Assessing Cutbush

[Abby Normal]

Hi Caz,

I agree that living next door to a victim would have been a disadvantage, but I think that if he had lived a couple of blocks away, that could have been far enough to give him anonymity. And the murders were far enough from each other that he had to have lived more than a couple of blocks from some of the victims.

good point lewis.

Dennis Rader even targeted a victim that lived on his street, blocks away.
And Imho the ripper was probably local and knew the immediate area intimately, I dont think he could have pulled off tje double event without that knowledge, although I dont rule out an "outsider" like Druitt.

[Abby Normal]

John Hainsworth obviously revealed enough information that you were able trace the reference to Cameron. I am one of the people who has known about this incident for a number of years; since I am writing a modest monograph on the subject, I kept it to myself. It has since been independently discovered by a least one other researcher.

I must admit that John is playing it fast & loose in claiming the barrister was arrested, and that Cameron was an "East End sex worker." That's overstating the facts as I know them.

However, I don't think this incident sails as blissfully away into the breeze as you wish to imply. When dealing with criminal matters, knee-jerk skepticism can be just as sterile as knee-jerk gullibility--perhaps more so.

Correctly interpreted, the police were looking for a barrister at the end of 1888 who was said to be 'sexually insane'--who (according to Macnaghten's 'private information') was suspected by his own family of being involved in the Whitechapel Murders. Macnaghten was distantly related to the Druitts and no doubt received a great of private information in his position, so his assertion is credible. I can't help noticing that most people who bash Macnaghten seldom spell his name correctly.

Meanwhile, here we have an unnamed barrister who--lo and behold--is mentioned in a knife attack on a prostitute the previous year, 1887. The 'coincidence' strikes me as rather interesting.

No, there is no definite evidence that this was Druitt--that I know of---but what other barristers were being sought as Jack the Ripper within the next 13 or 14 months?

Can you name one?

When I came across this attack, I did indeed think of MJD because it would neatly explain why the police may have taken him seriously as a suspect a year later if his name had come up in this earlier investigation.

We don't know where Cameron picked up her client, but from descriptions given, she must have walked with three or four hundred yards of Kings Bench Walk---possibly less--where Druitt had chambers.

I don't dismiss it out of hand, particularly because I think historians have done a poor job when it comes to Druitt.

As for the victim 'denying that her attacker was a barrister" you are mispresenting the facts. She claimed her attacker WAS a barrister--and later retracted it. That's considerably different than what you're claiming.

So, perhaps you'd be better off asking yourself why victims sometimes retract their statements. Is it always because they were lying or mistaken? Is there not sometimes a very different explanation?

RP

nice post and research RJ. Its also interesting that its a knife wound to the neck, but a non fatal non mutilating attack, which with the later ripper murders would fit well with what we know about serial killers and escalation as the attacks continue.

[Lewis C]

good point lewis.

Dennis Rader even targeted a victim that lived on his street, blocks away.
And Imho the ripper was probably local and knew the immediate area intimately, I dont think he could have pulled off tje double event without that knowledge, although I dont rule out an "outsider" like Druitt.

Thanks Abby, and that's about where I am. I think he probably knew the area very well and most likely lived at least on the outskirts of Whitechapel/Spitalfields/eastern London, but I'm also open to the possibility that he lived as far away as Druitt did.