Emily Davison

[Robert]

This has a marginal bearing on Druitt (return ticket) :

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2330805/Did-suffragette-died-Kings-horse-mean-kill-Historian-believes-return-ticket-shows-just-wanted-make-stand.html

[Mayerling]

It is an interesting article - and should be a useful biography on Davison. What this really shows is that a family may not reveal informaiont about a notable (or notorious) family member for decades, or be able to be heard above the comments of the popular press or media.

Davison's death was the first (if not the first, among the first) that was filmed when it happened, because she was fatally injured at the running of the Derby in 1913 (only a century ago). The film of her death is as well known as the films of the Hindenburg explosion, the fall of the Tacoma Narrow's bridge in 1940, the assassination of King Alexander of Yugoslavia (and of French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou) at Marseilles in 1934, and the Zapruder film of JFK's assassination in 1963. In fact, when they did a multi-episode series about the British Suffragette movement (with Sian Phillips as Mrs. Pankhurst) they integrated the film of Davison's demise with the scenes of the actress playing Davison in the series.

The fact that she had a return ticket with her is a strong hint that she planned to return home, not die due to colliding with the King's horse. However, though one can make a comparison with Montie having a return ticket showing a preliminary plan to return, if he was suicidal he would have jettisoned the plan. Perhaps the Druitt family may have more personal information than they have released so far about Montie's mindset, behavior, and activities that still has not been released...or perhaps not.

Jeff

[Bridewell]

I guess that if you're suicidal it's a matter of supreme indifference whether you buy a single ticket or a return for a journey you're not going to make.

[Robert]

I suppose most people buying a train ticket buy a return, so maybe it was an automatic thing.

[Dave O]

Hi Robert, Jeff, Colin

Who knows what he was thinking, leading up to the suicide. We're not really sure about dates, but it looks like Druitt resolved himself pretty quickly. Nevertheless, perhaps the return ticket tells us there was some kind of conflict in his mind about carrying through, despite having written the note. It's a hell of a step to take.

There's a case where there's this depressed fellow. He'd been to prison, had a laudanum habit, and his marriage had headed south. And he sent this suicide letter to his wife, which I suppose was delivered the same day by the marvelously efficient mail. In it, he was pretty straight forward and dry about his intention. Not a "goodbye, cruel world" kind of thing, just something brief telling her what he had done, how he'd done it, and why. It went along the lines of "I'm solely responsible for my death, I bought the laudanum I'm going to use from this person at this place. I'm doing this because my choice is to either go mad or die." He seems resolved to do what he's going to do.

But then he didn't actually commit the act for another two weeks although he had secured the means of doing so. His wife didn't pay much attention because she'd seen odd behavior from him before, and there's an interval where he hung around, he hesitated. Maybe he hoped for some improvement in his circumstances or maybe it was just because it's such an awful, irrevocable step to take. Who can really say? Finally, he just left home one day and never came back.

Dave

[Robert]

Hi Dave

I'm wondering if Druitt had been applying for jobs, and had found that Valentine's reference wasn't helping him. Perhaps he applied for just one more position, received a negative feedback, and decided to go ahead and end it. But I guess we'll never know, unless as Jeff says, the Druitt family know something.

[Jonathan H]

The foundation of RipperLand is that we know more about Druitt than Macnaghten or even his own family, and that he was clearly an unlikely suspect -- if not a wholly innocent tragic personage.

So many and so much is invested in that notion.

What would happen if a priamry source turned up which proved that Mac knew Montie well, albeit posthumously?

Would this site, and the other, just become electronic ghost towns ...?

[Mayerling]

The foundation of RipperLand is that we know more about Druitt than Macnaghten or even his own family, and that he was clearly an unlikely suspect -- if not a wholly innocent tragic personage.

So many and so much is invested in that notion.

What would happen if a priamry source turned up which proved that Mac knew Montie well, albeit posthumously?

Would this site, and the other, just become electronic ghost towns ...?

Hi Jonathan,

I can't see it becoming an electronic ghost-town. We would suddenly find dozens of new subjects and threads about Mac and Montie and the nature of their personal relationship, and who was in the know at the Yard, or at Valentine's, or at Tite Street (Mac's neighbor Oscar Wilde, for instance), or in the Old Bailey and other law courts and inns of courts, and in Dorset at Wimbourne (and among the Druitt clan). There would just be a new degree of intense investigation into other areas.

Jeff

[GUT]

G'Day all

A question on the return ticket, when I was just a nipper a return ticket was only good up to a certain time the next day, as I recall the return journey had to start prior to 2:00 AM the following day.

Can anyone tell me if that was the case in London in 1888?

[John Savage]

Some years ago returning home from Arbroath to Hull, I went to the railway station and asked for a "single to Hull please".
Upon receiving my ticket I noticed that I had been issued a return ticket, questioning the booking clerk I was informed by the canny Scot that a return was pound cheaper than a single!

Could the answer to Monty's return ticket have been something so simple I wonder?

Rgds
John

[GUT]

G'day John

I know that back when I travelled regularly by train (back in the 90's) off peak that was the case, but I just cannot find out about 1888 trains, was there even such a thing as off peak?

[GUT]

Double post for some reason.

[pinkmoon]

Wouldn't the coroner question the purpose of his train journey?After all he might have gone to visit someone and that someone would be the last person to speak to him?

[GUT]

G'day Pinkmoon

Wouldn't the coroner question the purpose of his train journey?After all he might have gone to visit someone and that someone would be the last person to speak to him?

You'd expect so, but alas no record, I'd also expect brother William to come under much closer questioning than what we have reveals.

[pinkmoon]

G'day Pinkmoon



You'd expect so, but alas no record, I'd also expect brother William to come under much closer questioning than what we have reveals.

Hi gut,Williams testimony does seem to point the finger at montys dismissal the reason for his suicide but we only have Williams word he was dismissed.