The Diary — Old Hoax or New or Not a Hoax at All?​

[Herlock Sholmes]

Jack the Ripper could hardly have been recording his thoughts at the time of the murders using a diary not manufactured until after 1888. I suspect even Mike Barrett could have worked that one out within five minutes of arriving at Liverpool Central Library. But why would he waste his time looking into changes in paper manufacture and when they occurred, if he was wicked and lazy enough to have simply requested a diary for no later than 1888 and be done with it? Would he bother to ascertain whether paper made in 1890 would be indistinguishable from paper made in 1880, just so he could extend his requested date range to include years that would inevitably require an invisible mending job to remove all physical traces of the date or dates?

If you are arguing that Mike did his research before satisfying himself that 1890, and indeed 1891, would be just fine as long as the actual dates were easily removable, what is your explanation for him not going the whole hog and expanding the date range further, from 1870 to 1900 and beyond, to give himself the best possible chance of getting something he could use, in the fastest possible time? Knowing that any dates would need to be physically removed with some care in all but the best-case scenario, Mike would have been no worse off tackling an 1899 diary than an 1889 one, as long as the paper wasn't going to let him down.

It looks like Mike Barrett did go the whole hog and expand his date range beyond 1900 because he ended up using what would appear from its contents to be an Edwardian photograph album.

[caz]

I don't suppose Mike Barrett missed the point that Jack the Ripper could have written his diary on paper manufactured before 1888 because he asked for a diary in the period 1880 to 1890. But the fact of the matter, Caz, it's that it's not likely to be possible to date paper to a precise year in the nineteenth century. Could Mike have known this? Sure he could. He had access to the full resources of the Liverpool Library, after all.

Jack the Ripper could hardly have been recording his thoughts at the time of the murders using a diary not manufactured until after 1888. I suspect even Mike Barrett could have worked that one out within five minutes of arriving at Liverpool Central Library. But why would he waste his time looking into changes in paper manufacture and when they occurred, if he was wicked and lazy enough to have simply requested a diary for no later than 1888 and be done with it? Would he bother to ascertain whether paper made in 1890 would be indistinguishable from paper made in 1880, just so he could extend his requested date range to include years that would inevitably require an invisible mending job to remove all physical traces of the date or dates?

If you are arguing that Mike did his research before satisfying himself that 1890, and indeed 1891, would be just fine as long as the actual dates were easily removable, what is your explanation for him not going the whole hog and expanding the date range further, from 1870 to 1900 and beyond, to give himself the best possible chance of getting something he could use, in the fastest possible time? Knowing that any dates would need to be physically removed with some care in all but the best-case scenario, Mike would have been no worse off tackling an 1899 diary than an 1889 one, as long as the paper wasn't going to let him down.

[caz]

Eddie said in 2018 that Feldman had called him on the phone and spent some two hours trying to get an admission out of him that he had found the diary in Dodd's house. I believe him because that was typical Feldman, bombarding people with lengthy phone calls, wearing them down until they admitted what he already believed to be true. Eddie could have hung up at any time, but he let Feldman carry on talking interminably, possibly to learn what this stranger already knew about the diary, and what evidence had led him to assume that Eddie knew more, given that few details were in the the pubic domain at the time and there was no indication of when, or if, it would be published in book form.

Following on from this...

Finally, when Eddie sensed this stranger's growing desperation over the phone, to get what would be a potentially incriminating admission, he allegedly asked what it was worth to Feldman to hear what he was spending so long on the phone hoping to hear. Feldman appears to have interpreted this - either at the time or with hindsight - as a sign that Eddie would "talk" if the price was right, regardless of the truth.

I don't know who first mentioned "financial inducement" - or words to that effect – but it must not have worked. Eddie never did cough up a confession, a diary or even a gold watch, and when the phone went dead Feldman had achieved nothing. Perhaps it didn't dawn on him that money was no flipping use to an electrician serving time for effectively pleading guilty to theft.

When Feldman called Mike Barrett, to claim that an electrician was prepared to admit the diary was removed from Paul Dodd's house, Mike was adamant that it never came from the house and went haring down to Fountains Road to have it out with Eddie, believing he was Feldman's informant, although it's not clear if Mike was given an actual name or address. This was a couple of months after Mike's visit to Battlecrease in February 1993, with Feldman, Paul Begg and Martin Howells, when they were told by Paul Dodd that electrical work had been done by Portus & Rhodes.

