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What did the ripper look like and which of the suspects fit his description best? And is the question really as difficult as it might first appear? I’d certainly agree that we couldn’t name the killer based on witness descriptions but we could perhaps find out if any fit the description better than others. The first question of course is which of the witnesses was likeliest to have seen the killer? Personally I would have to say that the likeliest was Joseph Lawende. Not 100% certain of course but he and the other two said that they had seen the man and woman talking around 10 minutes before Eddowes body was found in Mitre Square. This is his description of the man that they saw:
‘A MAN, age 30, height 5 ft. 7 or 8 in., complexion fair, moustache fair, medium build; dress, pepper-and-salt colour loose jacket, grey cloth cap with peak of same material, reddish neckerchief tied in knot; appearance of a sailor.’
Looking at the ‘Our World In Date’ website and the BBC website it looks like the average height for a UK male around 1888 was just under 170 centimetres. So around 5’6½” to 5’7”. So Lawende’s man was around average height for the time, maybe a little above but height can be difficult to judge so we should quibble too much on this point. He wasn’t Goliath but he wasn’t Gimli either.
Ok, I’ll risk an onslaught by beginning with Montague John Druitt.
Age 30 - Druitt was 31 at the time so no issues there.
5’7”/5’8” tall - We have no record of Druitt’s height so can we make any kind of judgment call? There’s photograph of Druitt in Jon Hainsworth’s book that was taken in 1879 when he was 22 years old. All that we can say is that the man standing to our right of him is on a step lower than him and the man standing to our left of him is standing on a smaller step but above and behind him. Taking into consideration the depths of the two step it appears to me that if these three were all on the same step they would be around the same height. There is also another man further along the same step as Druitt who looks around the same height or is around an inch or so taller. So four people all around the same height would suggest to me at least that they were more likely to have been of average height and as I said early, we shouldn’t quibble over an inch or two - so I see no issue at all with Lawende’s height description.
Complexion fair - In all of the photographs that we have Druitt looks of fair complexion to me.
Moustache fair - In the very few photos that we have when Druitt has a moustache it looks quite a fair one to me. It’s certainly difficult to judge exactly its colouring because it’s a slight/thin moustache.
Medium build - Druitt seemed to me to be of medium build. He certainly wasn’t bulky. Personally I’d describe him as medium to slim. He played cricket and was a pace bowler. They tend not to be skinny. - Either way I see no issue with describing Druitt as of medium build.
Clothing is far more difficult to get any valuable information from but one thing that I can mention is that Lawende has his man wearing a ‘pepper-and-salt coloured loose jacket’. In the photograph that I described earlier Druitt is also wearing a pepper and salt coloured jacket. Maybe he wore an old, worn jacket of his in Whitechapel? Less risky than a posh suit of course. So how might a man wearing a good quality jacket that had seen better days be described by a witness? Shabby genteel maybe?
Now, I’d like to make something 100%, inarguably, crystal clear - I am not saying in any shape, way or form, that this somehow proves that Druitt was the ripper. All that I’m saying is that - in my opinion - the man most likely to have seen Jack the Ripper gives a description that closely matches Montague John Druitt. That said, again, this is NOT a thread for proving any suspect guilty. We can’t do that from witness descriptions.
Now - all constructive comments, questions, suggestions are welcome. And we have to accept of course that eyewitnesses are far from perfect and that the descriptions given aren’t particularly detailed (no eyepatches or long beards for example
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How does Lawende’s description fare against other suspects?
Does it favour anyone else?
Does it make anyone unlikely or less likely?
Are there other witnesses you feel are better or more reliable as far as a description goes? (Clearly if you feel that BS man was the ripper then we couldn’t say that his description described Druitt of course - unless he was wearing 4 sweaters a jacket and a coat)
‘A MAN, age 30, height 5 ft. 7 or 8 in., complexion fair, moustache fair, medium build; dress, pepper-and-salt colour loose jacket, grey cloth cap with peak of same material, reddish neckerchief tied in knot; appearance of a sailor.’
Looking at the ‘Our World In Date’ website and the BBC website it looks like the average height for a UK male around 1888 was just under 170 centimetres. So around 5’6½” to 5’7”. So Lawende’s man was around average height for the time, maybe a little above but height can be difficult to judge so we should quibble too much on this point. He wasn’t Goliath but he wasn’t Gimli either.
Ok, I’ll risk an onslaught by beginning with Montague John Druitt.
Age 30 - Druitt was 31 at the time so no issues there.
5’7”/5’8” tall - We have no record of Druitt’s height so can we make any kind of judgment call? There’s photograph of Druitt in Jon Hainsworth’s book that was taken in 1879 when he was 22 years old. All that we can say is that the man standing to our right of him is on a step lower than him and the man standing to our left of him is standing on a smaller step but above and behind him. Taking into consideration the depths of the two step it appears to me that if these three were all on the same step they would be around the same height. There is also another man further along the same step as Druitt who looks around the same height or is around an inch or so taller. So four people all around the same height would suggest to me at least that they were more likely to have been of average height and as I said early, we shouldn’t quibble over an inch or two - so I see no issue at all with Lawende’s height description.
Complexion fair - In all of the photographs that we have Druitt looks of fair complexion to me.
Moustache fair - In the very few photos that we have when Druitt has a moustache it looks quite a fair one to me. It’s certainly difficult to judge exactly its colouring because it’s a slight/thin moustache.
Medium build - Druitt seemed to me to be of medium build. He certainly wasn’t bulky. Personally I’d describe him as medium to slim. He played cricket and was a pace bowler. They tend not to be skinny. - Either way I see no issue with describing Druitt as of medium build.
Clothing is far more difficult to get any valuable information from but one thing that I can mention is that Lawende has his man wearing a ‘pepper-and-salt coloured loose jacket’. In the photograph that I described earlier Druitt is also wearing a pepper and salt coloured jacket. Maybe he wore an old, worn jacket of his in Whitechapel? Less risky than a posh suit of course. So how might a man wearing a good quality jacket that had seen better days be described by a witness? Shabby genteel maybe?
Now, I’d like to make something 100%, inarguably, crystal clear - I am not saying in any shape, way or form, that this somehow proves that Druitt was the ripper. All that I’m saying is that - in my opinion - the man most likely to have seen Jack the Ripper gives a description that closely matches Montague John Druitt. That said, again, this is NOT a thread for proving any suspect guilty. We can’t do that from witness descriptions.
Now - all constructive comments, questions, suggestions are welcome. And we have to accept of course that eyewitnesses are far from perfect and that the descriptions given aren’t particularly detailed (no eyepatches or long beards for example
)How does Lawende’s description fare against other suspects?
Does it favour anyone else?
Does it make anyone unlikely or less likely?
Are there other witnesses you feel are better or more reliable as far as a description goes? (Clearly if you feel that BS man was the ripper then we couldn’t say that his description described Druitt of course - unless he was wearing 4 sweaters a jacket and a coat)
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