Oh, Dear Boss: Druitt's on a Sticky Wicket

[Herlock Sholmes]

Ha!

Yes, and enquiring at the cricket club about whether in the months prior to his suicide they had had to order some new whites for Monty to fit his newly expanded waistline!

Good thinking Ms Marple….err….I mean Ms D

[Ms Diddles]

I can imagine Poirot asking Inspector Japp to request that Druitt’s body be exhumed to see if he’d been poisoned by an overdose of a new slimming potion that had been invented by some dodgy young toff with gambling debts.

Ha!

Yes, and enquiring at the cricket club about whether in the months prior to his suicide they had had to order some new whites for Monty to fit his newly expanded waistline!

[Herlock Sholmes]

My tongue is firmly in my cheek as I type this, but I have often thought that if this was an Agatha Christie style murder-mystery the note would be a red herring.

It would have been torn from a longer letter in which Monty discusses his mother's morbid obesity and expresses concern that he too may be piling on the pounds, hence;

"Since Friday I felt I was going to be like mother, and the best thing was for me to die(t)".

Just a flight of fancy!

I can imagine Poirot asking Inspector Japp to request that Druitt’s body be exhumed to see if he’d been poisoned by an overdose of a new slimming potion that had been invented by some dodgy young toff with gambling debts.

[Ms Diddles]

"Since Friday I felt that I was going to be like mother, and the best thing for me was to die."

I’ve often thought ‘surely this wasn’t the whole note?’ And ‘why wasn’t the whole note quoted at the inquest?’

In the Acton, Chiswick and Turnham Green Gazette added the words ‘to this effect,’ indicating that this might not even have been a direct quote? I can’t help wondering again - why might he have just quoted the gist of what Monty had written? Why wasn’t the whole note read out? Leaving aside any ripper-based speculation, William was already being forced to go public with the ‘shame’ of his mother’s mental illness and the ‘shame’ of a suicide, so what could he have wanted leaving out?

The only suggestion that I can come up with at the moment is that the note might have mentioned other family members which William was intent on denying the existence of? Any other suggestions?

My tongue is firmly in my cheek as I type this, but I have often thought that if this was an Agatha Christie style murder-mystery the note would be a red herring.

It would have been torn from a longer letter in which Monty discusses his mother's morbid obesity and expresses concern that he too may be piling on the pounds, hence;

"Since Friday I felt I was going to be like mother, and the best thing was for me to die(t)".

Just a flight of fancy!

[Herlock Sholmes]

Yes, I think the contents were summarised, rather than being a direct quote.

But I think it was the coroner who read out the note, so I can't see that William would be the one hiding anything. Unless he had forged the note, of course, or asked the coroner to withhold personal but irrelevant details.
Most likely I'd have thought the press (or coroner) paraphrased the note, either from sensitivity, or for brevity.

AC&TGG 5 Jan '89; 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 was for me to die."

The only part that set me thinking Joshua was the fact that his mother’s mental illness and Monty’s suicide were already out there with all of the stigma that was attached at that time so what else ‘might’ William have requested Diplock to keep out of the public domain? We know that Diplock knew the family of course. It’s just a suggestion but it’s possible that Druitt might have left messages for the rest of the family in the note and William didn’t want their names made public to prevent the Press prying into painful family business?

Unless of course………

[Joshua Rogan]

"Since Friday I felt that I was going to be like mother, and the best thing for me was to die."

I’ve often thought ‘surely this wasn’t the whole note?’ And ‘why wasn’t the whole note quoted at the inquest?’

In the Acton, Chiswick and Turnham Green Gazette added the words ‘to this effect,’ indicating that this might not even have been a direct quote? I can’t help wondering again - why might he have just quoted the gist of what Monty had written? Why wasn’t the whole note read out? Leaving aside any ripper-based speculation, William was already being forced to go public with the ‘shame’ of his mother’s mental illness and the ‘shame’ of a suicide, so what could he have wanted leaving out?

