Druitt a doctor?

[Jonathan H]

See what I mean...?

[pinkmoon]

G'Day Pinkmoon

Even more to the point why wouldn't he have allowed MJD to work alongsthis de him for the exact same reason? And on that line most Postmortems on patents that died during surgery were conducted by the Dr who performed the surgery, even more so in areas with only one or two surgeons, why would anyone think I strange if his father let Montie try his hand at a bit of cutting on sohe couldn't hurt. IF and to my mind it is a huge IF, he needed any type of surgical skill.

Hi gut,it is quite possible that Monty had some anatomical knowledge if we could ever find any prove of this it would be very interesting indeed although people can't really agree if our killer needed any to conduct his grisly work.I think I'm going to have to invest a few quid and buy this guy Logan book which might shed a little bit of light on things however it was written as a work of fiction so I will have to keep that in mind.

[GUT]

G'Day Jonathan

See what I mean...?

No doubts in my mind exactly what you mean.

[Errata]

G'Day Errata



Not so in the UK I'm afraid, one of my ancestors became a Naval Surgeon and indeed for a short period surgeon general of New Zealand in born in 1840's no University at all.

Yeah the military has always been a whole other thing. They did in house training up until WWI. Civilians did the med school route.

[pinkmoon]

Could it be possible that he was in some form of hospital as a patient during his"missing year"

[Lechmere]

Maybe a mental institution, and while there perhaps he sneaked out and learnt a bit of surgery. That wouldn't be too far fetched.

[Jonathan H]

Yes it would, as there is nothing in the emagre soyurces on montague Druitt to suggest such a thing.

It is the plot of both 'The True History of Jack the Ripper' (1905) and 'The Lodger' (1911).

The 1889 accounts of the promising barrister's death do not refer to any evidence or indication of mental illness--or scandal--except his sudden and inexplicable act of suicide.

In his 1914 memoir sir Melville Macnaghten specifically denied that [the un-named] Druitt had ever been 'detained' in an asylum, and, by pointed omission, makes no further claim that he had any kind of 'anatomical knowledge' either.

[Bridewell]

Here you can have any suspect you like--except Druitt.

Druitt is one of the better suspects, but that doesn't mean that everyone has to be in agreement about him surely?

Here all the police sources might be reliable--except Macnaghten.

Jonathan, wasn't it you who suggested that MacNaghten told the truth only when it suited his purpose - and dissembled when it didn't? If that's what he did then the suggestion he was 'unreliable' is at the very least arguable. And my experience is that, on the boards, Anderson's reliability is challenged at least as much as MacNaghten's.

[Lechmere]

When it suits Macnaghten was lying. To discern when he was and when he wasn't you must possess the enigma key.
Yes it is far fetched to suggest that Druitt was secretly trained as a surgeon while at an insane asylum.
That was my jest - as was my earlier 'suggestion'.
In reality Macnaghten was involved in a conspiracy with the Druitt family, a north country Vicar, the school, the Tory MP and Sims (with Griffiths as a stooge) to protect the name of a fairy good possibly Tory supporting family, while allowing his employer the Metropolitan Police to be publicly degraded for their failure to catch the Whitechapel fiend.

[pinkmoon]

When it suits Macnaghten was lying. To discern when he was and when he wasn't you must possess the enigma key.
Yes it is far fetched to suggest that Druitt was secretly trained as a surgeon while at an insane asylum.
That was my jest - as was my earlier 'suggestion'.
In reality Macnaghten was involved in a conspiracy with the Druitt family, a north country Vicar, the school, the Tory MP and Sims (with Griffiths as a stooge) to protect the name of a fairy good possibly Tory supporting family, while allowing his employer the Metropolitan Police to be publicly degraded for their failure to catch the Whitechapel fiend.

It's solved at last! I knew it would be straight forward.

[Lechmere]

Yes, a fairly straightforward serial killing case, with an all too typical solution. Ask Agatha Christie.

[GUT]

G'Day Lechmere

You leave Dame Agatha out of this, the Old Maid and Little Belgian would have solved this by the end of the book. We couldn't solve it in as many years as they would have taken pages.

[Lechmere]

But the case was solved in the Edwardian era.

[GUT]

And the Edwardian solution was......????

[Jonathan H]

The Edwardian Solution

'Jack the Ripper' had been a member of the 'better classes'; a middle-aged, English physician who had not had patients for over a year due to a progressive mental illness.

The now unemployed doctor, who resided at Blackheath, was so wealthy he did not need to work at all.

He had twice been a voluntary patient in an asylum and been diagnosed as a potential homicidal maniac who--very specifically--desired to savage East End harlots.

Due to cut-backs in state care under the Tories this ticking 'human bomb' was let out onto the streets and did exactly as he had warned his own doctors he would.

The man had no family, only friends, and they feared that the Ripper of 1888 was their pal--now a semi-invalid reculse who was only absent on the same nights as the murders--and though it took until after the Miller's Court atrocity to approach the police, they did so.

As it turned out super-efficient C.I.D. detectives had already zeroed in on their troubled friend and were about to make an arrest when they leanred he had vanished. The next time the pals and the police laid eyes on the doctor he was being fished out of the Thames, in early December 1888, having killed himself within an hour of horribly mutilating Mary Jane Kelly's remains.

Nobody could do that to another person and live even a single day, which is why the doctor was, judged the police, so much more likely to be the fiend than the local Polish madman, the mad Russian doctor and the dodgy American medical student; they had all gone on living for some considerable time after that last atrocity.

This was all well known to the highest authorities at Scotland Yard and the Home Office, and was fully documented in a definitive report by the Commissioner (though unclear which one?)

The name of the killer could not be released to the public, as he could never enjoy the protection of due process, but Edwardians did know what he looked like: he was George Sims' double, complete with beard and gentlemanly attire (if a little thinner.)