WITH more theories than the Kennedy conspiracists, Ripperphiles have generated substantially more smoke than flame for more than a century. This latest apparition, however intriguing, also does more to muddy than clarify.
The core of the Harrison book is what purports to be the diary of James Maybrick, Liverpool cotton merchant and arsenic addict, who claims in this secret journal to be Jack the Ripper.
Maybrick's death in May 1889 triggered a sensational murder trial in which his widow Florie [url=http://cigscoupons.com]Cheap Wholesale Newport Cigarettes[/url], a 26-year-old American southern belle, was charged with poisoning him, was convicted and condemned to death. The sentence was commuted, though, and she served 15 years in prison.
This, as they say, is a true story.
In 1888, in London's scurvy Whitechapel district, five women -- all prostitutes, or, as one newspaper called them, "our disillusioned sisters of the pavement" -- were brutally slain and four of them horribly mutilated by the person who came to be the world's most publicized serial killer [url=http://cigarettesonlinesale.com]Cheap Smokes Online Free Shipping[/url], the self-titled Jack the Ripper. Devereux refused to tell Barrett where the diary came from or how he got it. Devereux died a few months later of heart failure.
British publisher, Robert Smith of Smith Gryphon, agreed to publish the diary even though authentication tests were inconclusive.
An American publisher, fearing a hoax, canceled publication of the Harrison book. Hyperion has duplicated the British edition and added arguments, pro and con, as to the authenticity of the diary.
The book includes Ms. Harrison's narrative linking Maybrick and the Ripper, a facsimile and a transcript of the diary and the arguments for and against the work's authenticity.
Ms. Harrison has been raked over in major newspaper pieces and on radio and TV call-in talk shows. Although she says on these occasions that she is not claiming the diary is genuine, in her narrative in the book, she writes as if the journal is Maybrick's and Maybrick is the Ripper. Her approach seems based not on proof but an absence of disproof.
Like any good Jesuitical argument, if you grant the basic premise you can build any cathedral you want. If you grant that the diary is Maybrick's, it's a short leap to Maybrick being the Ripper since that's what the entries claim.
A gaggle of experts has gone over the diary [url=http://cheapusacigs.com]Cigarettes For Sale Online Usa[/url], testing ink, paper, handwriting, phraseology, and, via forensic psychiatry, the mind of the diarist has been probed. At the risk of oversimplifying, the gist of all this well-intentioned poking around is this: "We don't know."
Whether the diary is real or not, Ms. Harrison has put it to good use in providing a perversely fascinating look at two monumental horror stories.
Jack the Ripper, whoever he was, was a demented creature whose tortured life designs were literally carved into the bodies of his victims.
James Maybrick was doubly tormented by his addiction to arsenic and strychnine (not uncommon in Victorian times) and his wife's infidelity. Florie was 23 years younger than her husband, and had an affair with a family friend and was rumored to have had a liaison with one of her husband's brothers.
Ms. Harrison posits that Maybrick, verging on insanity, sought revenge for his wife's adultery by hacking up the Whitechapel hookers. She makes the point that after Maybrick died there were no more Ripper murders.
The diary itself, however, raises doubts. It is a scrapbook, not a diary in the usual sense. Several pages have been torn out at the front. Why would Maybrick use this instead of a diary?
Or was this old scrapbook found, maybe decades later, and used to create a bold forgery?
When it came to comparing handwriting, only two examples of Maybrick's signature were located, one on his marriage license and one on a will signed shortly before his death.
His brothers were suspected of monkeying with the will, possibly even forging that signature. where he spent half the year for several years. One would think there would be bales of business and personal correspondence [url=http://cigswebsite.com]Wholesale Cigarettes Free Shipping[/url].
Over the years, police files, notebooks, letters and other pieces of evidence have disappeared, leaving gaping holes in any attempt to prove the Ripper's identity. But, fortuitously, one bit popped up recently, shortly before the Harrison book was published in England, I gather.
It's a pocket watch, made around 1846. In its case are the initials of the five Ripper victims, James Maybrick's signature and the declaration: "I am Jack."
Tests indicate the watch is an old one and the inscriptions could have been done about the time of the Ripper murders.
Fascinating that the diary and the watch go missing for a hundred years then turn up separately within a year or two of each other and are both brought to Ms. Harrison.
Possible, I suppose, but not very likely.
I'm afraid I join the agnostics on this one.
I suppose there would be some value in knowing the Ripper's identity if the diary were proven genuine [url=http://cheapcigarettesfamily.com]Buy Discount Cigarettes[/url]. But, whether the diary is real or not, Harrison's effort, both in the texts and a riveting assortment of photos and sketches, including some never-before seen photos of the Ripper's victims, is a mesmerizing, if dubious, look at these two tales of human depravity.
