Your top 3 suspects?

[Mike Covell]

The file was still open.

Pirate

Until 1892, but would that make Cream, Sadler and Deeming likely suspects too?

[DVV]

Hi CD,

imo, suicide + homosexuality (suspicions of) were perhaps enough for Macnaghten.
I'd add that the inclusion of Ostrog in the memo indicates that the police were in fact at a complete loss.
They may have infos that we ignore, but clearly, they knew less than us about serial killers.

Amitiés,
David

[c.d.]

Hi CD,

as I view it, Macnaghten thought that suicide was a logical consequence of the Miller's Court "awful glut".
And I find this a bit candid.

Amitiés,
David

Hi David,

But what if that belief was based on the private information that he received? It seems unlikely that the mere fact that Druitt committed suicide would lead him to that conclusion.

c.d.

[DVV]

Hi Phil,

I have to disagree with your conclusion regarding Druitt. No matter who conveyed the information regarding Druitt to Macnaghten, I don't think that they simply said that the family suspects him and left it at that. It seems much more reasonable that they then want on to state the reason or reasons why. Macnaghten obviously found those reasons credible.

c.d.

Hi CD,

as I view it, Macnaghten thought that suicide was a logical consequence of the Miller's Court "awful glut".
And I find this a bit candid.

Amitiés,
David

[Jeff Leahy]

Thomas Cutbush wasn't in the British Press until he was arrested for stabbing two young women in 1891. That was 3 years after the fact, not at the time of the murders.

The file was still open.

Pirate

[Jeff Leahy]

First of all my list wasn’t meant in any order of preference> My personal opinion would be 1.Kosminski, 2 Chapman (who I think makes an excellent suspect for the Pinchin Street torso) 3. Druitt 4. Tumbelty and lastly Cutbush. But that is only speculation on my part.

My interest in the views of the policeman is that they had access to the files on these suspects. They new why they were suspected. Subsequent commentators have not known all the facts.

I also have some admiration for these guys who I feel were some what ‘more sussed’ than they are sometimes given credit for…and I’ll include Sir Charles Warren in that Statement.

Pirate

[c.d.]

Hi Phil,

I have to disagree with your conclusion regarding Druitt. No matter who conveyed the information regarding Druitt to Macnaghten, I don't think that they simply said that the family suspects him and left it at that. It seems much more reasonable that they then want on to state the reason or reasons why. Macnaghten obviously found those reasons credible.

c.d.

[Tom_Wescott]

1) Le Grand
2) Le Grand and a colleague
3) Jewish socialist (possibly, but not necessarily, Kosminski).

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Mike Covell]

Thomas Cutbush wasn't in the British Press until he was arrested for stabbing two young women in 1891. That was 3 years after the fact, not at the time of the murders.

[Ben]

Hi Pirate,

If the police investigation is your area of interest, it is understandable that the five listed should be your primary focus as far as suspects are concerned. The only quibble I have concerns the notion that one police official championing a police suspect in the face of opposition (if you like) from several others somehow increases the likelihood of the championed suspect having murdered any prostitutes.

All the best,
Ben

[Phil Carter]

Hello David,

A very good point.. do you know, I have even had one person pm me saying they were "envious" of the fact that my Gran was born and brought up amongst it all? I can tell you this..she wasn't proud of it. She held the FEAR within her all her 90 year life!

with best wishes

Phil

[DVV]

I would agree that Cutbush is probably the weaker of the five.
Pirate

Hence his pole position on your list...

Amitiés,
David

[Jeff Leahy]

My inclusion of Cutbush is because he was a suspect considered at the time. And as I have commented before Suspect-Ripperology by its very nature is a process of considering the guilt of people who are almost certainly innocent.

I would agree that Cutbush is probably the weaker of the five. But I feel safer with him on the list than incurring the wroth of AP Wolf or Richard Jones.

But joking apart, I think these suspects would have been the main candidates considered by: Abberline , Anderson, Littlechilde, MacNaughten, Monro, Reid, Smith, Swanson, Arnold, Dew, Keaton, Leeson , sagar and Wensley

But I’d agree there was little agreement apart from the two guys in charge.

My interest are the witnesses and the police investigation, so these five are the ones as far as I see it.

Pirate

P.S. The Swanson Marginalia has been exmined by two home office experts. Neither of whom concluded that it was writen by anyone other than Donald Swanson. It is genuine. Enough said.

[DVV]

There are very, very many people who have been suspected because their family thought.... Phil

Hi Phil,

that's just what I was saying, and it's an "ascertained fact".
Some people want their grandad to be Jack.
Don't know why.

Amitiés,
David

[Ben]

it was said that his family or friends suspected him, do you think that was completely made up? because if it was not, then family members were undoubtedly interviewed

That doesn't follow at all.

Macnaghten was almost certainly informed (rightly or wrongly - we don't know) by a third party that Druitt was suspected of being the ripper. There's no evidence that this was ever confirmed by the family themselevs, and there's certainly no evidence that a family member made these suspicions known in a police interview, let alone told them more about Druitt than we know and will ever know. I'm in agreement with Philip Sugden when he observes: "Since 1959 he has inspired a great deal of research and today we probably know much more about him than the police did at the time".

That said, I'm rather uncomfortable with the "police" generalization. Macnaghten thought the evidence sufficient to elevate Druitt to a "reasonable" suspect, but then it's clear that Macnaghten's preference for Druitt was at least partially allied to his views concerning the cessation of the murders after 9th November. Abberline disagreed. Whatever the nature of the "private information", he did not consider it "incriminating", and the argument that Abberline would not have been privy to the same information is one that I consider extremely unconvincing.

Best regards,
Ben