Druitt in the confessional?

[Chris Scott]

The article below caught my interest. The brief description, admittedly fairly vague, and the mention of Griffith's theory about the doctor in the Thames, could point to Druitt as the man in the confessional.
Chris


Illustrated Police News
28 January 1899

IDENTITY OF "JACK THE RIPPER"
A SECRET OF THE CONFESSIONAL

To the long list of "solutions" of the great "Jack the Ripper" mystery, there is now added another - possibly the final one, possibly not.
It comes from a clergyman of the Church of England, a north country vicar, who claims to know with certainty the identity of the most
terrible figure in the the bloodstained annals of crime - the perpetrator of that horrible series of East end murders which ten years ago startled the whole civilised world.
The clergyman in question declines to divulge the name of the culprit, being unable to do so without violating the secrecy of the confessional. He states, however, that he obtained his information from a brother clergyman to whom the murderer made a full and complete confession.
The vicar writes:-
"I received information in professional confidence, with directions to publish the facts after ten years, and then with such alterations as might defeat identification.
The murderer was a man of good position and otherwise unblemished character, who suffered from epileptic mania, and is long since deceased.
I must ask you not to give my name, as it might lead to identification."
The ten years were completed on November 9 last year, the final murder of the "Ripper" series having taken place on November 9, 1888, in Miller's Court. There was a time when everybody had his pet theory as to the murders, but apart from speculation quite a number of solutions of the mystery have had a more or less substantial foundation of probability.
Major Arthur Griffiths, one of Her Majesty's Commissioners of Prisons, hints, in his new book, "Mysteries of Police and Crime," that the police
believe the assassin to have been a doctor, bordering on insanity, whose body was found in the Thames soon after the last murder of the series. He adds, however, that this man was one of three whom the police suspected. Then there was the madman who was traced to Broadmoor some five or six years ago, and against whom there was believed to be conclusive evidence; while Professor Bell of Edinburgh, who was a prominent figure in the investigation of the Ardlamont mystery, used to declare that he also had definitely "spotted" the culprit.
The clergyman who now comes forward with the latest identification declares that the assassin died shortly after the last murder of the
series.

[Mike Covell]

Interesting stuff as usual Chris, where is it from?

[Chris Scott]

Hi Mike

Illustrated Police News
28 January 1899

[Robert]

Nice to see Thomas Cutbush getting, if not a mention, at least an allusion.

I wonder if Lonsdale could have been the original source?

[Dan Norder]

Hi Chris,

Interesting. The Thames mention is clearly a reference to an outside source and not anything the vicar said. The only possible link to Druitt is the claim that the person was "long since deceased." That could of course refer to many other people as well, assuming there's any truth to it.

I don't know if the person being from the north country helps narrow things down at all, as we don't necessarily know where the "brother clergyman" was from.

[Roma]

In any case, it's an interesting article. Can Monty be the one who "died shortly after the last murder of the series" ?...

[aspallek]

This is very interesting indeed, although there have been other stories about alleged confessions by the Ripper to clergymen. The potential connection between Druitt and the Rev. John Henry Lonsdale immediately suggests itself as Lonsdale was curate at Wimborne Minster at the time of the murders and certainly knew the Druitts well. Being from Lichfield and having family ties there could well have put him in touch with a clergyman from the north country. I have to check my sources again but I believe Lonsdale even served briefly in the north of england (or perhaps it was just the midlands) before returning to Dorset.

A lot of things would come together neatly if Lonsdale were the original source. Lonsdale and Macnaghten were classmates at Eton and Lonsdale's wife was from Blandford Forum, a stone's throw from the MP Farquharson's home. But this remains sheer speculation.

[Johnr]

Clergyman Confesses To Clergyman....

Yes,
Another good find Chris, thanks.
Rather level-headed tone to the reporting too.
A couple of things struck me.The first, the original custodian of the confession, urged the second, not only to reveal the details a decade hence,
but to disguise identifying matters at the same time.
So was the clergyman from the north? Or is this disguised?
The mention of " confessions" strikes me that perhaps these two clergymen might have been "High church". That is, they adhered to one branch of Anglicanism which subscribes to the use of the confession box.
The confession box is not normally part of middle-of-the-road Church of England ritual.
Either that, or the reporter may have been a Catholic, or used the term as a headline device.
There does seem to be a suggestion of Druitt in the story though.
I wonder if the clergyman's family later repackaged the family story and it appeared in future years with more detail? JOHN RUFFELS.

[joelhall]

The ten years were completed on November 9 last year, the final murder of the "Ripper" series having taken place on November 9, 1888, in Miller's Court.

i have a few initial thoughts from the article. this means:

kelly definitely was a victim

the killings stopped due to the killers death

being of 'good position and otherwise unblemished character' he was probably not local

the killer was, most likely, catholic

if the wording of the piece is accurate, the clergyman came by this information the night kelly died

the killer had fits of manic behaviour

the clergyman seems to think people knowing his name could identify the killer (even though the confession was to someone else)

for some reason, the cleric to whom the confession was given, asked someone else to tell people

if he was not who took the confession, why is he bound by it?

theres nothing really to suppose this is true & it wasnt just your average nutter who confessed

curious that the priest is from the north?

do these sorts of killers usually confess their sins? ive no idea about this but it seems odd for someone whos driven to serial murder to worry about god & sinning

follows from that that if it was druitt, suicide is a very serious sin anyway, so the confession wouldnt really do him much good...

joel

[Robert]

If he confessed to the murders, the reason for his suicide was probably the thought of having to say 25 million Hail Marys.

