Druitt's 30 August Cricket Match

[JeffHamm]

Mathematically, Druitt still hangs in there, but by the merest of small margins. As Herlock said, just one piece of evidence to suggest he stayed at the family home or if there were major rail works on those days, then it will be exoneration for MJD.

Indeed. Druitt's cricket schedule has always been leaning against him in terms of probability, but never quite reaching the threshold of making it impossible. While this narrows the window of opportunity even further, it does not shut it entirely. As Herlock, and yourself point out, if the remaining window can be shut then it would show he was simply a talented but tragic man. On the other hand, one legal document (for example), showing he had returned to work in London, would show that the improbable does sometimes happen. Of course, showing he's in London at the right time still doesn't mean he's the Ripper, but it would throw the window wide open again.

It is research like this that will advance our knowledge because it tells us what the actual events are that need to be explained, rather than us just dealing with a void and filling it in with something that works for a particular desired solution. Theories have their place, they suggest what we need to look for, but until that search bears new fruit, theories are just stories we made up to fill the void. Useful to guide our thinking, but dangerous if we conflate them with evidence. It will be research like this that either firmly closes and locks the window on Druitt, or throws it wide open again.

Nice work by those who found this.

- Jeff

[GUT]

Not sure how this really changes anything really a cricket match (that wasn’t much of a match) that would have been well and truly over by 4 pm (indeed if it started at 10 am could well have been over by lunch) 4 or 5 hour trip back to London by train, where he held down two jobs. Lots of reasons he may have needed to be in London on the 31st, then train back for the game on the 1st. Let’s remember Montie had a passion for his sport and a drive for his work (why else hold down the two careers). He was a special pleader, so involved in preparing a lot of paper work, might have needed to get back to settle (or even have forgotten to sign) something at even 100l a day why wouldn’t he do the return trip.

[GUT]

Not sure how this really changes anything really a cricket match (that wasn’t much of a match) that would have been well and truly over by 4 pm (indeed if it started at 10 am could well have been over by lunch) 4 or 5 hour trip back to London by train, where he held down two jobs. Lots of reasons he may have needed to be in London on the 31st, then train back for the game on the 1st. Let’s remember Montie had a passion for his sport and a drive for his work (why else hold down the two careers). He was a special pleader, so involved in preparing a lot of paper work, might have needed to get back to settle (or even have forgotten to sign) something at even 100l a day why wouldn’t he do the return trip.

It doesn’t help his candidacy, but doesn’t hurt it either.

[Aethelwulf]

Not sure how this really changes anything really a cricket match (that wasn’t much of a match) that would have been well and truly over by 4 pm (indeed if it started at 10 am could well have been over by lunch) 4 or 5 hour trip back to London by train, where he held down two jobs. Lots of reasons he may have needed to be in London on the 31st, then train back for the game on the 1st. Let’s remember Montie had a passion for his sport and a drive for his work (why else hold down the two careers). He was a special pleader, so involved in preparing a lot of paper work, might have needed to get back to settle (or even have forgotten to sign) something at even 100l a day why wouldn’t he do the return trip.

I'm sure there are examples, but Druitt the talented and hard working man holding down two professional jobs, the team player - doesn't sound like the stuff JtR might have been made of to me.

[GUT]

I'm sure there are examples, but Druitt the talented and hard working man holding down two professional jobs, the team player - doesn't sound like the stuff JtR might have been made of to me.

That’s a different issue, I just don’t see how a cricket match the day before and the day after with a 4 or 5 hour train trip changes anything.

[Herlock Sholmes]

That’s a different issue, I just don’t see how a cricket match the day before and the day after with a 4 or 5 hour train trip changes anything.

I doesn’t GUT. I’m just waiting for someone to say “well none of the witnesses mention seeing a man carrying a cricket bat” next.

[FISHY1118]

Druitt sure loved his train trips , Martha Tabram? , gotta be an easier jack .

[GUT]

I doesn’t GUT. I’m just waiting for someone to say “well none of the witnesses mention seeing a man carrying a cricket bat” next.

That’s how he subdued them before ripping, good whack with a critter bat, gloves to protect his hands, box in case the kicked for the Katz crackers, pads to protect his legs while the kneeled and slashed. See it all fits nicely.

