Reasons why?

[PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR 1]

What I read in the note was Druitt's fear of being like mother, incarcerated for life. That is why he chose suicide, not because of the murders - but because if found guilty, first there's the shame he brings to his family, then second is the fact he would be caged like an animal for as long as he lives.

You seem to be assuming that Druitt believed he was in danger of being made to stand trial for a criminal act.

He wrote that he was afraid he would become the way his mother became and that it would be best if he were dead.

That looks like a reference to mental illness, not imprisonment.

[PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR 1]

There's some charity that either had an office, or was based right in the Whitechapel area. Druitt had made contributions to this charity, no known records have survived to suggest he made frequent visits. It's just a potential connection that has fizzled out over time.

I am not surprised that it has fizzled out.

What are the chances that Druitt managed to hide in a charity's office in the early hours of a Sunday morning?

[Wickerman]

You seem to be assuming that Druitt believed he was in danger of being made to stand trial for a criminal act.

He wrote that he was afraid he would become the way his mother became and that it would be best if he were dead.

That looks like a reference to mental illness, not imprisonment.

It's like the GSG, I think most of us know the exact wording.

'Since Friday I felt I was going to be like mother, and the best thing for me was to die.'

Like mother - locked up.

[Wickerman]

I am not surprised that it has fizzled out.

What are the chances that Druitt managed to hide in a charity's office in the early hours of a Sunday morning?

You're making the wrong assumptions.
It's more to do with the type of people and type of places, he will get get to know, than using offices.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Would you not agree with me that in order for someone to have become a serious suspect, there would have had to be some reason to suppose that he had been frequenting the areas where the murders were committed when they were committed?

That point stands regardless of whether the suspect had an alibi on the strength of his cricketing tour of Dorset.

Druitt lived eight miles away from Whitechapel or Spitalfields and had no known lodgings in that area.

The double murders were committed at such times that he would not have been able to catch a train back home for hours afterwards.

The fact that he was in Dorset on a cricketing tour means that he could not have been stalking prostitutes in Whitechapel for any length of time during that tour.

It also means that if his relatives knew enough about his movements to have reason to suspect him, then they should have known about his trip to Dorset.

And if they knew about his trip to Dorset, why would they have suspected him?

There would have had to be something to connect him with Whitechapel or Spitalfields and it is evident that there was not.

No incriminating evidence was ever mentioned.

No one is particularly suggesting that Druitt was a suspect at the time though PI.

If we take the Druitt name out for now and talk about someone ‘like’ him. A non-Whitechapel local and someone from a higher social class and consider why he might have visited Whitechapel then we would have a list of completely hypothetical scenarios. We know for example that many upper class men went ‘slumming.’ They would have kept these nocturnal visits a secret so we wouldn’t expect to have found any record. I genuinely don’t see this point as an issue, not just with Druitt, but for any suspect. There could have been other reasons that might have taken him to Whitechapel too.

I’m not going to get into the cricket trip PI because we’ve been over this before. Research has shown that he had no alibi. He could easily have returned to London (whether anyone thinks this likely or not) so he cannot be dismissed on these grounds.

So no, I don’t think that we need to connect him to Whitechapel. He was close enough. Obviously this doesn’t make him guilty though.

[PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR 1]

It's like the GSG, I think most of us know the exact wording.

'Since Friday I felt I was going to be like mother, and the best thing for me was to die.'

Like mother - locked up.

You wrote in # 74 that you think that he was afraid that he would be found guilty of something.

[Herlock Sholmes]

There's some charity that either had an office, or was based right in the Whitechapel area. Druitt had made contributions to this charity, no known records have survived to suggest he made frequent visits. It's just a potential connection that has fizzled out over time.
I'm suspecting this was in one of Hainsworth's books too.

It only demonstrates there is still more about Druitt that we don't know, than what we do.
And, we all should have learned how precarious it is to cast judgement in situations where we lack sufficient knowledge.

