As it turns out, the Ripper Cabal is real...it's just not who you thought it was

[Ally]

Yeah, I am pretty sure incarcerated is not an actual forum state (maybe it should be). In did-you-know news, he'll be out in approx 6 months.

[Tom_Wescott]

the Inactive Aspallek

Three squares and an hour in the yard. Sadly, I'm not sure that qualifies as 'inactive' by the standards of Ripperologists.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Ally]

Heya Roy, not at all to diminish your fine research, but I think it's worth reminding that the boards crashed in February 2008 and that post took place in March 2008. The old boards were archived at that point, and there was a huge chunk lost, so it can't be stated definitively that was the first mention of cabal..in fact, I am pretty sure it's not, but I cannot claim that with any certainty. For that we'd have to check the archived boards, and there's unfortunately no way to key word search just the old locked boards pre-2008.

But thanks for reminding me that this cabal crap has been going on for years. And years. And years. And years...........

[Roy Corduroy]

A Trip Down Memory Lane

The new members may not get it, Ally, so for their benefit I looked up the first use of Cabal here on the Casebook Message Board.

It was way back in March of 2008, in a thread called The New Vogue featuring:

the Suspended Gideon Fell
the Banned Cap'n Jack
the Inactive Aspallek
along with Smiling Dan Norder
and a few survivors like Robert, Mike & Howie.

But yes the poster who first spoke of the Cabal was .............drumroll...................

... the Suspended Mr Poster. Here is the post that launched a thousand tickets to nowhere when in reply to Dan he said:

an academic journal could publish any crap and see which information sinks of swims as judged by the audience and call itself peer reviewed? A bizarre concept but hardly unexpected from someone who thinks that editorial checking by some kind of cabal also equates with peer review.

http://forum.casebook.org/showthread...=4806#post4806

[Tom_Wescott]

Get real Tom. You don't have the power to ban people. Everyone knows, that power lies solely in my hands.

This is true, and you are positively horrible at it. They keep coming back!

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Ally]

Okay, I just read Ally's post. I get the whole 'self-congratulatory' thing now.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

I thought I exemplified it pretty well, glad you picked up on it. But then I didn't go for subtle so even you should have got it.

[Tom_Wescott]

Okay, I just read Ally's post. I get the whole 'self-congratulatory' thing now.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Ally]

Really? Do tell of one time I have behaved with any sort of deceit in regards to you, dear Simon.

[Simon Wood]

Hi Ally,

Don't try to kid a kidder.

I've been on the receiving end of your integrity.

Regards,

Simon

[Ally]

Get real Tom. You don't have the power to ban people. Everyone knows, that power lies solely in my hands.

Quit trying to make everything about you, you egomaniacal tool.

[Tom_Wescott]

I think Dave might be talking about me here, even though my posts on this thread wouldn't warrant his pointy finger. Or a hypocrite (my fave). But every now and again he pops up to call me a pompous bully or whatnot. If he's NOT talking about me here, then apparently he's just one of those guys who needs to vent every now again and stick up for the 'under dog' (whatever that is in Ripperology). Other than these occassional outbursts, Dave seems really cool. I think he just hasn't found the Cabal for him yet.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

P.S. What is 'self-congratulatory' in the sense used here? I can't speak for everyone else, but I much prefer when OTHERS are doing the congratulating.

[Ally]

You bet I am damn proud. You think you are taking such a brave stand? I find it galling that anyone would dare compare this to a nazi witch hunt. Let me tell you something- for the past ten years, every fukking time I made an unpopular statement, I got reported. I got reported and accepted suspension for crap that NOT A SINGLE OTHER PERSON would have even been looked at askance and I took it because there couldn't be a perception of bias. I have been suspended more times than ANY other person on this board, over the most trivial and piddly sh!t and I have taken it with good grace, because I understand that regardless, I will be held to a different standard. Well you know what - FUK THAT. When I see people come on and say "oh I am being brave and if I get banned, I'll take it" I have an overwhelming urge to beat them senseless with their keyboard (and don't take that wrong, Dave I am pretty sure I like you personally). There is not a single other person who has been suspended more than I, and I have been suspended for less cause than any freaking body. So (and this goes for everyone) knock off the "I am so brave to take a stand and risk being banned". It's frankly galling to a degree beyond belief.

