Jack the Ripper: Case Study

Lesson 2: The Investigation, Evidence and Original Suspects

A Closer Look at Montage J. Druitt

More is known about Druitt than the other two original suspects. Druitt was born in Wimborne, Dorset. The son of a doctor, he was well-educated and had studied law. He was employed part-time as a teacher, practiced law, and played cricket in his spare time. It is believed that the loss of his teaching post may have driven him to suicide. There were rumors that he was dismissed because of homosexual involvement with some of his students.

According to Macnaghten's case notes, Druitt's own family believed it was a strong possibility that Druitt was Jack the Ripper because he had confessed to violent urges and was believed to be "sexually insane". There was a history of mental illness in his family, and his mother had died in an asylum. Druitt drowned himself in the Thames, after first weighting his pockets with stones. He also left a suicide note that read, "Since Friday I felt I was going to be like Mother and the best thing for me was to die."

Though he had been seen playing cricket far away shortly after the murders of Mary Nichols and Annie Chapman, his whereabouts on the nights of the actual murders has never been proven. His training as a lawyer might have driven home the necessity of a good alibi.

He was last seen alive about a month after the last murder, shortly after being dismissed from his teaching post. When he committed suicide by drowning himself in the Thames river the killings stopped.

However, there is not much to tie him to the Ripper case except the coincidence of his death and the cessation of the murders. He was not known to frequent the Whitechapel district. He appeared to be a weak man, suffering from mental illness and severe depression, and his sudden suicide appears to be more related to the loss of his job. Some believe that after his suicide the police made an attempt to use him as a "scapegoat" by trying to pin the murders on him.

To learn more about suspect Druitt visit Casebook: Jack the Ripper

For further reading about Druitt, read pages chapter 13, pages 148-153 of Portrait of a Killer Jack the Ripper: Case Closed.

  1  2  3  4