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  • Frantic Friends?

    I am starting this thread to argue that there have been a number of new sources discovered, in relatively recent years, which puts Macnaghten-Druitt back in play as a likely, if not the likeliest solution to the 'Jack the Ripper' mystery (eg. it's not a mystery to certain primary sources).


    1. Andrew Spallek's identification of the 'West of England' MP as a near-neighbour of the (Tory) Druitts and a fellow upper class, Old Etonian, clubby Tory, and Indian plantation-owner like Macnaghten -- Henry Richard Farquhrason.

    2. The new 'West of England' M.P. source recently found by Paul Begg -- who does not agree with my interpretation of its significance -- which establishes, again, the theme of certainty about Druitt's guilt, and that Mac is thus the 'odd man out' in terms of police disagreeing with M.P. Farquharson's 'remarkable theory'.

    3. My focus, over several published articles, arguing for the primacy of Mac's 'Laying the Ghost of Jack the Ripper' 1914, over Mac's own internal Reports and Sir Robert Anderson's memoirs on this subject. For example, Macnaghten does not confirm Farquharson's error about Druitt killing himself 'the same evening', but rather provides a loose twenty-four hour gap. This is too long for the maniac to be staggering around, a bloody, shrieking husk while facing no impediment to his watery grave (the method and location of suicide are, understandably, with-held by Mac).

    4. The likelihood, I argue, that the 'North Country Vicar' article of 1899 and the clergyman's piece 'The Whitechurch [sic] Murders--Solution to a London Mystery' are not only about Druitt, they provide an explanation for the family's extraordinary belief in their tragic member's culpability (he confessed to a priest) and the modus operandi for Mac's turning Mr. Druitt into Dr. Jekyll: 'substantial truth in fictitious form'.

    But the most critical breakthrough, I argue, was in realising that Sims is a Macnaghten source-by-proxy. That he was feeding the writer more exaggerated-fictionalised bits about Druitt, not in his 'Reports'. Eventually I noticed -- it only took three years -- that there is a detail in these writings which could not come from P.C. Moulson's Report, and yet which Mac knew and passed onto his famous literary and Liberal pal: that the fiend's brother, William, was frantically looking for his missing sibling.

    Acton, Chiswick & Turnham Green Gazette
    United Kingdom
    Saturday, 5 January 1889
    FOUND DROWNED.
    — Shortly after mid-day on Monday, a waterman named Winslade, of Chiswick, found the body of a man, well-dressed, floating in the Thames off Thorneycroft's ... Witness heard from a friend on the 11th of December that deceased had not been heard of at his chambers for more than a week. Witness then went to London to make inquiries, and at Blackheath he found that deceased had got into serious trouble at the school, and had been dismissed ...


    In 1898, Major Griffiths working from Mac's 'Aberconway' version changed the Druitt family into anomic 'friends', and this discreet alteration, to protect everybody concerned, was continued by Sims -- whether he knew it was 'substantial truth in fictitious form' or not?

    George Sims, as Dagonet, in his 'Mustard and Cress' column in 'The Referee' Feb 16th, 1902

    ... At the time his dead body was found in the Thames, his friends, who were terrified at his disappearance from their midst, were endeavouring to have him found and placed under restraint again.

    Sims under his own name in 'Lloyds Weekly' magazine, Sept 22nd 1907, 'My Criminal Museum--Who was Jack the Ripper?

    The doctor had been an inmate of a lunatic asylum for some time, and had been liberated and regained his complete freedom.

    After the maniacal murder in Miller's-court the doctor disappeared from the place in which he had been living, and his disappearance caused inquiries to be made concerning him by his friends who had, there is reason to believe, their own suspicions about him, and these inquiries were made through the proper authorities.

    A month after the last murder the body of the doctor was found in the Thames. There was everything about it to suggest that it had been in the river for nearly a month.



    To know that William Druitt was desperately looking for his missing Montague you have either heard the whole story from not just the M.P. but intimates of Druitt -- like his family, or a family member -- or, you have at the very least read what we can read in the 1889 press account. which would also tell you that Druitt was a young barrister, who killed himself three weeks after the Kelly atrocity.

    People used to ask me if there was any evidence in the meagre extant record that Macnagahten knew more about Druitt than just PC Moulson's Report (which would have given Mac the name, date of the body's recovery, and the train ticket found in a pocket) that is accurate, and the answer is yes: see above.

    Whether by fortuitous accident or by sly design, Druitt morphed into a middle-aged doctor further protecting the Druitts, but Mac originally knew the basic biog. data about his preferred suspect -- and that blows the old paradigm to smithereens.

