Jack the Ripper and Jack the Gripper

[admin tim]

http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/453687.html

[Jonathan Hainsworth]

From the moment I discovered that Sir Melville Macnaghten was a cricket tragic I have theorized how much this would have moved him; that the tormented murderer was not only a fellow Gentile gentleman but also a dab hand with the cricket ball!

The fictionalized portrait of the un-named Druitt, as propagated by Sims on Mac's behalf from 1902 to 1917, turns the young, sporty Druitt -- a man what is more who held down two demanding jobs -- into an unemployed, middle-aged, semi-invalid recluse; eg. not a Ripper capable of performing in a cricket team, or anything else.

Aging members of Druitt's Blackheath team obviously would remember that Montie drowned himself in the Thames, but otherwise how could they connect their tragic member with the profile of the fiend outlined by Sims?

Especially once Sims began changing the date of the body's discovery in the river to early November.

[Phil Carter]

Hello Jonathan,

I note the cricket connection rears it's "body:wave:line" like head again, and humbly refer you to my article about cricketers involving murder, suicide and other serious offences published in Rip 120.

Hope you are well ;)

best wishes

Phil

PS For all non-cricket followers of this thread, the "Bodyline" cricket series was the angelic affair between Australia and England at the start of the 1930's, which caused slight aggrievances to be mouthed, and has slipped quietly into cricket history, never to be remembered.... not! :-)