Reasons why?

[Herlock Sholmes]

That is, if there was any private information.

Even if Druitt's relatives had suspected that he was the murderer, it is unlikely that they would have spread the word about it.

Using the phrase ‘spread the word about’ is an u fair on to use because it paints a false picture of the situation in order to make it less likely. They certainly wouldn’t have reported it to The Star, chalked it on a wall or gone round the pubs telling everyone, but to say that they wouldn’t have told anyone is to suggest that any family who had a possible serial killer in their midst would simply have allowed them to continue killing without taking action. They might have told one person who then told Macnaghten.

And it is unlikely that they would have suspected him of having committed murder in Whitechapel at a time when he was on holiday in Dorset.

They might have if they knew that he’d returned to London. Please don’t say that we have no evidence for that because I’m not prepared to go around in that circle again. The FACT is that he could easily gave returned and that’s all that matters.

[Herlock Sholmes]

"Spread the word" probably isnt appropriate anyway, being mentioned in a discreet private conversation with someone named Druitt is more probable. This was a time when Senior Police and the upper crust mingled and swapped stories. It seems one was from a Druitt about his suspicions.

Exactly Michael.

[Herlock Sholmes]

I doubt that it was their intention to take out a full page ad in the newspaper but a couple of drinks too many could have led to an inadvertent slip. It is also possible that the person receiving the information drew an inference that was not intended and not warranted. We simply don't know.

c.d.

Three of us thinking the same thing c.d.

[PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR 1]

to say that they wouldn’t have told anyone is to suggest that any family who had a possible serial killer in their midst would simply have allowed them to continue killing without taking action.

In that case, why was Druitt not apprehended?

[Herlock Sholmes]

In that case, why was Druitt not apprehended?

Perhaps not enough evidence to convict. Or perhaps his death made any revelation pointless…only causing pain to the family?

[PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR 1]

Perhaps not enough evidence to convict. Or perhaps his death made any revelation pointless…only causing pain to the family?

You mean they could not arrest him because they were not sure they had a strong enough case?

In that case, why could he not have been put under surveillance and caught the next time he tried to commit a murder?

Would not Abberline have remembered that Druitt had been a suspect, instead of dismissing him?

And what about Anderson?

Why would he have preferred a Polish Jew in an asylum to a man who was wanted by the police and committed suicide before he could be arrested?

And how about Swanson?

Why would Anderson and Swanson have called a Polish Jew the 'murderer' when not only had they been tipped off about Druitt, but he had committed suicide before he could be arrested?

[Herlock Sholmes]

You mean they could not arrest him because they were not sure they had a strong enough case?

In that case, why could he not have been put under surveillance and caught the next time he tried to commit a murder?

Would not Abberline have remembered that Druitt had been a suspect, instead of dismissing him?

And what about Anderson?

Why would he have preferred a Polish Jew in an asylum to a man who was wanted by the police and committed suicide before he could be arrested?

And how about Swanson?

Why would Anderson and Swanson have called a Polish Jew the 'murderer' when not only had they been tipped off about Druitt, but he had committees suicide before he could be arrested?

PI, I keep repeating this but I’m going to have to do it again. We don’t know. There’s an absence of information. And if something is absent it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t, or didn’t, exist. What if a suspicion only came about just before the Kelly murder and while they were looking for him his body was pulled out of the Thames? I really don’t know, but none of us do.

I’ll ask a question. You are quite happy to suggest that Macnaghten was a liar but do you assume that Abberline was exempt? That he couldn’t have been less than truthful?

[PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR 1]

What if a suspicion only came about just before the Kelly murder and while they were looking for him his body was pulled out of the Thames?

You mean it would have taken them three weeks to work out where his school was located?

[Herlock Sholmes]

You mean it would have taken them three weeks to work out where his school was located?

I don’t know because I have nothing to go on. In fact you’ve just reminded me of another possible reason for Druitt’s sacking to add to any speculative list. Perhaps he was sacked after the police turned up looking for him?

[PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR 1]

I don’t know because I have nothing to go on. In fact you’ve just reminded me of another possible reason for Druitt’s sacking to add to any speculative list. Perhaps he was sacked after the police turned up looking for him?

That is hardly possible.

Police visits are often made to entirely innocent people, with no suspicion attaching to the person being visited - and the school would have been aware of that.

[Herlock Sholmes]

That is hardly possible.

Police visits are often made to entirely innocent people, with no suspicion attaching to the person being visited - and the school would have been aware of that.

