Who were they?

[Darryl Kenyon]

id go farther than that. they wrote it. period.

I concur young Abby

Regards Darryl

[erobitha]

But yet no evidence has demonstrated that the Barrett’s did write it.

A confession and subsequent retraction is that proof?

The possibility Mike owned or accessed some Maybrick or Ripper related materials? He was tasked to do some research.

Or is the compelling evidence a small maroon diary he acquired? An ad for a diary that wasn’t used? Is that what people believe confirms a Barrett hoax?

Or is it the ink? Mike’s scientific explanation of separating molecules using sugar?

Or the linseed oil he said the book was soaked in that miraculously did not display any evidence of linseed oil saturation and not left a smell? That evidence?

Or is it Mike’s glittering journalism career interviewing the likes of Stan Boardman and Bonnie Langford means he was able to write a book that an Oscar-nominated writer was impressed by? That evidence?

Has anyone read Mike’s own attempts at writing fiction? Is that evidence that swung you?

Maybe it is the auction ticket no-one ever saw?

I think people clinging to a Barrett hoax might need to get real.

[John Wheat]

But yet no evidence has demonstrated that the Barrett’s did write it.

A confession and subsequent retraction is that proof?

The possibility Mike owned or accessed some Maybrick or Ripper related materials? He was tasked to do some research.

Or is the compelling evidence a small maroon diary he acquired? An ad for a diary that wasn’t used? Is that what people believe confirms a Barrett hoax?

Or is it the ink? Mike’s scientific explanation of separating molecules using sugar?

Or the linseed oil he said the book was soaked in that miraculously did not display any evidence of linseed oil saturation and not left a smell? That evidence?

Or is it Mike’s glittering journalism career interviewing the likes of Stan Boardman and Bonnie Langford means he was able to write a book that an Oscar-nominated writer was impressed by? That evidence?

Has anyone read Mike’s own attempts at writing fiction? Is that evidence that swung you?

Maybe it is the auction ticket no-one ever saw?

I think people clinging to a Barrett hoax might need to get real.

Where is the evidence it was written by James Maybrick?

[Iconoclast]

But yet no evidence has demonstrated that the Barrett’s did write it.
A confession and subsequent retraction is that proof?
The possibility Mike owned or accessed some Maybrick or Ripper related materials? He was tasked to do some research.
Or is the compelling evidence a small maroon diary he acquired? An ad for a diary that wasn’t used? Is that what people believe confirms a Barrett hoax?
Or is it the ink? Mike’s scientific explanation of separating molecules using sugar?
Or the linseed oil he said the book was soaked in that miraculously did not display any evidence of linseed oil saturation and not left a smell? That evidence?
Or is it Mike’s glittering journalism career interviewing the likes of Stan Boardman and Bonnie Langford means he was able to write a book that an Oscar-nominated writer was impressed by? That evidence?
Has anyone read Mike’s own attempts at writing fiction? Is that evidence that swung you?
Maybe it is the auction ticket no-one ever saw?
I think people clinging to a Barrett hoax might need to get real.

Hi ero b,

Absolutely, young man - each and every one of your examples are cast-iron evidence that the Barretts wrote the Victorian scrapbook back in 1992 in the land of love me do where thirty year hoaxes are constantly being generated from swirling Scouse thoughts and forming into brilliant works like little suns from scallies with no discernible history of mastery of such otherwise spectacularly dark arts.

I accepted it years ago and now just take the piss because - as all great wind-up merchants do - I live for the argument and for no more. Obviously, I just look askance at the remarkable coincidence of Eddie Lyons being at Battlecrease House on the morning of March 9, 1992 - a man who lived in the same street as The Saddle Inn and who inevitably took refreshments there, in close proximity one assumes with one Michael Barrett, erstwhile very average bloke and yet inexplicably nascent forging genius who just happened to mention to a London literary agency that afternoon that he had in his hands what he had reason to think was - wait for it, everyone - Jack the Ripper's scrapbook! Rather than make that call from Southampton or Singapore, our Scallyland Cash Trouserer lived within a Ben Stokes 6 of the fabled, fantastic, funfilled fairy grotto in Fountains Road.

And later, when Lyons' colleagues spoke openly about his lifting such imagined loot from under James Maybrick's floorboards, and when a local businessman with absolutely no skin in the game (other than black and white - it transpires he was a posh Geordie, just as I [cough cough]) declared that they had heard about the sale of Jack the Ripper's 'diary' in the pubs of Anfield, it was just the universe playing another starling trick on our senses and leading us quite utterly astray.

(Or was it all the exploding of Barrett's favourite sun? More ashtray than astra or astray?)

My mind cannot turn long to such heresy. I prefer to invest in the hearsay of the golden couple in Goldie Street than in those mendacious sparkies and our Geordie Inconvenience who clearly chose to make up a bunch of stories to get themselves into the sunlit uplands of a yarn well spun.

Trust you're all well, dear readers.

Ike

[erobitha]

Where is the evidence it was written by James Maybrick?

Those are the only two options in the world? James Maybrick or Michael Barrett.

It could be either. Or it could be someone else altogether.

We don’t know.

[caz]

Yes because being an Oscar nominated, BAFTA winning writer makes them infallible.

Yes, we have had enuff of expert's, like Oscar nominated, BAFTA wining writer's, with there opinion's on the dairy authers littery abillity's, which we can jduge perfictly well for oursleves.

Yours sincerely,

Michaela Grove
X

[John Wheat]

Those are the only two options in the world? James Maybrick or Michael Barrett.

It could be either. Or it could be someone else altogether.

We don’t know.

Classic deflection.

[John Wheat]

Yes, we have had enuff of expert's, like Oscar nominated, BAFTA wining writer's, with there opinion's on the dairy authers littery abillity's, which we can jduge perfictly well for oursleves.

Yours sincerely,

Michaela Grove
X

Come off it. It's not the real deal.

[John Wheat]

Yes, we have had enuff of expert's, like Oscar nominated, BAFTA wining writer's, with there opinion's on the dairy authers littery abillity's, which we can jduge perfictly well for oursleves.

Yours sincerely,

Michaela Grove
X

It's no literary masterpiece. Really you have to question why the Barretts didn't do a better job of the writing of the diary.

[caz]

I'm not saying he's infallible. Merely that his opinion on a piece of creative writing holds far more weight for me than that of a couple of random amateur sleuths on an internet message board...

Maybe if their own posts were infallible when it comes to apostrophe use, punctuation and sentence construction, they might be more qualified to judge. I find it hilarious to see how the majority of Barrett hoax believers who post on the subject are unable to spot and correct the most basic errors in their own writing when airing their views - or just repeating the views of others, as if they see themselves in a popularity contest.

Love,

Caz
X

[caz]

Come off it. It's not the real deal.

Did I say it was?

[caz]

It's no literary masterpiece. Really you have to question why the Barretts didn't do a better job of the writing of the diary.

Did I say it was?

[John Wheat]

Did I say it was?

No you did not.

[John Wheat]

Did I say it was?

No but you implied it might be.

[John Wheat]

Maybe if their own posts were infallible when it comes to apostrophe use, punctuation and sentence construction, they might be more qualified to judge. I find it hilarious to see how the majority of Barrett hoax believers who post on the subject are unable to spot and correct the most basic errors in their own writing when airing their views - or just repeating the views of others, as if they see themselves in a popularity contest.

Love,

Caz
X

What if some posters are dyslexic? A master of grammar is not necessarily correlated to intelligence as you seem to be implying.