The Maybrick Thread (For All Things Maybrick)

[Herlock Sholmes]

That's the most sensible thing you've written in a long time, Ike.

When I said that's the most sensible thing you've written in a long time, I was, of course, referring to the part where you said "I'm probably a fool for coming back in", not the part where you condescendingly refer to me as "Johnny Come Lately".

[Iconoclast]

I think it may be worth my while re-iterating what I have already iterated but this time in language which cannot be misunderstood (or plain ignored) prior to being asked to do so yet again: I cannot think of any agreed-upon evidence which would preclude the possibility of Mike and (or, indeed, or) Anne Barrett from having sourced the Maybrick scrapbook, written a text of a hoax, and then written that text into the Maybrick scrapbook before Mike presented it to the world as the musings of the world's most talked-about murderer.

That said, I am aware that there is evidence which strongly argues against this but which itself - like pretty much everything connected to this case - is open to argument and debate.

Perhaps the one thing we can all agree upon is that only one person has ever made a case for having hoaxed the Maybrick scrapbook, and that person is, of course, Mike Barrett.

Another thing we can all agree upon is that he made his claim in the middle of 1994 when his life was in a truly sorry state, his wife and daughter having left him six months earlier.

Another thing we can all agree upon is that by then Mike Barrett was heavily into his cups with the water of life and that he had become a man incapable of telling the same story for more than about twenty minutes at a time without erring into some other.

Another thing we can all agree upon is that the only evidence in existence that Mike Barrett may actually have hoaxed the Maybrick scrapbook (we cannot include his claims because they are unevidenced and therefore unproven) is that he sought out a Victorian diary in March 1992 - an event which has more explanations than simply the one and therefore remains itself unproven.

Another thing that we can all agree upon is that some people have attempted to argue that Anne's handwriting is redolent of the scrapbook's and therefore she wrote the text into it just as her ex-husband claimed.

Another thing we can all agree upon is that Mike Barrett owned the scrapbook and knew it well and therefore was very well-placed to build a fantasy story around it to imply that he had hoaxed the document.

That is the case in favour of Mike Barrett as a hoaxer of the Maybrick scrapbook.

Those are the facts.

If that's enough for you, dear readers, fair enough - go fill your boots.

Personally, anyone arguing that that is sufficient to convince anyone of Mike Barrett's hoax claims would not find me personally drinking at that same bar. Indeed, I'd have to say to them, as my old Teuchter friends in and around Aberdeen still say, 'Gie yersel a shak'.

[Herlock Sholmes]

I think it may be worth my while re-iterating what I have already iterated but this time in language which cannot be misunderstood (or plain ignored) prior to being asked to do so yet again: I cannot think of any agreed-upon evidence which would preclude the possibility of Mike and (or, indeed, or) Anne Barrett from having sourced the Maybrick scrapbook, written a text of a hoax, and then written that text into the Maybrick scrapbook before Mike presented it to the world as the musings of the world's most talked-about murderer.

That said, I am aware that there is evidence which strongly argues against this but which itself - like pretty much everything connected to this case - is open to argument and debate.

Perhaps the one thing we can all agree upon is that only one person has ever made a case for having hoaxed the Maybrick scrapbook, and that person is, of course, Mike Barrett.

Another thing we can all agree upon is that he made his claim in the middle of 1994 when his life was in a truly sorry state, his wife and daughter having left him six months earlier.

Another thing we can all agree upon is that by then Mike Barrett was heavily into his cups with the water of life and that he had become a man incapable of telling the same story for more than about twenty minutes at a time without erring into some other.

Another thing we can all agree upon is that the only evidence in existence that Mike Barrett may actually have hoaxed the Maybrick scrapbook (we cannot include his claims because they are unevidenced and therefore unproven) is that he sought out a Victorian diary in March 1992 - an event which has more explanations than simply the one and therefore remains itself unproven.

Another thing that we can all agree upon is that some people have attempted to argue that Anne's handwriting is redolent of the scrapbook's and therefore she wrote the text into it just as her ex-husband claimed.

Another thing we can all agree upon is that Mike Barrett owned the scrapbook and knew it well and therefore was very well-placed to build a fantasy story around it to imply that he had hoaxed the document.

That is the case in favour of Mike Barrett as a hoaxer of the Maybrick scrapbook.

Those are the facts.

If that's enough for you, dear readers, fair enough - go fill your boots.

Personally, anyone arguing that that is sufficient to convince anyone of Mike Barrett's hoax claims would not find me personally drinking at that same bar. Indeed, I'd have to say to them, as my old Teuchter friends in and around Aberdeen still say, 'Gie yersel a shak'.

For the record Ike, I accept that MB is the only person who has ever confessed to forging the diary. I accept that at the time he confessed, his wife and daughter had left him and he was drinking. I do not accept that he was incapable of telling the same story for more than about twenty minutes at a time. I do not accept that the only evidence that MB may have been involved in creating the diary is that he sought out a Victorian diary in March 1992. I agree that some people have pointed out some similarities between Anne's handwriting and the handwriting of the diarist and, further, that it's undeniable that such similarities exist. I agree that MB owned the scrapbook and likely knew it well but would say that if he was capable of building a fantasy story to imply he had created it then he would surely also have been capable of building a fantasy story around James Maybrick being Jack the Ripper.