In 1889, Victorian England was shocked to its very core, by a scandalous murder case in Liverpool. A young American woman, Florence Maybrick, was found guilty of killing her much older husband, James Maybrick, by poisoning him with arsenic extracted from flypapers. 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 to spend fifteen years in prison for the crime, but did she really murder her husband?
In 1992, the story took a new and even more dramatic twist. A diary was found, allegedly written by James Maybrick, in which he supposedly confessed to being the world's most notorious serial killer, Jack the Ripper. The diary has proved to be one of the most controversial historical documents of all time. To some, the diary is a true account, a window into the mind of the killer. To others, it is an obvious and transparent hoax.
In 2022, the authors of this book published their award-winning book into the Maybrick murder case and the Diary of Jack the Ripper. Using a large amount of new material and research, they provided answers to two of the greatest mysteries in the annals of crime. In this new edition, they have provided an even greater insight into lives of James and Florence Maybrick and the so-called Ripper Diary and the Maybrick Watch.
Christopher Jones is a retired secondary school teacher, though he still works part-time as a mountain leader specialising in supporting DofE expeditions in the hills and mountains of North Wales. Christopher is a graduate in modern history and politics from Liverpool University. He later obtained the PGCE teaching qualification, a Masters in Education and the prestigious NPQH award. He taught in comprehensive schools in Bootle and Liverpool on Merseyside. He was for many years Head of History in a Bootle school before later becoming a Deputy Headteacher in one of Liverpool's largest secondary schools.
Dr Daniel Dolgin is a licensed psychologist and author residing in the Pensacola, Florida area. He has a daughter, enjoys flying drones and all types of photography. He received his PhD from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. Subsequently he accepted a commission with the US Navy and completed a six-month Navy Flight Surgeon/Aviation Psychologist training course that included military flight training, ground school, human factors, physiology, and safety. A focus of interest was pilot selection techniques, technology transfer and international collaboration. He was appointed US Navy medical and human factors representative to NATO. As a result, Dr Dolgin facilitated the establishment of international defense exchange agreements with the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Israel.
