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The identity of Jack the Ripper is the most infamous mystery of the Victorian era. Montague Druitt was the original police suspect, but we have never had the full story before, and endless speculation in later books and documentaries: But it was him, after all: The toff in a top hat. Jack the Oxonian. The Victorian equivalent of Ted Bundy: young, handsome, professional, and homicidal. Today, the average member of the public has actually never heard of the drowned Druitt; this century he has not been the subject of either a bestseller or movie. The fresh material and sources in the new book are not found in any other publication, including the following USPs:
- Druitt was a medical student who dropped out.
- As a barrister, Druitt defended a murderer and tried to blame a prostitute for the crime.
- A blood-stained Druitt was arrested in Whitechapel but bluffed his way to freedom by pretending he was still studying medicine.
- Druitt was placed by his family, albeit briefly, in a private, French asylum but had to flee as the police's dragnet closed.
- The Vicar who published parts of the truth in 1899 has been finally identified (Reverend Arthur Du Boulay Hill)
- The famous writer and police chief Melville Macnaghten's close pal, George Sims, published a profile of the un-named Druitt as early as 1891: a young toff, slightly built but athletic, who was not a qualified doctor and who had killed himself. This newly discovered source proves, once and for all, that the police chief and the famous writer knew exactly who Montie Druitt was and was not.
- The Druitt family tried, fumblingly, to alert the authorities that The Ripper was deceased while remaining anonymous.