[MrBarnett]

I'm sure there are examples, but Druitt the talented and hard working man holding down two professional jobs, the team player - doesn't sound like the stuff JtR might have been made of to me.

With that CV does he sound like a man who would be sacked from his job over a serious matter and commit suicide a few days later?

[JeffHamm]

It doesn’t help his candidacy, but doesn’t hurt it either.

Agreed, but it does help narrow the time frame that is critical to reaching an actual conclusion about his candidacy. Research often is a slow progression of small improvements in our knowledge, and this is an example of that. His whereabouts between those two cricket matches, which are only a couple days apart, make that period of time an obvious target for concentrated effort. The hope is that there still exists something that can tell us if he was, or was not, in London. While showing he was won't produce proof that he was the Ripper, if it ends up he can be shown to be elsewhere then he can be cleared of Nichols murder, and so not Jack the Ripper.

- Jeff

[JeffHamm]

Druitt sure loved his train trips , Martha Tabram? , gotta be an easier jack .

Well, it's not established that Martha Tabram was a victim of Jack the Ripper. As a result, proving that any given suspect could not have killed Tabram is not sufficient to rule them out as JtR. Each of us will have our own preference, or belief, as to her inclusion, but our preferences and beliefs can be wrong no matter how strongly we hold them. On the face of it, the evidence we have tends to point to her being murdered by her soldier client, and possibly with help from the other as well, as a result Martha's inclusion in the series is not well established. Yes, there are arguments for her inclusion, and it has even been suggested that maybe one of the soldiers was JtR I believe (I'm sure I've seen that idea at times), but those arguments are not conclusive. As a result, ruling out the possibility that suspect A as Tabram's killer doesn't conclusively rule out Suspect A as JtR because Martha as a victim of JtR is itself unclear.

- Jeff

[FISHY1118]

Its also not established that she wasnt , Point being the same as Druitt , Could have ,Might have, Its possible, Theres a chance , No knock out blow as yet. etc etc etc

[JeffHamm]

I'm sure there are examples, but Druitt the talented and hard working man holding down two professional jobs, the team player - doesn't sound like the stuff JtR might have been made of to me.

At the conclusion of many serial murder investigations "he seemed like such a normal and friendly guy" is very commonly heard. Some serial killers have their oddities, but others come across as just another one of the neighbors. There is often a separation between their "normal life" and their "secret life", and one of the reasons they can be so hard to find is because they can seem to be so normal. Not all, of course, but just because a suspect seems like they've got it all together isn't a reason to discount them. It's not a reason to include them either, of course, rather, seeming to be normal should be viewed as being noninformative.

- Jeff

[JeffHamm]

Its also not established that she wasnt , Point being the same as Druitt , Could have ,Might have, Its possible, Theres a chance , No knock out blow as yet. etc etc etc

Yes, there is a chance she was, which I didn't deny, but there's also a chance she wasn't, making her inclusion ambiguous. That ambiguity means ruling any suspect out of her murder doesn't rule them out of being JtR. It also means that if we did know who JtR was we still might not be able to resolve whether or not Martha Tabram was a victim of JtR.

For example, let's consider the idea that one day JtR does get identified beyond all doubt. Now, lets also say it can be shown that this person could not have killed Martha Tabram. In that situation we would answer the question as to her inclusion to the negative - since we know who JtR was, and that they could not have killed Tabram, it follows that Tabram cannot be a victim of JtR.

However, if it turns out our hypothetical solution cannot rule out that our proven JtR was Martha Tabram's killer, then we would be left with that question still unanswered. He could have killed her, so she might have been, but he didn't have to be the one that killed her, so she still might not have been a victim of JtR. The ambiguity would then be around her inclusion, rather than around both her inclusion and the identity of JtR. Basically, we would then be focused on finding evidence to somehow link our known JtR to her murder directly (along with other non-canonical victims).

- Jeff

[FISHY1118]

''Yes, there is a chance she was, which I didn't deny, but there's also a chance she wasn't, making her inclusion ambiguous. That ambiguity means ruling any suspect out of her murder doesn't rule them out of being JtR''

It does if anyone believes Tabram was a jtr victim, and there are many who do .