The only suggestion that I can come up with at the moment is that the note might have mentioned other family members which William was intent on denying the existence of? Any other suggestions?

Yes, I think the contents were summarised, rather than being a direct quote.

But I think it was the coroner who read out the note, so I can't see that William would be the one hiding anything. Unless he had forged the note, of course, or asked the coroner to withhold personal but irrelevant details.
Most likely I'd have thought the press (or coroner) paraphrased the note, either from sensitivity, or for brevity.

AC&TGG 5 Jan '89; 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 was for me to die."

[Herlock Sholmes]

"Since Friday I felt that I was going to be like mother, and the best thing for me was to die."

I’ve often thought ‘surely this wasn’t the whole note?’ And ‘why wasn’t the whole note quoted at the inquest?’

In the Acton, Chiswick and Turnham Green Gazette added the words ‘to this effect,’ indicating that this might not even have been a direct quote? I can’t help wondering again - why might he have just quoted the gist of what Monty had written? Why wasn’t the whole note read out? Leaving aside any ripper-based speculation, William was already being forced to go public with the ‘shame’ of his mother’s mental illness and the ‘shame’ of a suicide, so what could he have wanted leaving out?

The only suggestion that I can come up with at the moment is that the note might have mentioned other family members which William was intent on denying the existence of? Any other suggestions?

[Herlock Sholmes]

Naah. What would be the fun in using my psychic powers to solve the case?

I did once get a funny feeling watching Toyah, though.

Yes, I’ve seen those videos too

[Joshua Rogan]

Did you get an overwhelming sense of evil Joshua?

Im a fan of progressive rock and I didn’t know until last week that Robert Fripp from King Crimson (and husband of Toyah Wilcox) was also born in Wimborne.

Naah. What would be the fun in using my psychic powers to solve the case?

I did once get a funny feeling watching Toyah, though.

[Pcdunn]

You are kidding, Abby, right?
Holiday comes from Old English, the question is, why do Yanks use Vacation, for Holiday?
Like they screwed up "Football", for what is really Rugby, with a helmet

Vacation is from Latin.

"Vacation" indeed comes from Latin, as does "vacant" and "vacate". It means that a person is absent or away from their usual place at work or school.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Hi Wick, there are many explanations but the one most favoured is that when the English came over early 20th century or late nineteenth they would go red quickly in the sun and look like Pomegranates
Regards Darryl

Another possible explanation Daryl:

• It is now pretty well accepted that the pomegranate theory is close to the truth,though there’s a slight twist to take note of. H J Rumsey wrote about it in 1920 in the introduction to his book The Pommies, or New Chums in Australia. He suggested that the word began life on the wharves in Melbourne as a form of rhyming slang. An immigrant was at first called a Jimmy Grant (was there perhaps a famous real person by that name around at the time?), but over time this shifted to Pommy Grant, perhaps as a reference to pomegranate, because the new chums did burn in the sun. Later pommy became a word on its own and was frequently abbreviated still further. The pomegranate theory was also given some years earlier in The Anzac Book of 1916.

[Herlock Sholmes]

I can't recall reading anywhere what the size of those stones were.
The body was found floating so they didn't seem to work, though it could always be argued that it was putrification that brought it to the surface. From what I've read though, in order to counter the instinct to survive, assuming he was conscious when he went in, the stones would need to be much heavier than his own body weight.
A body's natural tendency is to float, no matter what the weight.

Druitt was not particularly heavy built, maybe 150lb?
How many coats have pockets big enough to hold a mans body weight (150lb) in stones?
Assuming you could fill all your pocket with 150lb? of stones, wouldn't your instinct be to pull the coat off?

Doesn't this suggest that either Druitt was not conscious when he went in the water, or he was restrained under water somehow until he drowned?

