Maybrick Diary Typescript 1992 (KS Ver.)

[rjpalmer]

[*]Was the book he gave to Ace Detective the same book Ace sold to Keith Skinner?.

As is often the case, your good friend David Barrat is several steps ahead of you and has posed these same questions.

Yes---how do we know?

You seem to be suggesting, or at least wondering about the possibility that when Keith approached Alan Gray with his desire to obtain what purported to be Barrett's copy of the Sphere History Volume II, Gray--by now disgruntled with Ripperologists--popped down to the local bookshop, found a dog-eared copy for £5, and sold it as the 'real McCoy,' pocketing £95 instant profit.

Do I have that right?

I would assume Keith would have attempt to receive some assurance from Gray that the book's provenance was legitimate, but I wasn't there; Barrat has made the interesting observation that the last known whereabouts of Mike's book was in the possession of Melvin Harris sometime around 2002.

Since Barrett and Gray had bitterly dissolved their association some years earlier, one would think that this would have also ended any casual contact between Gray and Harris. It's unclear to me. So how did Gray retrieve the book from Harris, if he did so?

It's all rather murky, but perhaps Keith has answers for you.

To the readers: The cassette is the one dated 6 December 1994, as has been stated twice. Why Tom now gratuitously refers to it as the 6 November tape, I do not know, other than business as usual.

It can be found here, but it's rough going.

Alan Gray & Michael Barrett Cassette Recordings 1994-1996 - Casebook: Jack the Ripper Forums