Though the diary was disputed after Mike Barrett, who found the diary in 1992, died before he could explain its origins, critics are reexamining the new suspect it puts forth after researchers uncovered damning new evidence.
According to Bruce Robinson, the lead researcher on this project, the infamous serial killer is none other than James Maybrick, a Liverpool cotton salesman from the late 19th century. Offering gruesome details on the murder of all six victims — five in London’s East End and one in Manchester — the alleged Ripper signed his confession with: "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 how did the researchers come to their conclusion if Ripperologists previously called the Victorian evidence hogwash? They traced the book way back to Maybrick’s former home in Liverpool.
"When the diary first emerged, Mike Barrett refused to give any satisfactory explanation for where it had come from," Robert Smith, who published the original diary in 1993, told the Telegraph. "But after painstaking research, chiefly by Bruce Robinson, we can now show a trail that leads us directly to Maybrick’s home."
With suspects ranging from H.H. Holmes to a royal obstetrician, Smith is now planning on publishing the new evidence in his new book, "25 Years of The Diary of Jack the Ripper: The True Facts,"out on September 4.
