Jack the Ripper: Case Study

Lesson 2: The Investigation, Evidence and Original Suspects

The Three Main Suspects

So many people have been suspected of being Jack the Ripper it would be impossible to name them all. This doesn't even include the idea that Jack may not have been just one man, but a group working together, either because of a cover-up by the Royal Family or a secret plot of the Freemasons.

Many suspects have either been newly discovered or have been added after the initial investigation. At the time of the murders there were several main suspects. In 1894 Chief Constable Macnaghten, a principal investigator on the case, named these three men as the most likely suspects on the Jack the Ripper case: Aaron Kominski, Montage J. Druitt, and Michael Ostrog.

Aaron Kosminski

Aaron Kosminski fit the description given by those witnesses who reported to have seen Jack closer than any other suspect. In fact, he was identified by one witness as being Jack the Ripper, but no charges were formally brought against him as the witness would not testify against "a fellow Jew."

A Polish Jew, hairdresser and resident of Whitechapel, he seemed to fit the bill in every way. He had been sexually abused by his mother and had a known hatred for women, especially prostitutes. Though Kosminski was generally thought to be insane, he was not known to be particularly violent. He died in a lunatic asylum.

Montage J. Druitt

Another Macnaghten suspect was teacher M. J. Druit, though the fact that he had been a suspect did not become publicly known until 1959 through case notes that had not been publicized until that time. Druitt was a cultured man who appeared to have suffered from bouts of mental depression. He committed suicide by jumping into the Thames. The Ripper murders stopped abruptly after his death.

Michael Ostrog

Ostrog, a Russian doctor, went by several other aliases. He was a strong suspect because his whereabouts at the time of the murders could never be accounted for. Macnaghten describes him as "a mad Russian doctor and a homicidal maniac who frequently carried surgical knives."

Ostrog had been a former surgeon in the Russian Navy, so he had the surgical background that fit the Jack the Ripper profile. Though he was described in the Police Gazette as a "dangerous man", he was not known to be a killer, and the accounts of his crimes are inconsistent with Macnaghten's report. Though Ostrog had been arrested numerous times for fraud and theft, he was not known to be a murderer. He was eventually confined to a lunatic asylum.

For more information on Ripper suspects, visit Casebook: Jack the Ripper

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