It would be interesting to see some information on methods of suicide for someone of Druitt’s class just to see if any methods are less often employed? We know that Virginia Wolf drowned herself of course but I always get the image of an upper class man committing suicide due to some shame or dishonour doing it via a bullet? I don’t know if Woolf could swim? I can’t really base an opinion on knowledge but it does seem on the face of it to have been a bit of a strange choice for the athletic Druitt with an unused return train ticket in his pocket.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Hi Herlock,

The note itself was undated, wasn't it? If Druitt didn't know if it would be read on the same day he wrote it, would he not at least be presuming that the reader would understand which Friday he meant - for example if he was dismissed from the school on a Friday? Or might he have been too far down the suicidal path by then to put himself in the reader's position of trying to make sense of it?

Love,

Caz
X

Hi Caz,

Yes it’s written as if whoever read it (William mainly) would have known the significance of the ‘Friday.’ He hadn’t been removed from his position at the cricket club yet so this does appear to point to the day of his sacking from the school for me.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Hi Herlock,

I was looking for previous threads on the possibility of MJD having been murdered, and came across your thread "The Strange Death of Montague John Druitt" which contained this timeline:
30th Nov - Druitt is dismissed by George Valentine at the Blackheath School.
11th Dec - An unnamed ‘friend’ contacts Monty’s brother William to say that he hadn’t been seen for over a week.
30th Dec - William arrived in London and has Monty’s property searched. He also discovers Monty’s sacking.
31st Dec - Monty’s body is pulled from the Thames.
2nd Jan - The Inquest is held.

You raised a question as to why Druitt's belonging were still at the school on 30 Dec when he had been sacked on 30 Nov. I think the circumstance points to the probability that he wasn't sacked on that date. I agree with GUT in a later post on that thread - he was sacked on 30 Dec, as stated in the report of the inquest, for being AWOL, and there is no need to "adjust" that report.

I can't see any evidence or reason to believe that Monty ever returned from Hammersmith/Chiswick after 1 Dec, so I think he popped in at KBW, was spotted by the friend, and then he proceeded to Hammersmith.

Let us consider a scenario where MJD is JTR. Serial killers are not known for suiciding due to remorse, so Monty leaves the school on Dec 1 solely because the school term has finished on 30 Nov. The cheque for 200 pounds is payment for one of the four school terms. On some Friday between MJK's murder and 1 Dec, Monty has confided his crimes to a family member, or to a CofE minister and, as head of the family, William has been informed. William has arranged to meet Monty at Chiswick, possibly to discuss treatment at the Manor House Asylum. William decides that between the risk of Monty being caught, tried and hanged as a fiendish serial killer or committing suicide due to mental illness, the later is the lesser of two evils for the family reputation. He arranges Monty's murder to look like suicide, ensuring the valuables are left on his person so that there is no hint of a blackmail attempt gone wrong, and writes the suicide note(s) himself. It is curious that the suicide note found at Blackheath, 'Since Friday I felt I was going to be like mother, and the best thing for me was to die.' has the feel of being written in the past tense.

Just some more speculation on an increasingly interesting topic.

Cheers, George

Hi George,

It does seem strange though that William would wait nearly three weeks from being informed on the 11th to go to London to find out that his brother had been sacked on December 30th (the day that he’d arrived in London?) Possibly in favour of the 30th December sacking date is the question - wouldn’t his friends have checked at the school after Druitt had gone awol? As he’d been at KBW for 8 years surely they’d have been aware that he’d also worked at the school so wouldn’t they have checked there before contacting William?

We assume that Druitt was sacked from the school which led to Druitt being ‘removed’ from the cricket club but couldn’t it have been the other way around? Just a thought.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Anyway. I was passing through Wimborne earlier this week, so decided to pop in for a visit

Did you get an overwhelming sense of evil Joshua?

Im a fan of progressive rock and I didn’t know until last week that Robert Fripp from King Crimson (and husband of Toyah Wilcox) was also born in Wimborne.