How Brown
07-03-2010, 10:54 AM
The Forums thanks and appreciates Mr. Hainsworth's responses to a few Druitt/Macnaghten related questions. :high5:
1. Please describe how your opinions of the Case were colored by the first ( or first few ) book(s) you had read on these murders.
'The Lodger' by Evans and Gainey [the greatest are 'Scotland Yard Investigates' by Evans and Rumbelow and 'Autumn of Terror ' by Tom Cullen]
I thought it was probably Tumblety and now think it was probably Druitt.
2. How long ( ballpark or precise figure ) have you been studying the WM ?
Since about 2005ish.
3a. For the benefit of the readers, do you believe that Macnaghten's report ( the so called Macnaghten Memoranda) is somewhat different than what Melville Macnaghten had been told and/or really believed about the suspects mentioned within it ?
The official version was to make Druitt seem plausible but minor to hide the embarrassment, of 'Jack' being a too-late suspect, from the new Liberal Govt [which is why Tory MP Farquharson's role had to be buried too]
The Aberconway Version is Mac's 1898 rewrite to still falsely claim that Druitt was a contemporaneous suspect, but that he WAS the fiend -- and that Mac found him. Also so that Druitt was posthumously disguised as a Dr Jekyll figure.
3b.Do you feel that it is possible or an accurate evaluation of the situation that Kosminski and Ostrog were simply mentioned in the memoranda without any real belief that they were viable in any way, shape, or form by Macnaghten ?
Kosminski was a nothing 'suspect', adopted by the boss who despised Mac, and Ostrog was a stand-in for Tumbelty: a dodgy, foreign, Gentile, medico/con man.
4. Without going to great lengths....could you please give us an encapsulation on how this "Dr. Bluitt" came about ?
Richardson was a crony of Sims, who in turn was a crony of Macnaghten. The latter had shown him the Aberconway Rewrite masquerading as a definitive 'Home Office Report'. Sims passed this info. onto Richardson -- to big-note himself. Neither man realised that the profile was mostly fictitious.
5. One Forums member is a teacher. You're also a teacher. Have you ever elaborated on the Case for any of your classrooms in the past and if so, what were the responses from those students ?
Yes, I run a unit on the Ripper, every semester, which senior students adore. It makes the point that had an academic historian taken on the case Tumblety would have been found immediately. We examine the key trio of police suspects: Druitt, Kosminski and Tumblety, using both primary and secondary sources.
1. Please describe how your opinions of the Case were colored by the first ( or first few ) book(s) you had read on these murders.
'The Lodger' by Evans and Gainey [the greatest are 'Scotland Yard Investigates' by Evans and Rumbelow and 'Autumn of Terror ' by Tom Cullen]
I thought it was probably Tumblety and now think it was probably Druitt.
2. How long ( ballpark or precise figure ) have you been studying the WM ?
Since about 2005ish.
3a. For the benefit of the readers, do you believe that Macnaghten's report ( the so called Macnaghten Memoranda) is somewhat different than what Melville Macnaghten had been told and/or really believed about the suspects mentioned within it ?
The official version was to make Druitt seem plausible but minor to hide the embarrassment, of 'Jack' being a too-late suspect, from the new Liberal Govt [which is why Tory MP Farquharson's role had to be buried too]
The Aberconway Version is Mac's 1898 rewrite to still falsely claim that Druitt was a contemporaneous suspect, but that he WAS the fiend -- and that Mac found him. Also so that Druitt was posthumously disguised as a Dr Jekyll figure.
3b.Do you feel that it is possible or an accurate evaluation of the situation that Kosminski and Ostrog were simply mentioned in the memoranda without any real belief that they were viable in any way, shape, or form by Macnaghten ?
Kosminski was a nothing 'suspect', adopted by the boss who despised Mac, and Ostrog was a stand-in for Tumbelty: a dodgy, foreign, Gentile, medico/con man.
4. Without going to great lengths....could you please give us an encapsulation on how this "Dr. Bluitt" came about ?
Richardson was a crony of Sims, who in turn was a crony of Macnaghten. The latter had shown him the Aberconway Rewrite masquerading as a definitive 'Home Office Report'. Sims passed this info. onto Richardson -- to big-note himself. Neither man realised that the profile was mostly fictitious.
5. One Forums member is a teacher. You're also a teacher. Have you ever elaborated on the Case for any of your classrooms in the past and if so, what were the responses from those students ?
Yes, I run a unit on the Ripper, every semester, which senior students adore. It makes the point that had an academic historian taken on the case Tumblety would have been found immediately. We examine the key trio of police suspects: Druitt, Kosminski and Tumblety, using both primary and secondary sources.