Name your top 3 suspects with top 3 reasons why you think so...

[Trevor Marriott]

Red-headed Tumblety? He admitted he wore a hat and clothes (as to not bring attention to himself), while wandering in the dark Whitechapel district at the time of the murders. Red hair is a non-issue and so it his height. Scotland Yard certainly considered tall Tumblety a serious suspect.

And where in the official records is that documented ?

[mklhawley]

Red-headed Tumblety? He admitted he wore a hat and clothes (as to not bring attention to himself), while wandering in the dark Whitechapel district at the time of the murders. Red hair is a non-issue and so it his height. Scotland Yard certainly considered tall Tumblety a serious suspect.

[RealTyche]

I have difficulty agreeing with any of the 'canonical' suspects simply because the evidence against them is far too flimsy. I categorize Kosminski and Druitt along with Ostrog as veritably ruled out entirely because all the evidence points away from them being the murderer.

As for Tumblety, he simply does not fit the descriptions of any of the men seen with the victims. Especially the man with Annie Chapman, whom was beyond a doubt her killer. If we take it that Chapman was indeed a victim of the Whitechapel Murderer than the man seen with her, whom was 'only a little taller' than she and had dark hair, could not have been the over six feet tall red-headed Tumblety and thus he ceases to be a credible suspect.

James Kelly should not be considered a viable suspect. As I noted in an earlier post on the subject he was insane; the Ripper clearly was not. His syphilis would not have allowed him the strength and manual dexterity the Whitechapel murderer had; he was in America during the Francis Cole slaying, and he did not possess the anatomical knowledge the killer displayed. Further, there is no rational explanation for waiting five years after contracting his VD to begin revenge killing prostitutes.

The only suspect I have found in the case so far that is intriguing is Severin Klosowski, aka George Chapman. He lived in Whitechapel during the time of the murderers, he had both surgical and anatomical knowledge, he was a proven misogynist, and he would later kill his wives with poison. Most importantly, he matches to a tee the description of the man seen with Mary Jane Kelly by George Hutchinson and Chief Inspector Frederick Abberline-a virtual encyclopedia of the case-considered no other suspects but this man as the Whitechapel murderer. Chapman remains, to me, a most definite could be.

[mklhawley]

1. Montague John Druitt

a) Druitt was an embarrassing too-late-suspect, being dead for over two years, and yet he was the first and only choice of the Deputy Head of CID and later Assistant Commissioner: Sir Melville Macnaghten. He was a top police administrator whose reputation was in no way hostage to the Whitechapel mystery, and thus with nothing to prove about 'Jack'. Yet he 'canonised' the five victims, with Kelly not Coles as the last one, and propagated [a disguised] Druitt's guilt via literary cronies.

b) We would not expect Macnaghten, an Anglican Gentile and a Gentleman, possessed of a jaunty temperament which sees the best in his fellow bourgeiosie, to accuse a fellow Anglican Gentile gentleman -- and yet he did. Thus he is a very strong source because he goes against the expected bias, which would be to dismiss Druitt as a suspect -- to get him off.

c) The conventional wisdom, that Macanghten did not know what he was talking about in regards to Druitt [eg. the Drowned Not-a-Doctor], is strongly countered by the identification of the 'West of England MP' in 2008. For the first time the sympathetic obituaries on Druitt, devoid of connection to the Ripper mystery, could be linked to Macnaghten's 1894 Report, and 1898 rewrite, via a loose-lipped Tory MP whom [fellow Tory] Macnaghten would priotect from a Liberal Govt. with the discreet appellation: 'private information'. The MP, Henry Farquharson, a Druitt near-neighbour [and the family worked in tory politics] would have to have provided accurate bio. information about Montie Druitt which Macnaghten was very careful about disseminating -- and disguising.

