The Macnaghten Memoranda
Written in response to the Sun's incendiary reports that a Thomas
Cutbush (who was brought in for stabbing young ladies in the rear) was Jack
the Ripper, Macnaghten furnished what is now considered to be one of the most
important documents to have survived the years. They are reproduced, in full,
below.
A copy of the original memoranda is also available in Adobe Acrobat
format (638KB). Courtesy of Thomas
Schachner.
Confidential
The case referred to in the sensational story told in 'The Sun' in its issue
of 13th inst, & 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 Majesty's Pleasure.
This Cutbush, who lived with his mother and aunt at 14 Albert Street,
Kennington, escaped from the Lambeth Infirmary, (after he had been detained
only a few hours, as a lunatic) at noon on 5th March 1891. He was rearrested
on 9th idem. A few weeks before this, several cases of stabbing, or jabbing,
from behind had occurred in the vicinity, and a man named Colicott was
arrested, but subsequently discharged owing to faulty identification. The
cuts in the girl's dresses made by Colicott were quite different to the cut(s)
made by Cutbush (when he wounded Miss Johnson) who was no doubt influenced by
a wild desire of morbid imitation. Cutbush's antecedents were enquired into
by C.Insp (now Supt.) Chris by Inspector Hale, and by P.S. McCarthy C.I.D. --
(the last named officer had been specially employed in Whitechapel at the time
of the murders there,) -- and it was ascertained that he was born, and had
lived, in Kennington all his life. His father died when he was quite young
and he was always a 'spoilt' child. He had been employed as a clerk and
traveller in the Tea trade at the Minories, and subsequently cavassed for a
Directory in the East End, during which time he bore a good character. He
apparently contracted syphilis about 1888, and, -- since that time, -- led an
idle and useless life. His brain seems to have become affected, and he
believed that people were trying to poison him. He wrote to Lord Grimthorpe,
and others, -- and also to the Treasury, -- complaining of Dr Brooks, of
Westminster Bridge Road, whom he threatened to shoot for having supplied him
with bad medicines. He is said to have studied medical books by day, and to
have rambled about at night, returning frequently with his clothes covered
with mud; but little reliance could be placed on the statements made by his
mother or his aunt, who both appear to have been of a very excitable
disposition. It was found impossible to ascertain his movements on the
nights of the Whitechapel murders. The knife found on him was bought in
Houndsditch about a week before he was detained in the Infirmary. Cutbush
was the nephew of the late Supt. Executive.
Now the Whitechapel murderer had 5 victims -- & 5 victims only, -- his
murders were
(1) 31st August, '88. Mary Ann Nichols -- at Buck's Row -- who was found
with her throat cut -- & with (slight) stomach mutilation.
(2) 8th Sept. '88 Annie Chapman -- Hanbury St.; -- throat cut -- stomach
& private parts badly mutilated & some of the entrails placed round the neck.
(3) 30th Sept. '88. Elizabeth Stride -- Berner's Street -- throat cut, but
nothing in shape of mutilation attempted, & on same date
Catherine Eddowes -- Mitre Square, throat cut & very bad mutilation, both of
face and stomach.
9th November. Mary Jane Kelly -- Miller's Court, throat cut, and the whole of
the body mutilated in the most ghastly manner --
The last murder is the only one that took place in a room, and the
murderer must have been at least 2 hours engaged. A photo was taken of the
woman, as she was found lying on the bed, withot seeing which it is impossible
to imagine the awful mutilation.
With regard to the double murder which took place on 30th September,
there is no doubt but that the man was disturbed by some Jews who drove up to
a Club, (close to which the body of Elizabeth Stride was found) and that he
then, 'mordum satiatus', went in search of a further victim who he found at
Mitre Square.
It will be noted that the fury of the mutilations increased in each
case, and, seemingly, the appetite only became sharpened by indulgence. It
seems, then, highly improbable that the murderer would have suddenly stopped
in November '88, and been content to recommence operations by merely prodding
a girl behind some 2 years and 4 months afterwards. A much more rational
theory is that the murderer's brain gave way altogether after his awful glut
in Miller's Court, and that he immediately committed suicide, or, as a possible
alternative, was found to be so hopelessly mad by his relations, that he was
by them confined in some asylum.
