fairly good family

[GUT]

If he wasn't sacked from the school and just simple left or went awol then could we expect his mothers mental decline enough to force his suicide?

It really depends on what else was going on in his life, and in his head.

[Jonathan H]

According to the fragments we have left, including the extraordinary 1905 source by Guy Logan--arguably using Sims as his source--Montague Druitt killed himsefl before he could be sectioned like mother. He killed himself before his brother could have him removed, permanently, into an asylum as an 'epileptic' killer of harlots.

The 1889 newspaper accounts are dumbfounded at Mr. Druitt's suicide because there was nothing about his life that suggested he was unravelling.

Other sources; Macnaghten, Sims, the 1891 newspaper account about the MP, the 1899 Vicar and Guy Logan, show Druitt to have been--or believed himself to have been--'Jack the Ripper' and though untroubled by the constabluary he was, nonetheless, in a tormented state over his other identity in the aftermath of the Kelly atrocity.

I do not think 'fairly good family' was written due to snobbery.

Partly because he does not write this put-down for file, partly because he has a polemical need to explain why the family [allegedly] did not realise they were living with a murderer, and partly because all the sources show 'Mac' to have been affable to all, including ex-cons (certainly he regarded those who had been to Eton as, not so much elite, rather forever apart). After all, this was an upper class gent who somewhat declassed himself to become a roving sleuth with his team of working class pals-proteges.

[David Andersen]

The letter that Montague Druitt had left in his room at the school as produced at the inquest.
It said:
"Since Friday I felt I was going to be like mother, and the best thing for me was to die."
The mother's madness was not hidden.

The 'fairly' good family quip is just a bit of snobbery. The Druitt's were upper middle class. Not Upper Class.

There is no evidence that Druitt left a note at the school.

[Roy Corduroy]

from the Acton, Chiswick, and Turnham Green Gazette of January 5, 1889:

William H. Druitt said he lived at Bournemouth, and that he was a solicitor. The deceased was his brother, who was 31 last birthday. He was a barrister-at-law, and an assistant master in a school at Blackheath. He had stayed with witness at Bournemouth for a night towards the end of October. Witness heard from a friend on the 11th of December that deceased had not been heard of at his chambers for more than a week. Witness then went to London to make inquiries, and at Blackheath he found that deceased had got into serious trouble at the school, and had been dismissed. That was on the 30th of December. Witness had deceased's things searched where he resided, and found a paper addressed to him (produced). The Coroner read the letter, which was to this effect: - "Since Friday I felt I was going to be like mother, and the best thing for me was to die." Witness, continuing, said deceased had never made any attempt on his life before. His mother became insane in July last. He had no other relative.

There is no evidence that Druitt left a note at the school.

Good evening David,

Are you suggesting Montague Druitt resided somewhere other than Mr. Valentine's school in Blackheath?

Roy

[GUT]

from the Acton, Chiswick, and Turnham Green Gazette of January 5, 1889:

William H. Druitt said he lived at Bournemouth, and that he was a solicitor. The deceased was his brother, who was 31 last birthday. He was a barrister-at-law, and an assistant master in a school at Blackheath. He had stayed with witness at Bournemouth for a night towards the end of October. Witness heard from a friend on the 11th of December that deceased had not been heard of at his chambers for more than a week. Witness then went to London to make inquiries, and at Blackheath he found that deceased had got into serious trouble at the school, and had been dismissed. That was on the 30th of December. Witness had deceased's things searched where he resided, and found a paper addressed to him (produced). The Coroner read the letter, which was to this effect: - "Since Friday I felt I was going to be like mother, and the best thing for me was to die." Witness, continuing, said deceased had never made any attempt on his life before. His mother became insane in July last. He had no other relative.



Good evening David,

Are you suggesting Montague Druitt resided somewhere other than Mr. Valentine's school in Blackheath?

Roy

Well if h had been sacked from the school he may well have. If you sacked someone for serious trouble would you let them live in your premises?

[Roy Corduroy]

Well thank you Gut, but ... you're asking me a question. I thought I was asking David a question.

But yes I will answer your question to me. Yes if it was my school and and I dismissed one of my employees, who we assume lived on the premises, yes I would ask him to leave.

So yes I suppose it all squares up. I still don't know David's answer, but until then -

I remain your Ob Serv,

Roy

[GUT]

Well thank you Gut, but ... you're asking me a question. I thought I was asking David a question.

But yes I will answer your question to me. Yes if it was my school and and I dismissed one of my employees, who we assume lived on the premises, yes I would ask him to leave.

So yes I suppose it all squares up. I still don't know David's answer, but until then -

I remain your Ob Serv,

Roy

Oh so sorry for commenting on your question.

[Jonathan H]

David Andersen has just published a superb book, "Blood Harvest--My Hunt for Jack the Ripper", which I would recommend to anybody interested in a good read, let alone being a brilliant true crime work on the Whitechapel murders.

In very fresh, elegant and compelling prose the author puts the case for Montague Druitt as being the likeliest suspect , a theory with which I agree.

This is not to say that David and I agree on the meaning of every meager and contradictory source. We do not. That is in the nature of trying to fit together a jigsaw in which some of the critical pieces are missing, almost certainly forever. It is like trying to nut out the nature and shape of an extinct creature with only the fossilized tooth of a feline and a few feathers--was this a cat or a bird?

As I understand David's argument, and I may have this wrong, there is no evidence that Druitt left behind a 'suicide' note, in the sense that we are entirely reliant on brother William's veracity about this matter as reported by the press.

