Ripper Suspect: The Secret Lives of Montague Druitt

by D.J. Leighton

One of the most popular of all Ripper suspects, Montague Druitt appears on the surface an unlikely killer. Born into a comfortable bourgeois family, he was educated at New College, Oxford, qualified for the Bar and played cricket for a number of strong club sides. But, there was another side to the agreeable Mr Druitt. He moved in the artistic and aristocratic circles that overlapped with London's secretive homosexual culture, was summarily dismissed from his post at a boys' school, and a few weeks later was found drowned in the Thames, just months after the Jack the Ripper murders. Six years later, Chief Constable Sir Melville Macnaughten named Druitt as the murderer and gave the unhappy barrister a kind of immortality. D J Leighton has dug deep into the background to Druitt's unhappy life and uncovered a web of intriguing connections linking the eldest son of the heir to the throne, the Cambridge Apostles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Virginia Woolf and the cricketing legend Prince Kumar Ranjitsinhji. The book is a fascinating period piece that deftly weaves together the criminal, sporting, aristocratic and homosexual worlds of late nineteenth-century London, in search of the truth behind Macnaughten's surprising allegations. This book is an excellent piece of of period crime history with a Jack the Ripper setting. It is a colourful Victorian underworld story, mixing high society with scandal, the golden age of amateur cricket and murder. It is the authoritative debunking of the case for Druitt as Jack the Ripper. This book weaves together the criminal, sporting, aristocratic and homosexual worlds of late nineteenth-century London in search of the truth behind Sir Melville Macnaughten's surprising allegations.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Biography

224 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2006

Reviews

[Diana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping for a decent biography about one of the Jack the Ripper suspects. At least 60% of this book is about cricket and his exploits in various cricket clubs in the UK. I was seriously disappointed in the book, especially since some of the things mentioned in the book that points him to being the Ripper have been mostly debunked. Unless you're a cricket fan, skip this book.

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[Shreedevi Gurumurty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Montague John Druitt was born in Wimborne Minster, Dorset.His parents were prominent local surgeon William Druitt and his wife Ann (née Harvey).Montague Druitt was christened by his maternal great-uncle, Reverend William Mayo.The Druitts lived at Westfield House.Druitt had 6 brothers and sisters.Druitt was educated at Winchester College,where he won a scholarship at 13yo,and excelled at sports, especially cricket and fives.He was active in the school's debating society.With a glowing academic record, he was awarded a Winchester Scholarship to New College, Oxford.Druitt gained a second class in Classical Moderations in 1878 and graduated with a third class Bachelor of Arts degree in Literae Humaniores (Classics) in 1880.On 17 May 1882, Druitt was admitted to the Inner Temple.His father had promised him a legacy of £500,and Druitt paid his membership fees with a loan from his father secured against the inheritance.He was called to the bar on 29 April 1885, and set up a practice as a barrister and special pleader.Druitt rented barristers' chambers at 9 King's Bench Walk in the Inner Temple.To supplement his income and help finance his legal training,Druitt worked as an assistant schoolmaster at George Valentine's boarding school, 9 Eliot Place, Blackheath,from 1880.He used the school holidays for legal studies and cricket.On Friday 30 November 1888, Druitt was dismissed for reasons unclear, from his post at the Blackheath boys' school.On 31 December 1888,Druitt's body was found floating in the River Thames,off Thornycroft's torpedo works, Chiswick.Some suggest that Druitt was dismissed because he was homosexual,though others say that Montague's possible suicide was precipitated by a hereditary psychiatric illness.Assistant Chief Constable Sir Melville Macnaghten named Druitt as a suspect in the Ripper case in a private memorandum of 23 February 1894.The Ripper was said to have possessed anatomical skills, had an unsound mind, and apparently drowned in the Thames after the final Ripper murder,and Druitt's workplace was near to Whitechapel.However,the evidence against Druitt was entirely circumstantial,leading many to reject him as a suspect.

[Thom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written and of some interest and also an easy read (less than 4 hours). But there's a lot of information about those who were around at the same time and, while interesting up to a point, it smacks of filler.

What IS of ongoing interest - although not nearly fleshed out enough - is the idea that Monty was most likely murdered or driven to suicide. I also agree with other reviews that the over abundance of cricket information is pointless and again smacks of filler. There are also a lot of references to other gay men Monty "may or may not have known" as well as many before him and there particular issues. Interesting to a point for another book, but all too much for this one.

Leighton did do quite a lot of research and certainly Druitt's family worked overtime to distance themselves from him (which says more about them than it does Druitt). But I do think there has to be more information passed down to later generations. Someone out there knows for certain why Druitt was dismissed - a dismissal which led to his death a few days later.

There's a seriously good book waiting to be written about Druitt. This one isn't bad but it only scratches the surface.

[Ronald Wilcox · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing analysis of the life of one of the men proposed as a possible suspect in the Whitechapel murders by Jack the Ripper. Over half the book goes into incredible detail about cricket and Druitt’s involvement in it; truthfully all that information is only interesting to fans of cricket and not true crime. Decent read but hard to recommend.

[Beth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really disappointing book. The writing style leaves a lot to be desired, coming off as mainly running off in tangents. Way too much emphasis on the sport of cricket. It seems there isn’t much information on the life of Druitt besides his participation in cricket.