New Book

[GUT]

Actually Jonathan neither am I most of the time, but with Bundy I have to admit the fright registered in his last interview when he was desperately trying to find a peg to extend his life existence but guessed it was gone, and tried to blame violence on television and pornography for his deeds left me both satisfied and cold (God help me!!) towards his fate.

Yeah I'm against the death penalty, mainly because a mistake can't be rectified, but I lost no sleep over Bundy.

[Mayerling]

Really?

Like Ted Bundy--another handsome, middle-class smoothie.

Although to be fair, Druitt did become a successful barrister, unlike that loathsome creature (not that I am for the death penalty).

Actually Jonathan neither am I most of the time, but with Bundy I have to admit the fright registered in his last interview when he was desperately trying to find a peg to extend his life existence but guessed it was gone, and tried to blame violence on television and pornography for his deeds left me both satisfied and cold (God help me!!) towards his fate.

[Mayerling]

reminds me of a great old joke....

A Roman walks into a bar, holds up two fingers and says " I'll have five beers" (it's ok... nobody laughs when I tell it in person either)

So March 30th now eh? ok... I have to think of something else to tell the woman to get me for my birthday,


Steadmund Brand---

Took me a moment Steadmund to understand the trick of the joke.

[Jonathan H]

To Steadmund

I'm a high school History teacher in South Australia. Years ago I was looking for a topic to interest students in a unit on the 19th Century and hit upon the Ripper as an entry point.

I had no interest in the case really; it was hideous and obviously by an unknown maniac whom police could not catch because he was a stranger to his victims, plus this was before even blood types could be differentiated.

I had done some superficial reading on the subject, and the suspect David Cohen seemed a pretty good fit, e.g. an unknown, mentally unhinged prole.

Then I saw a UK doco called 'Secret History' on Dr. Tumblety and I was hooked! What a marvelous example for students of secondary sources being trumped by a primary source--the Littlechild Letter--which showed that there had been a major police suspect in 1888 who got away.

At that time, I accepted that Druitt was an innocent, probably gay, dragged into the mystery by an incompetent, prejudiced police desk-jockey with zero training for his job.

Then I stumbled upon the 'West of England' MP source of 1891 here on these Boards; a bombshell primary source that showed that cognition about Druitt being suspected of being the fiend emerged from his own people from his own region of origin, e.g. predating the police chief.

It was difficult and painful, but I had to reassess what I thought I knew.

In 2008 the MP was identified as a Tory back-bencher who lived near the Druitts and who was an Old Etonian, like Macnaghten, and the gap, the missing link between "Sad Death of a Local Barrister" of 1889 and "I have always had strong feelings about No. 1" of 1898 closed forever.

Now I read Macnaghten's memoirs and found him to be completely different from the cypher-like portrait of him in most books on the case. That he was charming, worldly, discreet, hands-on, obsessed with the Ripper and, in other contemporaneous sources, acclaimed for his incredible memory. Plus his memoir chapter, "Laying the Ghost of Jack the Ripper" pointedly does not repeat the Mad Doctor hustle.

But that left Macnaghten's strange and basic errors about his chosen suspect in his report(s)?

I am very slow, and I initially never made the connection to the fact that these 'errors' were disseminated to the public. That the Dorset solution--minus Dorset--was well known to Edwardians.

Thus there came a Eureka-like moment when I was musing about how lucky it was that 'Mac' had made these errors because it might have exposed the Druitt family among the respectable circles in which they moved--Bingo! It's deliberate, not a lucky accident--hence the Druitt family became "friends", and the "son of a surgeon" became one himself.

Alone among the police, Macnaghten chose as the fiend a man who to some extent was his own face staring back at him in the mirror--a handsome, Anglican, English, Gentile, professional gent (and a cricketer!) 'Good Old Mac' would only have 'believed' that the Ripper was 'one of us' if the evidence, even posthumously, left him no choice.

I also have to credit an incisive student who once asked if Macnaghten's implausible line, "said to be a doctor ..." could also mean: might not be a doctor?

My interest and fascination is really with the police sleuth rather than his chosen Ripper, and that the former went against his own professional, class and religious biases in choosing the latter.

[GUT]

Steadmund your other half is probably like mine, with remarkable self-sontrol, I often say "how is it you are not rolling around on the floor right now?" , but no pure restraint is shown and barely a grin, how do they do it.

[Steadmund Brand]

If that Roman had crossed his fingers for luck, he could have had ten.

hahah.. that is funny!!

and thanks GUT....can you explain to my other half why jokes are funny sometime???

Johnathan, if I may ask, what led to your interest in Druitt?

Steadmund Brand

[Robert]

If that Roman had crossed his fingers for luck, he could have had ten.

[GUT]

reminds me of a great old joke....

A Roman walks into a bar, holds up two fingers and says " I'll have five beers" (it's ok... nobody laughs when I tell it in person either)

So March 30th now eh? ok... I have to think of something else to tell the woman to get me for my birthday,


Steadmund Brand---

Well I laughed.

[Wickerman]

Dr T. Neill Cream cut a dashing figure. Educated at McGill University and left a trail of bodies from Chicago to London Ontario, and on to London Eng.

[Jonathan H]

Really?

Like Ted Bundy--another handsome, middle-class smoothie.

Although to be fair, Druitt did become a successful barrister, unlike that loathsome creature (not that I am for the death penalty).

[pinkmoon]

I'm excited to say the least Druitt has been forgotten about over the years I think people have discounted him because he dosnt fit into the typical image of a modern serial killer.

[Steadmund Brand]

reminds me of a great old joke....

A Roman walks into a bar, holds up two fingers and says " I'll have five beers" (it's ok... nobody laughs when I tell it in person either)

So March 30th now eh? ok... I have to think of something else to tell the woman to get me for my birthday,


Steadmund Brand---

[Mayerling]

Hi all,

I take it the book will also be available in the Barnes & Noble stores in New York City and State.

I would not worry too much about the date "March 15th". Nobody here is connected to the Julian family of ancient Rome, nor claiming (I hope!) to set up a dictatorship of the government and empire (is there any?) of that city.

The "American Brutus" was (according to his biographer) was John Wilkes Booth.

Jeff

[GUT]

Not only the Ides of March, but Steadmund's birthday, sounds like a good idea to move it back a fortnight.

[Jonathan H]

Thanks Steadmund

Gut, I too had shuddered at the 'Ides of March' anniversary, but it's debut seems to have been moved to March 30th, at least in the UK:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/new-releases/books/276306