Sensitive information, in private hands.

[FutureM.D.]

Hello all,

I was perusing the forums a few weeks ago and one poster (I can't remember who) mentioned in an off handed manner, (in a thread I cannot find) that he/she KNEW there are pictures or documents that are not being given out.

Now, I always assumed this was the case. That somebody's uncle or somethin pilfered documents before the release of 1988. This would account for the gaps we see in official documentation. This would seem to be corroborated by how MJK3 turned up.

Mind you, I'm not suggesting a conspiracy, but something far more vapid. I.e. Uncle Billingworth stole this, and releasing it would get him in hot water. So we're hanging onto it.

Again, I'm not begging for conjecture. The poster seemed to be stating it outright.

Is there anything to this?

[GUT]

Unless its produced, who knows.

[Rosella]

Unfortunately sometimes Great Uncle Billingsworth dies at 92 or something and his young relatives, clearing out his house, might well throw out a box of what they consider 'rubbish', and so valuable documentation becomes lost for ever. Fortunately some relatives do recognise pinched items and return them anonymously. I believe the 'Saucy Jacky' postcard came back to the Yard that way.

I can remember reading years ago that earlier Ripper researchers would read certain documents in the files and later researchers would find no trace of these. The amount of pilfering from the case files of famous cases like Jack's at Scotland Yard by clerks, police etc must have been terrific!

I also remember reading Rumbelow saying, quite casually, that during the war there was a paper shortage and paper would be grabbed by the handful from very old files.

[GUT]

Unfortunately sometimes Great Uncle Billingsworth dies at 92 or something and his young relatives, clearing out his house, might well throw out a box of what they consider 'rubbish', and so valuable documentation becomes lost for ever. Fortunately some relatives do recognise pinched items and return them anonymously. I believe the 'Saucy Jacky' postcard came back to the Yard that way.

I can remember reading years ago that earlier Ripper researchers would read certain documents in the files and later researchers would find no trace of these. The amount of pilfering from the case files of famous cases like Jack's at Scotland Yard by clerks, police etc must have been terrific!

I also remember reading Rumbelow saying, quite casually, that during the war there was a paper shortage and paper would be grabbed by the handful from very old files.

Yep to the valuable stuff being thrown and yep to the paper shortage, the pilfering I suspect was not unusual.

[FutureM.D.]

I fear I may not have expressed myself well. Of course we take it for granted that much was stolen (and much of that probably discarded by unknowing family), more was destroyed in the blitz. And then who knows how much to simple mismanagement.

But the point I was driving at, was this poster (I kick myself for not bookmarking the thread) seemed to be implying that there was a living person who is known, or extremely likely to be in possession of such documents.

Now... Maybe the poster was full of ****, or maybe I simply read into something that wasn't there.

I was just curious if anybody had heard of such a rumour? Like, maybe a well known ripperologist or collector who is discreetly known to have such documents, but doesn't exactly shine a bright light on them.

[GUT]

I fear I may not have expressed myself well. Of course we take it for granted that much was stolen (and much of that probably discarded by unknowing family), more was destroyed in the blitz. And then who knows how much to simple mismanagement.

But the point I was driving at, was this poster (I kick myself for not bookmarking the thread) seemed to be implying that there was a living person who is known, or extremely likely to be in possession of such documents.

Now... Maybe the poster was full of ****, or maybe I simply read into something that wasn't there.

I was just curious if anybody had heard of such a rumour? Like, maybe a well known ripperologist or collector who is discreetly known to have such documents, but doesn't exactly shine a bright light on them.

I have had some communication ith someone who claims to have some information on Mac's private information on Montie, but thy sem to have gone to ground. Thy also Liam to be related to the Druitts and the contact was based on my family and his having known each other (and I can confirm that they did, to at least one degree) however it was pretty obvious that hey wanted money for whatever they had and when I pressed for some "proof of life" they seem to have vanished.

That may have been what you read, I did pst bout it here.

[FutureM.D.]