2. Dr Francis Tumblety

a) Retired Chief Inspector J. G. Littlechild still thought the American Quack was a likely suspect in 1913, strongly suggesting that this was the original chief suspect -- and that he had never been cleared. Littlechild was a top cop whose reputation was also not hostage to the Whitechapel Mystery. Thus he also had nothing whatsoever to prove, and yet he initiated the reply to George Sims, to make it clear to the latter -- as politely as possible to his social superior -- that the famous criminologist's 'Dr D' was a deflection fantasy.

b) Tumblety admitted to an American reporter in 1889, in an extraordinary primary source [and an extraordinarily funny one] that he was, indeed, in Whitechapel at the time of the murders, and that he had been arrested as a murder suspect -- though he claimed that the motive was crude extortion. Despite a busy social life he never claimed the obvious; any kind of an alibi for a single murder.

c) Sir Melville Macnaghten was determined that the Edwardian public, via Major Griffiths and Sims, knew that Scotland Yard had identified the Ripper as a deviant doctor, one who had 'permanantly' slipped through their fingers at the last moment in 1888. This mythical profile seems to fit Tumblety as much as Druitt, which is the very point about which Littlechild is trying to alert Sims. Macnaghten was ruthlessly exploiting a minor suspect, Druitt, to conceal a much more important contemporaneous suspect, Tumblety.

3. Aaron Kosminski

a) The head of CID at the time of the murders, Sir Robert Anderson, claimed that the Ripper's identity was known; a local, poor, Polish Jew, but that his being 'safely caged' in an asylum forever protected him from answering for his crimes. After all, the English were not the French, what with the latter's Napoleonic, police-state powers. Anderson was there, Macnaghten was not, and Littlechild was in Special Branch. Anderson came under tremendous political and public pressure and yet he, a devout Anglican with theological respect for Judiasm, never buckled and rushed to judgement, to throw some innocent wretch [Pizer, Sadler, Grainger] to the wolves.

b) Anderson was backed in his opinion by the operational head of the Whietchapel murders, Donald Swanson, who scribbled some notes in his copy of his former chief's memoirs. In a notation which never had to satisfy anybody but himself, Swanson backed up 100% Anderson's claim that there was a positive identification which collapsed, and that the suspect's name was 'Kosminski'.

c) Historian Martin Fido in 1987 found the records of an inmate, Aaron Kosminski, who in some key details matches 'Kosminski' in the Macnaghten Report and the Swanson Marginalia. Moreover the timing of Kosminski's incarceration dovetails with a clueless police chasing Tom Sadler, in early 1891, for being the Ripper. By implication, once the police let Salder go, and Swanson and Anderson examined information about Aaron Kosminski, they were certain that this local madman was almost certainly the fiend. The lack of a surviving file, and even the lack of anybody remembering his first name, makes sense because he was already beyond the law's reach being already permanently incarcerated [Macnaghten was an anti-anti-Semite, and could not face the fiend being anything other than 'one of us' which was far less politically explosive].

What he said. They deserve to be re-read.

Sincerely,

Mike

[lynn cates]

lacunae

Hello Jonathan. That's a very astute assessment of their motivation. So much is ambiguous.

If only we knew all the "private information" and "many circs." It's a pity that Sir RA never named names and that Sir MLM destroyed his evidence. Even worse that we don't understand the nature of Monro's "hot potato." If these lacunae were filled in, we might have 3 very strong suspects.

Cheers.
LC

[SaraCarter33]

i won't put up the top three suspects and reasons until i have read up on all of them on here. i want to be accurate and be believeable in my reasons.

[Jonathan H]

In my opinion, senior police did have very strong, admittedly competing, theories about certain suspects, but the key to the mystery is grasping why they could not move on these people.

Understanding this factor also explains why other important police [Smith, Reid, Abberline] had barely or never heard of them -- because information about some of these potential 'Jacks' did not arrive through regular police channels.

Montie Druitt could not be prosecuted because he had been dead for over two years.

Aaron Kosminski could not be prosecuted because he had been permanently incarcerated in an asylum some time before coming to senior police attention as a Ripper suspect.

Francis Tumblety had fled the jurisdiction and could not be further investigated, or extradited, for the Whitechapel crimes.

Just consider what it would mean to be a senior Scotland Yard cop, and you have somebody in your sights you honestly believe is the Ripper -- but no arrest can be made, or ever made.

What do you do about it?

Tell everyone?

What about the draconian libel laws?

So, do nothing?

Wait until your memoirs?