It was in late April 1993 that Mike decided to swear an affidavit, to reinforce his original story, that Tony Devereux gave him the diary in 1991. What was he so worried about? If he'd hoaxed the diary in 1992, he could have bagged himself a potentially decent provenance by pointing out that anyone working in Maybrick's former home at any point in the past could have found the diary and passed it on to Devereux, without Paul Dodd ever knowing it was there. How was Mike supposed to have known otherwise, given that his story was that Devereux died without saying a word to him about where the diary came from? Mike's insistence that it was never in the house would have lasting consequences.

While Feldman rightly asked himself how Mike could have been certain it didn't come from the house, he took a logical leap in the direction of assuming Mike must know where it had really come from, and therefore Eddie and the Hot Rods could now take a flying leap up their own venal arses. Feldman didn't consider long and hard enough why a Battlecrease provenance might actually have been the worst possible outcome for Mike. If it had been removed from the house while Devereux was alive and had not been missed by its owner, it would have gone through at least two pairs of hands before ending up with Mike in 1991, who'd have been none the wiser.

But what if Mike already knew the electrician who was apparently going to tell Feldman where the diary came from, because he had received it from him many months after Devereux had died? If it crossed Feldman's mind that this could explain everything, it did so in a flash and was soon forgotten. It didn't help that Paul Dodd's apparent inability to provide accurate dates for the work done by P&R led to nobody connecting Mike's phone call to London about the diary on 9th March 1992 with electricians working in Riversdale Road that very morning.

One can hardly hold it against Dodd, for not actively assisting Feldman to make a connection, if there was one to be had, between the P&R electricians and a potential theft from his property. After all, he had a good relationship with Colin Rhodes, despite going on to marry Rhodes's ex wife, so if this very personal situation was awkward enough in 1993, when Feldman et al arrived on the doorstep asking questions about the electrical work, it would not have been helped by Dodd joining the dots for them and putting Rhodes's former employees squarely in the frame. By backdating the electrical work, Dodd was effectively keeping them out of it. Claiming ownership of the diary may have had a temporary appeal for Dodd, but in the long run his priorities appear to have been of the personal kind.

Unfortunately for Feldman, the inferences he chose to draw from what he was being told at the time led him away from the electricians and up the garden path with Mike until he reached Anne Graham – where he stopped dead.

Love,

Caz
X

[caz]

I'd say Maybrick was more of an upper middle class toff, tather than yer genuine top toff. But who hated him? I'll bet his wife wasn't too fond of him when he gave her a back hander,. However would that action extend to her hating him? I don't know. Shady deals on the cotton exchange floor could induce someone to hate him I suppose.

Yes there are 2 posters who believe Maybrick was the Ripper, so being more than one i suppose you could call them people.

Florie told Dr Hopper when he examined her black eye that James had dragged her around the bedroom and beaten her. She added that her feeling against him was so strong that she could not bear him even to come near her. She also told Matilda Briggs that she was ready to seek a separation from her husband following the black eye, which added to the fact that he was supporting another woman.

I'd say she did hate him by then, even if she still loved him.

Love,

Caz
X

[caz]

Try lower middle class, Observer, and I suspect you'd be nearer the mark. These days, he'd be called working class.

Love,

Caz
X

[Observer]

In virtually every depiction of Maybrick he is wearing a top hat and looks rich and well dressed. E.g. a Top Hated Toff.

I beg to differ, I still don't regard him as a top toff. As I said earlier Randolph Churchill was definitely a top toff, and was hated for his elitist behaviour. Do you know whilst campaigning for election he resented the fact that he had to enter dirty homes, and shake dirty hands. A marginal Ripper suspect though. So all in all I would consider Maybrick a upper middle class(possibly) hated toff

[John Wheat]

I'd say Maybrick was more of an upper middle class toff, tather than yer genuine top toff. But who hated him? I'll bet his wife wasn't too fond of him when he gave her a back hander,. However would that action extend to her hating him? I don't know. Shady deals on the cotton exchange floor could induce someone to hate him I suppose.

Yes there are 2 posters who believe Maybrick was the Ripper, so being more than one i suppose you could call them people.

In virtually every depiction of Maybrick he is wearing a top hat and looks rich and well dressed. E.g. a Top Hated Toff.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Okay it was not last summer but three winters ago. I guess it's hard to keep track when you're policing at least three websites and don't have total recall for true crime.