No one ever saw the Whitechapel murderer; many homicidal maniacs were
suspected, but no shadow of proof could be thrown on any one. I may
mention the cases of 3 men, any one of whom would have been more likely
than Cutbush to have committed this series of murders:
(1) A Mr M. J. Druitt, said to be a doctor & of good family -- who disappeared
at the time of the Miller's Court murder, & whose body (which was said to have
been upwards of a month in the water) was found in the Thames on 31st December
-- or about 7 weeks after that murder. He was sexually insane and from private
information I have little doubt but that his own family believed him to have
been the murderer.
(2) Kosminski -- a Polish Jew -- & resident in Whitechapel. This man became
insane owing to many years indulgence in solitary vices. He had a great
hatred of women, specially of the prostitute class, & had strong homicidal
tendencies: he was removed to a lunatic asylum about March 1889. There were
many circumstances connected with this man which made him a strong 'suspect'.
(3) Michael Ostrog, a Russian doctor, and a convict, who was subsequently
detained in a lunatic asylum as a homicidal maniac. This man's antecedents
were of the worst possible type, and his whereabouts at the time of the
murders could never be ascertained.
And now with regard to a few of the other inaccuracies and misleading
statements made by 'The Sun'. In its issue of 14th February, it is stated
that the writer has in his possession a facsimile of the knife with which the
murders were committed. This knife (which for some unexplained reason has,
for the last 3 years, been kept by Inspector Hale, instead of being sent to
Prisoner's Property Store) was traced, and it was found to have been purchased
in Houndsditch in February '91 or 2 years and 3 months after the
Whitechapel murders ceased!
The statement, too, that Cutbush 'spent a portion of the day in making rough
drawings of the bodies of women, and of their mutilations' is based solely on
the fact that 2 scribble drawings of women in indecent postures were
found torn up in Cutbush's room. The head and body of one of these had been
cut from some fashion plate, and legs were added to shew a woman's naked thighs
and pink stockings.
In the issue of 15th inst. it is said that a light overcoat was among
the things found in Cutbush's house, and that a man in a light overcoat
was seen talking to a woman at Backchurch Lane whose body with arms attached
was found in Pinchin Street. This is hopelessly incorrect! On 10th Sept. '89
the naked body, with arms, of a woman was found wrapped in some sacking under
a Railway arch in Pinchin Street: the head and legs were never found nor was
the woman ever identified. She had been killed at least 24 hours before the
remains which had seemingly been brought from a distance, were discovered.
The stomach was split up by a cut, and the head and legs had been severed in a
manner identical with that of the woman whose remains were discovered in the
Thames, in Battersea Park, and on the Chelsea Embankment on the 4th June of the
same year; and these murders had no connection whatever with the Whitechapel
horrors. The Rainham mystery in 1887 and the Whitehall mystery (when portions
of a woman's body were found under what is now New Scotland Yard) in 1888 were
of a similar type to the Thames and Pinchin Street crimes.
It is perfectly untrue to say that Cutbush stabbed 6 girls behind.
This is confounding his case with that of Colicott. The theory that the
Whitechapel murderer was left-handed, or, at any rate, 'ambidexter', had its
origin in the remark made by a doctor who examined the corpse of one of the
earliest victims; other doctors did not agree with him.
With regard to the 4 additional murders ascribed by the writer in the
Sun to the Whitechapel fiend:
(1) The body of Martha Tabram, a prostitute was found on a common staircase
in George Yard buildings on 7th August 1888; the body had been repeatedly
pierced, probably with a bayonet. This woman had, with a fellow
prostitute, been in company of 2 soldiers in the early part of the evening:
these men were arrested, but the second prostitute failed, or refused, to
identify, and the soldiers were eventually discharged.
(2) Alice McKenzie was found with her throat cut (or rather stabbed)
in Castle Alley on 17th July 1889; no evidence was forthcoming and no arrest
were made in connection with this case. The stab in the throat was of
the same nature as in the case of the murder of
(3) Frances Coles in Swallow Gardens, on 13th February 1891 -- for which
Thomas Sadler, a fireman, was arrested, and, after several remands,
discharged. It was ascertained at the time that Saddler had sailed for the
Baltic on 19th July '89 and was in Whitechapel on the nights of 17th idem.
He was a man of ungovernable temper and entirely addicted to drink, and the
company of the lowest prostitutes.
(4) The case of the unidentified woman whose trunk was found in Pinchin
Street: on 10th September 1889 -- which has already been dealt with.
M.S. Macnaghten
23rd February 1894
