Does Playing Cricket Make You Immune From Being A Serial Killer?

[Sickert]

No they did not have floodlit cricket in 1888. What they are saying is, that the transport in 1888 wasn't fast enough to have got him from where he was playing cricket to London and back again in time for him to play the next day.

[Chris]

No they did not have floodlit cricket in 1888. What they are saying is, that the transport in 1888 wasn't fast enough to have got him from where he was playing cricket to London and back again in time for him to play the next day.

Unless some new information has emerged that's not the case.

[Sickert]

Book

Wish I could remember the name oy the book I read it in, but it was over 30 years ago.

[Roma]

I do agree with you, Sickert. A train (or a bus, or a car... were there cars in 1888? ) was just not as fast as it can be today. I think a car in 1900 didn't go much faster than 25 mph (not sure...). So no, I really don't believe that Monty could have come to London to commit the murders (by the way, if he had the intent to kill, why the hell didn't he kill where he was? A murderer wouldn't have come back to London...)

[Chris]

So no, I really don't believe that Monty could have come to London to commit the murders (by the way, if he had the intent to kill, why the hell didn't he kill where he was? A murderer wouldn't have come back to London...)

When is it that you don't believe he could have got to London, and where do you think he was at the time?

[Sickert]

Glad some one thinks the same as me Roma.

[Roma]

When is it that you don't believe he could have got to London, and where do you think he was at the time?

I think he was not in London when the murders were committed just because (it's my opinion) he was at home (Blackheath; sleeping or working?) or playing cricket (if I remember well, he was playing in southern England, not that close to London)

[Chris]

I think he was not in London when the murders were committed just because (it's my opinion) he was at home (Blackheath; sleeping or working?) or playing cricket (if I remember well, he was playing in southern England, not that close to London)

But of course people have looked into this possibility quite carefully, and Druitt doesn't have anything close to an alibi for any of the murders.

[Sickert]

But of course people have looked into this possibility quite carefully, and Druitt doesn't have anything close to an alibi for any of the murders.

Yes they did look into it, and at the time of at least 2 of the murders he was playing cricket miles from London.

[Abby Normal]

Yes they did look into it, and at the time of at least 2 of the murders he was playing cricket miles from London.

Agreed.
and the other 3 he was confirmed at the White Castle in Hackensack, NJ eating sliders. Druitt is out. Ostrog is definitely out. and Kominski is hangen on by a thread.

[Jonathan H]

Jack the Cricketer?

I see it similarly but also differently.

I agree that Ostrog is out, and that Kosminski is very unlikely to be the fiend.

In fact, I think, like many, that Aaron Kosminski's asylum records and the Swanson Marginalia are evidence for his complete lack of anything to with the Whitechapel Mystery.

That Macnaghten chose and exploited him for his own purposes, ruthlessly though essentially harmlessly since the real figure who lay behind 'Kosminski', a.k.a. the Polish Jew suspect, was never discovered -- and never could be discovered at the time. Martin Fido, in 1987, initially did not find him trawling though asylum records, and only stumbled upon 'Aaron Kosminski' by accident -- and still believed, and believes, this could not be Anderson's original Polish Jew suspect.

I do not, however, agree about the cricket games acting as an alibi for Druitt. He may not have been the murderer, but those matches by no means act as iron-clad alibis for the theory of an innocent also shanghaied into the case.

[Chris]

Yes they did look into it, and at the time of at least 2 of the murders he was playing cricket miles from London.

If you're going to carry on making these claims, please give us the details. If you don't have any details, please stop making the claims.

[Phil Carter]

Crime, murder, suicide etc in cricket

Hello all,

Crime, suicide, murder and unusual deaths of professional cricketers are not always a game related "given" as the list below shows. Neil Bell has correctly pointed out 90% of the game is played in the mind. It is very much a "thinking man's game", and one which needs concentration at all times even when nothing is apparently happening at any given period during the game. I once myself described it as "chess with people".

As far as being a killer vis a vis being a cricketer is concerned, and all other aspects of major crime, and even suicide, I post herewith something I posted on jtr forums yesterday:-


Cricketers who have committed a crime:-

Leslie Hylton -Murdered his wife. He was executed by hanging.

Terry Jenner -Embezzlement. He was sentenced to 6½ years and released after 18 months.

Vallance Jupp -Manslaughter. He was sentenced to 9 months but served only half his sentence.

Garth Le Roux -Tax fraud. He was sentenced to 4 years.

