Contributed by A. Dylan Gable
Date: Thu, 16 May 1996 16:09:33 -0400
From: A. Dylan Gable"
Two suspects often suggested as the Ripper are Lord Clarence and Montague J(ohn) Druitt. Many people comment on the resemblance between Clarence and Druitt and dismiss it as a coincidence. I feel it is not. I have a theory that the Ripper murders may have been a conspiracy.
Lord Clarence certainly would have had motive to kill Mary Kelly (probably she was the primary quarry of the Ripper), if the story of Clarence's illegitimate child, cared for by MK, were true (and I feel it more than likely is). But Clarence, not willing to disgrace the family name and proven to be absent from London on the days of the murders, wouldn't have. He deliberately searched out a look-alike of him, Montague Druitt. He then gave Druitt orders to seek out MK and kill her, and to aid the cover-up kill all who knew of it (the first three Ripper victims).
Clarence would have picked Druitt out of Druitt's close likeness to him; thereby, on a dark night Druitt could easily pass for Clarence (and so too by the police posted around Whitechapel, for a member of the royal family was surely innocent of the crime).
Catherine Eddowes' murder: it's known that one of her aliases was Mary Kelly. Possibly Druitt caught up with Eddowes and, hearing the name Mary Kelly, killed her, thinking her to be his quarry. The extraordinary length of time between the Eddowes and Kelly murders would have allowed Druitt to converse with Clarence, at that time in the north of England, and establish he killed the wrong Mary Kelly. Then he went out again, found the correct Mary Kelly, and killed her. (The FM on Mary Kelly's wall, if it was even at the actual murder site--unlikely--may have stood for, not a name, but "For Mother" since Druitt blamed his madness on his mother). Follwing which, Druitt conveniently "committed suicide"--was murdered by Clarence?--thus ending the cover-up.
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