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[Iconoclast]

Because Simon Wood may have given the hoaxer the idea that initials were there?

Well old Woodsy didn't answer my question when I asked him recently (whether or not what he saw were the 'F' and the 'M' that we are now familiar with).

And whether or not Woodsy saw 'F' and 'M', what were the chances of our hoaxer finding initials he or she could conveniently weave into the tale?

But you only answered one of my three questions (so common in replies on this Casebook - answer the one you think you can and conveniently ignore the ones you struggle with).

Nope - you can't just "Oh that's an easy one" these questions away.

They each individually point towards authenticity. And together? Wow!

Mystery solved!

Ike

[Scott Nelson]

[*]How did the hoaxer get Florrie's initials into Mary Kelly'd death scene?

Because Simon Wood may have given the hoaxer the idea that initials were there?

[Iconoclast]

Ike,

I wouldn’t say ‘mole bonnet’ in that exact form was common. It was quite unusual. But if you add in references to fashion items made of mole fur or being mole-coloured, the suggestion that the phrase ‘mole bonnet’ is somehow wrong for the late 19th century is incorrect.

Gary

Hi Gary,

I had previously not entertained the possibility that it was even an uncommon term in the 19th or 20th centuries - I had not found any reference to one. That - to me - makes the example you give all the sweeter, for its utter implausibility, and for how little a modern-day hoaxer could possibly have thought to add it to the scrapbook.

Much appreciated!

Ike

[MrBarnett]

Seriously people!

Wake up and smell the coffee!

The scrapbook author uses as obscure an expression as I suspect it's possible to get - who amongst us, pre-scrapbook, had ever heard of such a thing as a 'mole bonnet'???????

No-one!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And yet, here we are - the eponymous item, gloriously esoteric, totally implausible in a 1990-1992 hoax, and yet still we will have folk coming on here saying "Mole bonnet - common phrase 'round our place".

Well it's never even been an uncommon phrase 'round anywhere I've ever been, and I would put it to you all that that is that on the scrapbook front. The hoax theory is dead in the water unless you are going to stretch your belief system so wide as to incorporate the reasonably-unknowable.

Pray tell:

• How did the hoaxer get Florrie's initials into Mary Kelly'd death scene?
• How did the hoaxer get so good a Maybrick signature into the weatch?
• And now, how on earth did the hoaxer ever think to include the concept of a 'mole bonnet'?????????

The end of times. The end of days. The end of the debate ...

Thank you, MrBarnett.

Ike

Ike,

I wouldn’t say ‘mole bonnet’ in that exact form was common. It was quite unusual. But if you add in references to fashion items made of mole fur or being mole-coloured, the suggestion that the phrase ‘mole bonnet’ is somehow wrong for the late 19th century is incorrect.

Gary

[Iconoclast]

That’s from 1904. Probably referring to mole fur, but ‘mole’ was also used to describe a colour.

Seriously people!

Wake up and smell the coffee!

The scrapbook author uses as obscure an expression as I suspect it's possible to get - who amongst us, pre-scrapbook, had ever heard of such a thing as a 'mole bonnet'???????

No-one!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And yet, here we are - the eponymous item, gloriously esoteric, totally implausible in a 1990-1992 hoax, and yet still we will have folk coming on here saying "Mole bonnet - common phrase 'round our place".

Well it's never even been an uncommon phrase 'round anywhere I've ever been, and I would put it to you all that that is that on the scrapbook front. The hoax theory is dead in the water unless you are going to stretch your belief system so wide as to incorporate the reasonably-unknowable.

Pray tell:

• How did the hoaxer get Florrie's initials into Mary Kelly'd death scene?
• How did the hoaxer get so good a Maybrick signature into the weatch?
• And now, how on earth did the hoaxer ever think to include the concept of a 'mole bonnet'?????????

The end of times. The end of days. The end of the debate ...

Thank you, MrBarnett.

Ike