The Diary of American Jack the Ripper

[Lombro2]

I know! Not another Diary! What can I say? We cannot confirm the authenticity of this "Diary". We have not seen the actual document–not even a picture of it. All we have is the text.

There is no proven Provenance here either. Rumor has it the Diary is in the possession of a famous celebrity who is supposedly related to the alleged author and he decided to release the content. Read it and decide for yourself.



The Diary of American Jack the Ripper

April 20, 1891

I found a suitable sailor at Wintermeyers. His name was Frank Anderson and he had just deserted his ship the Mary Fraser and was going through his money fast with whiskey after whiskey. I bought him a few rounds and we talked. He was of a sullen disposition and appeared altogether to be a dangerous customer to handle but he was just right for what I had in mind.

Frank was ready to spend more money on a good time at the East River and I told him to wait because I knew someone whom I wanted him to meet and she was on her way there. I told him she was an old whore but she still had a good body and I would pay for his time with her and I would pay extra if he carried out a little job for me that meant getting her off my back.

I agreed to pay him a thousand dollars. The job had to be done that week. It had to be a different night and I would let him stay at my house in New Jersey in the meantime. He agreed and we drank to it.

Good old Shakespeare came in as I knew she would wanting her money which was overdue. She was with a young friend which made things awkward. I could see she wanted to catch onto a man and had her eyes on Frank. I suggested they both sit down with us for a few rounds.

Carrie sat down even though I was paying her to stay away from me and keep her mouth shut. The whore had been annoying me and embarrassing me in the bars and on the streets of late more than ever. We had already agreed on a monthly stipend to stay away but it wasn’t enough. I told her once more a month ago to stay away from me or I’d have her mouth stopped. I guess she forgot about that or she didn’t believe I could carry through with that threat.

I bought beers for the girls. Her friend asked me my name and I said it was George. Then she asked me what my surname was and I told her it was none of her business.
After the beers, we proceeded to the East River Hotel. We took rooms on the fifth floor and went up. Carrie still wanted her money all of it and I gave her ten dollars and told her I’d give her the rest of the money before the end of the week. She told me she better have it by then or she’d let everyone on Broadway know who her sugar daddy was.
I had to wait in the room by myself until Frank finished up with Mary and then I took him back to New Jersey with me and set up in the stable to help my man with the horses for a day or two.
Wednesday April 23

Tonight Frank went in to New York to do the job.
He’s to simply come back after it’s done and act like nothing happened.

Thursday April 24
Frank stayed out all night and arrived just before I was to leave for New York. I didn’t go see him. My man said he was in a surly mood. So I just went to work. The job was all over the newspapers. They said Jack the ripper has Come to America.
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I went in to see Frank alone so I could pay him his money. But first I demanded to know why he had made it look like the work of Jack the Ripper. He said he wanted to have some fun with the police, especially Detective Byrnes who bragged about his police being better than the ones in London. I told him to leave as soon as possible, gave him his money and he was gone that night.



Friday April 25
The papers identified the victim as Carrie Brown. They repeated the killer was another Jack the Ripper. The Times said Choked, Then Mutilated… A Murder Like One of ‘Jack the Ripper’s’ Deeds.
When I got back home that night , the maid said she found a key in Frank’s room. A key and a bloody shirt. The key has the number 31 on it. It’s surely the key to the murder room.

Saturday April 26
I confirmed that the key is similar to those from the East River Hotel. John told me to keep this quiet. I knew he would.

I might mention the key I found with some of the volunteers at the Thief Detecting Society just to do my due diligence. That should be enough. But this is bad. I don’t know what to do with the key except give it to my wife who I know will be discrete.

Why he didn’t just throw the key away in the East River is beyond me.

Unless of course he wanted insurance in case he got caught. He can bring me down to with him. But I’m not going to let that happen.

They have a colored man for the crime. He seems like he’s of a bad sort so he deserves to be in jail anyway.

More to come....

[Herlock Sholmes]

Written by yourself.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Message to anyone thinking of posting. Don’t waste your time with this. I’ve already been told about this by someone very trustworthy.

[Lombro2]

Continued:

August 27

Mary Brennan is a bitch.

She spilled the beans about our night out with Carrie and Frank and about Carrie's blackmail. She even said I'm a Broadway merchant. even gave them my name. Good thing Frenchy used the name George. George Frank. how funny.

[Lombro2]

You can tell your "very trustworthy" friend that there's only one, not two.

I, for one, am not surprised at the attempt to censor fiction and any discussion of it.

[Lombro2]

Written by yourself.

Fifty-fifty.

[rjpalmer]

The Diary of American Jack the Ripper

Hi Lombro,

Many thanks for uploading these selections from your Diary of American Jack the Ripper. Good luck with your project.

I do wonder if your exercise illustrates the pitfalls of creating such a relic?

The diary dates to 1891, of course, but a couple of problematic statements jumped out at me. Thomas Byrnes is referred to as 'Detective Byrnes.' Wouldn't he more likely be called Chief Byrnes in 1891? He had given up his detective status years earlier and was now Chief.

And this entry from 20 April 1891 caught my attention:

"...She told me she better have it by then or she’d let everyone on Broadway know who her sugar daddy was."

Sugar daddy in 1891?

A quick check shows that the term 'sugar daddy' first made its way into the Oxford English Dictionary in 1926. We have been told that such phrases can hover below the radar for years before the OED takes them up, but the phrase is said to have originated in San Francisco in the early 20th Century and gained prominence during the roaring 1920s, specifically when San Francisco socialite Alma de Bretteville began to call her husband Adolph Speckels (who was "heir to the Speckles sugar fortune") her "sugar daddy." (He was also 24 years her senior).

This seems to be borne out by Sugar Daddy: A Play in One Act, published in San Francisco in 1927. The introduction saw fit to give an explanation of what a "sugar daddy" was---'a man of mature years....and ample means....) which certainly should not have been needed if the phrase been in circulation for over 35 years.

Hope this helps.



Is this the American diary's "bumbling buffoon" or "one off instance" moment?

[Herlock Sholmes]

It looks like you’ve very quickly managed to find the One Incontrovertible, Unequivocal, Undeniable Fact Which Refutes the American Diary Roger.

Another diary bites the dust.

[Lombro2]

I think you have something there, RJ.

“Cake Daddy” would probably have been better, from the French “Papa Gateau”.

So this looks to be a fake baked by some Maybrickian trying to have his or her or their jollies.

I left out the part about a “one off hamburger” at Wintermeyers.