Peter Underwood, FRSA has added to the lengthening litany debunking the book "We Faked the Ghosts of Borley Rectory" by Louis Mayerling.
Underwood's March 2001 review (LMpeterU.htm) for the Ghost Club Society points to several key elements that prove Mayerling was not the common guest at Borley he claims, if he ever visited the alleged haunted house at all!
Underwood has just published his 43rd book and his long list of accomplishments include what many consider the definite effort on "the most haunted house in England" - THE GHOSTS OF BORLEY. Of Mayerling, Underwood writes, "Nowhere can I find any mention of Louis Mayerling or George Carter." This includes researching the works of Harry Price, for whom Underwood once served as literary executor. Nor can Underwood find mention of Mayerling/Carter in the works of Paul Tabori, Trevor Hall, Robert Wood or Ivan Banks. This self-proclaimed ubiquitous guest at the rectory does not show up in the writings of either Reverend Henning or Reverend Foyster, both diarists of their stays at the rectory.
In his expose, Underwood notes the placement of the kitchen windows at the rectory does not match up with the chamber over the front porch, so it would not have been possible for the former Georgie Carter to dangle a nail from the chamber which would tap those particular windows. Nor does any record describe the numerous "hidey-holes" Mayerling offers as places for tricksters to hide. In fact, Underwood points out that Price made "a minute examination. . . . from rafters to cellars. . . . measuring every room, passage and piece of furniture. . . . sounding the walls for possible hidey-holes, examining all cupboards. . . . under stairways, etc."
Underwood points out that "Mabel Smith is depicted [by Mayerling] as gullible and accepting as 'supernatural' any odd happening. This is completely contrary to my experience and to available written evidence." Along a similar vein, Underwood adds "all the Bulls I talked with and the Foysters whom I questioned replied with a serious and definitive assurance that their personal experiences were factual."
As Underwood poured over the Mayerling fantasy, he found many questions raised by the work and asks, "If these items are dubious and flawed - and there is a great deal more - just how much of the book is dependable? So much is really unsatisfactory. . . ." For example, Underwood points to the evidence gathered by Alan Roper that discovered Mayerling was really born in Wood Green, and not in Vienna as he claimed.
Most damning, of course, is the fact Peter Underwood DID interview a great many of the residents and neighbors, and their testimony is constantly at variance with the Mayerling fantasy. As Underwood writes, ". . . . over the years I have talked with and corresponded with dozens of people closely connected with this allegedly haunted house. Sidney Glanville, the Coopers, Mabel Smith, four of the Bulls, Trevor Hall, Marianne Foyster, Harry and Constance Price, the Foyster family, Edwin Whitehouse, the Hennings and many, many other people, and no one ever mentioned or even hinted at such a person as this author."
Underwood has firmly debunked the debunker and shown who the faker really is.