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The core of the Harrison book is what purports to be the diary of James Maybrick, Liverpool cotton merchant and arsenic addict, who claims in this secret journal to be Jack the Ripper.
Maybrick's death in May 1889 triggered a sensational murder trial in which his widow Florie [url=http://cigscoupons.com]Cheap Wholesale Newport Cigarettes[/url], a 26-year-old American southern belle, was charged with poisoning him, was convicted and condemned to death. The sentence was commuted, though, and she served 15 years in prison.
This, as they say, is a true story.
In 1888, in London's scurvy Whitechapel district, five women -- all prostitutes, or, as one newspaper called them, "our disillusioned sisters of the pavement" -- were brutally slain and four of them horribly mutilated by the person who came to be the world's most publicized serial killer [url=http://cigarettesonlinesale.com]Cheap Smokes Online Free Shipping[/url], the self-titled Jack the Ripper. Devereux refused to tell Barrett where the diary came from or how he got it. Devereux died a few months later of heart failure.
British publisher, Robert Smith of Smith Gryphon, agreed to publish the diary even though authentication tests were inconclusive.
An American publisher, fearing a hoax, canceled publication of the Harrison book. Hyperion has duplicated the British edition and added arguments, pro and con, as to the authenticity of the diary.
The book includes Ms. Harrison's narrative linking Maybrick and the Ripper, a facsimile and a transcript of the diary and the arguments for and against the work's authenticity.
Ms. Harrison has been raked over in major newspaper pieces and on radio and TV call-in talk shows. Although she says on these occasions that she is not claiming the diary is genuine, in her narrative in the book, she writes as if the journal is Maybrick's and Maybrick is the Ripper. Her approach seems based not on proof but an absence of disproof.
Like any good Jesuitical argument, if you grant the basic premise you can build any cathedral you want. If you grant that the diary is Maybrick's, it's a short leap to Maybrick being the Ripper since that's what the entries claim.
A gaggle of experts has gone over the diary [url=http://cheapusacigs.com]Cigarettes For Sale Online Usa[/url], testing ink, paper, handwriting, phraseology, and, via forensic psychiatry, the mind of the diarist has been probed. At the risk of oversimplifying, the gist of all this well-intentioned poking around is this: "We don't know."
Whether the diary is real or not, Ms. Harrison has put it to good use in providing a perversely fascinating look at two monumental horror stories.
Jack the Ripper, whoever he was, was a demented creature whose tortured life designs were literally carved into the bodies of his victims.
James Maybrick was doubly tormented by his addiction to arsenic and strychnine (not uncommon in Victorian times) and his wife's infidelity. Florie was 23 years younger than her husband, and had an affair with a family friend and was rumored to have had a liaison with one of her husband's brothers.
Ms. Harrison posits that Maybrick, verging on insanity, sought revenge for his wife's adultery by hacking up the Whitechapel hookers. She makes the point that after Maybrick died there were no more Ripper murders.
The diary itself, however, raises doubts. It is a scrapbook, not a diary in the usual sense. Several pages have been torn out at the front. Why would Maybrick use this instead of a diary?
Or was this old scrapbook found, maybe decades later, and used to create a bold forgery?
When it came to comparing handwriting, only two examples of Maybrick's signature were located, one on his marriage license and one on a will signed shortly before his death.
His brothers were suspected of monkeying with the will, possibly even forging that signature. where he spent half the year for several years. One would think there would be bales of business and personal correspondence [url=http://cigswebsite.com]Wholesale Cigarettes Free Shipping[/url].
Over the years, police files, notebooks, letters and other pieces of evidence have disappeared, leaving gaping holes in any attempt to prove the Ripper's identity. But, fortuitously, one bit popped up recently, shortly before the Harrison book was published in England, I gather.
It's a pocket watch, made around 1846. In its case are the initials of the five Ripper victims, James Maybrick's signature and the declaration: "I am Jack."
Tests indicate the watch is an old one and the inscriptions could have been done about the time of the Ripper murders.
Fascinating that the diary and the watch go missing for a hundred years then turn up separately within a year or two of each other and are both brought to Ms. Harrison.
Possible, I suppose, but not very likely.
I'm afraid I join the agnostics on this one.
I suppose there would be some value in knowing the Ripper's identity if the diary were proven genuine [url=http://cheapcigarettesfamily.com]Buy Discount Cigarettes[/url]. But, whether the diary is real or not, Harrison's effort, both in the texts and a riveting assortment of photos and sketches, including some never-before seen photos of the Ripper's victims, is a mesmerizing, if dubious, look at these two tales of human depravity.
Related articles:
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