Blame other factors for the lack of an arrest? Like an unreliable witness?

In 1910 Anderson initially stumbled into admitting that the un-named Kosminski was already beyond the law, then pulled back. By contrast Macnaghten in his 1914 memoirs went the whole way; admitting that the un-named Druitt was not a Ripper suspect until 'some years after' he had taken his own life.

[Stephen Thomas]

But, of course, there are certain suspects who could not have been prosecuted due to their connections, regardless of what evidence was held against them.

Like who?

[Tom_Wescott]

Thanks, guys. I guess that's another term that never made it over the ocean. But, of course, there are certain suspects who could not have been prosecuted due to their connections, regardless of what evidence was held against them.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Stephen Thomas]

And what does 'in front of the beak' mean?

Here you go, Tom

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_is_a_judge_called_a_beak

[Graham]

Hi Graham. I'm not sure when 'disclude' entered my vocubulary, but I've already been called on it by Prof. Hainsworth on another thread. It just seems to slip out. Thankfully, it doesn't make it into my published writings. LOL. And what does 'in front of the beak' mean?

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

In front of the beak = up in front of the magistrate. I.e., nicked.

Graham

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Graham. I'm not sure when 'disclude' entered my vocubulary, but I've already been called on it by Prof. Hainsworth on another thread. It just seems to slip out. Thankfully, it doesn't make it into my published writings. LOL. And what does 'in front of the beak' mean?

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Graham]

1] Mr Unknown

2] Mr Unknown

3] Mr Unknown.

We will never know how many suspects the police hauled in for questioning, but had they even the slightest reason to suspect 'someone', then that 'someone' would've been up in front of the beak before he could draw breath. Personally, I don't think the police ever had the faintest idea of who the Whitechapel Murderer(s) was (were).

Tom, don't wish to be any more pedantic than I usually am, but the opposite of 'include' is 'exclude'; 'disclude' is not a word that I can locate in my well-thumbed OED.

Graham

[Tom_Wescott]

1) Charles Le Grand. A known abuser of prostitutes with homicidal tendencies, skilled in the use of a knife, walking the streets of Whitechapel in silent shoes, was in the neighborhood of Berner Street at the time of Stride's murder, produced false witness testimony to throw the police off track, was thought to be the Ripper by inspectors and people who knew him. About 100 other reasons.

2) Aaron Kosminski. Unlike Druitt and Tumblety, very little information has been found to suggest there's any reason to disclude him as a suspect.

I can't choose a third because as yet I haven't seen a third individual with a strong enough argument against him for me to think there's a chance he was the Ripper. At one time I felt Druitt was a strong contender, and Tumblety a decent one, but recent discoveries, as well as their probable homosexuality, virtually rule them out as contenders for the Ripper throne.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Roy Corduroy]

1) James Kelly A: Proven Himself a Killer by stabbing his wifes throat B: Was believed to be in London at time of Murders C: Was known to have contracted V.D. (quite possibly Syphilis) which could account for both his violent mood swings and could hint at a M.O. of punishing prostitutes whom he had frequented..

Hey Doc! I agree with above right to the letter.

2) Bury A: Brutally Murdered wife

Yes. But he murdered her for a reason. He knew she knew he was the Ripper. That is why he went through such an elaborate plan to go to Dundee. The fake employment letter, the box, etc.

B: Grafitti in his apartment (which could only be reasoned he wrote, as his wife is believed to have been illiterate) made references to Jack the Ripper

In addition, it appears he wanted to say something about it to the police. And London police went to investigate. He was a contemporary suspect.

C: Was known to have residence in Whitechapel at the time of the murders

Well it was Bow, which is close enough. He stayed out late. Some nights he didn't come home at all. Very suspicious. He was a woman-hating, wife abusing alcoholic.

For number (3) I go with Joe Lis (Silver). Charles Van Onselen gave about a dozen reasons in his book, but to pare it to two - Lis caught syphilis, which made him angry and he was criminally psychopathic. And I think it entirely possible the police were on to a Jewish suspect (Kosminski?) who was a young man who lived in the neighborhood. Problem is, the killer, budding criminal Joe Lis, took a boat in 1889.

Roy