The Daily Telegraph

Jack the Ripper diary is the genuine article, say experts

- By Martin Evans CRIME CORRESPOND­ENT

THE TRUE identity of Jack the Ripper may finally have been confirmed, after researcher­s said they had proven the authentici­ty of a Victorian diary.

Twenty-five years ago “Ripperolog­ists” around the world were stunned by the discovery of a previously unknown memoir, claiming to have been written by James Maybrick, a Liverpool cotton merchant.

In the 9,000-word volume, Maybrick apparently confessed to the murders of five women in the East End of London, as well as one prostitute in Manchester.

He signed off the diary: “I give my name that all know of me, so history do tell, what love can do to a gentleman born. Yours Truly, Jack The Ripper.”

But within months of publicatio­n of a book about the diary, Ripper experts, who carried out careful analysis, began to question its authentici­ty.

It had first come to public attention via a former Liverpool scrap metal dealer named Mike Barrett, who claimed he had obtained it through a family friend, Tony Devereux.

However, Mr Devereux died shortly afterwards, so the diary’s provenance could never fully be explained, cementing the view among many that it was a sophistica­ted forgery.

However, according to a new book, 25 Years of The Diary of Jack the Ripper: The True Facts, the memoir was discovered in Maybrick’s former Liverpool home.

Robert Smith, who published the original diary in 1993, and has written the new book, believes Mr Barrett and those who supplied him with the document, kept this crucial fact secret because they were afraid of being prosecuted.

He said: “When the diary first emerged, Mike Barrett refused to give any satisfacto­ry explanatio­n for where it had come from, but after painstakin­g research, we can now show a trail that leads us directly to Maybrick’s home.”

Mr Smith has never wavered from his belief that the document is genuine.

He said: “I have never been in any doubt that the diary is a genuine document written in 1888 and 1889. The new and indisputab­le evidence, that on March 9, 1992, the diary was removed from under the floorboard­s of the room that had been James Maybrick’s bedroom in 1889, and offered later on the very same day to a London literary agent, overrides any other considerat­ions regarding its authentici­ty.

“It follows that James Maybrick is its most likely author. Was he Jack the Ripper? He now has to be a prime suspect, but the disputes over the Ripper’s identity may well rage for another century at least.”

 ??  ?? Face of the Ripper? Cotton merchant James Maybrick
Face of the Ripper? Cotton merchant James Maybrick

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