It has been suggested that Michael Ostrog, the last of Macnaghten’s four suspects, came under scrutiny by the Metropolitan Police at the time of the Whitechapel murders. It is also said that his whereabouts could never be satisfactorily accounted for. Ostrog was a petty criminal and confidence trickster who used numerous aliases, including Dr Grant, and also claimed that he was a former surgeon in the Russian Navy. He spent much of his time in police custody for various instances of fraud and theft. Certainly, he was a persistent offender, but was he a killer?
Ostrog became a high-profile suspect when it was stated in the Police Gazette, around the time of the Whitechapel murders, that ‘special attention is called to this dangerous man’. This publication, long sent regularly to all police stations, both sets out details of persons sought by specific police officers in connection with specific crimes and highlights certain criminals who are suspected of being engaged in criminal activity.
It is likely that Ostrog’s appearance in the Police Gazette was due to his petty criminal activities and the description ‘dangerous’ was a mistake. If he had been suspected of being the killer or wanted for questioning as a suspect, this would have been stated in the piece. In any event, considering the number of times he was arrested for petty crimes, the police would have had ample opportunity to question him about the murders. It appears that this was never done.
Macnaghten wrote of him: ‘Michael Ostrog, a mad Russian doctor and a convict and unquestionably a homicidal maniac. This man was said to have been habitually cruel to women, and for a long time was known to have carried about with him surgical knives and other instruments; his antecedents were of the very worst and his whereabouts at the time of the Whitechapel murders could never be satisfactorily accounted for. He is still alive.’ I wonder where Macnaghten obtained his information, for the character of the man he describes is totally different from that of Ostrog. Although he had numerous convictions for theft and fraud, Ostrog had no history of violence, either in general or specifically towards women, nor is there any record of his using or carrying a knife.
As to Ostrog’s being the Ripper, I can find no motive for the murders and I suggest he did not kill any of the women. Three of the four suspects discussed so far were put forward as a direct result of the Macnaghten memorandum, which was not a document from the time of the murders. I have already highlighted important discrepancies between the memorandum and other available evidence, and suggested reasons why the document came to light a number of years after the killings. My research leads me to believe that the document is based purely on hearsay. And, in the absence of any further evidence to substantiate its contents or any direct evidence to connect any of the four suspects with the Whitechapel murders, my conclusion is that it is unreliable in identifying any of these men as potentially responsible for the Whitechapel murders.