Florence Maybrick: Death Sentence Commuted

The month of October was quiet in Whitechapel. So, too, was the month of October quiet in the diary. James Maybrick had recently turned 50. His "medicine" was not giving him the strength he thought it would.

A late-October diary entry states:

It has been far too long since my last, I have been unwell.

I was forced to stop myself from indulging in my pleasure by taking the largest dose I have ever done. The pain that night has burnt into my mind...The pain was intolerable, as I think I shudder. No more...I am convinced God placed me here to kill all whores, for he must have done so, am I still not here. Nothing will stop me now. The more I take the more stronger I become...

And so it was that with his feelings of righteous mission and increasing strength, James Maybrick - according to diary supporters - met Mary Jane Kelly.