Book Should be Pulled From Circulation
by Vincent O'Neil
In the initial flashy round of publicity for "We Faked the Ghosts Of Borley Rectory" by Louis Mayerling, no journalist or reviewer verified the claims made. That is extremely unfortunate, as the book contains a great many flaws.
I have been told there are plans to reissue the book after a certain amount of re-editing. Any re-issue will be a tacit admission that the following criticisms are true. However, no amount of re-editing will salvage this book, as the problems indicated here only scratch the surface - there are many more.
At this time, I am formally requesting the publisher to pull the book from distribution. Mayerling has offered to compensate me for the unauthorized use of some of my material, but money is not the issue. The truth is a far more valuable commidity.
My mother was the former Marianne Foyster, who lived at the rectory for five years, and who is the subject of much fantasy at the hands of Mr. Mayerling.
I feel sorrow that age has deteriorated his faculties to the extent that his current and future contributions to the field must be considered, at best, entertaining fiction.
Much of the criticism against Louis has been written by his own hand. In a package dated 6 December 2000 which reached me 27 December, he admits to several key mistakes. I have listed these - along with several others - at the bottom of this article. The supporting evidence to this list can be found on my borleyrectory.com web site under the heading "Louis Mayerling's House of Cards." http://www.borleyrectory.com/mayerling/pickacard.htm
The complete list of documents related to the Mayerling release is also listed on my web site. It includes proof of his birth in England, not Vienna; a picture of the watch he claims my mother gave to him; and proof he had access to my writings prior to writing his book. http://www.borleyrectory.com/mayerling/mayerling.htm
Most of the photos in his book are very grainy with little definition - clearly second and third generation copies from other sources but with his own creative labeling. The incorrect labels themselves give him away to even the most casual Borley reader familiar with the originals in the Harry Price and Ivan Banks books. For one piece of self-incriminating evidence, he sent me proof he had lifted the skewered photo of Marianne - imaginatively labeled "at 18" from a TV log. http://www.borleyrectory.com/mayerling/skewered.htm
I very much want to like Louis - at one time I thought we were good friends. Unfortunately, I believe he has used that friendship for his own profit - at my emotional expense. He has used material and photos from my various works - as well as others - without authorization. If he sent a letter requesting permission, it never reached me, but my phone number has not changed in over 15 years. Absent my approval, the photos and paraphrased text should not have been used.
One by one he has pulled the cards away with his own hands. It would aid his case immensely if he would show a visitor just three of the questioned items he talks about - the inscribed watch my mother supposedly gave him (http://www.borleyrectory.com/biblio/LMwatch.htm), her passport photo, and the charts showing the floor plans of the rectory. The photo and the charts should show the appropriate age, not some modern copy paper backing.
In a similar vein, I have proof he read my manuscripts and edited them in 1995 (http://www.borleyrectory.com/mayerling/edit.htm). I am temporarily allowing public access to one of my manuscripts, which has been on the Internet since approximately 1995, but formerly available only to authorized associates of the Borley Ghost Society. For a very limited time, go to http://www.borleyrectory.com/secure_books/marianne/momcontents.htm and enter USERNAME: bgsmember, PASSWORD: J63ftBwp
His clever use of editing tools belie his claims of near blindness. Witness the creative cover, the flying brick creation, and the lifting of my mother's portrait to be laid in front of a new background. It does not take a forensic scientist to see the edits, but they were obviously created by someone with skill and - vision.
These are just a few items in a long chain that challenges the whole. You can only pull away so many cards before the entire house of cards collapses.
Practically all of his sources are not longer alive to protest the use of their material, but I am, and I ask him to stop. Two adopted sons, two adopted daughters, a natural granddaughter, and a natural great grandson survive Marianne. Although I cannot speak for anyone else still alive, this work is harmful to the memory of our common ancestor and should be pulled from circulation.
Vincent O'Neil
P.O. Box 12911
Ogden, UT 84412
USA
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1. The very first card of the rapidly crumbling house that Mayerling built, was pulled out by Louis himself. In the December 6 letter, Mayerling offers to compensate me. "I will willingly pay you, say £150 for the privilege of keeping them in the book.. . . . or I can offer a one-off sum of cash, depending on the success and sales."