Reasonable Doubt : Ali & C. Kniclo

So are you trying to prove that I accept that the phenomena of ‘reasonable doubt’ exists? By reading any of my posts on here I would have thought that was obvious Lombro. But the important word there is ‘reasonable.’ Your interpretation of this appears to be ‘anything that isn’t absolutely impossible no matter how ridiculously unlikely.’

That Mary Kelly had a random key lying around (despite being dirt poor and having virtually no personal possessions) and that the killer just happened to take this key away is not an example of ‘reasonable doubt.’ It’s an example of ‘desperately trying to wriggle out of every point against Pretend Maybrick.’ How many ‘1% chances of being true’ would you allow someone because Pretend Maybrick appears to require an exhaustive supply of them.

Another example is that after the Stride murder Pretend Maybrick said that less than 15 minutes after being disturbed by Diemschitz, and desperate for a victim to mutilate, he finds Catherine Eddowes. And let’s remember, he’s not writing this up months later when poor memory could result. So Eddowes leaves the police station at 1.00. Stride is killed just before 1.00 so this means that Pretend Maybrick would have met up with Eddowes at 1.10ish. Desperate to satisfy his bloodlust what does he do? Apparently, according to Lawende and co (which almost everyone concurs with) he stands around talking with her for 20-25 minutes before taking her into Mitre Square.

Not absolute proof of course but this is another highly unlikely to add to the list.

[Lombro2]

Okay it was not last summer but three winters ago. I guess it's hard to keep track when you're policing at least three websites and don't have total recall for true crime.

A while ago, Pete ... came up with a '4th Scenario' which sounds plausible to me. That being C. Kniclo leaving Room 31 temporarily and coming back to a corpse. In the interim, Pete theorizes Ali came over, murdered Brown, and left. In Peter's theory, C. Kniclo takes the key, locks the door, and bolts to New Jersey.

We could call this reasonable doubt as to C. Kniclo's guilt.

I would add the possible fabrication of the key by George Damon for purposes unknown, only speculated on. No person in the metro NY area would have been any better at taking a generic 'blank' and creating a replica of the room key than Damon....

And you ?

Michael B...
February 04, 2023, 06:20:02 pm
Pete’s scenario is certainly a possibility How. It would probably require Kniclo to have been out of the room for a fair length of time but that could have been the case....

Reasonable Doubt : Ali & C. Kniclo

[Lombro2]

I guess that makes me 50% of the "people".

So 50% of the people agree with Observer. Maybrick was not a top hated toff. The top hated toffs would be lower level government workers like William Suff. We have some of those here.

Those guys are the Suff of Nightmares!

[Observer]

Does that change the way Bury is overlooked for being an ordinary loser type? Also people believe Maybrick was the Ripper and he was a top hated toff.

I'd say Maybrick was more of an upper middle class toff, tather than yer genuine top toff. But who hated him? I'll bet his wife wasn't too fond of him when he gave her a back hander,. However would that action extend to her hating him? I don't know. Shady deals on the cotton exchange floor could induce someone to hate him I suppose.

Yes there are 2 posters who believe Maybrick was the Ripper, so being more than one i suppose you could call them people.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Rhetoric translation:

I say Mary’s key was probably found and taken by the killer, and the reportage was wrong, and I’m crazy.

You take conflicting reports and first say the key was lost forever and then say it was found. The witnesses were 100%, even when they aren’t, and the reportage was good and so I know everything. Thank you.

See what I mean….

Absolutely meaningless.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Do you type with your eyes closed Lombro? None of your posts make sense. They read like random words put together.

‘Doppelgänger key theory???’ I haven’t a clue what you’re on about…neither do you…neither does anyone.

[Lombro2]

Rhetoric translation:

I say Mary’s key was probably found and taken by the killer, and the reportage was wrong, and I’m crazy.

You take conflicting reports and first say the key was lost forever and then say it was found. The witnesses were 100%, even when they aren’t, and the reportage was good and so I know everything. Thank you.

[Lombro2]

I laugh at all the “constraining” talk. You forget “I know what you did last summer” on the other site.

You had no problem there when they offered the doppelgänger key theory. George Damon didn’t hire the killer who left the key on his property but instead made a duplicate key just for publicity.

Too much Coco Puffs at the Cereal Killer restaurant?