    I can understand a Trevor Marriott dismissing this fragment as nothing; as too second-hand (eg. it's not even a source by Macnaghten) but that is looking like at it as a trained-professional member of law enforcement -- as in can an arrest be made? Historical methodology has a much lower standard of 'evidence' than that because the solution does not have to be absolute (eg. a conviction in court) rather it is openly provisional and thus subject to revision.

    I would like to see debate on this point about the semi-fictional 'frantic friends', and whether others agree, or not, that it is a significant breakthrough?

  • #2
    Hi Jonathan,

    The fact that you presented an argument and new evidence comes to light which falls nicely into place is quite compelling.

    Sincerely,

    Mike
    The Ripper's Haunts/JtR Suspect Dr. Francis Tumblety (Sunbury Press)
    http://www.michaelLhawley.com

    Comment


    • #3
      Hi Jonathan

      In the passage in the Memorandum "A much more rational theory is that the murderer's brain gave way altogether after his awful glut in Miller's Court, and that he immediately committed suicide, or, as a possible alternative, was found to be so hopelessly mad by his relations, that he was by them confined in some asylum" the mention of an asylum is normally taken to be a reference to Kosminski. In view of the rumours about Druitt's already having been in an asylum, do you think that Macnaghten could actually have still been talking about Druitt, and giving two alternative fates for him? I'm wondering if Macnaghten perhaps checked the death registers for 1888, expecting to see Druitt's name (as he believed him to have died in November) and when he didn't find Druitt, giving up, and wondering if he might have gone to an asylum instead. A similar but not identical thing happened to Farson, but Farson did find Druitt's death in 1889.

      Comment


      • #4
        truth

        Hello Jonathan. Of course it is significant. And I, for one, should be discouraged to see research end on the "top suspects"--even though I do not subscribe to any of them at present.

        Regarding Druitt, one wishes that:

        1. Mac had come clean. Once truth becomes embellished, it becomes difficult to maintain trust.

        2. The Vicar had come clean. He admitted to some gerrymandering.

        But perhaps, some day, the truth will out?

        Cheers.
        LC

        Comment


        • #5
          To Lynn

          I think you put the strongest of all counter-arguments.

          What I have established, I believe, is that Macnaghten again and again manipulated data depending on the context and the audience.

          But then how you can build a solid theory for reliability having shown a source to be persistently unreliable?

          My answer, for what it is worth, is that the titbit sources on the MP show that the notion of Druitt, as a Ripper suspect, predates the 'Report(s), and if the Vicar is referring to Druitt then that is further independent confirmation, outside of Mac's machinations.

          To Robert

          It's possible, of course.

          But I don't think so because Macnaghten knows that William was searching for Montie (if you accept that Sims is a Mac source-by-proxy) and to know that, it is likely you also know the basics about Druitt -- at the very least from the 1889 press accounts.

          Plus there is no evidence that Druitt was 'rumoured' to have been sectioned. That was his mother, though I think the family were preparing to have Montie go the same way ('to go like mother') as they believed -- rightly or wrongly -- that he was the Ripper. They had learned that he had confessed to a priest and they scrambled to have him committed. The jig was up, though nothing to do with the constabulary, and so he took his own life, taking precautions to appear to have abruptly gone abroad (this got him sacked from his cricket club and perhaps from the school too)

          On the other hand, I do think that Macnaghten borrowed details about Druitt and superimposed them onto the semi-fictional figure of 'Kosminski'; that he was deceased and that his family 'suspected the worst'. Neither was true, though I accept the Evans-Rumbelow theory that Aaron Kosminski's name had appeared on some kind of police list of possibles.

          The suggestion, for me, is untenable that Macnaghten, the 'action man' obsessed with solving the Whitechapel mystery, would have left any stone unturned about Druitt as he had the name, and in Farquharson he had a near-neighbour of the family who had, somehow, learned of their terrible secret. From his fellow Old Etonian, Mac learned the whole story, and we see the veiled version of this in Sims where the 'police' already know of the 'demented doctor' before they meet with the 'friends'.

          Comment


          • #6
            Thanks Jonathan. Like you, I think there is still mileage in the Druitt theory.

            Comment


            • #7
              Marginally puzzled

              Hi Jonathan

              Still getting my head around all this...

              So (and this may well be a naive question) in this theory, where exactly does Swanson fit in with all this please? Is he simply Mac's dupe, or is he (even privately) backing up what he knows is a lie, or is there some more to come?

              Cheers

              Dave

              Comment


              • #8
                Hi All,

                There is a paradox here, is there not? If Druitt was insane, how much reliance could be placed on a confession, even if it is accepted that he made one? If he was insane, he could believe that he was the Ripper, even if he was not.

                Regards, Bridewell
                I won't always agree but I'll try not to be disagreeable.