2. Another card disappears from his house in the same letter of December 6. He admits using the photo of my mother taken when she received her Pope John XXIII award. "Your book [Who Am I? the Mysterious Search for My Identity] was never desecrated in any way. M. at 83 was merely photographed and a more suitable background inserted. . . . a staircase at Bramshill House in Hampshire." Only one instance of unauthorized use from an original source is needed to seal the indictment, but he presents even more evidence against himself in the accompanying 10 page letter - portions of which have been posted on my web site (leaving out some private material). In those pages the reader will find additional confessions.
3. He also used my mother's passport photo, taken directly from within the pages of my book Who Am I? without my permission. Neither this picture, nor the one of my mother at age 83 (see 2) have been published anywhere else, until he reproduced them without permission. He has admitted to using one of the photos (see 2) without permission, but claims he has a copy of the passport photo in his possession. It is remarkable that passport photos in different frames could look so identical. If he has it, let him show it in public - and it should show the appropriate age, with no hint of modern photo paper as it was taken in 1945-46. He claims to have mailed a request to me seeking permission to use these photos, but it never arrived. I have had the same phone number since 1985. Absent permission, neither of this photos should have been reproduced.
4. He admitted to me in this same letter he used two versions of my mother's signature from page 95 of my book Who Am I? on page 156 of "Faked" without obtaining permission from me. "I have explained about M's signature [not directly] and photos and, in consequence, of their use I can offer [to pay you] for their continued use."
5. His package included an admission he had lifted the "skewered photo" of Marianne - imaginatively labeled "at 18" from a TV log.
6. In the same letter, he told me, "The marriage photo of Price Feodor. This, of course is quite ridiculous. It is of my own marriage reception to Barbara." 7. "So my birth certificate has been winkled out. Well, this would have been simple, its there for anybody to find." George Frank David Carter was born in Wood Green, Middlesex, not Vienna. 8. "I am thinking that it might be very interesting to reveal your own CV for others to digest." This threat of blackmail has three prongs to point back at Mayerling. a) it shows he is familiar with my life story, as told in my book Who Am I? and the other manuscripts I sent him. b) my CV is already posted on the Internet, and all of the identical manuscript material has also been in the hands of several other people around the world since 1995. It has been shared on-line with associates of the Borley Ghost Society and others since before 1998. c) since all my writings are concerned with tracing my heritage, any verifiable and documented information he can add to my search will be welcome!
9. He admits in his letter, "Mrs. Wilson's Strange Insect" was taken from Most Haunted House. He claims he tried to get copyright clearance, could find no one to help him, so he decided to insert "copyright unestablished." No such notation was included.
10. The next card is not removed by Mayerling, but by those who have had access to my material since 1994-95. Some of the information he uses is taken from Who Am I? The Mysterious Search for my Identity which I published in 1994. I printed 75 copies of this book, one of which I sent to Mayerling. Another copy is in the Harry Price Library at the University of London. Other copies have been sent to relatives and friends throughout the world, including the Copyright Office in Washington D.C. ISBN 0-9644938-1-0, registered February 6, 1995. He was also given copies of manuscripts I posted on the Internet for the exclusive access by members of the Borley Ghost Society. These manuscripts are available only by password. Mayerling claims that he never read any of these manuscripts. . . . .
. . . . but I have pages and pages of his edits and comments in my files. He not only read my manuscripts, but used the material in them - either consciously or subconsciously. 11. Mayerling sums up the history of my mother's love interests on page 147 of his book. "It was perfectly obvious that Marianne's life was being governed by sexual desires, and perhaps always had been." Yet, in a November 25, 1995 letter to me, he indicated "just the opposite" was true.
12. The watch purportedly given to him by Marianne shows no trace of an inscription.
13. In some of my comments upon reading his book, I mentioned that it looked like Mayerling must have had access to the original research done by Trevor Hall - never published. The results of that research, however, have been published - in my various manuscripts, where were available to Mayerling. Louis missed the point, and claims to have not know Hall very well. Yet if he did NOT know Hall that well, how is it on page 108 of his book he states, "I retained [Lionel's diaries] until 30 years later, when having no further use for them, they were handed to Trevor Hall." Such a valuable resource was handed to someone he never knew "well at all?"
14. In one of his edits sent to me December 17, 1995, he changed the name of Willie der Hurberg to Leonard. He went back to the original in his book.
15. Trevor Hall was extremely thorough, and never discovered the name Willie OR Leonard der Hurberg - even though Mayerling claims in his book that Marianne and Willie lived together.
