Who is Kilroy Maxwell Wright? - Page 1
[Archivists note: The following is a digital transcript of a type-written transcript of a hand written document.]
The text below has been taken from the notebooks of D.N. recovered from the fire of the Fifty-Seventh Library. It has not been edited to fix typos, improper use of grammar, outdated language, or incoherent rambling.
Draft 1.2
More on the phrase: ”Kilroy was here”
Kilroy (A.K.A. Killroy) Maxwell Wright is one of the most well known names within the Old House communities. Many believe it is little more than an inside joke amongst Guides (several Guides I met had tattoos of the phrase: ‘Kilroy was here’, usually in morse code, usually on the leg or inner forearm. Though I interviewed one guide in Minnesota who had the phrase tattooed on his neck ((surrounded by other tattoos))–clearly future employment is not a priority for these people). Inside joke or not, it is inarguably an evolution (or, in my opinion, a blatant ripoff) of the famous “Kilroy was here” graffiti tag started during World War II by American G.I.s.
I would not be wasting time talking about such an irreverent topic, if not for the alleged appearance of the tag in “impossible places”.
Take the story where deep sea researchers (allegedly) found the phrase carved onto the side of a thermal heating vent on the eastern wall of Ackerman’s Trench in the Gelsheimer Plane of the Northern Atlantic. (This carving has only one “L”)
Photos of this have been circulating for a while, though skepticism about their veracity remains high. (As with every single Old House related photo, accusations of doctored imagery are common, I’ve seen at least one 3 hour YouTube video essay dedicated to debunking the photos). If one is curious, a simple Google search of “kilroy was here ackerman trench” should bring the image up.
In my opinion, the image itself is less compelling than the alleged research surrounding it. Marine geologist Agatha Rory O’Brien claims that samples taken dated the carving back approximately 5.97 million years (for reference the first cave paintings are dated back only 73,000 years).
Unsurprisingly, Agatha Rory O'Brien and all related names have not responded to any of my requests for interview. (Update: as of (date sharpied out) Miss O'Brien's family has informed me that she passed away. My condolences to all who knew her).
Another instance claims that “Killroy was Here” (notably with two “L’s”) was found carved into a stone pillar at Göbekli Tepe (Wikipedia: Göbekli Tepe (Turkish: [ɟœbecˈli teˈpe], ‘Potbelly Hill’; Kurdish: Girê Mirazan or Xerabreşkê, ‘Wish Hill’) is a Neolithic archaeological site in Upper Mesopotamia (al-Jazira) in modern-day Turkey.
The settlement was inhabited from around 9500 BCE to at least 8000 BCE, during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN). Archeologists initially, and reasonably, assumed the carving must have been put there by a modern day human.
But further tests indicated the carving was put there approximately the same time the structure was built. Of course, any concrete evidence of carbon dating or other methods of dating have conveniently eluded the public.