London police believe Ripper was barrister

Press, 7 October 1988, Page 16

London police believe Ripper was barrister

NZPA London Jack the Ripper was a barrister called Montague John Druitt, according to a ballot among members of the Police Historical Society. The society met in London recently to mark the centenary of the Ripper killings in London’s East End.

Experts who have devoted years to trying to solve the five murders in the autumn of 1888 presented their views to 100 members of the society at its conference in the Wood Street station of the City of London Police,, who investigated the killings.

The actor and author Keith Skinner supported the Druitt theory. Druitt was one of three suspects on a list compiled by Sir Melville MacNaghten, who later became Assistant Chief Constable of the Metropolitan Police.

The other two on the list were a mad Russian doctor and a former convict named Astrog, and a Polish Jew called Kosminski.

Druitt’s body was found in the Thames in December, 1888, and an inquest decided he drowned himself while of unsound mind.

But some experts beit is possible he was

murdered and his suicide faked. Druitt would have known another suspect, Queen Victoria’s grandson Albert, Duke of Clarence, and some of the Duke’s friends. But experts generally dismiss any Royal connection. The crime writer, Colin Wilson, does not agree with the Druitt theory, believing from his research that the Ripper was a working-class man who turned into a sadistic killer after drinking. At the conference, delegates voted in a ballot from a list of 11 suspects ... and a large majority favored Druitt. . (