But this was the Victorian era when reputation and the schools honour would have meant everything to Valentine. How often would the police have turned up ‘innocently’ at a posh school? And how do we know that they didn’t give a hint that Druitt was wanted for something serious? We can’t know. Anyway PI, it’s not a ‘theory’ that I’m pushing. All that I’m saying is that in a vacuum of information many suggestions can be put forward. And of course, they might all be wrong.

[Herlock Sholmes]

This post isn’t intended as the case for the prosecution against Druitt. All points made here can be debated or disputed or subjected to various interpretations. It’s meant purely to show just some of the reasons why I, personally find Druitt the most intriguing of suspects.

…

Clearly there’s nothing physical that makes Druitt unlikely. He was 31, fit and strong, intelligent, would be able to charm. There’s nothing about his appearance that raises eyebrows (ok, of course he doesn’t sound like BS Man or Blotchy Man)

…

Can we physically place Druitt it the East End? Of course we can’t but if he had been there what evidence would we expect to find? Nothing. Could he have gone there? Absolutely. That’s all that matters. It proves nothing but we can’t dismiss him on grounds that we have no record of him being in Whitechapel. How many men of his class who did go there would have publicised the fact? None or less I’d guess. What reason, other than slumming might he have had for going there then….

In April of 1886 Tory politician J.G. Talbot held a meeting at King’s Bench Walk, where Druitt had his chambers, calling for Inner Temple barristers (particularly the Oxford men) to do charitable work by joining the Oxford House Mission in Bethnal Green. We have no ‘membership lists’ so clearly we can’t place Druitt at this mission but it still remains a plausible possibility for him.

Is there anything else that we know of that might have presented Druitt with the idea or the opportunity of doing charitable work among the poor? Yes, his brother-in-law the Reverend William Hough ran the Corpus Christi Cambridge Mission on the Old Kent Road.

And for all that we know he might have had a legal client or clients in the East End.

Also, in July of 1888 his mother was placed in the Brook House Asylum in Clapton. Druitt would undoubtedly have visited her. A straight line from Blackheath to Clapton would have taken him through the East End.

…


We don’t know what caused Ann’s mental health issues but it appears that she was first placed in care less than a month after her son Edward converted to Roman Catholicism. She had already lost her husband so this may have been, in part, a trigger for someone of already fragile mental health? Monty’s cousin the Reverend Charles Druitt called his conversion ‘treacherous conduct’ and a ‘painful subject.’ It was obviously a troubling issue within the family.

In the summer of 1888 she attempted suicide and was placed in the Brook House Asylum in Clapton in July. So this was less than 2 months before the murder of Mary Nichols. She showed no sign of improvement and was released just before the murders and was sent to Dr. Gasquet’s asylum in Brighton (for the sea air)

Dr. Gasquet described her as suffering from ‘melancholia with stupor,’ and that she was ‘obstinate’ and ‘with an unreasonable refusal to spend money.’

…

In early November of 1888 Monty’s Uncle James was writing a memoir of his life and a family history but he abandoned it abruptly (before Monty’s death so we can’t blame his suicide) and didn’t resume it until 6 years later (the year of the Memorandum). He airbrushed Monty’s side of the family away, saying “Now alas, no representative of the family is to be found” at Wimborne.” This was untrue. He also wrote “and thus avoiding mention of the defects which one hopes to conceal from one’s neighbours.“

…

13th January 1888 we have the interesting English Patient story found in the Philadelphia Times by Roger Palmer.

…

Druitt was found with a return train ticket on him when pulled out of the Thames. Raising the question - did he not intend suicide when he set out that day? Or could he have been killed?

…

The undated Crawford Letter was written by the Earl of Crawford (of 2, Cavendish Square) to Robert Anderson informing him of a woman who believed that she knew who the killer was and that he was closely related to her. In November 1888 Druitt’s aunt Isabella writes a letter to her daughter Edith saying that she has visited Cavendish Square complaining that she may never rid herself of an ‘encumbrance.’ A coincidence? Maybe, maybe not.

…

In 1891 West Country politician Henry Farquaharsen was telling people that the ripper was the son of a surgeon who committed suicide by drowning himself in the Thames. When asked about the murder of Coles he was adamant that this wasn’t a ripper murder because the ripper was dead.

…

In Isabella Druitt’s address book was the name Farquaharsen.