Trevor Marriott has LIED repeatedly about people on these boards. FLAT OUT LIED and he's still here, to sucker stupid people into his deceitful, nasty, tricks. He takes pride and delight in tearing down absolutely everyone for nothing they have done, but simply because he seemingly takes DELIGHT in destroying the reputations of other people. Maybe that's not his primary motive, I don't know, but I cannot come up with any other reason. He accused researchers of having stolen evidence, based on not a single shred of evidence, but just an instance of, hey let's throw mud at them and see if it sticks.

I am a bitch. I have always been a bitch and I am proud to be a bitch. I have fought with EVERY single prominent member of Ripperology. I have gone head to head and toe to toe with Paul Begg, Martin Fido, Melvin Harris, Stewart Evans, and you name it, I've had words with their theories, their beliefs, their stands, but not ONCE have I ever lied about them in an attempt to bolster my own position. I have never, not once, cared about WHO I am speaking to, all I care about is the TRUTH. I have gotten reviled for standing up for the truth over the person, and I NEVER put a personal relationship over that truth. I can like you personally tremendously and still say, you are completely in the wrong. And if that strikes me off your "friend" list, you weren't a friend to begin with. In addition, I can despise you on a personal level, and defend you if you are in the right and have the truth on your side. The only thing that matters is the truth and that's the ONLY thing I take into consideration whenever I decide to go head to head with any one. Which puts me in a far different category than Marriott. I don't agree with everything that every one has done that has come before, but there is a difference in disagreeing and trying to destroy. One is a positive step, that brings about real knowledge to the case, and the other is simply perverse for the sake of being perverse.

Marriott has not ever just admitted he was wrong. I make mistakes, I've made them and I apologize and I retract them when they occur. He and his posse seem entirely incapable of just EVER admitting they were wrong, that they did something wrong and apologizing for it. They are incapable, even when flat out, proved beyond a shadow of doubt or question to be wrong.

HOW can you ever claim to care about the truth when you can't ever face the truth ? He has SLANDERED people, and you ask US if we are proud to take a stand against this crap? You bet your butt I am entirely proud. He makes insinuations against the whole of Ripperology that WE WE have an interest in hiding the truth for profit while he goes about lecturing without half the facts in his head and making the rest up out of thin air.

It has NOTHING to do with being unpopular or expressing unpopular opinions. You should have been here 11 years ago when I was expressing opinions that the A-Z authors had acted dishonorably in one of their entries. How UNPOPULAR was I then?? But I never ONCE lied about them. I never slandered them. I asked questions, and I gave my opinions and I stood my ground. I behaved with integrity. I don't AGREE with every popular opinion, but I am capable of looking at facts that prove me wrong, and accepting my defeat with good grace. If you look back over the posts, I have made repeated errors when I mistook something for fact and I ALWAYS but ALWAYS retract my statements when I realize I have made a mistake about someone or something I have read.

Point to me one time when they have done the same? This is not a witchhunt. This is not a group of people going after someone just because they have an unpopular opinion. This is a group of people who are fed up with being lied to, with being slandered, and watching while they are insulted and defamed and their hard work is dismissed and lied about by some clown and his posse who have limited knowledge of the case, and pat themselves on the back, not for doing any actual work, but tearing down the work of others. (And I have done jack crap work, on that note I am speaking about others, people who slog doing the dirty work of rifling through stacks of old papers in the hopes of striking a gem, something I have not the patience for).

You ask if we are proud, and I answer again, yes. Because unless people stand up against lies, lies always win. Lies are always more interesting than truth. There's a saying that a lie can run around the world while the truth is still getting its boots on. Well guess what, boots are on, and it's time to start kicking.

[Simon Wood]

Hi Dave,

I recommend you take a long, hard look at exactly who's ganging up on whom.

Regards,

Simon

[Dr. John Watson]

So it's not possible to come up with anything fresh without being for example self-congratulatory? I don't think that's the case you're trying to argue...

And Trevor, after all, presumably thinks his approach is fresh...

You think I'm pompous? Maybe I am...mea culpa...as far as I'm concerned I just like to see an even playing field without folk ganging up on one another...but I'm sorry, perhaps that's unforgivably old-fashioned

All the best

Dave

Cogidubnus: Well put, and for what it's worth, agree with everything you said in both posts.

Supportive John

[Cogidubnus]

So it's not possible to come up with anything fresh without being for example self-congratulatory? I don't think that's the case you're trying to argue...

And Trevor, after all, presumably thinks his approach is fresh...

You think I'm pompous? Maybe I am...mea culpa...as far as I'm concerned I just like to see an even playing field without folk ganging up on one another...but I'm sorry, perhaps that's unforgivably old-fashioned

All the best

Dave