Most ridiculous suspect

[Herlock Sholmes]

hey herlock

"Because serial killers never have normal ’other’ lives do they? They don’t marry, work, have kids, have hobbies, play sports of course. They walk around wearing ragged, bloodied clothing constantly foaming at the mouth and trying to bite anyone that passes by. "

sounds like kosminski

Strange eh?

[Abby Normal]

Because serial killers never have normal ’other’ lives do they? They don’t marry, work, have kids, have hobbies, play sports of course. They walk around wearing ragged, bloodied clothing constantly foaming at the mouth and trying to bite anyone that passes by. And those trophy taking killers don’t stash their trophies away do they? No of course not, they simply stuff them under their coats and take them to work with them.

Id give up any hopes of a career in criminology if I were you.

hey herlock

"Because serial killers never have normal ’other’ lives do they? They don’t marry, work, have kids, have hobbies, play sports of course. They walk around wearing ragged, bloodied clothing constantly foaming at the mouth and trying to bite anyone that passes by. "

sounds like kosminski

[Herlock Sholmes]

Bat-eared fox, indigenous to Africa - didn't Deeming spend some time there??

Can we now add Basil Brush to our list Wulf? To be honest, I never trusted him.

[Aethelwulf]

Bat-eared fox, indigenous to Africa - didn't Deeming spend some time there??

[Herlock Sholmes]

Because serial killers never have normal ’other’ lives do they? They don’t marry, work, have kids, have hobbies, play sports of course. They walk around wearing ragged, bloodied clothing constantly foaming at the mouth and trying to bite anyone that passes by. And those trophy taking killers don’t stash their trophies away do they? No of course not, they simply stuff them under their coats and take them to work with them.

Id give up any hopes of a career in criminology if I were you.

[The Baron]

Well, without knowing what the private info was, there is unfortunately no way of assessing it's worth.

Oh, how I would love to know what that private info was!!!

Regardless of whether or not Druitt was the ripper, I'm sure there's a fascinating story in there somewhere.

If I was writing a screen play or a fictional account of the Whitechapel murders, Druitt would be my man.

What would be better than a scene of a lawyer walking the court in the morning and defending his clients while hiding a woman's uterus in his pocket, then when the night falls he turns to a zombie, his eyes get wide and bloodier, walking the narrow allies of Whitechapel hunting, cutting and eating poor women...



The Baron

[Ms Diddles]

When you think about it it’s pretty remarkable how some just dismiss him out of hand a a suspect. As you say, it boils down to the private info. So we have just 2 possibilities with no way of knowing which is correct - the private info was correct or the private info was wrong. Can we prove that the PO was correct? No. Can we prove it was wrong? No. Some say - that’s an intriguing possibility. Some say - he should be discarded as a suspect. You can almost smell the bias.

Well, without knowing what the private info was, there is unfortunately no way of assessing it's worth.

Oh, how I would love to know what that private info was!!!

Regardless of whether or not Druitt was the ripper, I'm sure there's a fascinating story in there somewhere.

If I was writing a screen play or a fictional account of the Whitechapel murders, Druitt would be my man.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Agreed!

Druitt would not have been an obvious choice for a randomly selected suicide merely on the basis that his suicide occurred at an apposite time.

It all comes down to that tantalising "private information" really, doesn't it?

Is the inclusion of Druitt (and indeed Koz) somewhat undermined by the inclusion of Ostrog (a total non-starter) on the same list though?

I can't recall when it was uncovered that Ostrog was in jail in France at the time of the murders.

Was that prior to the MM, or years later that the evidence came to light?

Either way, to my mind there is no way that Druitt should be included on a list of weakest suspects.

Particularly when there are so many truly nonsense ones to choose from!

When you think about it it’s pretty remarkable how some just dismiss him out of hand a a suspect. As you say, it boils down to the private info. So we have just 2 possibilities with no way of knowing which is correct - the private info was correct or the private info was wrong. Can we prove that the PO was correct? No. Can we prove it was wrong? No. Some say - that’s an intriguing possibility. Some say - he should be discarded as a suspect. You can almost smell the bias.

[Ms Diddles]

bingo diddles.
sugden was the one who discovered ostrog was in jail in france while doing research for his book, by far the best book on the ripper IMHO.

Thanks Abby!

It's years since I read Sugden, so probably worth revisiting.

If it wasn't established until so much later that Ostrog was in jail, his inclusion in the MM is less of a clanger.

[Abby Normal]

Agreed!

Druitt would not have been an obvious choice for a randomly selected suicide merely on the basis that his suicide occurred at an apposite time.

It all comes down to that tantalising "private information" really, doesn't it?

Is the inclusion of Druitt (and indeed Koz) somewhat undermined by the inclusion of Ostrog (a total non-starter) on the same list though?

I can't recall when it was uncovered that Ostrog was in jail in France at the time of the murders.

Was that prior to the MM, or years later that the evidence came to light?

Either way, to my mind there is no way that Druitt should be included on a list of weakest suspects.

Particularly when there are so many truly nonsense ones to choose from!

bingo diddles.
sugden was the one who discovered ostrog was in jail in france while doing research for his book, by far the best book on the ripper IMHO.

