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[Memor]andum on articles which appeared in the Sun re JACK [THE R]IPPER on 14 Feb 1894 and subsequent dates.
 

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The case referred to in the sensational story told in the Sun (in its issue of 14 Feb 1894 and following dates) is that of Thomas Cutbush who was arraigned at the London County Sessions in April 1891 on a charge of maliciously wounding Florence Grace Johnson and attempting to wound Isabella Fraser Anderson in Kennington. He was found to be insane and sentenced to be detained during Her Majesties pleasure

This Cutbush who lived at 14 Albert Street Kenningto Street escaped from the Lambeth Infirmary (after he had been detained there only a few hours) at noon on 5 March 1891. He was re-arrested on 9th idem. Previously to this,- a few weeks before several cases of stabbing girls behind had occurred in the neighbourhood, and a man called Colicott was arrested and charged, but was subsequently discharged owing to doubtful identification. The cuts in the girls' dresses in Colicott's case were quite distinct from those made by Cutbush, who was no doubt influenced in his action by a wild and morbid desire of imitation. Cutbushs' antecedents were enquired into by P.S.McCarthy, (an officer who was specially employed in Whitechapel during the time of the murders there); it was ascertained that he was born, and had lived always, at Kennington. His Father died when he was

quite young, and he was a 'spoilt' child. He had been employed as a clerk and traveller in the Tea Trade at the Minories, and subsequently canvassed for a Directory in that part of London - during which time he bore a good character. He, apparently, contracted syphilis about 1888, and after that year led an idle and useless life. His brain seems to have become affected, and he believed that people were endeavouring to poison him. He wrote to Lord Grimthorpe, and others, - and also to the Treasury, complaining of Dr Brooks, Westminster Bridge Road (whom he threatened to shoot!) for having supplied him with indifferent medicines. He is said to have studied medical books by day, and to have rambled about at night, returning to his home with his clothes covered with mud etc., However, little reliance can be placed on the statements of his Mother, or his aunt, who were both of a very excitable disposition.

I may here mention that this Thomas Cutbush was the nephew of the late well-known Supt. of Executive Branch at C.O. The knife found on him was traced, and found to have been bought by him at Houndsditch about a week before he was detained in the Lambeth Infirmary, or just 2 years and 3 months after the last Whitechapel murder was committed! This upsets the statement made in the Sun's issue of 14th Feb. that "the writer has in his possession a facsimile of the knife with

which the murders were committed."

The statement, too, that Cutbush "spent a portion of the day in making rough drawings of the bodies of women, and of their mutilation," is wholly based on the fact that two drawings of women in indecent postures were found torn up in his room. The head and body of one had been cut from some old 'fashion plate', and legs were added and made to represent naked thighs and pink stockings.

The statement in the issue of 15th Feb. that a man in a light overcoat had been seen talking to the woman, whose dismembered torso was found in Pinchin St, (and that a light overcoat was among the things discovered in Cutbushs' house) is hopelessly incorrect. On 10th Sept.1889 the naked body, with arms, of a woman was found under a Railway arch in Pinchin Street; the head and legs never came to light, nor was the woman ever identified. She had been killed at least 24 hours before the remains were discovered, and the said remains had evidently been brought from some distance. The head and legs had been severed from the body in a manner identical with that of the women whose remains were discovered, piecemeal, in the Thames, Battersea Park, and on the Chelsea Embankment on 4th June of the same year (1889) and these murders (?) had no connection whatever with the Whitechapel horrors. The

Rainham mystery in 1887, and the Whitehall mystery (where the remains of a woman were found under New Scotland Yard in September 1888) were of a similar type to the mysteries of "The Thames" and Pinchin St.

It is perfectly untrue to say (as the Sun asserts) that Cutbush stabbed six girls behind; this is confusing his case with that of Colicott - already spoken of.

The theory that the Whitechapel murderer was left handed, or, at any rate, 'ambi-dexter' had its origin in the statement of a certain doctor who examined the corpse of one of the earliest victims. Other doctors did not agree with him, and medical evidence, on this point, was (as it not infrequently is!) alike conflicting and confusing.

