The Diary—Old Hoax or New?

[John Wheat]

There is no plausible reason why the Barrett's couldn't have written the diary.

[Scott Nelson]

The problem with your theory, Scott, is with the part which says "he thought he could use it to create his own version of a Maybrick diary". The question is why? By your own account he already had one he could use which was perfectly suitable. You say "ego" but that really explains nothing, is based on nothing, and is just a product of your own imagination. We both agree that he's already called Doreen who has said she'd like to see it and is interested in publishing it, so the obvious and simple course is for him to take it to London. After this, Mike may have had second thoughts about turning over what he was given. I just can't see any good reason for him to waste time, effort and money creating a duplicate of what he already had. It just makes no sense and is certainly not simple. What I'm proposing is a theory. I've never suggested otherwise. But I think that "ego" can and does enter into things like this. I proposed that Mike was simply handed a completed diary. With time on his hands, Mike possibly thought that he could turn over a newly created version of the diary instead of the one he was given, just for the personal satisfaction that he could pull one over on the public rather than relying on someone else. Try and put yourself into the mind of Mike Barrett, if you can.

Your claim that Mike's wife "did most of the writing for him" isn't supported by her own account which was that she helped him tidy up his articles. He was definitely a journalist in the sense that his name was attached to the byline of a number of articles in nationally published magazines (sometimes labelled as "Exclusive") for which he was paid a fee. I think Anne's role in helping with the articles was deliberately underplayed to give Mike the confidence he needed to develop his writing. But, truly, that's not even the most important part because, while I can't think of any reason why he couldn't have drafted the fairly simple diary text himself, if you think that's a problem, he could have sought help from Billy, Tony, Anne, Uncle Tom Cobbly and all. Mike wanted to try it by himself. One or all of them might have written the entire thing for him. One or more of them probably did, but Mike came to the idea of using that document (the diary) only as a guide for his version. The point is that his actions in March 1992 looking for a Victorian diary with blank pages indicate that the text hadn't yet been written out in manuscript. The diary manuscript was likely written while Tony Devereux was still alive. Mike possibly didn't like the fact that it was written in a photo album and that album came via his wife's father after the photos were removed.

If we can only guess at Mike Barrett's mental state prior to 1992, as you admit, this means we have to use our imagination to invent what his state was. There is absolutely no reason to suppose he was suffering from Korsakoff Syndrome in 1992 and you've yet to provide any evidence that he was ever even diagnosed with this in 1994, or at any other time in his life. Somewhere I recall seeing an actual diagnosis medical form of Mike's condition with Korsakoff Syndrome. I believe it may have been printed in an early issue of Ripperana. I can't find the issue and may no longer have it, would you? I also searched this site and the forums, to no avail. It may have been lost when casebook crashed some years back. I'll keep looking. No-one here has any idea what Mike was capable of, despite a lot of people claiming to know that he was too stupid to do anything, but, really, I'm perfectly happy to say that others drafted the text of the diary which he then dictated to Anne. As far as I'm concerned, his only roles in the project might have been obtaining the photograph album, dictating someone else's fake diary to his wife and then taking the completed diary to London, if that makes you happy. He could have done this very easily with any mental issues you'd care to invent.

I don't care to be accused of inventing things. As long as one clearly identifies that it's speculation. Your second to last sentence is possible, but is it really simpler than mine?