Special Announcement

[The Baron]

The long anticipated 19th September Orsam update!

Happy weekend and amazing reading to all!



The Baron

[Abby Normal]

lord orsam day! yippy!

[MrBarnett]

I hope he doesn’t make a complete aunt of himself again.

[Abby Normal]

amazing stuff as usual. makes you wonder NOT

[Abby Normal]

double

[The Baron]

I hope he doesn’t make a complete aunt of himself again.

Wasn't she Florence Maybrick who made a complete aunt of herself?! Or so we have been told from the diary defenders?!



The Baron

[Scott Nelson]

Just as an aside, can anyone name the "diary defenders"? I can think only of erobitha and Ike.

[Scott Nelson]

One other guy from years ago when the Diary Threads were in their heyday...Peter Wood, an ex-cop from Manchester. Passionate about the Diary's authenticity, but a really loopy poster.

[MrBarnett]

These days a ‘diary defender’ is anyone who questions any aspect of the diary detractors’ dogma.

[Abby Normal]

Just getting into Lord Orsams latest-amazing stuff as usual and must read for anyone interested in the details, origins and motivations of the people involved with forging of the diary. Just finished the Silence of the Anne, Anne and Keith in a Tree and The new Cult of Diary Denial (not only didnt the barretts not forge the diary-its not even a diary! LOL).
The real bombshell though is in the Silence of the Anne.

just wow.

[rjpalmer]

Just a brief comment.

The revelation that Graham received a copy of Barrett's sworn affidavit in January 1995--and didn't say anything about it to Feldman’s team--is quite provocative, though unless someone has followed the ins-and-outs of the saga, it might pass unnoticed.

I have felt for years that Barrett's confession and threats of confession were a way to apply leverage--blackmail, if you prefer--to those that he believed, no matter how fairly or erroneously, were not giving him his due royalties.

But Orsam theorizes, with good reason, that Mike's initial target was Anne Graham.

Of course, the mere fact that a man confesses, or threatens to confess, is not in itself evidence that he is telling the truth. But most intelligent people can appreciate that blackmail is going to be a hell of a lot more effective if the dirt the blackmailer claims to possess is true--particularly if his intended target is in a position to know whether or not it is true.

Obviously, Graham was in such a position. If Barrett’s affidavit was a plate of pork pies, she would know it.

Yet, even though she was working closely with Feldman and Feldman's team for the next 2-3 years, she at no time alerted them to the impeding threat of Barrett’s affidavit?

Even if she knew Mike's affidavit was utter poppycock...

No. Let me rephrase that.

Especially if she knew Mike's affidavit was utter poppycock, why wouldn't she have alerted Feldman’s 'team' to Barrett's intentions, so they could investigate his claims and thus be in a position to defend their project against his allegedly 'false' (?) attack? Certainly, it would have been extremely important to share this information, if only so that Feldman and his researchers could anticipate and ward-off the damage it might do?

Yet she evidently kept it a secret?

Strange behavior, and remarkable.

But, ultimately, friendships are more important than hoaxes. Maybe Skinner and Graham should work this one out between the two of them? Maybe Graham can even finally explain what was really going on?

[Al Bundy's Eyes]

Interesting read, nice to see some of the events in a clear way. Also, "Silence of the Anne" goes a good way towards explaining why the otherwise shy Anne was out in public from Jan 1995 talking about her family provenance dating back to the 50's. I've stated before that I think it was a knee jerk reaction to Mike's threat, but I've also been told that his affidavit wasn't common knowledge at that time. Well, I think it's safe to put that particular debate to bed. Melvin didn't suppress anything. Anne, Shirley, Feldman and others knew exactly what Mike was planning.

Ok, I'll concede, it doesn't make Mike's affidavit 100% factually correct, but it does lead one to wonder about the coincidental timing of Anne's public ownership of the provenance, and of the otherwise bizarre request for a sample of her handwriting. They were well and truly trying to head off Mike at the pass.

The article lives here:

https://www.orsam.co.uk/silenceoftheann.htm

[caz]

Afternoon Al,

Would you allow that David Barrat's interpretation of the Barretts' behaviour may be based on a complete lack of interest in what was happening to their personal relationship? When Mike was desperate to talk to Anne and to see his daughter, and Anne was having none of it, do you think the diary would have been uppermost in her mind? Could Mike not have been using it as a bargaining tool, to try and get what he wanted more than anything else in the world? To have his family back and get some peace of mind?