Did the brother produce a real note, or did he write one himself that would tidily provide the coroner with a deus ex machina to wrap up this inexplicable suicide of a gent who had everything to live for, eg. temporarily deranged followed by a suicidal panic that he would end up like their mentally ill mother by being placed in a madhouse.

Nobody was there to contradict William Druitt, as nobody appeared from his late brother's London life, or from Dorset. Did he also wander into perjured testimony by claiming that he and and his mother were the deceased's only living relatives? On the other hand, it would be quite a professional risk to assume that Valentine would never find out? Or was it? Did he just grab Montie's belongings from the school and search them back at his hotel? Valentine would not have known what he found or did not find? The dodginess of this matter is suggested by some newspaper accounts asserting it is the headmaster who received the message, or he received one too?

The notion of Montague Druitt killing himself and leaving a message that said he was doing it because he preferred a watery grave to the asylum--while leaving false word that he was going abroad--was arguably known to Macnaghten and Sims. This is because a veiled version of this is in Guy Logan's "The True History of Jack the Ripper" (1905), and this hack's source was almost certainly Sims.

In this breakthrough work, found only last year by Jan Bondeson, Edwardian readers knew that the facts were being openly fictionalized to protect people (eg. Dorset becomes Yorkshire; Montie becomes Mortemer Slade; Henry Farquharson becomes Viscount Hardcastle; Macnaghten becomes Edmund Blake, and so on).

The Ripper leaves [false] word with his landlady that he is going abroad on business, while musing to himself that being sectioned would be a fate worse than death and, consequently, he will do away with himself (which is ironic as the story opens in the very plush and relaxed surroundings of the Home for the Mindless, wherein Mortemer fiendishly plots his escape).

The Logan source, plus George Sims persistent fictitious element that the mad surgeon had been twice incarcerated in a private asylum (an element not to be found in either version of Mac's report, and pointedly denied in the later's memoirs) inclines me to favor the theory that the allusive note was genuine.

But perhaps it wasn't.

Where I argue we are firmer ground is the overarching theory that William Druitt, at that inquest, "believed" his late sibling to be the Ripper and so was staring down the barrel of social ruination for himself and his clan. Understandably he was anxious for the real reason for Montie's self-murder--the final act of a tormented murderer--to be concealed, and it was.

In Feb. 1891 the terrible family secret leaked ...

[David Andersen]

Hello All. Thank you Jon for your kind comments.
Roy
We are not told where the 'note' was actually found. We are told that it was at the place where Montague 'resided'. The note was clearly written after his flight from Blackheath since it refers to 'since Friday' the day he was dismissed.So it would seem doubtful that it was found at the school. It seems likely that the note was written at his final destination (probably Chiswick) where he was, so it is claimed, last seen alive three days after leaving Blackheath.

[pinkmoon]

I think we can all agree that montys family thought he was our killer why they thought this we will never know.Over the years people have been to quick to dismiss Druitt as a suspect they keep shouting offender profiling he didn't live locally because he dosnt fit into a mould he has been forgotten about.We don't have a very clear picture of his last few days but we can all agree something made him take his on life and after this happen the murders did cease.I have never believed in the mad surgeon theory but I think whoever was doing this would have some basic anotomical knowledge Monty might well have gained this through his family connections .

[Jonathan H]

I had misunderstood David's position and so am glad that has been corrected.

To Pinkmoon

I'm afraid that some of what you wrote in your last post I do not agree with.

The Ripper murders continued after Druitt's death, or so they were initially perceived by press, public and factions of the police. Macnaghten had to clear his posthumous of those subsequent Jack murders. It is the timing of Druitt's suicide turned Mary Jane Kelly into the final victim, not the other way round.

We do know why the family "believed", if the 'North Country Vicar' of 1899 is writing about Druitt.

[David Andersen]

Yes Pinkmoon. Druitt has been very much overlooked and far too easily dismissed. The challenge is to see a suspect as the murderer and see if you can exonorate him. This is easily done with some suspects and not so with others. So far I have not been able to find a single thing which would clear Druitt. Most of the old dinosaurs of 'Ripperology' would admit that Druitt is still the pea beneath the matteress. I strongly suspect that we may be about to see some renewed interest in him.

[Wickerman]

Yes Pinkmoon. Druitt has been very much overlooked and far too easily dismissed. The challenge is to see a suspect as the murderer and see if you can exonorate him. This is easily done with some suspects and not so with others. So far I have not been able to find a single thing which would clear Druitt. Most of the old dinosaurs of 'Ripperology' would admit that Druitt is still the pea beneath the matteress. I strongly suspect that we may be about to see some renewed interest in him.

Druitt is perhaps arguably the first suspect, and the longest lasting suspect. Though many have tried to exonerate him, all have failed to find anything to rule him out.
The counterargument of course is, that no-one has found anything to rule him in.
The $60,000 question has always been, "why was he listed among the suspects to begin with?".

[GUT]

Druitt is perhaps arguably the first suspect, and the longest lasting suspect. Though many have tried to exonerate him, all have failed to find anything to rule him out.
The counterargument of course is, that no-one has found anything to rule him in.
The $60,000 question has always been, "why was he listed among the suspects to begin with?".

Now if we ever find a solid answer to that question we may well all say BINGO.

[Jonathan H]

We have an answer.

Druitt confessed to being the murderer, and the confession was judged by family, and later non-family members, to be both lucid and credible--despite countervailing pressures for them all not to believe.

So, where's my 60,000 $?

Though un-named Montie Druitt totally dominated English culture as the Ripper between 1898 and the Great War, or at least his fictional variant did. After the war the fictio persisted (a mad doctor) while the factual element (the tormented suicide) becamse detached and faded into the ether.