This might be what you’re thinking about Wick?

April 1886 - Conservative politician JG Talbot held a meeting in Kings Bench Walk to get Barristers to join the mission at Oxford House (which had opened in 1844) in Bethnal Green. It was a place where the better off (inc Oxford men) could live among the poor and help them. It was a more religious movement than Toynbee Hall. (The North Country Vicar claimed that the ripper was part of a movement rescuing poor women in the East End.)

We can’t prove it but Druitt might have joined as lots of men like him did.

[PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR 1]

You're making the wrong assumptions.
It's more to do with the type of people and type of places, he will get get to know, than using offices.

I used to make an annual donation to a charity based in Devon and they used to send me regular newsletters.

I have never even visited Devon.

Nor have I ever had any personal contact with anyone connected with that charity.

[Wickerman]

You wrote in # 74 that you think that he was afraid that he would be found guilty of something.

Yes, he can be found guilty, but not charged if deemed to be insane.
He will spend the rest of his life incarcerated.

[Wickerman]

I used to make an annual donation to a charity based in Devon and they used to send me regular newsletters.

I have never even visited Devon.

Nor have I ever had any personal contact with anyone connected with that charity.

Do you truly think that has any bearing on the case?

[Wickerman]

This might be what you’re thinking about Wick?

April 1886 - Conservative politician JG Talbot held a meeting in Kings Bench Walk to get Barristers to join the mission at Oxford House (which had opened in 1844) in Bethnal Green. It was a place where the better off (inc Oxford men) could live among the poor and help them. It was a more religious movement than Toynbee Hall. (The North Country Vicar claimed that the ripper was part of a movement rescuing poor women in the East End.)

We can’t prove it but Druitt might have joined as lots of men like him did.

It might be, but I'm not sure.
I have both his books, I'll try find time to look later today.

[PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR 1]

Do you truly think that has any bearing on the case?

As much bearing as your suggestion that the fact that Druitt donated money to a charity based in Whitechapel could somehow be connected with the Whitechapel murders.

[PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR 1]

Yes, he can be found guilty, but not charged if deemed to be insane.
He will spend the rest of his life incarcerated.

That is not what you wrote in # 74.

You wrote:

That is why he chose suicide, not because of the murders - but because if found guilty, first there's the shame he brings to his family, then second is the fact he would be caged like an animal for as long as he lives.

You were suggesting that he was afraid of being convicted of some offence and incarcerated indefinitely.

Unless he had committed murder, he could not have been incarcerated indefinitely - and even in that case the sentence would have had to have been commuted.


What you wrote in #84 - 'he can be found guilty, but not charged if deemed to be insane' - makes no sense.

In order to be found guilty, he would have had to have been charged, so the option of not charging him would no longer apply.

If instead of 'charged' you meant 'sentenced', then one is bound to ask what it is about the supposed offence that would lend itself to a finding of insanity.

But, in any case, he could not have been found to be both guilty and insane.

[Paddy Goose]

... Druitt, the unlikely gentleman suspect, lies dormant until Farson stumbles across him sixty years later.

Which begs the question, did Tom Cullen steal Dan Farson's briefcase?

[Fleetwood Mac]

Why would a serial murderer suddenly become certifiably insane after committing a murder?

We know that's not how it works because we have the benefit of research and empirical studies. They didn't have that luxury (or misfortune to have read about these people depending upon point of view). There isn't a slow descent into madness, contrary to Macnaghten's assumption.

So, when they talk of the type of person they thought it was, or MO as they perceived it, or a cataclysmic 'awful glut' as Macnaghten put it; it was all based on a primitive understanding of what sexual serial murders are and do.

Long story short: Macnaghten couldn't conceive of a scenario whereby the person who inflicted those injuries upon Mary was not completely and obviously 'round the bend, but with the benefit of the information that we have today, he wouldn't have arrived at that conclusion.