Now the Whitechapel murderer had 5 victims and 5 only. His murders were, as follows -

The last murder is the only one which took place in a room, and the murderer must have been at least 2 hours over his hellish job. A photograph was taken at the time, - (showing the woman as she was when the officers entered the room) without seeing which it is impossible to understand, or grasp the extent of the awful mutilation.

With regard to the double murder which occurred on 30th September there is no doubt but that the 'Ripper' was disturbed by some Jews just after he had cut Elizabeth Stride's throat, and before he had time to commence to mutilate her. He had got the victim behind a kind of stable door through which three Jews drove up to an Anarchist Club in Berners Street. The murderer must have been alarmed and fled away - but, 'nondum [2] satiatus', went off in search of a second victim whom he found at Mitre Square, and on whose body the mutilations far exceeded anything that he had before perpetrated. It will be noted that the fury of the murderer, as evinced in the mode of mutilation, increased every time, and his appetite appears to have become 'sharpened by indulgence.' It seems, then, improbable, that he should have suddenly stopped after 9th Novr.1888 and been content to resume operations by merely prodding a girl lightly from behind some 2 years and 4 months afterwards. A much more

rational and workable theory, to my way of thinking, is that the 'rippers' brain gave way altogether after his awful glut in Millers Court and that he then committed suicide, or, as a less likely alternative, was found to be so helplessly insane by his relatives, that they, suspecting the worst, had him confined in some Lunatic Asylum.

No one ever saw the Whitechapel murderer (unless possibly it was the City P.C. who was on [3] a beat near Mitre Square) and no proof could in any way ever be brought against anyone, although very many homicidal maniacs were at one time, or another, suspected. I enumerate the cases of 3 men against whom Police held very
 

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[re]asonable suspicion. Personally, & after much careful & deliberate consideration, I am inclined to exonerate the last 2. but I have always held strong opinions regarding no 1., and the more I think the matter over, the stronger do these opinions become. The truth, however, will never be known, and did indeed, at one time lie at the bottom of the Thames, if my conjections [5] be correct.

No 1. Mr M. J. Druitt, a doctor of about 41 years of age & of fairly good family, who disappeared [at?] the time of the Miller's Court murder, and whose body was found floating in the Thames on 3.st Dec: i.e. 7 weeks after the said murder. The body was said to have been in the water for a month, or more - on it was found a season ticket between Blackheath & London. From private information I have little doubt but that his own family suspected this man of being the Whitechapel murderer; it was alleged that he was sexually insane.
 

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no 2. [Kos]minski, a Polish Jew, who lived in [... ...] [6] heart of the district where the murders were comimitted. He had become insane owing to many years indulgence in solitary vices. He had a great hatred of women, with strong homicidal tendencies. He was (and I believe still is) detained in a lunatic asylum, about March 1889. This man in appearance strongly resembled [7] the individual seen by the City P.C. near Mitre Square.

no: 3. Michael Ostrog, a mad Russian doctor & a convict & unquestionably a homicidal maniac. This man was said to have been habitually cruel to women, & for a long time was known to have carried about with him surgical knives & other instruments; his antecedents were of the very worst & his whereabouts at the time of the Whitchapel murders could never be satisfactorily accounted for. He is still alive.

And now with regard to the 4 additional murders asentied ? [8] by the "Sun" writer to the "Ripper".
 

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was a man of ungovernable temper, and entirely addicted to drink and the company of the lowest prostitutes. I have no doubt whatever in my own mind as to his having murdered Frances Coles -
(4) was the case of the unidentified woman whose trunk was found in Pinchin Street on 10th Sept.'89 and has already been dealt with in this memorandum.
 

M.L.Macnaghten.
 

Notes.

[1] "by my Father Sir M. M." added here.

[2] "?" in left-hand margin, and marks above and below "nondum" in the text.

[3] "on" is interlined.

[4] "(here follows fo 6A & 6B, written in ink and attached at end" added here.

[5] Something written above "conjections."

[6] Farson and Cullen read "the very."

[7] "seen" written here and then deleted, and "the" written above.

[8] Apparently "ascribed" written below.

[9] "(here follows, on fo. 6. 1) The body of Martha etc:" added here.