Is it plausible that Druitt did it?

[Mr Poster]

Hi ho

Instead of being chastised for showing that Druitt is very much a suspect,

In all fairness.....this has never been shown. The only thing to base suspicion on is the musing of a policeman about something he heard.

Putting Druitt in Whitechapel (Which no one has) still doesnt make him a better suspect is so far as that would make any man in London who had set foot in Whitechapel and had a family who thought he played with himself too much...a suspect.

At any rate......perhaps discussion of his suspecthood would be better served by waiting to find out what this whispered alibi is.

p

[The Good Michael]

Getting back to part of Ally's argument, why would Druitt bother? It is possible that he could have gone to the East End, mutilated a prostitute, and then taken a train back, and having very little to no sleep, played an all-day cricket match. Possible, yes? Doubtful, extremely.

Assuming Druitt was a fairly busy man, why would he choose that particular night, the night before a grueling cricket match, knowing he had a small window of opportunity, to kill someone? He would not have known he would find a victim, and I suspect the selection process involved a lot of legwork and even perhaps alcoholic fortification. I also suspect that the whole culmination of such a deed was a real tiring ordeal for the perpetrator for many reasons such as adrenaline depletion, exposure to cold and rain, mental and physical fatigue, among other things. It seems to me that a killer like this needed a little down time if the process was especially arduous. I'm not saying it was, but I am saying it very well could have been. If the situation was something like a planned murder of a known person and creation of alibi, I'd say "yeah, that's possible." Yet this would imply that the murder had different motives than what seems to be logical for a mutilator of this magnitude.

Saying something is possible is so much different than saying it is likely, or probable. Even the word 'possible' does not really work in this situation without attaching an adjective such as 'remotely'.

Cheers,

Mike

[aspallek]

Hi ho



In all fairness.....this has never been shown. The only thing to base suspicion on is the musing of a policeman about something he heard.

Putting Druitt in Whitechapel (Which no one has) still doesnt make him a better suspect is so far as that would make any man in London who had set foot in Whitechapel and had a family who thought he played with himself too much...a suspect.

At any rate......perhaps discussion of his suspecthood would be better served by waiting to find out what this whispered alibi is.

p

I should have written "that Druitt remains a suspect." He was named by a high-ranking police officer as a suspect and that alone makes him a suspect until an alibi is provided. Again, for the 1000th time, it is reasonable to debate how good a suspect he is but it is not reasonable to claim that he is not a suspect unless one has evidence of an alibi.

[detective abberline]

Druitt as a suspect

My last post has gone with the wind but I'll try agaain. McNaughten and Swanson didn't come up with these 3 names out of the blue. Why did Druitt commit suicide? i don't believe (as 1 author I read) he was murdered by a university old boys syndicate. Why did he commit suicide and why did McNaughten mentionhim. He was dismissed for what? Sexual indiscretions with boys, physical beatings or most likely, as i tried to suggest, because he wasn't a good teacher. Could he have been JTR? He's a lot more likely than Maybrick eg. He was there, he was named by 2 coppers in the know and he committed suicide. From what I've read, if a serial killer isn't caught he more than likely commits suicide.

Now none of this is concrete proof about Druitt. We will never know absolutely. But, if Druitt was destroying women, it would certainly take his mind off his job.

Bye

[dougie]

Not quite, Dougie. Macnaghten wrote that he'd heard that Druitt's family believed him to be the killer. Whether Macnaghten himself thought that Druitt visited Whitechapel is an entirely separate matter.

sam,
macnaughton believed druitt was the killer,so with respect ,if killer he was then he must certainly have
visited whitechapel. the issue is one and the same.
oh i see aspallek answered for me,oh well no worries ill post this anyway
regards

[detective abberline]

Druitt as a suspect

Druitt hangs on in there until someone PROVES that the private information that convinced McNaughten, private evidence that he said he knew and we don't, is false. Right place at the right time, known to senior police officers. Committed suicide at the right time. i have no undispitable proof Druitt was Jack but he is still the best bet.

Bye

[Sam Flynn]

Hi (Can I call you Fred?),

Druitt hangs on in there until someone PROVES that the private information that convinced McNaughten...

Macnaghten may have claimed "from private info" that Druitt's family believed he was the Ripper, but that's not to say that Macnaghten was as convinced as they were. He may have "felt inclined to exonerate" Kozminski and Ostrog, but that might only mean that Sir Melville merely saw Druitt as "the best of a bad bunch".

[dougie]

Hi (Can I call you Fred?),Macnaghten may have claimed "from private info" that Druitt's family believed he was the Ripper, but that's not to say that Macnaghten was as convinced as they were. He may have "felt inclined to exonerate" Kozminski and Ostrog, but that might only mean that Sir Melville merely saw Druitt as "the best of a bad bunch".

"my deepest regret etc etc".....macnaughton
regards

[detective abberline]

Did Druitt do it?

Hi. Yes you can call me Fred ( and no I'm Not Michael Caine). It's difficult to know isn't it. McNaughten never said what his private evidence was. Druitt's family has never given a heads up as to why he was dismissed from Valentine's school and to possible reasons why he killed himself. He certainly can't be ruled out. These men where there. McNaughten MUST have known something more than we know. It's frustrating but better than trying to prove eg that Maybrick was JTR.

Bye

[Sam Flynn]

McNaughten MUST have known something more than we know.

That's may well be true - but it seems very possible that the "something more" was hearsay connected to the family's believing that MJD was the killer. His possession of "private information" about a "family belief" doesn't mean that Macnaghten was privy to any independent evidence.

[Dan Norder]

that might only mean that Sir Melville merely saw Druitt as "the best of a bad bunch".

Hi Sam,

Perhaps that might be true when he wrote the memorandum naming the suspects he found to be more likely than Cutbush, but we know from his later comments that he considered Druitt to be a very likely choice for being the Ripper. Of course we have almost no information on how he came to that conclusion, but we do know that it was more than just a case of presenting the least unlikely suspect in his mind.

[Ben]

Hi DA,

Right place at the right time

It depends how broad and encompassing the term "right place" is used. Unfortunately, there is no evidence that Druitt was ever in the East End, less still during the "Autumn of Terror".

[gizmo]

A pricely sum ???

Hiya Folks, Can anyone give me a rough idea what the 68 quid found in Montague's pockets would have bought him,either then, or relatively, present day.

[Sam Flynn]

Thanks, Dan - and I agree wholeheartedly with what you say.

[c.d.]

Isn't there supposed to be some evidence forthcoming that essentially exonerates Druitt? What's the story with that?

c.d.