                Comment


                • #9
                  To Dave

                  In my opinion since Anderson's interview of 1892 arguably shows him with no cognition about a prime suspect 'safely caged', and Swanson's actions over Coles in 1891 showed a policeman still believing that the fiend was still active, I do not think they knew anything about 'kosminski' until much later.

                  Anderson, and perhaps Swanson, asserting the locked-up lunatic as the prime suspect appears as late as 1895, after Ripper agitation over William Grant came to nothing, in terms of the previous Whitechapel crimes.

                  Anderson and/or Swanson think 'Kosminski' was incarcerated around early 1889, that he was dead, and later that there was a witness 'confrontation' which left little doubt as to his guilt.

                  The first two elements are plain wrong and the third is highly dubious since they were using Lawende to 'confront' Sadler -- and maybe Grant -- and therefore were not sure at that time of the guilt of this Polish Jew.

                  But Macnaghten knew that he was alive ('Aberconway'), knew that he was out an about for a considerable length of time (Sims, 1907) and that there was no witness whose evidence was definitive (Mac, 1914).

                  Secondary sources almost never rigorously compare the facts about Aaron Kosminski with Macnaghten's knowledge because they are too busy picking over the bones of Anderson and Swanson.

                  In my opinion the Marginalia is Donald recording the opinion of his ex-boss and not one he agrees with, hence never making a public comment of support for Anderson or even telling his family, here have a look at the name of the Ripper (just the surname, take note, as in Mac's Reports).

                  Nobody agrees with me.

                  I think that in the midst of the Grant investigation of 1895, Mac pretended to find, at that moment, hot information about 'Kosminski' and told Anderson, who swallowed it hook, line, and sinker as it exploited two of his notions: that un-cooperative Polish Jews had shielded the fiend, and his Medieval attitude to masturbation.

                  The reason Anderson and/or Swanson did not check what Mac was hustling them, was that the suspect was supposedly dead and they would not want to upset a hornet's nest by questioning the family. In 1895, Anderson honestly and forthrightly told the media of the 'solution'. As the years passed and his memory failed him -- but his ego remained robust -- he dragged in elements of the Sadler tale.

                  In his memoirs, Macnaghten considered 'Kosminski' (and Ostrog) as nothing; as not worth mentioning even to debunk.

                  This sub-theory, of Mac misleading Anderson, is considered breathtakingly ludicrous by very distinguished authors on this subject, to the point where it discredits me as a serious theorist -- and exposes me as some kind of frustrated novelist.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Hi Jonathan

                    Ok, from the more traditional viewpoint, seen all at once, you must admit it all appears somewhat dazing...

                    You're suggesting both Anderson and Swanson were duped, the one hooked by his own prejudices, the other by a dubious sense of loyalty...

                    It's an attractive proposition in some ways, but even allowing for advancing age, looking at his career background, RA was a man with a seemingly natural machiavellian mind...and Swanson was no duffer...methodical maybe, but not daft...

                    Would they be so easily taken in?

                    I'll need to think about it at greater length but I'm not convinced...but thanks very much Jonathan for your patience and courtesy in replying

                    All the best

                    Dave

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      To Dave

                      What I am getting at is that Anderson's (and maybe Swanson's) mistakes about 'Kosminski' are fundamental, whereas Macnaghten, arguably, does not make the same mistakes about this same suspect.

                      This has been missed by recent researchers because Mac is sidelined, left floundering in the ghetto of his own 'errors' about Druitt.

                      To my knowledge, that Mac knew that 'Kosminski' was probably alive ('Aberconway') while Anderson --according to his son's biog. -- thought he was dead soon after incarceration, and that Swanson seems to have agreed, or at least did know enough to disagree (eg. his 1895 comment) has not been rigorously assessed by secondary sources. That Aaron kosminski was indeed still alive, until 1919.

                      The implications for the plausibility of this suspect are diabolical.

                      In Sims, 1907, Mac through his mouthpiece-pal distanced himself from his own 'Report' ('Aberconway' version) by having the famous writer claim that the Polish Jew suspect could not be 'Jack' because he had been out and about for too long after the Kelly murder. That is quite a different emphasis from Griffiths, who in 1898 had written that this same suspect was sectioned 'shortly after' the same murder, making him a possible suspect. It also matches the real Aaron Kosminski.

                      A strong historical argument can be made that Aaron Kosminski was never subjected to a witness identification with a Jewish witness. Again, Mac agrees by withdrawing what he had told Sims about a beat cop witness seeing a man who resembled the Jewish suspect, in his memoirs. In that 1914 source, in the sahdow of Anderson's 1901 memoirs, Mac's beat cop witness, who never literally existed, now sees nothing definitive --nothing 'satisfactory'.

                      That's the bedrock of my point of view, and I am trying to come up with a theory which makes all the disparate bits and pieces fit together.