16. Mayerling claims all of my mother's letters were lost in 1965 or 1966 during a fire. Yet in his book he talks about a "wealth of correspondence from Marianne"which continued into her 90s by his account. That means even after the fire, there is over 30 years for SOME shred of her letters to remain. On page 252, he quotes at length from an eight page letter from my mother dated August 1989, which he surely must still possess - if he ever knew the woman at all.
17. Another important card is removed when looking at evidence I have accumulated over the years. In his book, Mayerling makes countless references to Marianne assisting with the haunting. This flies directly in the face of what she told her own son, Ian, in a letter from April, 1956: "What set out as a bit of fun can surely get one into trouble. Not that I ever did haunt Borley. There were plenty of others who did that. It was haunted since 1860 and that's a little before my time." She told Trevor Hall on July 3, 1956: "I do not know who did the haunting . . . .If you mean did I haunt the place, the answer is No. And there is nothing going to make me say I did, not all the pressure because of life can make me."
18. There was no gas at Borley. It was not mentioned by Price, by any of the tenants, or in the inventory of 1938.
19. Harry Price never mentions him - by any name.
20. Ivan Banks never discovered him - by any name - during years of research at the Harry Price Library.
21. Iris Owen never heard of him.
22. Peter Underwood never heard of him.
23. Trevor Hall never mentioned him in 600 pages of research on Marianne.
24 - 30. Neither Marilyn Monroe, George Bernard Shaw, T.E. Lawrence, Bernard Spilsbury, Sir Bertram Montague (sic) nor the Prince of Wales and Mrs. Simpson ever mention any of his names.
31. By his own admission, he mis-identified Sir Montague Norman as Sir Bertram Montague
32. Molly Alcock points out in the Suffolk Free Press "the photograph entitled the 'small and gloomy' dining room, was in fact a photograph of the drawing room at Borley Rectory, which measured some 16 feet by 22 feet and had a large, full length, bay window - neither small or gloomy!"
33. Edward Babbs points out in the Suffolk Free Press "I have consulted two long-time professional musicians who have never heard of him under either name, and these names do not appear in the current edition of the directory issued by the Musicians Union."
34. Andrew Clarke points out in the Suffolk Free Press "there was no young family there at [the time Mayerling claims he visited as a child]."
35. Andrew Clarke points out in the Suffolk Free Press "Elsie would have been 43 at the time [Mayerling claims he slept in her bed]."
36. Mayerling has responded to Clarke by saying "The person who made this claim [about Elsie] is clearly trying desperately to disconcert the reader and trying to muddy the waters." There was no other Elsie associated with Borley, and certainly no Elsie who was a 'rectory child' in 1919-20. - Andrew Clarke
37. Andrew Clarke points out in the Suffolk Free Press Georgie talked to "one of the many Press men" ten years before the story broke. His claims about being interviewed as a child at Borley - years before the Price publicity in 1929 - can be proven false by checking the newspaper morgues in Sudbury.
38. Two photos are not of the actual rectory, but of the model commissioned by Peter Underwood.
39. The plans of the rectory are modified from the originals found in The Most Haunted House in England and The End of Borley Rectory by Harry Price.
40. The photos of the drawing room and the dining room labeled as being taken by Mabel Bull, are identified as being from the collection of Eric Dingwall in The Enigma of Borley Rectory by Ivan Banks.
41. The "Plan of the Garden" identified as from a 1922 survey, and the "Plan of the Cellar" have been modified from drawings made by Sidney Glanville for EBR.
42. Alan Wesencraft, curator of the Harry Price Library for many years, never ran across any reference to Mayerling.
43. The July 28, 1900 appearance of the nun was to the four sisters only. No servant was with them.
44. The skull was found by Mrs. Smith in a cupboard in the library, not on her bed.
45. In a couple of places Mayerling asserts something which I can personally deny. He states that my mother "had seriously reflected upon the earth-bound doctrines of paganism," (p. 209) and that she "took an interest in a paganistic form of faith." (p. 220) Indeed, quite the opposite was true. In his pursuit of us for Trevor Hall, private detective Robert Swanson found that "the O'Neil's were registered members of the St. Peter's Parish in Hokah, Minnesota. They had been assessed $45 pew rent." This was soon after our arrival in the United States. As I grew up, I attended my First Communion dressed all in white. I learned my Latin and became an altar boy. We had an ancient, elongated crucifix with a black cross and a hand-carved Christ. We also had a more substantial brown and silver crucifix. There was a picture of the Virgin Mary, and a statue of the Christ child. Psalms were my mother's favorite scriptures, but she was totally familiar with most books of the Bible. Her conversations and her letters were replete with spiritual references. No, Mr. Mayerling, my mother was definitely not a pagan at any time. Although seemingly small and insignificant in his book, his statement about paganism is one more linchpin that by itself topples Mayerling's house of cards.
