The mystery of Montague Druitt

[curious4]

Does anyone else find the collection of articles found on Druittīs body a little strange? Bodyīs decomposing, been in the water for AT LEAST a month and yet the two cheques found on him are still readable. They must have used very good ink! A Thames waterman brings him in and leaves a fairly substantial amount of hard cash on the body. As far as I can make out the watermen made a fairly good living by taking what they could from the bodies they found.

Also a first class season ticket from Blackheath to London but a second class half return Hammersmith to Charing Cross? Also readable, by the way. Wouldnīt someone accustomed to travelling first class always do so? Why no description of the clothing? Wouldnīt this have helped with identification?

Gold chain with spade guinea but SILVER watch? Maybe he was saving up for a gold one.

I`m not drawing any particular conclusions from this but do find it odd.

[Rubyretro]

Does anyone else find the collection of articles found on Druittīs body a little strange? Bodyīs decomposing, been in the water for AT LEAST a month and yet the two cheques found on him are still readable. They must have used very good ink! A Thames waterman brings him in and leaves a fairly substantial amount of hard cash on the body. As far as I can make out the watermen made a fairly good living by taking what they could from the bodies they found.

Also a first class season ticket from Blackheath to London but a second class half return Hammersmith to Charing Cross? Also readable, by the way. Wouldnīt someone accustomed to travelling first class always do so? Why no description of the clothing? Wouldnīt this have helped with identification?

Gold chain with spade guinea but SILVER watch? Maybe he was saving up for a gold one.

I`m not drawing any particular conclusions from this but do find it odd.

Odd -and fascinating.

If the 'hard cash' was in notes, maybe they were too damaged to use (the cheques may have been 'readable' but also very damaged )? Maybe it was an honest Waterman who found him?

Maybe Monty only travelled First Class according to availability of tickets and his 'means' on the day ?

Maybe he had inherited the watch but had to buy a new chain (and lacked artitic taste) ?

Maybe he WAS saving up for the watch to go with the chain ?

One interesting detail is, IF Monty didn't earn enough, with his job, not to be able to afford the 'gold watch' (had he wanted one)...then A Man was not 'shabby genteel' but
very Well Off....

[curious4]

Montague Druitt

Hello Ruby,

No, money was in cash, "two pounds ten in gold, 7s in silver, 2d (two pence) in bronze". The watermen were poor and according to Dickens (Our mutual Friend)on the whole didnīt consider it stealing, as a dead man can own no money. And after all, only the dead man knew how much he had in his pockets when he jumped!

[Roma]

If ever he jumped, Curious!

I'm currently reading one of Leighton's books and he's got an interesting theory: perhaps when Monty was fired by Valentine, he went to the Osiers' (in Chiswick, it was Wilson's chummery, and Wilson was a barrister, one of Montague's colleagues. Interesting pages about that in Leighton's book). But the guys at the Osiers were suspicious about him ("what ? He's been fired because his boss found out what he was", ie homosexual) so they told him : "you kill yourself or we kill you". MJ : "no, I don't want to die" So they drug him, he dies. They wait for the Thames to be "favourable" in a way, for the body to be led to the sea by the water, and that would explain that the cheques, etc, were still readable.

That's one of Leighton's theories (he's got another one with MJ's brother but... could really a brother want to kill his brother? I don't know, and I'm not favourable to this theory.) What do you think?

[curious4]

Druitt

Hello Roma,

Interesting theory - what`s the name of the book? I am not sure that Druitt was sacked for homosexuality, though (what they then called "unnatural acts"!) It was a criminal offence then and I would have thought that he would have been arrested. "Serious trouble" covers a lot - maybe he punched the headmaster, got roaring drunk or stole the petty cash?

Another thing that has occured to me was that the insanity in the family was all on the female side, and at a certain age as the french say, in the days before good old HRT and happy pills, so why was he so sure he was "going to be like mother" - the mind boggles!

Was the body really Druitt? It was only identified by the papers on the body, maybe his relatives fished out a convenient body, put the papers on it and bundled him off abroad for a fresh start under another name?