Warrington Phillip -Murder. He was sentenced to Life Imprisonment. Has been found guilty.

Lorrie Wilmot -Rape . He was sentenced to12 years, three of them suspended. Committed suicide before he was due to be imprisoned.

NB: It is noted here that Montague J. Druitt was an amateur cricketer, not a professional cricketer.



Cricketers who were murdered:-


Edward Wright -Murdered in riots at Jamaica on 23/11/1904

Claude Tozer -Shot and killed by his deranged mistress on 21/12/1920

Robert Makant -Murdered whilst on duty in Kurdistan on 18/6/1922

Jeff Stollmeyer -Shot five times and beaten about the head by intruders at
his home in Port-of-Spain on 10/9/1989

Muni Lal -Murdered along with his wife by burglars who broke into
his home on 8/1/1990

Haseeb-ul-Hasan -Murdered by an unknown gunman on 18/4/1990

William Strydom -Shot during a robbery on 20/2/1995

Ashley Harvey-Walker -Shot dead in a Johannesburg bar on 28/4/1997

Nezam Hafiz -Died in the terrorist attack on New York's World Trade
Center on 11/9/2001

Mark Parker -Killed in the Bali bombings on 12/10/2002

Rahatullah -Shot dead on 11/2/ 2008



Cricketers who were possibly murdered:-

Percy Hardy -Found dead on the floor of a lavatory at King's Cross station
with his throat cut and a blood-stained knife by his
side on 9/11/1916. (Somerset C.C. history maintains
Hardy committed suicide rather than be sent back to World
War I battlefields)

Jack Marsh -Killed in a street brawl. The assailants were charged with
manslaughter but acquitted on 25/5/1916

Rajesh Peter -Found dead in his flat in New Delhi in suspicious
circumstances on 16/11/1995

Tertius Bosch -Believed to have died from Guillain-Barre syndrome, but post
mortem suggested that he was poisoned on 14/2/2000

David Hookes -Died of head injuries after a brawl outside a Melbourne pub.
(There were claims that it was murder, but the charge that
was brought was manslaughter and the person charged
—bouncer Zdravko Micevic—was found not guilty) on
9/1/2004

Bob Woolmer -Found dead in his hotel room in Kingston, Jamaica during the
2007 cricket World Cup. Originally believed to have been
strangled but the investigation returned an open verdict,
neither ruling out strangulation or death by natural causes



Cricketers who committed suicide:-

David Bairstow on 5/1/1998 aged 46 hanged himself at his home (having
suffered bouts of depression) in Marton-cum-Grafton, Yorkshire.
He had worries about money and the health of his wife.

Jim Burke on 2/2/1979 aged 48. He hid personal and financial worries. In
February 1979, while a member of the regular ABC commentary team
for The Ashes Tests, he bought a shotgun from a Sydney store and killed
himself with it.

Fen Cresswell on 10/1/1966 aged 50. He was found dead in Blenheim, NZ

Aubrey Faulkner on 10/9/1930 aged 48. He began to suffer from
extended periods of depression, possibly exacerbated from the malaria he
contracted during the war. In a small store room at his cricket school,
Faulkner gassed himself. His suicide note read "I'm off to another world,
via the bat room."

Barry Fisher on 6/4/1980 aged 56. He committed suicide after his
marriage had failed.

Harold Gimblett on 30/3/1978 aged 63. Overdose of prescription drugs
(He suffered from long term depression and mental illness)

George Griffith on 8/5/1879 aged 45

Glen Hall on 26/6/1987 aged 49

Jack Iverson on 24/10/1973 aged 58. Gunshot wound to the chest.
He suffered from depression and ill health.

Danny Kelleher on 12/12/1995 aged 29. Took an overdose of Prozac

Joe Partridge on 6/6/1988 aged 55

Harry Pickett on 3/10/1907 aged 45 Pickett disappeared on 27/9/1907
and a week later was found washed ashore on Aberavon beach.His death
is listed as suicide.

Arthur Povey on 13/2/46 aged 59 at his home in Tonbridge, Kent.

Albert Relf on 26/3/1937 aged 62 shot himself at Wellington, apparently
depressed by the illness of his wife.

R. C. Robertson-Glasgow on 4/3/1965 aged 63. He committed suicide
during a snowstorm whilst in the grip of melancholic depression.

Mark Saxelby on 12/10/2000 aged 31 ingesting weedkiller; he was
suffering from depression.

