Montague John Druitt (15 August 1857 – early December 1888)[1] was an English barrister and educator who is known for being a suspect in the Jack the Ripper murders of 1888.

His main interest outside work was cricket, which he played with many leading players of the time, including Lord Harris and Francis Lacey.

[7] In debates, he spoke in favour of French republicanism, compulsory military service, and the resignation of Benjamin Disraeli, and against the Ottoman Empire, the influence of Otto von Bismarck, and the conduct of the government in the Tichborne case.

[8] He defended William Wordsworth as "a bulwark of Protestantism",[9] and condemned the execution of King Charles I as "a most dastardly murder that will always attach to England's fair name as a blot".

[8][9] In his final year at Winchester, 1875–76, Druitt was Prefect of Chapel, treasurer of the debating society, school fives champion, and opening bowler for the cricket team.

[22] Most of Dr Druitt's estate went to his wife Ann, three unmarried daughters (Georgiana, Edith and Ethel), and eldest son William.

[25] While some of Druitt's biographers claim his practice did not flourish,[26] others suppose that it provided him with a relatively substantial income on the basis of his costly lease of chambers and the value of his estate at death.

[29] To supplement his income and help pay for his legal training, Druitt worked as an assistant schoolmaster at George Valentine's boarding school, 9 Eliot Place, Blackheath, London, from 1880.

[31] Druitt's post came with accommodation in Eliot Place, and the long school holidays gave him time to study the law and to pursue his interest in cricket.

[45] Two weeks later, he dismissed England batsman John Shuter, who was playing for Bexley Cricket Club, for a duck, and Blackheath won the game by 114 runs.

[46] The following year, Shuter returned to Blackheath with a Surrey County side that included Walter Read, William Lockwood, and Bobby Abel, whom Druitt bowled out for 56.

[47] On 26 May 1884, Druitt was elected to the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) on the recommendation of his fellow Butterflies player Charles Seymour, who proposed him, and noted fielder Vernon Royle, who seconded his nomination.

[51] In August 1888, Druitt played for the Gentlemen of Bournemouth against the Parsees cricket team during their tour of England, and took five wickets in the visitors' first innings.

[58] On 31 December 1888, Druitt's body was found floating in the River Thames, off Thornycroft's torpedo works, Chiswick, by a waterman named Henry Winslade.

"[72] As was usual in the district, the inquest was held at the Lamb Tap public house, Chiswick, by the coroner Dr Thomas Bramah Diplock, on 2 January 1889.

[78] On 31 August 1888, Mary Ann Nichols was found murdered in the impoverished Whitechapel district in the East End of London, with her throat slashed.

[28] In February 1891, the member of parliament for West Dorset, Henry Richard Farquharson, announced that Jack the Ripper was "the son of a surgeon" who had committed suicide on the night of the last murder.

[80] The Victorian journalist George R. Sims noted in his memoirs, The Mysteries of Modern London (1906): "[the Ripper's] body was found in the Thames after it had been in the river for about a month".

[81] Similar comments were made by Sir John Moylan, Assistant Under-Secretary of the Home Office: "[the Ripper] escaped justice by committing suicide at the end of 1888" and Sir Basil Thomson, made Assistant Commissioner of the CID in 1913: "[the Ripper was] an insane Russian doctor [who] escaped arrest by committing suicide in the Thames at the end of 1888".

[83] Assistant Chief Constable Sir Melville Macnaghten named Druitt as a suspect in the case in a private handwritten memorandum of 23 February 1894.

[84] Macnaghten's memo was eventually discovered in his personal papers by his daughter, Lady Aberconway, who showed them to British broadcaster Dan Farson.

[93] Since the publication of Cullen's and Farson's books, other Ripper authors have argued that their theories are based solely on flawed circumstantial evidence, and have attempted to provide Druitt with alibis for the times of the murders.

[96] While writers Cullen and Andrew Spallek argue that Druitt had the time and opportunity to travel by train between London and his cricket and legal engagements, or use his city chambers as a base from which to commit the murders,[28][97] others dismiss that as "improbable".

[106] Macnaghten's memorandum named two other suspects ("Kosminski" and Michael Ostrog) and was written to refute allegations against a fourth, Thomas Hayne Cutbush.

[108] Inspector Frederick Abberline, who was the leading investigative officer in the case, appeared to dismiss Druitt as a suspect on the basis that the only evidence against him was the coincidental timing of his suicide shortly after the fifth murder.

[115] These theories, widely condemned as ridiculous,[116] implicate Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, his tutor James Stephen, and their doctor Sir William Gull to varying degrees.

One version of the conspiracy promoted by Stephen Knight in his 1976 book Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution supposed that Druitt was a scapegoat, chosen by officialdom to take the blame for the murders.

[127] John Wilding's 1993 book Jack the Ripper Revealed used the connections between Druitt and Stephen to propose that they committed the crimes together, but reviewers considered it an "imaginative tale ... most questionable",[128] an "exercise in ingenuity rather than ... fact",[129] and "lack[ing] evidential support".

[134] The propensity of some theorists to associate Ripper suspects with homosexuality has led scholars to assume that such notions are based on homophobia rather than evidence.

[140] In Alan Moore's graphic novel From Hell, Druitt is portrayed as a patsy for the royal family, made to look guilty of the Ripper murders in order to protect the real killer, Sir William Gull.