The Diary Confession
The entire theory that Maybrick was Jack the Ripper is based on a diary he supposedly wrote which issued a full confession. The diary is around 9,000 words, and in it, Maybrick confesses to five murders in Whitechapel and another murder in Manchester. He concluded by writing: “Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper.” The diary was discovered by Michael Barrett who claimed that he was handed it by a friend named Tony Devereux in a pub. It is important to note that Maybrick’s name is not in the diary, but it has allegedly been traced to his home.
In any case, the diary was published in a book entitled: ‘The Diary of Jack the Ripper: The Chilling Confessions of James Maybrick.’ Although it sold reasonably well, it was quickly derided as a forgery. The origin of the diary was a genuine mystery; not helped by the fact that Barrett and his wife Ann changed stories. First, there was the pub story. Then, the story changed, and Barrett was handed the diary when it was found beneath the floorboards of a mansion that was once occupied by Maybrick. Finally, Ann claimed the diary had been in her family for generations.
The Hoax Exposed?
Tony Devereux died soon after the diary was discovered, so we will never know if the ‘original’ story about its discovery is true. The entire tale appeared to be exposed as a hoax in 1995 when Barrett signed two separate affidavits admitting that he made the entire story up and had written the diary with the aid of his wife. This came after three Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) tests failed to shed light on the matter. Skeptics suggested that the writing style wasn’t Victorian and it appeared as if the Maybrick as the Ripper theory was dead in the water.
Despite the confession, the author of the published account of the diary, Robert Smith, believes the Barretts only signed the affidavits to avoid prosecution. Those who knew Michael Barrett assert that he didn’t possess the literary ability to complete such a sophisticated forgery. The ink and journal certainly pass for Victorian age items and extensive testing performed recently suggests the diary was probably written in the 19th century.
James Maybrick lived on a large property known as Battlecrease House in Aigburth, Liverpool and in 1992, a local contracting firm called Portus & Rhodes Ltd. conducted renovations at the mansion. Three local men: Eddie Lyons, Arthur Rigby, and James Coufopoulos, were working on March 9 when the diary was supposedly found. Lyons reportedly handed the diary to Barrett in a local pub and on the same day, he got in touch with a London literary agent named Doreen Montgomery.
Barrett told her that he had the diary of Jack the Ripper in his possession and things escalated from there. While some claim the diary contained details only the Ripper could know, others said it was cleverly pieced together from news reports. The three workmen denied finding the book, but all three men gave different versions of the story. Barrett later retracted his confession and insisted the book was genuine. If James Maybrick was the killer, why did he stop and why wasn’t he caught at the time?