What makes Druitt a viable suspect?

[Roy Corduroy]

In a brief (about 13 pages or so) essay, Pultizer prize-winning novelist and bestselling author Stephen Hunter presents some interesting arguments regarding Druitt's possible candidacy at HunterOnRipper.com. ... interesting and provocative? Yes.

Yes, I recommend the essay at HunterOnRipper.com too.

Thank you and welcome to the discussion group.

Roy

[Simon Wood]

Would we be looking at Druitt as a suspect if Macnaghten hadn't mentioned him in his memorandum?

The same could be said for Kosminski.

[rjpalmer]

Have to admit, Druitt has never really appealed to me as a suspect. I'm just wondering what it is about him that leads certain Ripperologists to hang their hat on him being the Ripper? Prima facie, it comes down to the Macnaghten memo and the time of his death. But Macnaghten gets even the most basic details about Druitt wrong, so how much stock can be put in his words? Does Druitt fit any of the witness descriptions? Did he even possess the kind of skill required for the murders? Can he be placed at Whitechapel when the killings took place?

Maybe you're looking at it backwards, Harry. Why is this respectable person, this member of the C of E, who lives in the 'burbs, and who is the antithesis of what you imagine the Ripper to be, being named by a top name at Scotland Yard?

Everyone with a brain can imagine how Kosminski or Klosowksi or Pizer became a suspect, but how did this 'normal' dude in Blackheath come to be named?

To some, the very fact of his 'unlikeliness' makes him somehow compelling. It is a real mystery, and only the shallow brush it aside without a sigh and a scratch on the forehead. RP

[Sam Flynn]

Everyone with a brain can imagine how Kosminski or Klosowksi or Pizer became a suspect, but how did this 'normal' dude in Blackheath come to be named?

Doubtless Macnaghten's "private information" about the Druitt family's suspicions had a lot to do with it.

[Herlock Sholmes]

I’ve always said that if there was lottery (and the rippers identity was known to someone of course) Druitt is the name that I’d throw into the hat. I certainly wouldn’t say “I think that Druitt was Jack the Ripper,” and I certainly wouldn’t put my hard earned on it but I just think that there could be something there in Druitt’s story. Of course we can say that about a host of suspects and we shouldn’t simply resort to ‘gut feeling’ but we’re all human.. I think. Roger used the right word ‘mystery.’ There’s an element of mystery about Druitt’s story which could of course point us in the right direction but it could mean that there’s something there. The family link between the Macnaghten family and the Druitt family existed. Druitt was in walking distance of the murder sites and his suicide might explain why the murders ceased after Kelly (according to most.) Some of the witness sightings ‘resemble’ the pretty average looking Druitt and that well known phrase ‘shabby genteel’ might easily describe Druitt in old clothes. The mental health issues in the family and Monty’s suicide. His sacking from Blackheath school. I’ve suggested in the past that if the GSG was written by the ripper then writing could have been by someone educated but trying to appear uneducated which would describe Druitt.

Sorry I sound like I’m trying to convince when I’m not. I think that Druitt is often too easily dismissed and has more going for him as a candidate than 99.9% of the named suspects.

[The Baron]

I’ve always said that if there was lottery (and the rippers identity was known to someone of course) Druitt is the name that I’d throw into the hat. I certainly wouldn’t say “I think that Druitt was Jack the Ripper,” and I certainly wouldn’t put my hard earned on it but I just think that there could be something there in Druitt’s story. Of course we can say that about a host of suspects and we shouldn’t simply resort to ‘gut feeling’ but we’re all human.. I think. Roger used the right word ‘mystery.’ There’s an element of mystery about Druitt’s story which could of course point us in the right direction but it could mean that there’s something there. The family link between the Macnaghten family and the Druitt family existed. Druitt was in walking distance of the murder sites and his suicide might explain why the murders ceased after Kelly (according to most.) Some of the witness sightings ‘resemble’ the pretty average looking Druitt and that well known phrase ‘shabby genteel’ might easily describe Druitt in old clothes. The mental health issues in the family and Monty’s suicide. His sacking from Blackheath school. I’ve suggested in the past that if the GSG was written by the ripper then writing could have been by someone educated but trying to appear uneducated which would describe Druitt.

Sorry I sound like I’m trying to convince when I’m not. I think that Druitt is often too easily dismissed and has more going for him as a candidate than 99.9% of the named suspects.

If Ostrog is a good suspect, then Druitt is a good suspect.

I can't take the word of Macnaghten here, he was not proffessional.

[Herlock Sholmes]

If Ostrog is a good suspect, then Druitt is a good suspect.

I can't take the word of Macnaghten here, he was not proffessional.

In what way was he not professional? He was Assistant Commossioner of the Met. Highly thought of by those that knew him and worked with him. What makes him untrustworthy?

[Wickerman]

Maybe you're looking at it backwards, Harry. Why is this respectable person, this member of the C of E, who lives in the 'burbs, and who is the antithesis of what you imagine the Ripper to be, being named by a top name at Scotland Yard?

Everyone with a brain can imagine how Kosminski or Klosowksi or Pizer became a suspect, but how did this 'normal' dude in Blackheath come to be named?

To some, the very fact of his 'unlikeliness' makes him somehow compelling. It is a real mystery, and only the shallow brush it aside without a sigh and a scratch on the forehead. RP

One of the most frequent comments we read from associates & neighbors of people like Bundy, Dahmer and the like is "who'd a thought it?", "what a nice young man", "pleasant & friendly". We don't have any opinions from close friends of Druitt, for all we know he could have had any manor of weird obsessions, nightly escapades, friends in low places. The son of a surgeon who never lived up to his father's expectations?

