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

[Abby Normal]

I vacillate between the two of them (plus Bury).

For some reason I find Druitt the most intriguing.

Possibly not the most likely, but there's a kind of melancholy drama to his story that I find really compelling.

You're probably right though, Koz (or Bury) by a nose!

hi diddy
i got hutch, bury, chapman, kelly, koz,lech and druitt. pretty much in that order. id add blotchy up there with hutch and the bethnal green botherer near the back if we include un named suspects. taken all together, i think theres a slightly better than 50/50 chance the ripper would be amongst this group.

[Herlock Sholmes]

How come Macnaghten's "secret knowledge" trumps Anderson & Swanson's identification?

I wouldn’t say that it does Harry. There are unanswered question for both of them. We certainly know more about the Anderson/Swanson version than we can know about the MM. All that we have is what Macnaghten said of course which opens him up questions of honesty/accuracy/judgment etc.

Like Ms D, I personally find Druitt the most intriguing but that’s just a personal opinion of course. For me Druitt, Koz and Bury are the likeliest of the ‘named’ to have been the one. If we did a tick box exercise then I say that we would have to place Bury at the top.

[Ms Diddles]

agree. but id put Koz slightly ahead of druitt due to the possible positive ID.

I vacillate between the two of them (plus Bury).

For some reason I find Druitt the most intriguing.

Possibly not the most likely, but there's a kind of melancholy drama to his story that I find really compelling.

You're probably right though, Koz (or Bury) by a nose!

[Abby Normal]

Personally I'd put them on a pretty equal footing.

On balance I doubt either reveals the answer, but I find them both quite intriguing to consider.

agree. but id put Koz slightly ahead of druitt due to the possible positive ID.

[Ms Diddles]

How come Macnaghten's "secret knowledge" trumps Anderson & Swanson's identification?

Personally I'd put them on a pretty equal footing.

On balance I doubt either reveals the answer, but I find them both quite intriguing to consider.

[Harry D]

How come Macnaghten's "secret knowledge" trumps Anderson & Swanson's identification?

[The Macdonald Triad]

I've always been suspicious of Druitts older doctor brother. He found the supposed suicide note and was of the right age and occupation to be who Macnaughten was talking about. What if Montegue caught the brother after MKs murder and the brother eliminated him? I feel it would be very easy back then to muddy the waters. Not a lot of phones around then. No faxes, no APB's, no mugbooks, no fingerprints, no DNA. But I guess it's my nature to complicate things with conspiracy theories sometimes.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Afternoon Herlock,

I should imagine that it was simply that "Jimmy Grant" rhymes so well with "Immi-grant''. That would argue against a real person of that name, but it's not how rhyming slang typically works either.

I can see how Jimmy Grant could then have evolved into Pommy Grant, because "Pommy-grant" sounds so similar to "pomegranate".

On balance I would doubt that it was more than a play on words and their sounds, going from "immigrant" to "Jimmigrant", and then via "Pommygrant" and "pomegranate" to just "pommie".

Love,

Caz
X

Hello Caz,

Its often weird how these phrases come about. Your version certainly makes.

[caz]

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!

Ha ha, Ms D!

Reminds me of the Dad's Army episode, where Captain Mainwaring tells a joke about an Australian soldier, who is asked by a British officer: "Have you come to die?" and he replies: "No sir. I came yester-die."

Love,

Caz
X

[caz]

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.

Mister Brown knows that "Toyah" feeling very well.

Love,

Caz
X

[caz]

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.

Afternoon Herlock,

I should imagine that it was simply that "Jimmy Grant" rhymes so well with "Immi-grant''. That would argue against a real person of that name, but it's not how rhyming slang typically works either.

I can see how Jimmy Grant could then have evolved into Pommy Grant, because "Pommy-grant" sounds so similar to "pomegranate".

On balance I would doubt that it was more than a play on words and their sounds, going from "immigrant" to "Jimmigrant", and then via "Pommygrant" and "pomegranate" to just "pommie".

Love,

Caz
X

[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!