[Rubyretro]

I confess that I can't remember all the details about poor Monty -because I don't consider him a 'suspect'...

..but didn't he write a letter a short time before about being afraid of 'turning out like Mother' ?. and how could you keep a body hanging about -without a freezer- for a convienient time to drop it in the Thames ? Isn't your given motive rather slight for a murder ?

[curious4]

Druitt and watermen

Just have to pass on this extract from Our Mutual Friend apropos watermen: "The trousers pockets empty, and turned inside out." Gaffer Hexam
nodded. "But thatīs common. Whether itīs the wash of the tide or no, I canīt say."

[Adam Went]

I don't think the ink and the cheques is such a big deal - they've managed to raise documents still readable from the Titanic, 90-95 years after it sank, 2.5 miles underwater. Monty was only in the river water for a month, if that.

Having said that, I have come to suspect that there is more to his suicide than meets the eye - being that it may not have been entirely as planned as some might think. Something happened on his final day that made him decide the time had come there and then, without any further delay. I might expand on this a bit more later but suffice to say that there could well be a bigger story to be told.

Cheers,
Adam.

[curious4]

Montague Druitt

Take your point, Adam. I have heard that papers in a leather wallet keep better under water but there is no mention of one. What kind of papers were rescued from Titanic? Any handwritten letters, for example? And were they protected in any way?

Intrigued by your hint of things to come!

[Roma]

Hello everybody,

Curious, the book is "Ripper suspect, the secret lives of Montague Druitt". Leighton adds that his cricket in 1888 was less good than before. Perhaps at the age of 30 the body gets weaker... Well, I don't know, I'm not 30 yet... Or he was just tired, a bit sick...

By the way, it's hard for me to imagine that he punched Valentine (poor Valentine... ) or stole cash or anything... They may have disagree, mean Valentine and him, but why, I don't know...

And your theory, Curious, concerning that body which wouldn't be Druitt is quite interesting. But where would MJ go? Does he speak french enough or german enough to go to one of those countries and live as a normal citizen? He spoke Latin, I guess, but only churchmen still spoke Latin at that time...

[curious4]

Druitt

Hello again Roma,

Usually the "black sheep" of the family was packed off to the West Indies (bad climate, usually didnīt last long), India (they could make a fortune if lucky) or Australia. The British Empire being what it was then, they didnīt need to speak anything but english.

[Johnr]

In Australia They Were Called "Remittance Men"

Hello Curious 4,
Yes good point about the family shipping them off to distant parts of the Empire.
In Australia they were known as "Remittance Men". Packed off with a booked berth on a designated ship, a set of new shirts, and the address of a solicitor to contact in that Empire city who would hand out a monthly cheque for him to live on. On the one condition: that he never returned to Britain.
However, I think the family could not risk doing that if they thought Montague was JTR.
I don't think the suicide was suspicious, IMHO.
Thomas Bramah Diplock apparently was an experienced and careful Coroner.
I think it would have been his Report which found its way to the Home Office, and became the basis of the file MM looked at. (And highly likely, Abberline too).
I would say if there was suspicion within the Druitt family, it would have been tightly held.
Proof, to my mind, was that the only photo of Montague found, was in the voluminous photo album of Druitt photos, owned by the family of Australian uncle, Archdeacon Thomas Druitt.
JOHN RUFFELS.

[curious4]

Druitt

Hello John,

Yes, exactly what I meant. I donīt think that Druitt was JTR, there doesnīt seem to be any evidence apart from hearsay "his family thought he was responsible".

I still think the collection of articles in his pockets was odd - and even more odd that the cash was still there.

[KatBradshaw]

Paper items have been brought up from the Titanic and they have been very well preserved and readable. Everything from cash to razor blade papers.

[Roma]

yes, Kat, but I don't think the waterman was so wealthy.. he could have thought of stealing the money... Why didn't he do so? Because he was too good?... Yes, perhaps. I admit it's possible. Good men exist, but all the same it's odd...

And Curious, I'm so sorry, I forgot the British Empire... I was focused on Europe. Bad point for me!