[Ms Diddles]

As I’ve asked many times Roger if, as some suggest, MacNaghten was simply compiling a list of random pseudo-suspects that he could claim were ‘better than Cutbush’ (to give the lie to the story in The Sun) why choose Druitt? With all of the resources he had to hand why not any random recently dead criminal or ‘lunatic?’ Instead he chooses a well-to-do Barrister/Schoolteacher with no criminal record. A man who, for all that Mac knew, might have had a discoverable alibi for any of the murders (unlike a random nobody whose life would have been far less traceable.) And finally, why was it so important to find a suspect who died after Kelly when many people (including Munro, who Mac greatly admired and respected) believed Mackenzie to have been a victim?

The suggestion that he simply plucked Druitt out of thin air doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. It doesn’t mean that Druitt was the ripper of course because he could have been mistaken but it shows that MacNaughten felt that he had valid reasons for naming him as a suspect. Therefore there might actually have been very valid reasons at the time for doing so. This is only one of the reasons why I feel that Druitt is far too easily dismissed by some.

Agreed!

Druitt would not have been an obvious choice for a randomly selected suicide merely on the basis that his suicide occurred at an apposite time.

It all comes down to that tantalising "private information" really, doesn't it?

Is the inclusion of Druitt (and indeed Koz) somewhat undermined by the inclusion of Ostrog (a total non-starter) on the same list though?

I can't recall when it was uncovered that Ostrog was in jail in France at the time of the murders.

Was that prior to the MM, or years later that the evidence came to light?

Either way, to my mind there is no way that Druitt should be included on a list of weakest suspects.

Particularly when there are so many truly nonsense ones to choose from!

[Ms Diddles]

I don't concider Maybrick to be a suspect, not even a person of interest, he has nothing to do with this case than Pink Panter does.


The Baron

I don't know, the Pink Panter sounds like some heavy breathing sex pest type to me.........

[Darryl Kenyon]

Hmmm. I can't see it myself, Darryl. What you are suggesting is that someone first decided to write JtR's diary, without having selected who was going to be Jack. They then saw what they thought would be recognisable to the book buying public as the initials F and M in the Kelly photo, and thought: "Ah, now James Maybrick had a wife called Florence who was unfaithful to him, and he died in May 1889, just a few months after the Kelly murder. Why don't I have Maybrick as my ripper and his motive a form of revenge by proxy on his wandering wife? Then I can let someone else figure out what I mean by an initial here and there, in relation to Kelly's murder. Simple."

Had the hoaxer plumped for William Bury instead, would they still have mentioned initials apparently left at the Kelly crime scene, confident that if Bury theorists looked at the photo closely enough, or just believed enough, they'd 'see' the initials E B, or W B, just like seeing an alien or Bugs Bunny?

IMHO the diary would not have existed if the author had thought of anyone else as Jack. It was all about James Maybrick of Liverpool, from the start. And of course it emerged in Liverpool, where the people who brought it forward would inevitably be suspected of faking it as soon as the first red flag went up, over the handwriting being nothing like Maybrick's. Mike Barrett's 'confessions' two years later didn't need to be remotely credible after that. They merely gave the hard of thinking the green light to accuse him of being a very silly faker indeed.

Love,

Caz
X

Sorry Caz what I am suggesting is that the hoaxer while researching JTR and Maybrick. Looked at the MJK 1 photo in one of the books where it looks like an FM [ maybe the 1973 book ] , and he/she decided to write the poem, initial here, initial there etc to try and contribute to a supposed authenticity.

In other words the forger had already plumped on Maybrick. He/she just observed what they thought could be mistaken for an FM [ or maybe just M ] and saw it as a bonus, so why not use it.

Regards Darryl

[Herlock Sholmes]

Are you sure you have the right gender, Jeff?

The figure looks like a shockingly accurate rendition of Kate Eddowes' "standing" mortuary photograph, complete with nicked eyelid, cut cheek, nose cut off, twice slashed throat, abdomen mutilations, bare breasts, and limp arms.




It looks like it is signed by "LEES"

I see it too Roger. Good spot.

[rjpalmer]

James Maybrick collected donations from his colleagues to feed the needy. What a smashing fellow he must have been to pass round the hat.

Harold Shipman was a smashing GP to all the patients he left alive.

I'll tell you what, Caz.

If, by chance, any unconvinced Ripperologist ever posts examples of Lewis Carroll's charitable contributions, and I quickly rush in with comparisons to Harold Shipman, feel free to write me off as a closet Dodgsonian--no matter what I might say to the contrary.

Ero is correct in pointing out that a certain type of sociopath will associate himself (or herself) with popular causes, but it is generally done in a conspicuous manner. There was a certain poisoner in the southern U.S., for example, who bought her church a magnificent pipe organ, all paid for with insurance proceeds she had gathered over the years.

By contrast, there doesn't seem to be anything particular ostentatious in Sir Jim passing the hat around to feed the poor in Norfolk--black & white alike--and I would expect that a real sociopath would have collected the money and then bought himself a nice supply of Cuban cigars and French postcards.

This evidently didn't happen.

But, of course, it is entirely irrelevant whether or not the real James Maybrick may have been a relatively mild-mannered bloke after all, since we both agree that the diary is a sham.