THE MAYBRICK MYSTERY
James Maybrick
THE TRIAL OF FLORENCE MAYBRICK
On 11th May 1889, James Maybrick, a Liverpool cotton merchant, died after a short illness. Within a few days his wife, Florence Maybrick, a much younger woman who was born in Mobile, Alabama, was arrested and charged with his murder. The police accused her of murdering her husband with arsenic so that she could be with her lover, Alfred Brierley, another cotton merchant in Liverpool. The case shocked Victorian England to its very core. It was a story that had everything, sex, drugs and adultery. Queen Victoria and three American Presidents were to be caught up in the drama. Florence was found guilty after a sensational trial in Liverpool and was sentenced to be hanged. There was a public outcry after the verdict was announced as it had been revealed during the trial that James was a frequent user of both arsenic and strychnine. Just before the sentence was due to be carried out, the Home Secretary commuted it to one of life imprisonment. Florence was to spend 15 years in prison before being released and returning to America. Was she guilty of the murder of James or was the case one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British criminal history?
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THE DIARY OF JACK THE RIPPER
In 1992, a diary was found, allegedly written by James Maybrick in which he supposedly confesses to be Jack the Ripper. The diary has proved to be one of the most controversial historical documents of all time. To some, it is an obvious hoax. It reveals little if anything new about the Ripper killings and the handwriting doesn't even match that of James Maybrick's. However, others are convinced the document is genuine and that it provides a window into the mindset of the world's most infamous serial killer.
The Maybrick Watch
In 1993, a Albert Johnson rang Robert Smith and told him he had James Maybrick's watch. The watch had small scratches on the inside cover of the case. Around the edge was scratched the initials of the five canonical Ripper victims; in the middle were the words 'I am Jack' and at the bottom was the signature of 'James Maybrick.' Johnson said he had bought the watch from a jewellers shop in Wallasey on Merseyside in July 1992 after winning some money on a horse-racing bet. He said he only noticed the scratches at a later date when he took the watch into work to show his colleagues. The watch has been scientifically tested twice. One test was carried out by Dr Turgoose at UMIST in 1993. In his report Turgoose stated he was of the opinion that 'the engravings are likely to date back more than tens of years and possibly much longer.' However, he also did not rule out the possibility that the watch was a modern forgery though he added such a forgery would require a high level of skill.