I have had some communication ith someone who claims to have some information on Mac's private information on Montie, but thy sem to have gone to ground. Thy also Liam to be related to the Druitts and the contact was based on my family and his having known each other (and I can confirm that they did, to at least one degree) however it was pretty obvious that hey wanted money for whatever they had and when I pressed for some "proof of life" they seem to have vanished.

That may have been what you read, I did pst bout it here.

Perhaps it was. If it cane together, that would be tremendous.

[Mayerling]

I have had some communication ith someone who claims to have some information on Mac's private information on Montie, but thy sem to have gone to ground. Thy also Liam to be related to the Druitts and the contact was based on my family and his having known each other (and I can confirm that they did, to at least one degree) however it was pretty obvious that hey wanted money for whatever they had and when I pressed for some "proof of life" they seem to have vanished.

That may have been what you read, I did pst bout it here.

G'Day GUT,

This does sound interesting, but it sounds suspicious. If it was a member of the Druitt family, and they had information, why suddenly sell it now when the whole idea was to keep a lid on the subject of Montague being a suspect, if not Mac's chief suspect? Granted Montie has been known to the public as such since the 1960s, but even so do families willingly bring out information like this (damaging to a "black sheep") for a price? Usually they close ranks.

Jeff

[GUT]

G'Day GUT,

This does sound interesting, but it sounds suspicious. If it was a member of the Druitt family, and they had information, why suddenly sell it now when the whole idea was to keep a lid on the subject of Montague being a suspect, if not Mac's chief suspect? Granted Montie has been known to the public as such since the 1960s, but even so do families willingly bring out information like this (damaging to a "black sheep") for a price? Usually they close ranks.

Jeff

G'day Jeff

The person I was in contact with isn't even a Druitt.

That may make a difference.

They claim to be, and this was one issue I was trying to resolve, descended from the female line of Thomas Druitt, who was a clergyman and school teacher here in Aus.

Apparently, and this I accepted, they have some correspondence between my ancestor and Thomas (I know the two were at least acquainted, probably fairly closely) they not acted me via genealogy research and it was probably nealy a year later that the whole Montie thing came up. Perhaps I should ad that it is almost certain that the families at least knew of each other (probably some members even knew each other) in England, Charles and one of my family served briefly at the same church and ine of my family was at school at the same time as Montie, but a year younger.

Now for a while we were in frequent communication, but then all replies stopped. It may be that thy were full of, you know what, or it may be that they had second thought about revealing what they knew, unless they get back in touch I will never know.

They did indicate that material they had showed clearly that the family thought Montie was JtR and why.


I am trying to see if any of my family have any correspondence that may shed light on things, but prior searches revealed nothing.

[Mayerling]

G'day Jeff

The person I was in contact with isn't even a Druitt.

That may make a difference.

They claim to be, and this was one issue I was trying to resolve, descended from the female line of Thomas Druitt, who was a clergyman and school teacher here in Aus.

Apparently, and this I accepted, they have some correspondence between my ancestor and Thomas (I know the two were at least acquainted, probably fairly closely) they not acted me via genealogy research and it was probably nealy a year later that the whole Montie thing came up. Perhaps I should ad that it is almost certain that the families at least knew of each other (probably some members even knew each other) in England, Charles and one of my family served briefly at the same church and ine of my family was at school at the same time as Montie, but a year younger.

Now for a while we were in frequent communication, but then all replies stopped. It may be that thy were full of, you know what, or it may be that they had second thought about revealing what they knew, unless they get back in touch I will never know.

They did indicate that material they had showed clearly that the family thought Montie was JtR and why.


I am trying to see if any of my family have any correspondence that may shed light on things, but prior searches revealed nothing.

It would be nice if you could find some family correspondence regarding this matter. Promising but somewhat weakened due to the length of time, and even the possibility that nobody looked over the correspondence while it was in their hands.

Also the chances are the papers or letters or whatever were thrown out or destroyed over the course of time.

It would be nice if it was not gone and could be retrieved.

Nothing like that in my family though.

Jeff