Keith Skinner tells me that he certainly had no idea of 'what Mike was planning' and doubts very much if Shirley or Feldman knew either. Anne had come out with her new provenance story back in July 1994, and it appeared in Shirley's paperback that autumn, while Mike's affidavit wasn't sworn until January 1995, so I'm not quite sure what you mean by the 'coincidental timing of Anne's public ownership of the provenance'? Keith's request for a sample of Anne's handwriting in January 1995 was only 'bizarre' in that nobody present at the time knew he was going to ask her. Keith didn't know that Anne had already supplied a specimen of her handwriting, and presumes this must have been very early on, probably before Feldman's involvement.

If Anne knew all Mike's forgery claims were rubbish, they were also both aware that there were - and still are - plenty of people out there, only too ready and willing to believe him, so it wouldn't have been an entirely empty threat, and it may have been all Mike had in his arsenal. In that case the potential damage would have been to Anne's credibility, among a tiny community of JtR enthusiasts and sceptics, and to the Barretts' future financial interests in the diary, neither of which had ever appeared to bother her much, if at all. One might imagine Anne was in a no-win situation, regardless of the truth. Yet she never did give in to Mike's emotional demands to see her and Caroline, which might suggest he had nothing of any real substance over her regarding the diary's origins, and she knew it. With no possibility of fraud charges, with far-reaching consequences for her young daughter's happiness and security, she'd have had no need to give in to Mike's personal threats and entreaties for fear of something worse, and they got him precisely nowhere. All this would seem to be supported by the fact that today, in 2020, nothing has been proved against Anne. Did she know Mike would never really have backed up his threats, with the evidence that they pulled off a hoax together in more harmonious times? Or did she know he never did have any such evidence to begin with?

Love,

Caz
X

[caz]

I meant to add that if Anne knew the affidavit contained a basic truth, that she and Mike had concocted a hoax for financial gain, she could have done nothing to suppress it, but at least she wasn't obliged to tell anyone about it, or give any details to someone who would naturally have checked them out.

But if she knew the whole thing was one big lie, designed by the man she had just divorced to get a much desired reaction from her, would that not have been a private matter between the two of them? Would she have wasted a third party's time with it, knowing that if she gave a copy to Shirley, Keith, Feldy or anyone else, they'd be engaged in a fruitless exercise, investigating claims she knew to be totally false?

Love,

Caz
X

[rjpalmer]

Well, I think it's safe to put that particular debate to bed. Melvin didn't suppress anything. Anne, Shirley, Feldman and others knew exactly what Mike was planning.

I'm not entirely sure I read the same article that you did, Al.

I agree that Caz's recent accusations against Melvin Harris have backfired badly--the true 'suppressor' was the cat allowed among the pigeons, Anne Graham. What I don't think is clear is that "Feldman and others knew exactly what Mike was planning." Mike's initial 'plan' had already happened: he had attempted to apply leverage to Anne by giving her a copy of his affidavit.

But the key point is that Anne apparently DIDN'T let Feldman and his team to 'know all about it.' There is no direct evidence that she alerted them, and Keith Skinner has denied knowing about the affidavit's existence until some two years later.

Harrison evidently knew, because she quizzed the O & L auctioneers, however inconclusively. I'm not entirely surprised that Harrison didn't alert Feldman, because she apparently felt that he had an unprofessional way of rushing into things, thus hopelessly muddying the waters--and has said so.

But if Feldman "knew all about it," as you suggest, why didn't he alert his crack researcher to this fact, and have him look into it? Wouldn't that have been crucial?

Or are you suggesting that Feldman and Anne and others were deliberately keeping a member of their own team in the dark, knowing he would turn over stones that otherwise wouldn't be turned over?

That's a question worth asking, perhaps, but maybe also a question best left for the researcher in question to ponder privately, since he was the one who was there at the time, and who knew these people.

If others are fine with Anne's house of secrets, and merely give it a shrug, there's not much we can do about it but scratch our heads.

But what it does bring home is the fact that no one on Feldman's team researched Mike's claims until years after-the-fact, when the trail had already grown cold, and yet we have been constantly told that his affidavit has been thoroughly debunked.

I don't find that satisfactory in the least. The ball is in Anne Graham's court and has been for decades. But she's not talking and there is no way to make her talk.

End game.