In a 6 December 2000 communique, Louis defended his claim by writing, "I do not think I ever said she was "in America" when she was "pagan." This "pagan" idea came about one sultry afternoon when, with Lionel asleep in his chapel, we were dancing around on the lawn to the tune of a new popular waltz record just in from the States. This was called "A Pagan Love Song." It was during this that Marianne said, "Yess, that's for me. I think I must be pagan." IF such a reverie took place, a casual observation of the moment does not translate in to a serious reflection "upon the earth-bound doctrines of paganism." The Harry Price record is replete with times of prayer and preparations for services during the Borley years - the 30s. One of the children in her care in Suffolk of the 40s told me personally, "She could be very loving and she put on some lovely Christmases, which was very difficult during war time. I was very grateful to her for arranging my studies for the priesthood." My own record of her decidedly non-pagan life carries forward from the 50s. During our years together, their were never any symbols of a pagan nature, nor any literature - the most ubiquitous periodical in our home being The Catholic Digest. There is no time left for her to be a pagan, Mr. Mayerling.
46. Another card to be pulled from his house is his quote from me on page 253. It was not from a letter to Louis, but from various pages of The Most Haunted Woman in England which he claims to not have read thoroughly: specifically, the last page of Chapter 15, "On December 18, 1992, the staff at the nursing home read a letter to Mom from some of the children she left in England. It said simply: 'To Morny; From all over here - love and forgiveness.' At the same time, my son Sean was sitting at the dining room table in Holmen, Wisconsin. He looked up at his mother and quietly said, 'Grandma O'Neil just died.' I was not with her." And the last page of Chapter 16, "After her death, I missed her so much. For several months after she died, I caught myself reaching for the phone to call her. Even now, I sometimes try to talk to her in my mind and reflect on how she might respond to certain situations. While she was alive, I pretty much ignored her advice - now I apply her wisdom to almost every decision. She touched so many lives and made them better. Regardless of what went 'before,' and regardless of the ghosts that haunted her all her life, she helped scores of people - even me."
47. Five years before writing this book, Mayerling wrote that the wall writings were the end product of his gift of pencils to Adelaide and Francois Jr. Why has this explanation been dropped from the book?
48. Would a rectors' wife as promiscuous as Mayerling has portrayed Marianne be allowed to remain?
49. Would a rector addicted to opium, as Mayerling claims, be allowed to keep his parish?
50. His quote from me on page 253 was not from a letter to Louis, but from various pages of The Most Haunted Woman in England which he claims to not have read thoroughly: specifically, the last page of Chapter 15, "On December 18, 1992, the staff at the nursing home read a letter to Mom from some of the children she left in England. It said simply: ‘To Morny; From all over here - love and forgiveness.' At the same time, my son Sean was sitting at the dining room table in Holmen, Wisconsin. He looked up at his mother and quietly said, ‘Grandma O'Neil just died.' I was not with her." And the last page of Chapter 16, "After her death, I missed her so much. For several months after she died, I caught myself reaching for the phone to call her. Even now, I sometimes try to talk to her in my mind and reflect on how she might respond to certain situations. While she was alive, I pretty much ignored her advice - now I apply her wisdom to almost every decision. She touched so many lives and made them better. Regardless of what went 'before,' and regardless of the ghosts that haunted her all her life, she helped scores of people - even me."
51. I copied my mother's naturalization record verbatim on page 74 of Who Am I? as mentioned on page 250 in his book.
52. In his December 6, 2000 letter, Mayerling told me, "It was my first sight of one of [the rectory] building plans hanging on the wall of the Rev. Bull's study that first kindled an everlasting interest in cartography." When Louis was six, the Rev Bull did not have a study in the rectory. His study was at Borley Place, where he was living. - Andrew Clarke
Joker. He claims to be almost blind, yet he has the ability to create the artful cover of his book, the flying brick photo, and to edit the picture of my mother - cutting out the trees in the background and inserting Bramshill House.