William Scotton on 9/7/1893 aged 37 having lost his place in the
Nottinghamshire 1st XI, became depressed and killed himself.

Arthur Shrewsbury on 19/5/1903 aged 47 after his final playing season.
The following spring, incorrectly believing he had an incurable disease, he
shot himself at his sister's home in Gedling, Nottinghamshire.

Andrew Stoddart on 4/4/1915 aged 52. He found life difficult after leaving
cricket. In failing health and burdened by debt he shot himself in London.

Vincent Tancred on 3/6/1904 aged 28. Following an evening playing
billiards with friends at a club in Johannesburg, Tancred borrowed a
revolver and returned to the hotel in Roodepoort where he was staying.
There, Tancred apparently shot himself in the head three times and was
found unconscious by his brother Bernard, who had rushed to the hotel
upon hearing of the revolver in Vincent’s possession. Tancred died four
hours later.

Albert Trott on 30/7/1914 aged 41. He wrote his will on the back of a
laundry ticket, leaving his wardrobe and £4 to his landlady. Shortly
afterwards, he shot himself.

Tom Wills on 2/5/1880 aged 44. He was admitted to the Royal
Melbourne Hospital at the age of 44 suffering from extreme alcoholism.
Delusional from induced alcohol withdrawal, Wills escaped from the
hospital on the 1 May 1880, returned home and the next day stabbed
himself to death with a pair of scissors in his Heidelberg home.

Lorrie Wilmot on 29/2/2004 aged 60. In 2000 he was convicted of raping
a 13 year old girl. After a long appeals process he was sentenced to 12
years behind bars with 3 of them suspended. He committed suicide by
shooting himself on his farm near Grahamstown. Although it is likely that
he took his own life due to his impending imprisonment, he was also
rumoured to be suffering from an incurable disease.

Arthur Woodcock on 14/5/1910 aged 44. He died from 'self-administered
poison'.


NB Of the 24 instances listed above, the average age of suicide was 48.25 years.


It is very interesting to note therefore that Montague J. Druitt, who apparently committed suicide, would, if added to the lists above, (tenuous, as this list is of the more famous and professional cricketers) have only have been in the company of one known cricketing person, Lorrie Wilmot, should Druitt have committed a crime of any sort, before he apparently committed suicide (in reference to his supposed trouble at the boys school he worked).



sources:-

A History of Yorkshire CCC Tony Woodhouse (Helm 1989)
Bradford's Own, by Derek A.J.Lister (Sutton 2004)
Silence of the Heart: Cricket Suicides, by D. Frith (Mainstream Publishing, London, 2001).
Mystery Spinner: The Story of Jack Iverson by Haigh, (Gideon Melbourne: Text Pub 1999)
The Times online http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/spo...icle705522.ece
The Cricketing Brothers Tancred, Part 2 by B.Hall & H.Schulze (2000)
The Cricket Statistician, No. 112. Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians, Cardiff.
Trott, George Henry Stevens by Percival Serle, (Angus and Robertson 1949).
Give me Arthur, A Biography of Arthur Shrewsbury by Peter Wynne Thomas (Barker, 1985)
Cricinfo
1894 Wisden Almanac
1907 Wisden Almanac
1917 Wisden Almanac
1923 Wisden Almanac
1990 Wisden Almanac
1991 Wisden Almanac
1996 Wisden Almanac
1997 Wisden Almanac
1998 Wisden Almanac
2003 Wisden Almanac
ACSSI Yearbook 1989-90
Sunshine, Sixes and Cider, by David Foot (David & Charles, 1986)
Harold Gimblett, Tormented Genius of Cricket, by David Foot (William Heinemann Ltd 1982)
Australian Dictionary of Biography
AFP.com
Wikipedia


Hope this helps.

So, in answer to the title of this thread:- "Does Playing Cricket Make You Immune From Being A Serial Killer? " the short and simple answer has to be "no".. but it must be noted that there hasn't been one from the professional ranks in the history of the game, ever. Only two have ever committed murder. Only one has been charged with manslaughter.


Best wishes

Phil

[jason_c]

Phil,

Ian Botham - marijuana user, 1986.

[Phil Carter]

Hello jason,

He was never charged with any crime. Ian Botham was suspended for two months from playing cricket after admitting to possessing and smoking cannabis in 1986. He was however, charged in Australia with assaulting a passenger on the flight to Perth. He was bailed and fined $800.

best wishes

Phil