After Patrick Sharp had left, Culverhouse declared that he thought it would be a good idea to generate a list of potential suspects based on the suspects in the original Ripper case. If the modern day Ripper was somehow emulating the murders in order to avenge a Victorian suspect or prove somebody’s guilt, this seemed a particularly good place to start.
Debbie Weston had by now become the de facto incident room expert on the original Ripper killings, and it was Debbie who addressed the room with regards to the original Ripper suspects.
‘The strange thing about the original case is that there still isn’t an overwhelming favourite in terms of suspects. There are three or four who are considered most likely, but they all have their drawbacks. One of the prime suspects was a man called Montague John Druitt, who was a barrister and assistant schoolmaster. The only real reason he was linked to the killings was because he killed himself on New Year’s Eve in 1888. There are rumours that he was gay, which led to him being sacked as assistant schoolmaster and killing himself. There are also suggestions of mental illness in the family. He had pretty strong alibis for a couple of the killings, so these days he’s considered unlikely. His name is still synonymous with the Ripper killings, though, so it might well be that someone wanted to clear his name for once and for all.’
‘I still don’t see how killing four women somehow clears the name of a bloke from the Victorian era of five totally separate murders,’ Culverhouse said.
‘All psychological, guv,’ Frank Vine offered.
‘Helpful, Frank, thanks.’
Debbie Weston continued. ‘A Polish man called Seweryn Klosowski, who later changed his name to George Chapman. He came to the UK just before the murders started, and was hanged in 1903 for poisoning three of his wives. And get this — he worked as a barber.’
‘Sounds promising,’ Culverhouse said.
‘The police at the time dismissed him because of the different MO. His wives were poisoned using a compound called tartar-emetic. But there does seem to be a Polish link. The suspicion of an unnamed Polish man appears quite a bit in police reports at the time. That leads me on to another Polish guy, a Jewish man called Aaron Kosminski. Interestingly, there was a book out a short while back which named Kosminski categorically as being the killer. Using DNA evidence, apparently. He worked as a hairdresser and was admitted into an asylum in 1891. An interesting little nugget is that some people believe he was confused with another Polish Jew of a similar age, probably Aaron Cohen, who was in the same asylum but was reported to have heavily violent tendencies, whereas Kosminski apparently was far more gentle.’
‘Another hairdresser,’ Wendy remarked. ‘Someone who’d be in a position to know all about people’s lives and goings on.’
‘And pretty handy with a sharp implement, too,’ Culverhouse added. ‘What’s to say our girls’ throats weren’t cut with a razor blade?’
‘We won’t know until Janet Grey files her final report,’ Wendy replied. ‘Off the record, she reckons it’s possible but she can’t say for certain what was used yet.’
‘They’re usually considered to be the main three suspects,’ Debbie continued. ‘The other one which pops up quite a lot is Francis Tumblety, who was a quack doctor from America who escaped prison after a patient died following his treatment and came to England. It’s said he despised women and particularly hated prostitutes. Rumour has it that he was married to a prostitute and it didn’t work out.’
‘Surprise surprise,’ Culverhouse murmured.
‘Oddly, he was arrested in 1865 for being somehow involved in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. He fled the country within days of the fifth murder — some think perhaps even before it occurred — but these days people generally have discounted him as a suspect. He didn’t match any of the eyewitness accounts and he was noted as being very tall and with an enormous moustache, which would’ve made him stand out, to say the least.’
‘Quite possible that a modern day doctor might be trying to exonerate him, though?’ Culverhouse asked.
‘It’s possible. Worth looking into, I’d say,’ Debbie replied, beaming inside at the responsibility she was being given in this case. ‘There were literally hundreds of suspects named, but other ones worth looking into would be Michael Ostrog, a Russian con man; John Pizer, a Polish Jew with a record of assaulting prostitutes; and James Sadler, a suspect in a later murder who was known to enjoy the company of prostitutes. It’s worth noting that all three had solid alibis for the dates of the murders. Two of them weren’t even in the country.’
‘Plenty to be getting on with there, then,’ Culverhouse said. ‘Once we’ve got their family trees traced, we’ll be able to see if there are any descendants living locally or working in professions of interest. We’ll also need to draw up a list of potential persons of interest based on the suspects Debbie just gave. Modern day equivalents, if you like. Then I think it’s time we had a word with a few of them.’