[dmcdonald@onwight.net]

Hi Chris

What a great find. Certainly my book 'The Prince, His Tutor and the Ripper' has several quotes from Griffiths. Think he was an informed and impartial observer of the case and I thought in the info I found from him that he thought that it was Druitt who was the Ripper. Not directly as in this new find but certainly indirectly.

Interesting.

[Chris Scott]

Hi Deborah
I'm glad the article was of interest and I look forward to reading your book
Regards
Chris

[Natalie Severn]

Thanks for the information Chris-very interesting.
My own impression is that the man was just wanting to impress his friend .Why tell someone to wait ten years and then say,"Ah, but I didnt say I"d tell you his name."?-----sounds like Rumplestiltskin -he played that game-only this chap seems to have got his foot stuck in his mouth rather than the floor.I bet every priest in the country had a sad little queue of deluded dudes -all elbowing each other out of the way to be the first one in line to climb into the confessional and put the frighteners on the local holy man.

[aspallek]

Yes,
Another good find Chris, thanks.
Rather level-headed tone to the reporting too.
A couple of things struck me.The first, the original custodian of the confession, urged the second, not only to reveal the details a decade hence,
but to disguise identifying matters at the same time.
So was the clergyman from the north? Or is this disguised?
The mention of " confessions" strikes me that perhaps these two clergymen might have been "High church". That is, they adhered to one branch of Anglicanism which subscribes to the use of the confession box.
The confession box is not normally part of middle-of-the-road Church of England ritual.
Either that, or the reporter may have been a Catholic, or used the term as a headline device.
There does seem to be a suggestion of Druitt in the story though.
I wonder if the clergyman's family later repackaged the family story and it appeared in future years with more detail? JOHN RUFFELS.

Hi John,

As a Protestant clergyman I can attest to the fact that we frequently use the term "confession" to refer to sins confessed in more informal counseling situations rather than in the formal confessional which is rare in our tradition. The same absilute seal is applied to these informal confessions as long as they are seen as genuine.

[Chris Scott]

Here is an earlier version with a few more snippets of information:

Western Mail
19 January 1899

WHITECHAPEL MURDERS
DID "JACK THE RIPPER" MAKE A CONFESSION?

We have received (says the Daily Mail) from a clergyman of the Church of England, now a North Country vicar, an interesting communication with reference to the great criminal mystery of our times - that enshrouding the perpetration of the series of crimes which have come to be known as the "Jack the Ripper" murders. The identity of the murderer is as unsolved as it was while the blood of the victims was yet wet upon the pavements. Certainly Major Arthur Griffiths, in his new work on "Mysteries of Police and Crime," suggests that the police believe the assassin to have been a doctor, bordering on insanity, whose body was found floating in the Thames soon after the last crime of the series; but as the major also mentions that this man was one of three known homidical lunatics against whom the police "held very plausible and reasonable grounds of suspicion," that conjectural explanation does not appear to count for much by itself.
Our correspondent the vicar now writes:-
"I received information in professional confidence, with directions to publish the facts after ten years, and then with such alterations as might defeat identification.
The murderer was a man of good position and otherwise unblemished character, who suffered from epileptic mania, and is long since deceased.
I must ask you not to give my name, as it might lead to identification"
meaning the identification of the perpetrator of the crimes. We thought at first the vicar was at fault in believing that ten years had passed yet since the last murder of the series, for there were other somewhat similar crimes in 1889. But, on referring again to major Griffiths's book, we find he states that the last "Jack the Ripper" murder was that in Miller's Court on November 9, 1888 - a confirmation of the vicar's sources of information. The vicar enclosed a narrative, which he called "The Whitechapel Murders - Solution of a London Mystery." This he described as "substantial truth under fictitious form." "Proof for obvious reasons impossible - under seal of confession," he added in reply to an inquiry from us.
Failing to see how any good purpose could be served by publishing substantial truth in fictitious form, we sent a representative North to see the vicar, to endeavour to ascertain which parts of the narrative were actual facts. But the vicar was not to be persuaded, and all that our reporter could learn was that the rev. gentleman appears to know with certainty the identity of the most terrible figure in the criminal annals of our times, and that the vicar does not intend to let anyone else into the secret.
The murderer died, the vicar states, very shortly after committing the last murder. The vicar obtained his information from a brother clergyman, to whom a confession was made - by whom the vicar would not give even the most guarded hint. The only other item which a lengthy chat with the vicar could elicit was that the murderer was a man who at one time was engaged in rescue work among the depraved woman of the East End - eventually his victims; and that the assassin was at one time a surgeon.