back in 1993 when the original text was published may well have said the same thing.

And then the research started in earnest and - stone me and my crows - it only turns out that the Liverpool cotton merchant had lived in Whitechapel some 20 years before the crimes (with his girlfriend/wife Sarah Robertson)! Hey - coincidence-alert or what???????????????

And then the research continued in earnest and - stone me and my crows again - it only turns out that James Maybrick did 'the London business' of Gus Witt whose office was in Callum Street, just a few hundred yards from Whitechapel. Hey - coincidence-alert or what???????????????

Clearly, a man with no record of having been in Whitechapel and who was a respectable Liverpool merchant made a perfect foil for a hoaxer - he didn't need piddling little facts like Maybrick was on record as living there in the past, and 'working there' (or associated with working there for those who insist Maybrick may have done Witt's London business without ever once attending his office in Callum Street). That's just that Maybrick bloke spoiling the hoax by actually being in or closely associated with Whitechapel - uncovered after the hoax was published to an unsuspecting world!!!

Best if we all just go back to remembering that the Maybrick scrapbook is a known hoax. It's been proven, you know. Beyond any doubt. And we're all right! Yes, we have ticked the right box! Clever us! Ooh, let's all congratulate ourselves. Here, pat my back, son ...

[The Baron]

And then the research started in earnest and - stone me and my crows - it only turns out that the Liverpool cotton merchant had lived in Whitechapel some 20 years before the crimes (with his girlfriend/wife Sarah Robertson)! Hey - coincidence-alert or what??????????????

Are you kidding man or just trying to be funny, we have already dismissed suspects who had been cought standing nearby a freshly mutilated woman, are you going to convince anyone with such a nonsense 20 years before the crimes story?


If you show that Msybrick was living in Whitechapel during the crimes, I am not going to believe he was the Ripper, so what do you say funny man?



The Baron

[Busy Beaver]

Did Mike and Tony have the wrong Maybrick brother? Being three years younger than James, could have given Michael an edge when it came to briskly walking or running through the streets of Whitechapel to avoid the police.

[erobitha]

Delighted to hear that you have downloaded it, Purkis. To date, that's two people who have done so to my knowledge! Maybe the floodgates are about to break?

I'm probably the other. I am a believer in the scrapbook for so many reasons. My natural curiosity and interest in understanding the truth led me to some incredible places, and all which circumstantially lead to the door of James Maybrick. And herein is the problem. Circumstantial is not absolute proof, but weighing up all the other suspects named I believe Maybrick to be the best candidate by a long chalk.

[Iconoclast]

I'm probably the other. I am a believer in the scrapbook for so many reasons. My natural curiosity and interest in understanding the truth led me to some incredible places, and all which circumstantially lead to the door of James Maybrick. And herein is the problem. Circumstantial is not absolute proof, but weighing up all the other suspects named I believe Maybrick to be the best candidate by a long chalk.

Hi Erobitha,

Naturally, I agree with you, and I also agree that we're still in the land of circumstantial evidence, but when so much keeps working against one man, wow!

In the next few days I hope to update the PDF with thoughts from some recent reads. I'll flag up the additions once they're done so hopefully you'll get the opportunity to review them.

Keep the faith, comrade, and thanks for reading Society's Pillar.

Cheers,

Ike