                      To Bridewell

                      I totally agree.

                      Druitt could have confessed to his cousin, the Reverend Charles, that he was the fiend on the nights he was supposed to be night-warden at the shool and all he was really doing was sitting on a park-bench imagining he was Jack the Ripper. Because he seemed lucid, and did murder himself, the family were taken in, and subsequently an MP and a police chief.

                      On the other hand, a family of physicians are less likely to be taken in. Plus the soucres are all going against their expected bias of 1) wanting to get a family off the hook by claiming he is just ga ga, and 2) Macnaghten is going against his class bias and his love for the Yard in attaching any merit to the family's 'belief'.

                      For it was a tarbaby of a tale which, if not carefully 'spun', could bring nothing but trouble for all concerned.

                      So the full story must have all checked out as kochser for Mac in 1891?

                      Perhaps they had found the blood-knife, the bloody clothes. There had been some violent incidents with harlots before. He had been part of the Oxonain movement to help in the East End, and thus knew those mean streets well. He was also known to be suffering from what they then called 'epileptic mania'; a sort of Jekyll and Hyde split personality -- and the Hyde side of the equation could be ferocious.

                      I think all these sources had a bias towards getting the dead Druitt off in exactly that way -- mad not bad -- and yet, and yet they couldn't.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Hi Jonathan

                        What I am getting at is that Anderson's (and maybe Swanson's) mistakes about 'Kosminski' are fundamental, whereas Macnaghten, arguably, does not make the same mistakes about this same suspect.

                        This has been missed by recent researchers because Mac is sidelined, left floundering in the ghetto of his own 'errors' about Druitt.
                        No I got the implications of that OK...I'm just balking at the implied limitations of (particularly) Anderson's intellect...even allowing for his losing touch with day to day contact and the effects of age, I still can't get he's going downhill so fast...this is, after all, one very sharp cookie indeed, with a history of political awareness...

                        Not saying you're wrong...(I'm certainly not qualified even to hazard an opinion on that!)...just reserving my position and pondering!

                        All the best

                        Dave

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Oh, I'm probably wrong.

                          It's just that Anderson is so weirdly isolated in the extant record of police sources once he starts bragging about his locked-up lunatic from 1895.

                          Nobody backs him among the cops.

                          Smith denounces the notion directly. Macnaghten, when not talking through his cronies, dismisses the suspect by omission. Reid and Abberline assume -- wrongly --that it is all just a press beat-up. Abd Swanson never overlly backed his beloved old chief either.

                          Yet Macnaghten, in his shifty internal reports, did know about this suepct and seems to have hadn much more access to accurate information.

                          In his memoir chapter.'Laying the Ghost of Jack the Ripper' he claims that on virtually his first day he was sifting thriough Ripper-hoax letters.

                          Why not also sifting through the house-to-house search lists, or some sort of police lists from 1888, and methodically checking as to the fates of some of the more obscure possibles?

                          At some point Mac discovered that Aaron Kosminski had been permanently sectioned for threatening his sister-in-law with a knife. He quietly investigated him at the madhouse, and accessed the info. that he was a chronic masturbator.

                          Isn't it possible that since there was nobody to arrest, and , allegedly, nobody to even go and have a look at in a cell if Mac fibbed to Anderson that the man was long deceased, then Macnaghten was taking a small, calculated risk that his desk-bound boss would do no checking.

                          That chatting with Mac is the checking?!

                          Any further probing of the asylum records or the family was a potentilly dangerous folly, as it could bring the hated tabloids into play, not to mention the libel courts -- which Anderson alludes to in 1910.

                          So Anderson just accepted what his second-in-command told him: that 'Kosminski' had been sectioned in March of 1889, by then little more than a masturbating husk, that he obviously had homicidal tendencies, which had finally extended to his own fmaily who 'suspected the worst and who prompltly had him put away. And he was a Polisj Jew: the very ethnic group who won't help 'Gentile Justice'

                          And 'Kosminski' was on one of our 1888 lists, so you sort of identified him, sir, well done.

                          Sims in 1907 claims that the Polish Jew suspect had worked in a hospital in Poland. So far as I know, modern reserachers like Rob House have never found any corroboration for this detail. I would argue it is yet another example of Mac's fictionalising agenda, eg. this suspect worked in a hospital and thus picked up some crude surgical sklls -- the bounder!

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            agreed

                            Hello Jonathan. Thanks.

                            "What I have established, I believe, is that Macnaghten again and again manipulated data depending on the context and the audience."

                            Completely agree.

                            Cheers.
                            LC

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              tragic figure

                              Hello Robert. And what's more, he is the last of the tragic figures left standing--the kind that drew me to the case long ago.

                              Cheers.
                              LC

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