…

In January 1899 the Daily Mail received a letter claiming to be from a clergyman who said that the killer had confessed to a “brother clergyman”. The ripper was a man from a good background who suffered from ‘epileptic mania,’and that he lost control during fits and often didn’t remember what he’d done. Strangely the letter was titled THE WHITECHURCH MURDERS - SOLUTION OF A LONDON MYSTERY? Whitechurch is aodd choice in place of Whitechapel. However there was a parish called Whitchurch or Whitechurch Canonicorum (used interchangeably) The parish vicar was the Reverend Charles Druitt.

…

In 1908 Frank Richardson writes The Worst Man In The World where the ripper is a doctor called Bluitt who drowns himself in the Thames.

…

We know of course that rumours cannot and should not be relied upon as being true. But we also know that they can occasionally be true or at least have a kernel of truth.

"When we lived there [Blackheath] formerly [e.g. before 1895] it was considered dangerous, for the terrible series of crimes committed by "Jack the Ripper"were then being perpetrated, and many people believed that he lived in Blackheath. ...he was never caught, although it was sometimes stated that he had been and was confined in Broadmoor."

Retired Admiral H. L. Fleet, "My Life and a Few Yarns", 1922, Allen and Unwin.

…

Sunday 24th August, 1913 The Mustard and Cress article by George Sims and his story of the killer lodging in Blackheath. He describes the killer as an insane Doctor named D***** who was pulled out of the Thames a month after the last murder.

…

In the 1936 American edition of his history of Scotland Yard Sir Basil Thomson says this about the ripper ““His friends had grave doubts about him, but the evidence was insufficient for detaining him with any hopes of obtaining a conviction.”

…

And we have the Memorandum of course.

…

[GBinOz]

In his Referee column of 13 July 1902, Dagonet (Sims)wrote: …[the] process of exhaustion which enabled them at last to know the real name and address of Jack the Ripper. In that case [the police] had reduced the only possible Jacks to seven, then by a further exhaustive inquiry to three, and were about to fit these three people’s movements in with the dates of the various murders when the one and only genuine Jack saved further trouble by being found drowned in the Thames, into which he had flung himself, a raving lunatic, after the last and most appalling mutilation of the whole series. But prior to this discovery the name of the man found drowned was bracketed with two others as a Possible Jack and the police were in search of him alive when they found him dead.

Hi Herlock,

I'm a little confused by this statement. Who was bracketing Druitt with two others prior to Druitt's death?

Cheers, George

[GBinOz]

This post isn’t intended as the case for the prosecution against Druitt. All points made here can be debated or disputed or subjected to various interpretations. It’s meant purely to show just some of the reasons why I, personally find Druitt the most intriguing of suspects.

…

Clearly there’s nothing physical that makes Druitt unlikely. He was 31, fit and strong, intelligent, would be able to charm. There’s nothing about his appearance that raises eyebrows (ok, of course he doesn’t sound like BS Man or Blotchy Man)

…

Can we physically place Druitt it the East End? Of course we can’t but if he had been there what evidence would we expect to find? Nothing. Could he have gone there? Absolutely. That’s all that matters. It proves nothing but we can’t dismiss him on grounds that we have no record of him being in Whitechapel. How many men of his class who did go there would have publicised the fact? None or less I’d guess. What reason, other than slumming might he have had for going there then….

In April of 1886 Tory politician J.G. Talbot held a meeting at King’s Bench Walk, where Druitt had his chambers, calling for Inner Temple barristers (particularly the Oxford men) to do charitable work by joining the Oxford House Mission in Bethnal Green. We have no ‘membership lists’ so clearly we can’t place Druitt at this mission but it still remains a plausible possibility for him.

Is there anything else that we know of that might have presented Druitt with the idea or the opportunity of doing charitable work among the poor? Yes, his brother-in-law the Reverend William Hough ran the Corpus Christi Cambridge Mission on the Old Kent Road.

And for all that we know he might have had a legal client or clients in the East End.

Also, in July of 1888 his mother was placed in the Brook House Asylum in Clapton. Druitt would undoubtedly have visited her. A straight line from Blackheath to Clapton would have taken him through the East End.

…


We don’t know what caused Ann’s mental health issues but it appears that she was first placed in care less than a month after her son Edward converted to Roman Catholicism. She had already lost her husband so this may have been, in part, a trigger for someone of already fragile mental health? Monty’s cousin the Reverend Charles Druitt called his conversion ‘treacherous conduct’ and a ‘painful subject.’ It was obviously a troubling issue within the family.

