What was withheld??

[Rosella]

Bureaucracies of all kinds seem to be inevitably overly cautious about releasing anything, no matter how many years have passed if a file has been stamped 'not to be disclosed'.

I am NOT a Druittist, but what if information pointing directly to him or to some other man from an extremely respectable prominent family as being the Ripper, came into the possession of the Yard in say 1889-90? If the suspect was then dead that information might be tucked away for several generations so as to not give surviving family members a terrible burden. After that, just sheer caution might take over on the Home Office's part.

[gnote]

There's a pretty big difference between a 'respectable' family with some money and the royals. The royal conspiracy theory is nonsense (clearly) but the Druitt family was able to hide the identity of the killer? (through somebody high up in the police but still decided to mention his name)

[Jonathan H]

I'm not a Druittist either, just a Jack-the-Ripperist.

As for a cover-up, I agree it seems to be a contradiction; on the one hand a police chief wants to protect a respectable family because their member, the Ripper, is deceased. On the other hand, he prepares a report for the Home Office in which the man's name is clear and correct.

Whilst the suspect's profession, in the same report, was left uncertain, there is the name "M. J. Druitt".

And furthermore, the report says that he was only one of three better suspects than Cutbush, not that there was any hard evidence against him or anybody other lunatic. As in he was so minor we could not even be bothered to ascertain if he had been a medical man, or not. There was not even the shadow of proof.

What kind of cover-up is that? What kind of chief suspect is that?

I argue, nevertheless, that if you put your encrusted biases to one side as I had to--and the wrench is excruciating!--what you can also see is the following that makes it an extremely effective cover-up about a dead man this chief passionately believed was, indeed, the Whitechapel murderer (of at least five victims).

- the report was written but never sent to the Home Office. It remained archived and unknown at the Yard until 1966, and only became known because its non-identical twin had surfaced in 1959--the version that had made a tremendous cultural impact on the Late Victorian and Edwardian eras.

- both versions of the report imply that Druitt was a suspect whilst alive, a major bit of self-serving deflection, because not arresting him actually had nothing to do with a lack of evidence; he had been deceased for years.

- the report claims to treat the trio of suspects as equal possibilities but the unwary reader is irresistibly drawn to the might-be-a-doctor because he killed himself the soonest after the "awful glut" (possibly the same morning!) and this is supposedly the definitive litmus test of who must have done it and the cracked up. Like a magician Macnaghten is saying pick a card any card ...

- Most remarkably Macnaghten states, without qualification, that Druitt was a sexual maniac; he gained erotic fulfillment from violence, and that his family believed (not suspected) he was the killer (well, no wonder?!) And that extraordinary belief, by a respectable, bourgeoisie English Gentile family, is apparently not, at the very least, proof's "shadow"?

- the pair of sidekick suspects have been altered too; Kosminski's incarceration has been backdated and Ostrog turned into a vile, dangerous figure.

- in a brazen bit of deceit Thomas Cutbush is falsely portrayed as practically the de-facto son of a retired policeman. Was this to make it to look to the Home Sec. as if some kind of personal vendetta was being conducted through the press by Inspector William Race?


If you read Macnaghten's memoir, the great neglected source, what you discover is that he claims to have worked out who the best suspect was some years after the man had killed himself.

Yet none of the other surviving sources show any cognition on the part of any other police about Druitt.

My theory is that it was not an institutional cover-up, not a conspiracy by the state, let alone the Yard. This is why Macnaghten had to experiment with coming as clean as he could about Druitt to his fellow agents of the state, and what a dog's breakfast he made of it if the solution had erupted into the public domain: oh, Druitt was the fiend? Sure we at C.I.D. had heard of him but we had no evidence to arrest him. On the other had, we did know he was a sexual maniac ...

I think Macnaghten was scrambling in case the Cutbush 'scoop' dislodged the Dorset solution that had leaked two years before--but it didn't. Hence mothballing the report but keeping it on file, just in case. You see, Macnaghten had been sacked once before and it left its mark.

This cover-up involved only a handful of the upper elite in a gentleman's club, only one of whom was a police chief, all being ever so discreet--so that everyone could end up a winner.

[jason_c]

Hello SJF,

Matter of principle or nay, in the actual case referring to C.I.D. material in relation to informants- common sense tells us that anyone who actually is involved today with such terrorist activity today are already well aware of KNOWN families who have in the past, been on the 'other side' of the fence- and even if they didnt know- tracing the family history forward from 1888 would be a long and arduous business certainly without any guarentee of a result through 5 or 6 generations- and even then- it might lead to some poor sheep farmer in southernmost Ireland who knows nothing and cares nothing about what his gt gt grandfather did in 1888.

The mere notion that any group is so hell bent on revenge after 126 years that they would go to such enormous effort to trace and hunt down family members 5 generations down the line is patently ridiculous in the extreme. And it can be proven to be so too- because similar records from Dublin ARE in the public archives and have been for years...not one attack to my knowledge has occurred.

These people have far fresher fish to fry.

Phil

That can't be the real reason.

I think the real reason are today's informants. Today's informants are informing with the understanding that their names will be witheld. That they will not be releeased to the public at any stage. Releasing info that points to the names of past informants probably wont help the cause of recruiting current informants.

[sdreid]

I think the real reason are today's informants.

I suppose that's what they would say, at least.

[sdreid]

I wonder if Eddowes' descendants would feel any different if they found out that she was an informant.

[kerrypn]

I have often wondered if Stride's murder had some very definite characteristics that laid the crime firmly at JTR's door. It would make sense to her official inclusion. I think hers and Eddowes' murder are key, I think historically MJKs murder has been given more focus because it was so (and still is) shocking and utterly devastating, but I am basing this on nothing more than Stride being included despite not quite "fitting" a JTR crime and Eddowes because of the facial mutilation in spite of being at risk of being apprehended-as we know for MJK this was not so much of a consideration.

[sdreid]

I have often wondered if Stride's murder had some very definite characteristics that laid the crime firmly at JTR's door. It would make sense to her official inclusion. I think hers and Eddowes' murder are key, I think historically MJKs murder has been given more focus because it was so (and still is) shocking and utterly devastating, but I am basing this on nothing more than Stride being included despite not quite "fitting" a JTR crime and Eddowes because of the facial mutilation in spite of being at risk of being apprehended-as we know for MJK this was not so much of a consideration.

I agree there must have been something additional about Stride that wasn't made public and that tied her to the other victims. Maybe the Ripper's knife had a nick in it or perhaps he did something to Stride that he did to the other victims and that was not released and is now lost to history.

[sdreid]

I agree there must have been something additional about Stride that wasn't made public and that tied her to the other victims. Maybe the Ripper's knife had a nick in it or perhaps he did something to Stride that he did to the other victims and that was not released and is now lost to history.

It's also possible that there was something at the Eddowes scene that police could connect to Stride.

[DJA]

It's also possible that there was something at the Eddowes scene that police could connect to Stride.

Like the identity of BS man.

GSG could have had more than one or two meanings.
None of them being Masonic.

Reckon Abberline was called for a bit early,after Nichols murder.
Like the police knew there was something afoot.

Phillips might have even known who killed Chapman.

[sdreid]

There could be a Ripper letter(s) that were not released because of believed authenticity.

[sdreid]

Reckon Abberline was called for a bit early,after Nichols murder.
Like the police knew there was something afoot.

Yes, that's a puzzler.

[packers stem]

Yes, that's a puzzler.

Tip of the iceberg....