While it is certainly true that no evidence seems to exist to make him a suspect, nothing has been found to eliminate him either. For one of the most researched suspects, it is interesting to me at least that no-one has yet been able to find something in his busy, scheduled life to place him somewhere else on the night of any one of those murders.

It is so aggravating when we are required to rely on what other people thought of him in place of real evidence.

[Wickerman]

..... Some of the witness sightings ‘resemble’ the pretty average looking Druitt and that well known phrase ‘shabby genteel’ might easily describe Druitt in old clothes.....

The man outside the Britannia on the night of the Kelly murder for one, and the man described in Berner St. by PC Smith, and the suspect seen with Stride at the Bricklayers Arms. All three of these could be Druitt.

[Herlock Sholmes]

The man outside the Britannia on the night of the Kelly murder for one, and the man described in Berner St. by PC Smith, and the suspect seen with Stride at the Bricklayers Arms. All three of these could be Druitt.

Absolutely Wick. I also forgot to mention that with Druitt’s father being a surgeon he might very well have picked up some anatomical knowledge from him or at least from the books that he’d have in his library. And so with Druitt we have:

31 years of age.
Physically fit.
Possible anatomical/medical knowledge.
Fits some witness descriptions.
Within walking distance of the murder sites.
Mental health issues and from a family with same.
His suicide explains cessation of the murders.
Mentioned as a suspect by Macnaghten who also claims that his family believed him guilty.
Is mentioned by others as a suspect (Griffiths for eg if memory serves, and Bachert indirectly)
We have a rumour that the ripper came from a higher class of society.

If only someone could discover a letter saying that Druitt had been sacked from the Blackheath School because it had been discovered that he’’d been consorting with east end prostitutes.

What if he’d been sacked because Kelly was trying to blackmail this well-to-do young teacher/barrister and she’’’d turned up at the school.

Am I getting carried away? Sorry chaps

[Busy Beaver]

Herlock : What if he’d been sacked because Kelly was trying to blackmail this well-to-do young teacher/barrister and she’’’d turned up at the school.

As Druitt was from the right side of town- he could well have met MJK at the Ratcliff Highway in the west end and could have been one of her better off clients at one time. Maybe the truth really is staring us in the face.

[The Baron]

In what way was he not professional? He was Assistant Commossioner of the Met. Highly thought of by those that knew him and worked with him. What makes him untrustworthy?

He named Ostrog as a suspect, without this, we could have never heard of Ostrog.

The same applied to Druitt, Macnaghten thought he is a doctor, 41 years old, , who killed himself right away after the last murder, that is the level of his suspicions and investigations against both of them, Ostrog and his favourite suspect Druitt.

And the only correct informations he had, were those about Kosminski, thats because he had a file about Kosminski infront of him, made by other more proffsional detectives than him, before he entered the scene.


The Baron

[Herlock Sholmes]

Herlock : What if he’d been sacked because Kelly was trying to blackmail this well-to-do young teacher/barrister and she’’’d turned up at the school.

As Druitt was from the right side of town- he could well have met MJK at the Ratcliff Highway in the west end and could have been one of her better off clients at one time. Maybe the truth really is staring us in the face.

There just might be something there BB. Without getting carried away I think there’s enough about Druitt to keep us interested.

[Herlock Sholmes]

He named Ostrog as a suspect, without this, we could have never heard of Ostrog.

The same applied to Druitt, Macnaghten thought he is a doctor, 41 years old, , who killed himself right away after the last murder, that is the level of his suspicions and investigations against both of them, Ostrog and his favourite suspect Druitt.

And the only correct informations he had, were those about Kosminski, thats because he had a file about Kosminski infront of him, made by other more proffsional detectives than him, before he entered the scene.


The Baron

He named 3 suspects but favoured Druitt. Theories have already been put forward as to why he might have got details wrong on Druitt intentionally. Those that worked with Macnaghten, from what I can recall, all mention his exceptionally memory so why would he get obvious details wrong about the most important case that the Met had ever dealt with. He also mentions ‘from private information’ that Druitt’s family believed him to have been the ripper. We now know that a close friend of Macnaghten’s was related by marriage to the Druitt family thus providing a plausible source for that ‘private info.’

Im not stating that Druitt was the ripper but he has more going for him that the vast bulk of named suspects. There’s certainly nothing to discount him. I just think that we’re perhaps one piece of added information away from naming him as the best suspect so far named. That piece of evidence might never surface though. It might not exist. Indeed evidence might turn up so that we could discount him. All I’d say is how would our opinion of Druitt as a candidate change if someone found one piece of evidence say linking him to prostitutes? Or that he’d been sacked from the school because he’d threatened someone with a knife?

[The Baron]

Im not stating that Druitt was the ripper but he has more going for him that the vast bulk of named suspects. There’s certainly nothing to discount him. I just think that we’re perhaps one piece of added information away from naming him as the best suspect so far named. That piece of evidence might never surface though. It might not exist. Indeed evidence might turn up so that we could discount him.

One needs only to accept that either Tabram or Mckenzey, was a ripper victim, and that will be more than enough to free Druitt from this crimes, once and forever.

I believe both of them were ripper victims.

He has nothing more going for him than for example Ostrog.


The Baron