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

[Herlock Sholmes]

Diary “ With the key I did flee. I had the key. And with it I did flee.”

Abberline “Barnett informs me that it has been missing some time, and since it has been lost they have put their hand through the broken window, and moved back the catch.”

It looks like our careless forger just read the preceding line though “An impression has gone abroad that the murderer took away the key of the room.”


Therefore we have another Incontrovertible, Unequivocal, Undeniable Fact Which Refutes the Diary.

[Lombro2]

“If the key was recovered, the murderer couldn't have taken it away.“

Away out the door?

“If it was lost and never recovered [and who’s to say], the murderer couldn't have taken it away.”

[Lombro2]

You know serial killers love poetry. Keep it coming.

Like attracts like.
Psych attracts psych.
Fric and frac,
Two balls in a nutsack.

They’re poets.
Deep down,
You know it.
But you don’t want to show it.

You’re all Socratic
But you should remain Stoic.

[rjpalmer]

Regarding the missing key---

I've been reminded that the American journalist Arthur Warren (1860-1924), who was stationed in London as a special correspondent for the Boston Herald, wrote a long piece on the Whitechapel Murders and, among other things, he spoke to Joseph Barnett.

"Barnett tells me what the police do not seem to know, that while he lived with the Kelly woman the door key had been lost, and so, as the door closed with a spring lock, it was their habit to go to the window, reach through the broken glass and push back the spring bolt on the door." (Boston Herald, 20 January 1889)

Warren is obviously wrong about the police not knowing this because Abberline relayed the same information to the coroner.

Seeing that there was a spigot directly underneath Kelly's window, and she was in the habit of bringing women back to her room (as reported by Barnett), quite a number of people must have known about the broken window and their habit of reaching inside to get at the spring lock, so they would have been able to corroborate Barnett's account.

While Herlock is correct in stating that the account of the key being later found is uncorroborated, I'm not sure where we would expect to find corroboration since the police were extremely tight-lipped following the Kelly murder and the MEPO files on the Kelly case are very sparse. The same account, dating to the night of the inquest, is correct in stating that an important witness has come forward with a 'minute description of the murder'---obviously George Hutchinson. Thus, I personally don't see any particular good reason for discounting the recovery of the key.

If the key was recovered, the murderer couldn't have taken it away.

If it was lost and never recovered, the murderer couldn't have taken it away.

[rjpalmer]

There once was a writer named Barrett...

‘It aint ‘im, I’d bloody well swear it!'

He bought this snoozer

Down the ol’ boozer

While tipsy on whiskey and claret.

[Fantomas]

Hoax. More holes in it than the Royal Conspiracy.

[Yabs]

DrStrange is a poster in good health.

Who sneaked in a rhyme with quick stealth.

There was only one catch.

The syllables don’t match.

Perhaps he wrote the diary himself.

[drstrange169]

I once wrote a book that I really didn’t write.

Changed my mind and felt quite contrite.

Then floorboards under,

Hid a one-off blunder,

That spawned some trite on a casebook site.

[Herlock Sholmes]

You said the key didn’t exist. Didn’t you?

It did exist. It was in the room.

Guess what? The window was broken. Unless the key was tucked in a drawer away from the window. it could have been tossed back in.

Therefore Jack doesn’t have to be C Kniclo.

So Barrett either copied Barrett or James didn’t and they both get off Scott-free.

But wriggle room isn’t good enough for us because you can make blanket statements where none is allowed.

No, of course I didn't say the key "didn't exist". Of course it existed - it didn't dematerialize - but it was lost.

What I said was that the diary author claimed to have fled with a non-existent key by which I meant a key that could not possibly have existed in reality and one he could not possibly have taken from Miller's Court because it had been lost.

I'm not sure what evidential basis you have to say that the key was "in the room". Where does this come from? (Oh yes…you made it up) If it comes from the unverified newspaper report Roger posted that the key had been found, and if this report was accurate, this immediately disproves the idea that the killer fled with the key, doesn't it? Which makes the diary a fake, doesn't it?

[Darryl Kenyon]

There once was a supposed diary
Regarding Jim from high society
Written as if he was Jack
But it's a one-off awful hack
Forged, no doubt in it's entirety

Regards Darryl

[Abby Normal]

This thread reminds me of a big steaming pile of shnikey. and the flies are starting to gather lol.
someone mentioned a limerick?

Ok ill start.

There once was a man named Barrett
Whos nose was as long as a ferret
He said I found Jack!
Then took it all back
And flew away on a giant blue parrot

thank you im here all tje week

[Lombro2]

You said the key didn’t exist. Didn’t you?

It did exist. It was in the room.

Guess what? The window was broken. Unless the key was tucked in a drawer away from the window. it could have been tossed back in.

Therefore Jack doesn’t have to be C Kniclo.

So Barrett either copied Barrett or James didn’t and they both get off Scott-free.

But wriggle room isn’t good enough for us because you can make blanket statements where none is allowed.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Can’t you just type a post in plain, understandable by all English? Everything is a riddle with you. Hint and clues and vagueries. Just spit it out and say what you mean. You post a two liner and you have to read it 5 times to try and tease out a meaning!

The diary writer said that he took the key.

He didn’t.

Therefore he wasn’t the ripper.

No need for further comment or excruciating efforts at excuse making (the stock-in-trade of desperate diary defenders)

[Lombro2]

Didn’t your friend say “non-existent”. Did you correct him? Or were you too afraid?

Oh, and thank you for showing everyone that Barnett was clueless.

[Lombro2]

So Jack can’t take the key and then toss it?

He’d be another C Kniclo then if he took the key.

Meanwhile your same friend is on the Carrie site with guys who say C Kniclo aka the “Danish Farmhand” was an idiot for not ditching the key!