In the summer of 1888 she attempted suicide and was placed in the Brook House Asylum in Clapton in July. So this was less than 2 months before the murder of Mary Nichols. She showed no sign of improvement and was released just before the murders and was sent to Dr. Gasquet’s asylum in Brighton (for the sea air)

Dr. Gasquet described her as suffering from ‘melancholia with stupor,’ and that she was ‘obstinate’ and ‘with an unreasonable refusal to spend money.’

…

In early November of 1888 Monty’s Uncle James was writing a memoir of his life and a family history but he abandoned it abruptly (before Monty’s death so we can’t blame his suicide) and didn’t resume it until 6 years later (the year of the Memorandum). He airbrushed Monty’s side of the family away, saying “Now alas, no representative of the family is to be found” at Wimborne.” This was untrue. He also wrote “and thus avoiding mention of the defects which one hopes to conceal from one’s neighbours.“

…

13th January 1888 we have the interesting English Patient story found in the Philadelphia Times by Roger Palmer.

…

Druitt was found with a return train ticket on him when pulled out of the Thames. Raising the question - did he not intend suicide when he set out that day? Or could he have been killed?

…

The undated Crawford Letter was written by the Earl of Crawford (of 2, Cavendish Square) to Robert Anderson informing him of a woman who believed that she knew who the killer was and that he was closely related to her. In November 1888 Druitt’s aunt Isabella writes a letter to her daughter Edith saying that she has visited Cavendish Square complaining that she may never rid herself of an ‘encumbrance.’ A coincidence? Maybe, maybe not.

…

In 1891 West Country politician Henry Farquaharsen was telling people that the ripper was the son of a surgeon who committed suicide by drowning himself in the Thames. When asked about the murder of Coles he was adamant that this wasn’t a ripper murder because the ripper was dead.

…

In Isabella Druitt’s address book was the name Farquaharsen.

…

In January 1899 the Daily Mail received a letter claiming to be from a clergyman who said that the killer had confessed to a “brother clergyman”. The ripper was a man from a good background who suffered from ‘epileptic mania,’and that he lost control during fits and often didn’t remember what he’d done. Strangely the letter was titled THE WHITECHURCH MURDERS - SOLUTION OF A LONDON MYSTERY? Whitechurch is aodd choice in place of Whitechapel. However there was a parish called Whitchurch or Whitechurch Canonicorum (used interchangeably) The parish vicar was the Reverend Charles Druitt.

…

In 1908 Frank Richardson writes The Worst Man In The World where the ripper is a doctor called Bluitt who drowns himself in the Thames.

…

We know of course that rumours cannot and should not be relied upon as being true. But we also know that they can occasionally be true or at least have a kernel of truth.

"When we lived there [Blackheath] formerly [e.g. before 1895] it was considered dangerous, for the terrible series of crimes committed by "Jack the Ripper"were then being perpetrated, and many people believed that he lived in Blackheath. ...he was never caught, although it was sometimes stated that he had been and was confined in Broadmoor."

Retired Admiral H. L. Fleet, "My Life and a Few Yarns", 1922, Allen and Unwin.

…

Sunday 24th August, 1913 The Mustard and Cress article by George Sims and his story of the killer lodging in Blackheath. He describes the killer as an insane Doctor named D***** who was pulled out of the Thames a month after the last murder.

…

In the 1936 American edition of his history of Scotland Yard Sir Basil Thomson says this about the ripper ““His friends had grave doubts about him, but the evidence was insufficient for detaining him with any hopes of obtaining a conviction.”

…

And we have the Memorandum of course.

…

Hi Herlock,

An excellent summary of points, worthy of further discussion rather more than just the debate over Macnaghten. I would reiterate my observation that I can't see any evidence for his sacking necessarily being on the 30th Nov, that appearing to be attributed solely to a presumed alteration of the 30 Dec date from the inquest. It may be that he was sacked for failing to offer an explanation for his failure to attend to his duties at the school before it was known that he had a valid excuse, that being the fact that he was dead. I would also re-iterate that it is not known if the suicide note, if it can be called as such, was dated, or the date of the "friday" referred to in that note.

All in all the points you have laid out in the above post have piqued my interest to the extent that I am more persuaded to consider Druitt as a person of interest, amongst others, of course.

Cheers, George

[Herlock Sholmes]

Hi Herlock,

I'm a little confused by this statement. Who was bracketing Druitt with two others prior to Druitt's death?

Cheers, George

Hello George,

Im assuming that Sims was just referring to the police (although it does sound like the memorandum) I know that Jon Hainsworth is of the opinion that the police were looking for Druitt by the time that his body was found.